The Leadership Stack Podcast

Website: https://leadershipstack.com

Book: https://www.amazon.com/Leadership-101-Tony-Harris-ebook/dp/B09WXR9Q2N

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Tony Harris

Website: https://strayrhino.com/

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tony-harris-8ab54a91

Ep 484: Empowering Delegation and Leveraging Diversity With Tony Harris

Thu, 10 Aug 2023 10:00:16 +0000

Sean: Why would some companies not attract talent? Was usually the problem and what's usually the solution?

Tony: Well, the first thing I always say to people who are leaders and I've always felt it myself, is that if you're the smartest person in the room, you've got a problem because you shouldn't be the smartest person in the room. You might be the most well-rounded person in the room. If it's if we're talking about this, there should be somebody else in the room who's smarter than you are on it. Hiring is very difficult.

It's very difficult at the moment because there are so many new dynamics that you have to bear in mind working from home. You know, the hybrid model that people want work-life balance, which is a particularly important aspect. When I started, it was all about higher, faster, and stronger. We stayed up later, we worked harder.

And that's how you beat your opponents. But the new generation working in that, that isn't what motivates them. They're not necessarily motivated in the same way. So one of the things that can put people off is if you're still working to that kind of model I was CEO of, I would still be there if I had to be there at 1:00 in the morning working to get That's how I was trained to be.

But very quickly, you realize I can't go and expect that of everybody. In the old days, people expected me to stay later than my boss. And it's not right. And what you have to do is listen. One of the things that's interesting is that we still think and I'm as guilty of it as anybody. We still think sometimes in running our businesses in terms of almost military. We talk about campaigns. We talk about people who walk toward the gunfire. We tend to think about it in that sort of slightly confrontational, aggressive way. And that isn't how a lot of the newer entrants into the job market want to think they want to advance.

So I think the companies that fail are the ones that are not thinking about what it is that the new job entrants would look for. They want to know that you have a purpose. They want to know that you're thinking about more than just profit.

What are your environmental policies or charitable endeavors? How do you keep us together? How do you entertain us? What is your culture like? You know, and I do feel for many current leaders because I find that a sort of odd paradox of workforces that desperately want enlightened cultures, good working experience team they like are rewarded properly with the flip side of they want to come in when we have to or we want to do hybrid working because it is very difficult to create a culture when there is minimal contact.

But we will find a way through it. At the moment because we never legislated for it, it's going to be difficult and there are all sorts of wonderful experiments going on all over the world. A company I know called Hutch, which is a sort of production company that has gone four day week. Everybody is on four-day weeks. We have three-day long weekends.

And they did it well because the people who worked four days already had some. Well, I'm a part-time worker. I work four days. Their salaries went up, then paid full-time as if they were on five days. You know, I think we're going to see some best practices and we just all have to be prepared to learn from it.

But I think this whole thing about, Oh, millennials are terrible and Gen Z and we can't work, that's nonsense. You just have to listen to what they want. So I think the difficulties come from if you're still a fairly unenlightened employer, they can smell it on you.

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Website: https://leadershipstack.com

Book: https://www.amazon.com/Leadership-101-Tony-Harris-ebook/dp/B09WXR9Q2N

Leadership Stack Merch: https://leadershipstack.com/shop/

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Tony Harris

Website: https://strayrhino.com/

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tony-harris-8ab54a91

Ep 483: Strategic Leadership for Business Growth with Tony Harris

Thu, 03 Aug 2023 10:00:12 +0000

Sean: What are some leadership principles that you learned there that you still practice today and you teach it from time to time with some people that you mentor?

Tony: Well, interestingly in the book a lot of it is quite nuanced. There's a lot of overlap between some of the observations. There are 101 of them, but there are some overriding themes, and those are things that I kind of keep coming back to.

The first of them is always remember that you are more often than not 99% of the time you're a leader on merit. Somebody somewhere thought you could handle the responsibility or the situation demanded that you were the best person. But whatever it was, you're there on merit. And a lot of you may think that you're not right about that.

A lot of people have doubts. Churchill used to talk about his black dog because, you know, he became angry and doubted things Lincoln did, lots of great leaders do. And actually, one of the first things is if you're not having doubts, that's when your problems start.

That's a theme that I kind of keep going back to. You're there on merit, and even if you doubt it, remind yourself somebody thought you were good enough. The other one is really about protecting the team dynamic. The team dynamic is important, there is a difference between culture and team. You have to make sure you have to protect your culture but you have to protect your team as well.

That means you need to listen a lot more than you might. A lot of leaders think that their job is to talk all the time. It's not. It's to listen to what's not being said. You then need to do that and involve people.

So make sure that the team always feels that you're bringing them into play. You know, there's an old phrase, why have a dog and bark yourself? You don't. You brought people in to be experts. Let them do their job. Keep checking in and keep listening.

Take the sting out of confrontations. That's another major one to do. And if you have to, you have to remove difficult participants, however skilled they may be. If they're not helping the team, they had better be doing something incredible and I doubt they ever are. Those are the kind of things that I sort of keep going back to. So the one about doubt listening to the team, it's all interrelated.

Sean: Amazing, I remember another saying. If you want to go fast, go alone but if you want to go far, go together.

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Youtube:

https://www.youtube.com/leadershipstack

Website: https://leadershipstack.com

Book: https://www.amazon.com/Leadership-101-Tony-Harris-ebook/dp/B09WXR9Q2N

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Tony Harris

Website: https://strayrhino.com/

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tony-harris-8ab54a91

Ep 482: Maximizing Customer Satisfaction and Empowering Teams with Stefan Debois

Thu, 27 Jul 2023 10:00:15 +0000

Sean: Stefan What would you say? And I'm hearing you speak, you sound very chill, you know, very relaxed, but very calculated as well. What would you say is your leadership style like? How do you lead your people?

Stefan: Yeah, leadership style. I like to split it between 10% visionary and 90% servant-like serving leader. So the leader needs to determine where the ship is going and also explain why we are going there. Our higher level objective is like automating the advisory process, but of course, enabling our clients to go without having to always add headcount to their business and we create a software layer to enable that. So have to explain to people what's also the value of that and also like the business or the vision, starting a company being an example for other entrepreneurs can also do that starting company in Europe because like a lot of our software is coming from the US, but we can also do it in Europe for the future generations. It's important because software is an important part of our economic system. So proving that we can also start a software company here, being a good employer, being an example, having a positive impact on future generations, that's some of the things that we want to do and that have to explain also to people that work here. They have a purpose. The other 90% is serving as a leader, making sure that the resources are provided, that everybody can be productive in his role, and that those resources can be software tools. Coaching external consultants provides all the resources, then it's almost sure that someone will be productive. And when someone is productive in his role, the company will also move forward and reach its goals.

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Simon Severino

Website: https://pointerpro.com/

LinkedIn: https://be.linkedin.com/in/stefandebois

Ep 481: Driving Success through Customer-Centric Innovation with Stefan Debois

Thu, 20 Jul 2023 10:00:12 +0000

Sean: Who are the people that are going to be answering your survey, and why would they answer your surveys?

Stefan: Yeah, the people that are answering our surveys are mostly the customers or the employees or the audience in general of our customers. So our customers create the assessments and send them to several respondents.

The difference with the normal survey is that the normal survey at the end, it's just like, thank you for participating in this survey. That's typically a one-way transfer of information that is just data collection, which is not bad also, but at that point.

It only starts at that point for us because then at the end of the assessments that are made with our tool, it says like, Thank you for taking the assessments, and here is a button to download your personalized report. And then for example, if I don't know if it's a cyber security assessment. Then it can ask questions like, do you already have an antivirus on your PC?

And if you download the report then it will give you advice based on what you've answered. If you've answered that I don't have antivirus, then it will probably recommend installing antivirus.

But also of course more complex advice and more complex rules. So it can be highly personalized and that's exactly the value for the respondents.

So if you ask why would someone participate in such an assessment, it's to get this personalized advice, of course, automatically and efficiently because they don't need any human interaction or to pay a consultant for it.

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Simon Severino

Website: https://pointerpro.com/

LinkedIn: https://be.linkedin.com/in/stefandebois

Ep 480: Strategy Sprints Unleashed: Unlocking Your Business's Full Potential with Simon

Thu, 13 Jul 2023 10:00:14 +0000

Sean: Simon, I wonder with businesses that you've worked with and these are above 35K what are the most common things that they usually struggle with?

Do you usually struggle really with the CEO not having that much time and being too involved in the trees themselves? Or are there other things that you find are common outside of that?

Simon: The main thing is they say, I'm in a time crunch. I'm always in a time crunch. I don't have enough time for my family, for my kids, for my workouts, or for my hobbies. If I go on vacation for four weeks, I will feel guilty. So that's the main thing.

I started a business to feel free and I am not free. The business is running me. I am not running the business. So that's the main thing. So for example, Anthony, he came, he's an amazing sales trainer.

When the Nasdaq needed sales trainers they called Anthony and he came and he said, Simon, I'm doing super well in sales, but the whole thing is dependent on me. So if I go on holiday, nothing happens. And I have to do so many things that I hate doing.

I like only being on stage, crushing it on stage, and selling from there, and then I want everything else to be done by my team. But I don't have a team, so I need to hire. I don't know how to hire, how do I start the job description? How do I onboard them? How do I create the processes?

So many questions. I get a headache just thinking about it. Can your sprint deliver just immediately the processes? And we say, Yeah, sure. And so Anthony became a testimonial, had an amazing sprint, and now he has the team running everything and he just does his zone of genius, which is being on stage selling from there.

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Simon Severino

Website: https://www.strategysprints.com/

LinkedIn: https://linkedin.com/in/simonseverino

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@simonseverino/videos

Twitter: https://twitter.com/simonseverino

Ep 479: Leading with Strategy: Simon's Insights for Business Success and Growth

Thu, 06 Jul 2023 10:00:12 +0000

Sean: I Have a couple of questions regarding that one because some clients are not that easy or smooth to work with, right?

And I imagine that you mentioned earlier you have a team of coaches, so it's not like you're installing a C-level executive in that person's company. You are coaching them through the process and it's really up to them if they are going to be accepting and working on your advice or your coach's advice.

What are some of the bottlenecks and pain points and choke points that you have experienced with some of these clients? And how do you overcome it?

Simon: We are installing much more than a C-level person. We are installing 27/4 C-level processes. That's better than a person because that person usually does only know one part. Like if it's a CFO person, they know only the financial processes, cash flow processes, and contracts, probably if it's a CEO person, they know only the marketing processes.

If it's a CTO person or a COO person, they know only the operation processes. So you will never find that executive who brings in 274 processes at once. Yeah, for sure. So it's even better, right? And it starts immediately. You don't have to onboard them.

They don't have to get to know everybody. So it's plug-and-play ready and it starts immediately. So how do you make sure that the team on the other side executes them? Well, they are highly motivated because if they execute, they make more money.

So they are motivated. Also, they have paid upfront for the sprint. If we pick them as one of the sprinters, then they have paid upfront and so they are again super motivated because they want back their bang for the buck. So that's two things to people listening.

That's why it's very important that you don't charge for time and you don't charge for the end of the month. You charge upfront. So sprinters charge upfront for exactly this reason because otherwise, you don't have enough energy for the project.

You don't have enough commitment. When you say, Yeah, I'm working with you, and at the end of the month, I'm going to charge. You are losing energy commitment and with low energy and low commitment, at the end of the month, you will have low results.

And when you have low results and you send the invoice, they don't even want to pay. That's a very bad loop to enter. What's a better loop to enter? Guys, you are not paying for my time. You are paying for a decrease in your costs or an increase in your sales.

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Simon Severino

Website: https://www.strategysprints.com/

LinkedIn: https://linkedin.com/in/simonseverino

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@simonseverino/videos

Twitter: https://twitter.com/simonseverino

Ep 478: Achieving Exponential Growth: Unleashing Success with Simon's Strategies

Thu, 29 Jun 2023 10:00:15 +0000

Sean: You seem to me like you're a very competitive person in a way, and I wonder why you like this so much that 21 years later it's still the same thing that you're doing only now you're running a business rather than being the one man person, one man team?

Simon: Every high performer is competitive and every competitive person wants high performance. That is the nature of entrepreneurs. They want to create something out of nothing. They want to solve problems.

That's what drives us right? And that's what creates all this energy. And that's why other people want to chip in and say, Wow, I want to be on your team. I want to be on this mission. I want to contribute to this train that's running. And so the train gets usually started by this passion of an individual, and then it becomes a team. It becomes a company, it becomes something global because of this energy.

And yes, there is a positive competition in it. How can we improve stuff? How can we make the world a little bit better? How can we build something more useful than what we have right now? These are all competitive moments.

How can we build it better? Right? You have to have some form of drive to build a company. You remember Elon Musk said building a company is like chewing glass while somebody is throwing a brick in your face. And so there is enough headwind you wouldn't do that. You wouldn't build a company if you are not driven.

After all, it's meaningful to you, because it gives you energy. After all, it gives your life meaning and direction. Awesome.

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Simon Severino

Website: https://www.strategysprints.com/

LinkedIn: https://linkedin.com/in/simonseverino

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@simonseverino/videos

Twitter: https://twitter.com/simonseverino

Ep 477: Driving Business Excellence: Harnessing the Power of Infrastructure with Alicia Butler Pierre

Thu, 22 Jun 2023 10:00:16 +0000

Sean: How does company culture play into this? Alicia Have you seen company cultures do a 180-degree turn because you've accomplished taking them through this entire process?

00:00:13

Alicia: What I'll say is this I don't know if I've seen that type of a transformation, Sean, But what I do notice is a greater degree of transparency that may not have existed before and sometimes. It's not that people don't want to share. They don't know how to share or they may not understand the tools that are at their disposal to enable them to share information. I'll give you an example. With my team, we are fully remote.

We're in three different countries. So how on earth can we be transparent? We have to rely on digital technologies. And one of the things that we use is this wonderful tool called notion. Are you familiar with notion? I see your smile already.

00:01:11

Sean: I'm a software guy. I love, you know, if I could use a lot of software, I'll use a lot of software

00:01:18

Alicia: A lot of people still haven't heard of Notion. They've heard of Clickup or Monday.com, but they aren't aware of notion but notion has been such a game changer for us, Sean because, as you know, it's such a visual tool and I really cannot imagine how we would be able to operate.

And this is not just, you know, I'm not getting paid by notion. You're not getting paid by the notion to say this. But truly, I cannot imagine how we would be able to function as a team cohesively if it were not for that tool, because we put everything in there. We have our processes in there.

We have our production schedules in there, we have directories, we have us, we kind of use it as a CRM, our customer relationship management tool we use, we use it as a project management tool so we can track all of the different things we're working on. It has been such a game-changer for us.

But it's also by leveraging that technology, it has enhanced our ability to be transparent, which ties back into your question about company culture for us. You know, I'll just use my own company as an example. Transparency is a huge part of our company culture.

The other quality or element that I've noticed within my own company as well as with the clients that I work with, is that educational piece. Believe it or not, most people do love to learn. We think that as human beings, we're so wired to do things a certain way and only that way. And we resist change and it is true.

We are human beings, we are resistant to change. But it all depends on how that change is being introduced to us.

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Alicia Butler Pierre

Website: https://www.eqbsystems.com

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/aliciabutlerpierre

Twitter: https://twitter.com/alicia_b_pierre

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/Alicia_B_Pierre

Ep 476: Navigating Business Challenges: Strategies for Effective Restructuring with Alicia Butler Pierre

Thu, 15 Jun 2023 10:00:16 +0000

Sean: Yeah, I 100% agree. And I do believe, you know, nine out of ten businesses fail that statistic. I always say that that's the statistic. Not because you're unlucky or the world economy shifted. It's usually because of behavior and mindset.

If you are so egoistic or you're so high up there with hubris that you think, you know, whatever I'm doing works, and then probably going to be the nine out of ten. But if you're humble enough to say, I need to restructure, I need this.

This is what a lot of these businesses need. Alicia, I love the fact that you know this, that you're doing this, and that you're sharing this with us. Here's what I want to know: With this entire restructuring, what are the key moments in key individuals for this organization to succeed?

Because I'm sure you do a lot of these things, but then I'm also sure that not a lot of them push through, like the reorganization that you suggest would face some resistance from the team because they're comfortable with where they are.

They don't want to change. I don't want more work on my plate. Right. What are those key moments or key people that you need to have complete buy-in for you to make these things succeed?

00:14:07

Alicia: It starts at the top. So whoever is in charge, whether that's the founder of the company, the person who is the CEO at 22, the COO, or whoever is in charge, you always need that buy-in from the top and then it starts to trickle down.

One of the first points of resistance can come if you don't invite everyone to the table, literally inviting people to the table. Because the sooner you start to get participation from everyone who works on your team, the greater the likelihood that they will start to accept and embrace the changes. Why? Because they are a part of those changes.

They have a voice. They can express their opinion and know that their opinion is valued. And that's another important thing. You have to listen as the leader that's in the room with the rest of your team. You have to listen, listen to what everyone is saying, encourage everyone to contribute. Another huge point of resistance, Sean, happens when we start to get into the process because.

People have a natural tendency to want to hoard information. Yeah, because they think if I tell you how I do what I do, you're going to use this to replace me. You might try. You might get a robot to replace me. You might find some type of automation to replace me. You might find another person to replace me. So I'm not going to tell you everything that I do.

I might give you a little information, but I'm not going to tell you everything. But again, you just have to get people into the habit of understanding that it's to everyone's benefit. If things are documented because people will get sick, people will have to take time off from work to deal with a sick child, or they may take time off for a holiday or whatever the case may be.

And you have to get them to understand that everything can't stop, and operate only because you are not physically present. We still need to be able to service our customers and produce our products or deliver our services. So please be a team player and tell us how you do what you do.

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Alicia Butler Pierre

Website: https://www.eqbsystems.com

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/aliciabutlerpierre

Twitter: https://twitter.com/alicia_b_pierre

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/Alicia_B_Pierre

Ep 475: From Engineer to Entrepreneur: Unveiling the Path to Business Success with Alicia Butler Pierre

Thu, 08 Jun 2023 10:00:08 +0000

Sean: Yeah. And now I'm wondering, did someone tell you, hey, Alicia, why not chemical engineering? Because honestly, like, who? Who does that? Chemical engineering. Right. I studied I.T. I almost got kicked out because I failed 28 units.

But chemical engineering, my goodness. I mean, that's on a different plane, a different level. Like, how were you told by friends and family who loved you? Hey, take this course. It's probably good for you.

Alicia: It was one of my teachers, Sean, my first love when I was in school was actually in journalism. I loved writing. I loved to read. That's what I thought I was going to do. But I was also. It wasn't until I took a chemistry class that I realized, I'm good at this and I like it. I like this.

And when I was applying for university, Sean that I'll never forget my teacher in high school, Mrs. Callis, who's actually from Ukraine. You know, it's crazy all the things going on in Ukraine right now. But she's Ukrainian. She took a particular interest in what degree I wanted to pursue and I told her about chemistry and she said, Well, you know, here's the thing about chemistry.

You'll have to go all the way up to the Ph.D. level before you start to make any real money. Yeah, why don't you try chemical engineering? Yeah. And that was how it came about. I didn't question it. I thought, well, she's my elder. I respect her. I respect and value her opinion. So that's what I'm going to do. Yeah. And it was one of the most difficult things I've ever done in my life.

Sean: My goodness. But would you say that? So you finished and graduated in Chemical engineering, hands down. Kudos to you. Love it. Love that you finished it. That's a huge accomplishment. And you wanted to even go through and apply for Coca-Cola, which means that your love for it pierced into wanting to build a career around that.

Would you say that when I followed that advice, it did put me on a pretty good path, but it's just that I met some roadblocks along the way and it was an accident that I started Equilibria? But if I didn't meet these roadblocks, I'd probably be in Coca-Cola right now.

Alicia: That is so true. And you know what's funny, Sean, is I've done a lot of work for Coca-Cola, but as a consultant.

So to those who are listening to us right now or watching us, just know that sometimes we establish these goals, we have these ideas and these visions of what we want to accomplish in life, and just understand that sometimes the opportunity may not always present itself in the way that you thought it would happen, but it will happen in some way, shape, form or fashion. It just may not look the way that you thought it would look.

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Alicia Butler Pierre

Website: https://www.eqbsystems.com

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/aliciabutlerpierre

Twitter: https://twitter.com/alicia_b_pierre

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/Alicia_B_Pierre

Ep 474: How To Gather Employee Feedback in a Remote Work Setup with Gustavo Razzetti

Thu, 01 Jun 2023 10:00:12 +0000

Sean: Got it. That's very good. Very good stuff. And Gustavo, what allowed you to get to where you are? All these answers, all these examples, and stories that you have? Were you always a disciple of remote work? How long have you been working remotely to realize these things?

Gustavo: No, as I mentioned earlier, wasn't always. And that's something that I stress in my book because there are people that are in the camp of I always supported remote people that are hated. I'm more into the camp of always exploring what's better and also trying to understand because I work with different companies and show them things are changing.

So it's not once again, my approach is not remote or the office. It's how you can combine the best of both worlds. And for every company, every industry, every job, it's different. And so my take is this is a revolution that's happening.

People showed that they have flexibility not only in the location where they work but actually in scale. When people can change their schedule or adapt it to their family style, their needs, some people like me, I'm better working.

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Gustavo Razzetti

Website: https://gustavorazzetti.com/

Website: https://www.fearlessculture.design/

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/gustavorazzetti

Twitter: https://twitter.com/gusrazzetti

Ep 473: Finding the Happy Medium on Remote Work with Gustavo Razzetti

Thu, 25 May 2023 10:00:15 +0000

Sean: So one of the questions you mentioned is culture as well. Is there a necessary culture? Because you said that there are companies who have people in the office. Culture is not that great. They're distant from each other, even though. They are just a few feet away. Is there a necessary culture that has to be established first, or is there a kind of culture that would make for a very good working-from-home or remote team for this to be able to work well?

Gustavo: That's a fantastic question, Sean. I think the most important thing about culture is, first, defining what type of culture you want for your company. There are different types of cultures. You mentioned Elon Musk. He likes what we call aggressive culture and aggressiveness that it's all about, hey, if you have to sleep in the office, work 24 hours, do it.

It's all about results. Doesn't matter about the people. The other extreme of those cultures are companies that are maybe all about people, very people-centric, very tribal, and sometimes overly protective. Now they're all worldly people first. Lots of perks.

Make sure that people and then there are many in-between cultures, like what we call the fearless culture is a culture which it's very aggressive, very innovative. It's looking for lofty goals. But on the other hand, it also takes care of people.

So it's not on people not signing on, only business results, finding the right balance. The most important thing is about defining. But second, is how you intentionally create culture. There are things that, for example, if you are a leader, how you model, know your behavior, not just what you say, but what you do shapes the culture.

Regardless if you're working in an office remotely or a combination of both, you need to spend, for example, between 10 and 15% of the time that you, for example, you're in a meeting or on a call. Spend that time on building interpersonal relationships, for example, the people that work fully, remotely, when they get together once every quarter or twice a year, that time it's mostly spent building relationships.

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Gustavo Razzetti

Website: https://gustavorazzetti.com/

Website: https://www.fearlessculture.design/

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/gustavorazzetti

Twitter: https://twitter.com/gusrazzetti

Ep 472: Making Strategic Decisions on Remote Work with Gustavo Razzetti

Thu, 18 May 2023 10:00:09 +0000

Sean: Amazing. Thank you so much, Gustavo. And if there's any advice that you could give struggling business owners struggling to maybe ask their people to get back to a face-to-face office setup, what is your advice to them?

Gustavo: My advice is don't make strategic decisions without involving your people. I mean, Apple, and Google, tried to impose something and it became a mess and then they had to adjust. So save that time and save the PR nightmare and involve your people.

And once again, involving the people doesn't mean that that's going to be a democracy and people are going to vote. It's about getting insights. People see things that leaders fail to see because they are in different positions.

And also that's why you're paying them a lot of money because they're smart people. So use them as a portion of food for thought and don't make those decisions lightly. And most importantly, whatever decision you make, experiment, run a couple of experiments, see what works, and adopt, but also be open to adjusting your behavior from time to time.

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Gustavo Razzetti

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Website: https://www.fearlessculture.design/

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Ep 471 - How To Find The Right Business Coach with Yewande Faloyin

Thu, 11 May 2023 10:00:11 +0000

Sean: That's amazing. So what I'm hearing, number one, you were open to anything. Not a lot of people are like that. People are always thinking about, oh, what about my family? If I stop working, how can I feed them? How can I support my parents? So all of these things are clouding and fogging what they want to explore in life.

And as you mentioned, people usually know in their heart, as with all matters of the heart, you just know it when you're there. When you don't even try, you will never know you got all these fogs in front of you.

You'll never know. Number one, you were open to anything. Number two, when that person suggested to you that you're going to make a good coach, you took it. You immediately took it. Unlike other people, they start with doubts about you. You were like, Yeah, you know what? I'm going to try that.

That's something that I've heard for the first time in all my recordings. This is the first time I've ever heard that. And I hope that you guys tuning in today have gotten that as well, especially if you're in that exploration stage. Maybe you're cooped up in your family business. You don't love what you're doing, but it's what your parents started.

This is how you know, this is how you start with the matter of that heart that you have. You just have to be open to anything. When someone tells you, Hey, I think you can be good at this, accept it, Don't reject it. Don't start with doubt. Love what you said. I'm interested in you one day for people who are tuning in, maybe they're curious. How do they start?

If they want to get coached, how do they know if it's for them? You know, how do I know if coaching is for me if I need a coach? What would you say to those kinds of people who are tuning in? What is it about coaching that makes it so important? And I'm being coached right and I know how important it is. But for those people who are tuned in, what is so important about coaching?

Yewande: Yeah, it can sometimes feel like a luxury. I mean, again, I live and breathe this both in terms of coaching others, but then also having my coach. And I know I know how it's transformed my life, right? And every single new coach that I have does. So I always describe it as if you think about people, people mix it up with different things

So if I think about therapy it is more about delving into your past and trying to unwind all of that. And mentorship is more about like, Oh, someone I see has walked a path that I want to walk. So I want them to tell me about how they did what they did. Consulting or problem-solving is, I have a problem. Tell me the answer. Coaching is so unique because the whole idea of coaching is number one, it's 100% focused on you, right? The coach's agenda.

How many times do we ask people things and they give us their opinion? And while opinions are helpful, to your point, I think you said it beautifully, right? Our vision and our clarity get so clouded by so much outside. Yeah. And so the coach's role differs depending on the style of coaching, but fundamentally it is to help you work through and process what's going on for you so that you can achieve and move forward to achieve the goal that you want.

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Yewande Faloyin

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Ep 470 - How to Overcome Burnout with Yewande Faloyin

Thu, 04 May 2023 10:00:09 +0000

Sean: So now I'm going to inject a little fun into that. Whereas there are so many thought leaders such as Elon Musk, for example, who will say, work hard and outwork your competition and outwork the rest of the world, because that's when you're going to be able to realize your vision for the company, for yourself, when you're going to beat them black and blue and get way ahead of the game.

I know it's controversial. What do you think about that? Because competition is very, very tough in our world. An age where Google is just one type and click away and information is rampant. You already know what your competitor's pricing model is and so on. How do you beat the competition when you're living life in such a way that you're working less, as you said, for you to have more impact, wouldn't that take away from your business's growth and vision?

Yewande: It's a really good question. The first thing that comes to mind is it depends on what you're trying to achieve and what growth and vision and success mean for you. There's sometimes an assumption that it means the same for everyone and it doesn't. And I think. Even when I think about when I was burning out.

And what I see in my clients is when you're even in that state, you lose focus on the important thing. What's the thing you're trying to achieve? So you're just doing and doing and doing and doing with the assumption that it'll get to where you want. Forget assumptions. Let's start with what you are trying to achieve and then let's be strategic and focused on that.

But I think often we don't think about what we're trying to achieve, so we just go, Oh yeah, if you work harder, you'll achieve the thing, right? It's almost like trial and error. And for me, that's not the way I like to think about things. So that's one thing. Now if I think personally about myself, I fundamentally believe, and this is just my belief that you don't have to work harder to have a greater impact.

Now, in theory, that is true. But you could argue that if you think about exercise, um, if I do, let's say I can do 20 push-ups, right? If I do 40 push-ups every day instead, does that mean I'm stronger? Maybe. If I do 80, does that mean I'm stronger? Maybe. If I do 160, does that mean I'm stronger? Maybe if I do a million a day, does that mean I'm stronger? Maybe not.

I probably would have torn a muscle at some point, either torn a muscle. I have no time for anything else. Um, there's. There's a curve. Yeah. So we have to understand that curve for ourselves and go, what am I trying to achieve and why am I trying to achieve it? Because if I'm damaging my muscle, I'm not creating more impact. I'm working harder. But I'm probably stressing that muscle.

I may be crippling the muscle. I may get to the point where the muscle doesn't work anymore. But I'm still pushing and pushing and pushing and think it's similar in leadership. So if it works for Elon Musk, that's great. I'm not saying it doesn't work for him, provided he's clear about why that's important. Why is that important now? But I don't think in my experience that doesn't work for a lot of people. And assuming that it does, I think it's probably more detrimental to people creating the impact that they want than otherwise.

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Yewande Faloyin

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Ep 469 - How to Find Your Purpose in Your Entrepreneurship Journey with Yewande Faloyin

Thu, 27 Apr 2023 10:00:12 +0000

Sean: I'm getting a lot of stuff that I already want to unpack from that. Let's rewind a little bit and go back to Morgan Stanley. You mentioned that you were in the tech world, you did programming, which is very interesting that you started that way because I'm a tech guy. What were some life lessons or leadership lessons that you use now that you got out of working with Morgan Stanley?

Yewande: Lots of stuff. So I like that question. I think it's always interesting because sometimes we assume and I loved your intro where you said something like, Oh, if you don't have a team and you're leading yourself because people often forget, right? It's like, Oh, I'm not a leader because I don't lead a team.

It's like, No, you're a leader because you lead every day, whether it's whether you have a team or not. You're leading other people, right? In some way. And often the first person you start with is yourself. So sometimes also say if you can't lead yourself, then you can't lead other people.

Like it's the same thing. It's just different, different audiences. Um, one of the things I learned a lot at Morgan Stanley. I was very fortunate with my team and the people who supported me. But two things immediately come to mind. One kind of stems from what I just said there around leadership is not about having a team because while I was at Morgan Stanley, I never actually technically had a team.

Towards the latter part of my career, there was a point where I had one person reporting to me, but the way that our department worked was that there were a lot of different departments that had to work together, especially in my role, because I wasn't the expert in anything. I wasn't an expert in legal, and I wasn't an expert in sales, but my hedge fund clients and the CEOs who I worked with expected that I would understand what they needed. I would come back to the firm and then work with and influence people too.

To get what? To create something and then deliver it to them. So I often had to work with people who were a lot more senior than me.

So one of the biggest leadership lessons for me was really. Learning and understanding how to influence people irrespective of seniority and do it in a way that's not where either. I don't feel doubt in myself or I don't feel like I'm being combative, but bringing people along.

And a lot of the lessons that I think about my leadership and my style now really stem from that. It's about the partnership with others and leading them towards the goal and the destination that we both agree on.

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Yewande Faloyin

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How To Make Your Organization's EQ Higher with Michael Seaver

Thu, 20 Apr 2023 10:00:12 +0000

Sean: Now that you opened this topic where we are moving towards a more emotional world today, what do you think drives this being this more emotional population? I mean, we are, you know, especially here in the Philippines where like 90% of the population are Facebook users.

Sean: And if there's a voting contest in the Philippines, can you be sure that everyone's voting? So what do you think drives this movement towards being more emotional as a global population? Is it social media? Is it because we can, you know, let out on social media or can be honest and we can put out our opinion there?

Michael: Yeah, there's I'll give you two answers, Sean. So the first comes from numerology, astrology, you know, kind of Hindu beliefs, right at its core, which is Earth moved in 2012 from what's referred to as the age of Pisces into the Age of Aquarius

Michael: And so this is a very energetic, a very quantum-level transition that Earth is going through. So if anybody listening, or watching wants to explore, just type in Age of Aquarius into your search engine and learn about the shifts and the changes that are happening on Earth as a result, that'll be very helpful.

Michael: Number two, in a more business sense, is that when the lockdowns and the stay-at-home orders started in March of 2020 around the world from COVID, 2020 and 2021 were a time of astronomical change for humanity because everybody's habits and routines and rituals were changed almost overnight. Right. Because they weren't able to go to an office, their kids didn't go to school. So families. Right. Were forced to homeschool kids.

Michael: So this year, 2022, we started to see people integrate those emotions and they've become better at being okay with the change in their way. So what we're seeing now and we're going to continue to see into next year is a much more proactive assertion of people living life the way that they want to.

Michael: So you're going to see fewer big companies and you're going to see smaller companies and more entrepreneurship and more solopreneurs. You're going to see a big shift to that because people learned in 2020 and 2021 that they could do it right, because before they only thought that they could work for someone else and be safe.

Michael: But they had two years of transformation and change and high emotion like, Oh, I can do this for myself. I can be like Sean or I can be like Michael. Yeah, right. And now they want to, yeah. So you're going to see a big transition through the remainder of this year and into 2023 where people are much more proactive at going after what they want and standing in their truth, standing in their authenticity because they want to live a life 100% under their terms, on their terms.

Michael: So Astrologically Earth moved from the age of Pisces into the Age of Aquarius, but in 2020, 2021, as a result of stay-at-home orders and the pandemic, people learned through emotion that they could change. And when they learned that, they started to realize, I don't like this part of my life. I want it to be this way. I want to change this part of my life to be this way. So they're changing gyms. They're changing employers as some people are changing spouses, right? They're moving to different places. So there are a lot of things that are changing because people now believe that they can.

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Michael Seaver

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The Role of Organizational Developers For Business Owners with Michael Seaver

Thu, 13 Apr 2023 10:00:12 +0000

Sean: How do you adjust now that you know that? Okay, how she understands things and how I understand things and how she and I communicate are very, very different. She is an empath. She understands how you feel before you even say anything. Right? Just by reading your body language as you tell me straight to my face and I can't even feel anything. Right. So how do you adjust or how do you improve if that is the case?

Michael: So for those empathetic people who are already emotional, so all of the emotion on earth is causing them to be even more emotional. And then even for the objective, task-oriented folks like Sean or myself, even the emotions are coming to the surface for us unexpectedly.

Michael: And so it's partially this process of finding a middle ground with our partners or work colleagues, but it's also self-discovery for us because Jordan Peterson in his, you know, blogs and in his podcasts and all of these things, he talks about how that in order for us to be really. Formidable or for people to look up to us or for people to celebrate us.

Michael: We need to be able to do a wide variety of things, but we need to be able to control how it is that we behave in certain situations. So what he's saying is, learn about yourself in a variety of ways and then apply that in a very controlled manner so that you become very powerful, that you become very formidable, that people really look up to you in a meaningful way. So part of it, Sean, is just being able to have the experience that doesn't make us weak. It actually makes us, over time, stronger.

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Michael Seaver

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Is EQ More Important Than IQ? with Michael Seaver

Thu, 06 Apr 2023 10:00:15 +0000

Sean: Now, I'm wondering, Michael, with, um, let's, let's shift a little bit too business and hiring. So everyone says that EQ is so important, it's more important than IQ. There are a lot of articles that write about that, right? When you hire someone you want to hire for a higher EQ than a high IQ. Why is it more important than IQ?

Sean: Why do you think that they say that? And should we if they score lower in the EQ tests that are available out there, should we just throw in the towel and say, oh, it's a low EQ kind of person, we should not hire this person?

Michael: Yeah, it's possible. So you're right. So Daniel Goldman, back in the late 1980s, and early 1990s, did a bunch of research, and published kind of the first work about emotional intelligence globally. And in his research, it was that 20% of performance or success comes from IQ, and 80% comes from EQ. And so his book was really, really good to kind of dive into those things.

Michael: And then there was a great book called Emotional Intelligence 2.0 by Bradbury and Greaves that gave a little bit more specificity to this. So I think that when we're going through the hiring process, yes, we want to be mindful of someone's DISC profile or the things that motivate them, maybe their core values, definitely levels of emotional intelligence.

Michael: So when I'm thinking about it, there are certain things that can be taught, there are certain things that are innate, like a DISC profile or motivations are pretty much the way that we're born. We're kind of born with them. We navigate them throughout life, but our core values are that our level of emotional intelligence can be taught to us. It's learned.

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Michael Seaver

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Ep 465: The Importance of EQ in Business' Success with Michael Seaver

Thu, 30 Mar 2023 10:00:14 +0000

Sean: I mean, it should be that important, right? For a guy like you who is a business owner and a speaker and an author to choose this topic. How important is EQ for you today?

Michael: Thanks for asking, Sean. It's super important. I've been a coach for 11 years and over those 11 years there's been a lot of iterations of the way that I uplift and serve people. But as time has passed and progressed, what I've realized is that the thing that helps an individual ascend and become their most authentic version of themselves the fastest is their level of EQ or emotional intelligence.

Michael: So for me, it started as a child when I really turned back the clock and thought about my childhood and the folks that I was raised around. I didn't have a coach and I didn't have a mentor, and it wasn't always the most emotionally intelligent environment. And so for me, I promised myself that as I aged and got older or was in business in any way, shape, or form, I would not only do my best to become emotionally intelligent myself, but then I would also pay it forward and try to teach others the same things because I know how hard it was in my childhood to not have that. But I've also seen the success that high EQ can bring inside businesses.

Michael: Because success inside of businesses is often attributed to someone's or the team's emotional intelligence. So I think there are a lot of reasons why I focus on it and why it's so important to my business, but I just know the power that it can bring to making people live really happy and meaningful lives.

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Michael Seaver

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Ep 464: How Leaders Form Work Culture with Evan Davidson

Thu, 23 Mar 2023 10:00:15 +0000

Sean: Because I want to, I have a question about that, and then I'm going to rewind a little bit and ask you a second question. Both intertwined. How do you find these people that you have a good gut feeling about they're going, to be honest with you? They're coachable. They're the kind of people you want in your team. And how did your employers or the businesses you've worked with? Right. All of those businesses that got sold that were flipped went over to do IPO, how did they find you or how did you find them as well?

Evan: Yeah, I used to hear a lot of talk about networking when I was in my career, and I always felt it was a really artificial thing. You turn up to a show or a trade show and you exchange cards and your network, right? And I guess that's the beginning of something. But what ultimately leads there is value. Do I see something of value in this individual? Do I feel like they're genuine? Do I feel like they're authentic? Do they in some way, shape, or form, offer something to me and also give to get I don't like it's always taken but I don't know if someone reaches out. Can you offer assistance? Do you ask for something? I'll help you because I want to see people better than they are. There are many different ways that that feeling can happen, but it takes time. There's definitely a time element where you can kind of spread your wings and connect yourself out there. Now there are some great platforms to do that. LinkedIn is a great way. You meet someone. You and I will now connect. Sean, We'll be on LinkedIn and I'll post stuff and you'll ever need somebody you can reach out to. Like if I can try and help you, I will help you. Not because there's something in it for me, but some. Well, not some. Many people helped me get to where I am today. And I believe that there's a pay-it-forward approach. Right. So what goes around comes around and I think people pick up on that. So when you work with great people and you have that experience where you move, they're interested. Hey, Evan, I see you've moved over there, like, what's going on? And then you have a chat and that's, you know, I want to work with great people. So you tend to follow people around because they're very they're their philosophy, their behaviors are very similar. And that goes back to my earlier part about which companies you choose. So I think there's a lot of that. So there's the networking that's putting yourself out there. There's adding value. But the most important and this has taken me a little bit of a while to understand is that you've got to be authentic, right? Like forcing yourself on someone to network. I mean, okay, that's one thing. But people want to work with people they can trust, they believe in. And again, there's that degree of just authenticity and that takes a bit of time to establish. But if you can do that, then there is a world out there that can help you. Right. But you've got to put yourself out there. I think that's really important.

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Evan Davidson

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Website: https://www.sentinelone.com/

Ep 463: How Great Leaders Innovate with Evan Davidson

Thu, 16 Mar 2023 10:00:13 +0000

Sean: To continue off with your answers. So I love what you said about innovation. You mentioned the word innovation. And I wonder, with all the advancements in cybersecurity, again, we both agree that it is a hypercompetitive industry. Everyone must get into it. I want to get into it, to be honest. Right. How do you continue to innovate? Where do you get your ideas and how do you say, Oh, that's a good idea and that's not a good idea? How do you judge?

Evan: Yeah, so. So I can only go on the business side of what I see from the products because there are some super smart people that develop these products and solutions, and I take my hat off to them because, you know, we're dealing with founders like Tomer Weingarten and the original founders of Sentinel One that had a vision ten years ago to build a product and solution that today is now starting to gain attraction. So you've got to have a. I think I think it's the mindset. How do you be a founder? So I certainly think very strong technical capability, very strong vision of the things that are impacting customers and then to stay the course to deliver those. And we've got very smart people constantly looking at the innovation, especially on the threat side, because unless your solution can solve some aspect of dealing with the cyber problem and that's fundamentally helping either prevent or detect or respond to some form of cyber threat, then it's really not going to get traction. So we've got really strong technical individuals, visionary people that are on that side. What I look at is really what's happening in the market today at the ground level.

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Evan Davidson

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Website: https://www.sentinelone.com/

Ep 462: Evan Davidson's Humble Beginnings in The Cybersecurity Industry

Thu, 09 Mar 2023 10:00:15 +0000

Sean: That's amazing. That is. And you've gone through so many acquisitions as well. I mean, my goodness, it must have made you a little bit busy going through all of those flips.

Evan: Well, look. If you're going to work for an early-stage company, let's call it for what it is, you know, the private equity or the VCs, the people who put money in are looking to monetize that in some way. And typically it's a sale or it's some form of IPO. And so it is kind of there is always a natural, whether you want to call it an exit or a call it, it's always a next chapter. And so this is my second company that's gone public. I've been to a couple of acquisitions and really there's just the next phase with an acquisition. You know, the company gets integrated, it moves normally into a bigger environment and that's a different challenge with a public company when you're pre, I guess pre IPO, flexible, agile, there's a lot more stimulus and once you go public, there's a lot more governance because you're now required to report to the public markets. So there's a lot more I guess management and compliance and other things that are required to kind of provide the connection back out into that type of operating environment. So it's just different. But you don't. I don't think you go and join early-stage companies unless you like to change, and that's your reference to Disney. If you don't like change and you don't like the fast pace, early-stage companies are certainly not the place you want to be because, I mean, our business is growing over 100% year on year. I mean, it's growing incredibly fast. We're hiring constantly. We're always moving and changing. And if that is not your thing, then certainly my business or many businesses like ours are not yours. But if you like to be doing something different all the time and always thinking about what can change can be improved and this is a great place to be and really show your value. Because if you can do good work, then it certainly floats to the top because you can really create value for a company.

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Evan Davidson

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Website: https://www.sentinelone.com/

Ep 461: Devin Durrant's Top 4 Advice For Achieving Success

Thu, 02 Mar 2023 10:00:14 +0000

Sean: So you mentioned optimism being one of them, perhaps your favorite, your favorite one because that's the one you mentioned right off the bat. And I know very few people, very few people, thank God, who are pessimists. They'd like to call themselves realists these days. And how can I? I'm wondering if there is a way I'm not forcing this question. How can we kind of turn the table and flip the script, finally tell them, hey, you know what? If you keep on like this, I don't think a lot of good is going to come into your life. Is there a strategy for us to allow them to see that being an optimist or having good optimism is very valuable for them?

Devin: Yeah, that's a good thought. And really my response to that is that's why I wrote my book because the easy audience is the audience that says, I agree with everything you're saying. The difficult audience is the audience that says, I don't I don't know that I agree with what you're saying. Oh, well, allow me to make an argument, read the book, read the stories. Are you compelled to consider that maybe optimism is more important than being a pessimist or being a realist? And to see if I can persuade the tougher audience to recognize the importance of our values. And granted, there'll be some people who just will ignore the path that I'm on, and that's okay. But hopefully for those people out there saying I'm looking for some things that I can do that are easy, small, simple things that I can do that will make a positive difference, maybe in my personal life or in my professional life. And I'd love to try something out. I think my book could possibly help that kind of person.

Sean: Aside from optimism, Devin, what are some things people should learn or should get out of your book and apply to their lives?

Devin: Yeah. Let me start with what you just said, how can they apply it to their lives? So in the book, I outlined values, my priority values. Some people might call them core values, but they're priorities for me. But my book is really an invitation for you to discover what your values are, and what's important to you. So I share my values as maybe a template for others to plug in their values. For example, I write about kindness and what an important value that is to me, and gratitude and the importance of the value of service, and maybe thinking a little bit less about ourselves and more about others. I write about integrity, and I write a lot about my mother, who is probably for me the best personification of integrity. I write about communication and humility. And the last value I write about, it's the value of the initiative. If we don't have the drive or something to put one foot in front of the other, take that initiative. Everything else can be hollow. And so I share some thoughts about the importance of taking that first step. And maybe it's just a small step, but the importance of initiative and making positive changes in our lives.

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Devin Durrant

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Website: https://thevaluesdelta.com/

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Ep 460: The One Leadership Principle That Devin Durrant Learned

Thu, 23 Feb 2023 10:00:09 +0000

Sean: Great coaches. What they do is coach, right? That's their job. That's what they do. 24 seven. They're thinking about how I can improve my team. Well, who's fit for this role? Where do we need to draft new talent? Right. Everything they're doing now, when you're in your business, especially when you started the business and you're president, CEO of your own organization, so you probably founded this business as well at the get-go. You don't have that luxury where you're just thinking about the team, team, team player, player, player. You're like doing accounting, you're doing legal, you're doing the sales work, you're doing account management, you're doing marketing, you're doing so many things. You're wearing so many hats that it eludes you to not to a fault, not to your fault. Even if you might want to coach, you might want to build your people, but you just don't have the time. And a lot of business people are there. I know I'm there in that position, so I guess this is kind of like a twofold question in a way. Where should you hire someone who will be a coach full-time? And how do you know, like if this person is going to coach or your business is interest or that person's interest alone? Because a lot of coaches have tendencies to coach for that person's interest, no longer for the business interest. And the second fold to this question is how do you coach your people now, now that your leader, your founder, you're doing so many things, how do you find time to do that?

Devin: I love the idea of being an entrepreneur. I think I was certainly born with an entrepreneurial spirit and as I grew up, I would mow lawns, and take care of people's property. Most of the work was fairly independent, running my own small businesses as a student. And then after my basketball playing days were over, I had an opportunity to work in corporate America. So to be part of a large, successful company by the name of the word perfect, and I enjoyed that time there. But I still had within me that entrepreneurial spirit to get out and start something on my own. And one thing led to another, and that happened. And so initially, just as you outlined, I was doing almost everything. I was a real estate investor, so I might buy a property and would mow the lawn, I would pull the weeds, would paint, would clean, would schedule subcontractors, would do the accounting, and from top to bottom. And one of the benefits there is I learned every aspect of the business and what needed to be done, really with the exception of maintenance. And so I recognized that my strength was not going to be in the maintenance area, so I'd have to hire someone to do that. And fortunately, I hired just the right guy for that role and the two of us began to grow the business. And so as the dollars would allow us to bring on more employees, that's certainly what direction we headed. I love the idea of building business, starting a business, but I think the expectation needs to be this is going to take all of me and it's going to be a rough and bumpy first few years till we get established and then as we can, I'm more conservative and as we can we'll add additional employees and will grow the business over time.

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Devin Durrant

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Website: https://thevaluesdelta.com/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/DurrantDevin

Ep 459: Devin Durrant and The Role of A Great Leader

Thu, 16 Feb 2023 10:00:12 +0000

Sean: I'm honored that you were able to tune in to the podcast before we were able to have this recording. Devin, so what I want to know I mentioned in the introduction from the courtroom, from the basketball court to conference rooms, that that phrase struck me. And how does it feel to be someone who plays on the basketball court? You know you got a lot of action going on. You got a lot of quick thinking, instinctive thinking going on to now conference rooms where you have to make sure you say the right words. You have to think a lot before you do anything and make sure that you're dressed up. And it's a lot slower than what you're used to. What happened in between and why decide to go now to conference rooms rather than the basketball court?

Devin: Oh, that's an excellent question. Thanks for the opportunity, because I've found that over the years there are so many similarities between the competition that took place on a basketball court and the competition that takes place in the business world. And yes, you have to do a lot of thinking as an athlete. The same kind of thinking takes place in the boardroom or as you interact with customers, you have to be able to respond to what comes your way. And so there are a lot of similarities between the sports world and the corporate world.

Sean: That is amazing.

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Devin Durrant

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Website: https://thevaluesdelta.com/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/DurrantDevin

Ep 458: Luke Arrigoni's Groundbreaking Vision for AI's Future

Thu, 09 Feb 2023 10:00:18 +0000

Sean: Right? Right. So we have this. The huge spectrum of what I am is from snake oil, which is not real. And they're just saying AI because it's hot to companies selling software that has some form of machine learning in there, branding it as AI to companies who are really doing AI like Google and Microsoft and all these companies doing it in the back-end to ChatGPT, which is. It's so obvious that it is an eye. What do you think would be the next maybe 2 to 3 years of I as we graduate, hopefully from this pandemic and we face the US recession that's looming 2 to 3 years? For me, the most advanced version of AI is ChatGPT right now. What do you think can happen?

Luke: So I think there is there are two different fields that I would want to touch on. The first is technical, I think everything's going to become multi-modal, something we actually talked about a little bit where images and text are taken together and these AI’s learn from both. So you could say, Here's a picture of my washing machine, what's wrong with it? Right. And it would know like the brand and the model and I tell you like the basic stuff like that's very near future. Yeah. I think near to mid future, like maybe five years we will have AI that analyzes our social life on a deep level, not social media, something that lives in our phones that says, Hey, your mom is stressed about something, She just sent you an email and I can tell by what she wrote that you should probably call her and ask her what's going on. It'll be this thing that is almost like a personal assistant that can read different emotions through all of our communications that come in and out. It can listen to a phone call and say, you need to call Client X because they really are. They sounded like they were really trying to get you to pitch them a new idea. Like you'll have this thing that kind of lives in your head. Yeah, not literally, but you'll have this thing that lives on your phone that listens to all your communications, reads all your communications and helps you navigate complicated social systems. And this is why humans were meant for very small social networks. 20 people, 50 people, tops.

Sean: Yeah.

Luke: Right now most people, we're navigating in the hundreds or even 1000 some people, and we're really bad at it. Even the best people are like they're operating at like 10%, right? Like, yeah, they're so below failure on it. Right? So tech like this, just imagines ChatGPT The combination is something that will make everyone really good at being social again, which I think is something that everyone is really craving right now because social media is kind of delivered the opposite. It's like anti-social media these days. I love it. Like I'm on Tiktok, I'm guilty. I'm not trying to be religious about things like turning off or disconnecting Instagram. Like I have an Instagram, right?

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Luke Arrigoni

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Twitter: https://twitter.com/lukearrigoni

Ep 457: Will AI Overtake Human Intelligence With Luke Arrigoni

Thu, 02 Feb 2023 10:00:12 +0000

Sean: So we have human writers and bloggers right now, which as you mentioned earlier there, they're just going to be augmented in the work that they do with ChatGPT. They're not going to be replaced, which in my opinion, a lot of them who are mediocre might be replaced by ChatGPT. But those who are exceptional at their work, they're irreplaceable because they're going to be the ones maybe editing, augmenting the data to 2022 data depending on the industry they're writing for, right? So these bloggers are using a little bit more advanced data, a little bit more recent data, I should say. But really, when you look at the data now, everyone's using data from the Internet, right? I mean, it's out there. You're just collating it, saying it in a better way. Now I'm wondering what is going to be the future of thought leadership because it used to exist, right? I started digital Marketing in 2009 and there was not a lot of new stuff written about SEO during that time. So Moz was just beginning All these websites, Search Engine Journal, I think was just beginning. So all these thought leaders didn't exist during that time. And you could still be a trailblazer in terms of predicting what the next SEO thing is and stuff. But right now, I think that if people get lazy and they're just like, let's use ChatGPT and just edit it. What happens now to thought leadership? What are your thoughts about that?

Luke: So I think this is a really great point. I think it touches on one really big thing, which I'll just mention quickly and I'll move on to. I think your intended question is everyone's all worried that air is going to replace some more creative roles and is my belief that A.I. is a new paintbrush, it's not a new painter. And so the people that are mediocre at what they do are going to get replaced, and the people that are masters are going to be like, This is the new paintbrush for me. Like that's it. AI is a brand-new tool. And it is possible that a tool can replace a mediocre person, but a tool doesn't replace the master. It just makes the master better at what they do. So I completely agree with that. As far as thought leadership goes. You know, I think my thinking is, you know, we talked about the embedding space and how ChatGPT as you talk, it goes more and more fine points. You start to talk and it starts in the city area of this embedding space. And as you talk more, it goes down to the house. I don't think at least not to maybe future eyes, but I don't think Chad will be able to get into the kitchen. Look, I think that there is a point that is so deep in your industry and everyone has a different industry, right? That you can go deeper than what an AI can go simply because AI is trained on the Internet. It's trained on this huge generic pot of information. Right? Not on something fine-tuned like your own human experience or your own knowledge.

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Luke Arrigoni

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Ep 456: How AI Tools Are Transforming Business: Insights From Luke Arrigoni

Fri, 27 Jan 2023 10:00:12 +0000

Sean: Yeah. What do you think about that? I mean Google, on the other hand, is saying hey, we don't encourage AI-produced content and we're going to crack down on it someday. And then there are these big banks in the US right now that are using ChatGPT to produce at least the base layer of their content. When I say base layer, it means the outline, it means the initial draft before they have a human edit and publish it. What do you think about this? Is it something that's sustainable? I mean, we see that ChatGPT is having outages sometimes because so many people are using it.

Luke: This is the fascinating part. Obviously, Google and other search engines, they're going to want to play a cat-and-mouse game with this right where they're going to say, we're going to eventually find out if something is AI generated and then shut it down. But I think that they're going to come to regret that decision because, at the end of the day, people are looking for information. And if someone has generated information that solves a legitimate problem, whether it's AI-generated or not, like whether that content is there, that's something that people are going to search for and look for. So I think at a certain point I get why Google is saying things like, don't overwhelm our system with all this AI-generated content, but there will come an inflection point where that is what people want. People are going to want to figure out how to search across all the possible knowledge, even AI-generated knowledge, to find what is real and true. So it's kind of a tossup, I think, for now, advise, do it. You know, I'm no one's marketing strategist, but I really actually think it'll be very difficult for Google to detect what is human, what is A.I. It comes to the written word. There's a lot of stuff around the media, like deep fakes. Those are easier to detect when it comes to written words, though, that's going to be much harder because you have at least in native English speakers, there's a huge range of capabilities for writing, right? Like I went to high school with some people who didn't know how to write and they were like 15 right? Like there are some people that just like you could not say, hey, this is poorly written its AI. And you also couldn't say this is so well written and say it’s AI. And so I think that there's going to be a huge challenge there. And I think Google is largely bluffing when they say they're going to be able to detect it. I just don't think they'll be able to. And I think they're going to put the resources in to do it because once again, people are going to want information. And if ChatGPT comes up with it versus a human, I don't think anyone really cares.

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Luke Arrigoni

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Ep 455: Jeff Kamys and The Art of Managing and Investing in ETFs

Thu, 19 Jan 2023 10:00:09 +0000

Jeff: Well, it gives you, first off, I think in this fund. So let's say you want to invest in sports betting and gaming. One of the things that we're going to do better than other funds like this is we're going to give you we're trying to get you exposure to what's a really fast-growing marketplace, especially in the US. You know, in November, we have California potentially going to be legalized.

When New York was legalized, they did $1,000,000,000 in betting in one month. There was $1,000,000,000 of what we call handles, which means how much-transacted money. Now, California is going to do way more than that. California is going to do three X that. Now, we don't know the permutations of whatever they're going to agree to there because they're protecting the Indian reservations a little bit, but it should be legalized. So what the point of the investment is, it's investable and it's growing. So at the end of the day, the simple answer is that you'll make money, because, with the growth of the investment of the opportunity, you will be able to put your money in and make money in a growing industry, just like anybody who would invest in tech stocks or the S&P 500. You know, and these and these can these are really like I say, it's a ground zero opportunity, meaning these companies are still growing.

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Jeff Kamys

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Twitter: https://twitter.com/jeffreykamys

Ep 454: Jeff Kamys' Keys to Successful Serial Entrepreneurship

Thu, 05 Jan 2023 10:00:14 +0000

Jeff: And so it's a really complex process for a reason and there's a whole bunch of rules and guidelines, unlike kind of any other world. I mean, compliance in the financial service space is really complex, but it's just like any other business. There are hurdles and there's a learning curve, and it's all really fun and exciting too. You know, it's kind of a massive, you know, someone I heard somebody actually made a great comment. We always hear about this. I said, well, it was like one of the most powerful ideas you had. I'm stealing this. It's not my idea. It's a great idea. But he said the idea of compounding. So when we think about compounding all the time, we think about how our money compounds. Yeah, right. Over time. But he spoke of it differently, and this was really a great way to look at it. He said It's the compounding of knowledge. So every day you have a chance to compound your knowledge, hyper-intelligent. And so I think no matter what happens on this, I've had a chance to compile my knowledge and a whole other space and meet a whole other world of people that can open up my eyes to a whole bunch of other ideas and things.

That's how you have to be as an entrepreneur, not knowing if this thing is going to work out. But you know that there are doors in that building that you enter that may open another door somewhere else and you have no idea. And that's what that's how you got to stay open to everything. But that's how you lose, too. Yeah, for sure. I mean, you could stay open, the door opens, and then it's like, Wow, this is a scary door and you want to close it because that's how life is. But you know, you have to stay open every time you fail. And that's kind of like the old tech thing. You know, I heard Marc Andreessen say it's like the hardest thing about having success is that you become more afraid to take those risks later. So once you have it, how do you still stay open to ideas? It's not that you don't have the ideas, it's just you have the guts or the wherewithal or the courage to take that risk down the road again. And that's kind of what it takes, You know, what it takes. So I don't know, I guess I'm either stupid or I'm very courageous, very courageous. To keep taking those is to keep taking those things on.

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Jeff Kamys

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Twitter: https://twitter.com/jeffreykamys

Ep 453: Why Failing your First Business is a Great Start with Jeff Kamys

Fri, 23 Dec 2022 08:30:14 +0000

Sean: So when you said you had partners and a lot of entrepreneurs today have partners, what made you say that? It's it complicated thing and it's better to go alone.

Jeff : Well, in this case here. So what happened was, is I because they were going to bring business right But they had a majority, like I only had a third. They were going to bring business they kind of could control when they brought that business. And I took the lion's share of the upfront cost and not knowing how complicated it would get and continue to get without setting up the parameters of the project properly. I got taken down what we call project creep. Yeah, yeah. So it got it was, you know, this is something that I had budgeted maybe X for, but it turned into triple X and, and, and it took and the time it went from a project that I had like a 3 to 6-month time lag on into like two years. And so it ended up the ugliest way possible, which is why I'm not mentioning any names of whatever it was because it ended up in a lawsuit after all. And I did not break even. I lost a lot of money and a lot of time. But, you know, you learn from it. And I think it was kind of classic. I may not have enough focus on it. And I think that's what Tesla again it's only apt as a comparison because we're all human and I think that's what Tesla investors are worried about with Twitter you know is the focus going to stay there because we really think you can't.

You know the one thing I joke about sometimes with my kids because I have things that I'm interested in is can we clone people? We can't clone people. And there are certain people who can ignite things a certain way that other people cannot and they won't have the same ideas. You know, we've all been in those rooms. You take that one person who can ignite the whole room with the idea or get everybody on the clear path. It changes the whole room. You can have ten people in there, but the 11th person comes in there with that one idea or that direction that no one else thought of. And you would have to say, that's probably Elon Musk, you know, that would be missing maybe in that scenario.

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Jeff Kamys

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Ep. 452: Building Success Through Branding and Culture with Leonard Grape

Thu, 08 Dec 2022 09:59:26 +0000

Sean: If you are given just one question to ask them about their brand, what would it be?

Leonard: That's a good question. One question that I'll ask about the brand is. Maybe I'd like to make it a compound question. What I'll probably ask is where you see your brand in the next five years and what perception and emotions you want to establish in the marketplace. That's probably the question that I'll ask.

Sean: What's the implication? Why is that your chosen question?

Leonard: Because branding is really providing the management of meaning for a business. So ultimately the goal is you have a clear strategic framework that will guide your branding development because the brand is a long-term play. So what you want to happen is what type of perceptions people have towards your brand. A good example is when we talk about Starbucks, you know, it's not just an expensive coffee, but you know that it's actually a good service, a nice interior, a good place, a warm company, those types of things. And those are perceptions and emotions that you want to have towards your brand.

We're currently working with a startup brand that's more into the various industry, but the perceptions and emotions that we want to establish for them are really one. They're not the typical fertility program. They're warm, but at the same time they're experts people can trust them and they understand the sensitivity of the issues. So those are, I think, the core elements of good brand clarity. When you understand in a nutshell, what's your value proposition? What's your perception in the marketplace, and ultimately, what do you want your target customers to feel and think about you over the long term?

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Leonard Grape

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Ep. 451: 5 Year Plan for a Start Up Business with Leonard Grape

Thu, 01 Dec 2022 10:00:17 +0000

Leonard: So don't get me wrong, during the first year, especially the first six months, I really didn't know what I was doing. In fact, I didn't even know how which specific services they, even the price of the services. But your question, which I think is very relevant, definitely the financial aspects are a part of that, that's for sure. But the way I did it was sort of a time top-line five-year plan with specific core objectives year on year. So this is I think more or less when I was a few months in the company, I think towards the end of year one, which I'd like to call now, was year zero, because that's essentially really just testing the waters and then trying to build up a foundation in the team and see if the market would even respond to the services that you want to sell.

The underlying component of that is what are the immediate foundational stuff that we need to be in check or in place so that we can even have a legitimate five-year plan, so to speak. So that's my year one, really everything foundational about who we are as a brand, what our initial organizational operational requirements I need. So at least I have a base structure.

The second year for me is really all about the organizational build-up. Revenue growth is definitely a part of that, as then building the capacity of the team and establishing initial processes and frameworks. So this is what I meant by thinking big, starting small, but really thinking and acting big. So in a year or two, you'll see a lot of how we start to operate, when should we hire? What should be the first hires that we want? And now we're really starting to benchmark a clearer number for the financial component. Sean Because we had the benchmark for year one, we had a so-and-so number of revenue. Where do we want to bring this in year two, we now have a better gauge of the price points and how we can push the threshold related to that.

Years three, four, and five would really be about last year and the financial component. How much capitalization? Because I bootstrapped my company, I didn't have any capital at the beginning, so I just went on, It's a professional service company, so it's a little bit lesser in terms of risk but higher reward because I didn't really need to have capital upfront. That's how I looked at it. Or the years three, four, and five, which we know about. How do we now establish the systems that can help us grow revenue-wise, capital-wise, and number of clients-wise, at the same time should be developing the expertise of the team. Capacity for us is not exactly immediately organizational growth, although that's part of it, it's also a matter of how we deepen our expertise because we want to be a high-margin, low-volume company. How can that translate into the organizational side? Fourth and fifth is really how much capital do I want to have by year five? What are the minimum parameters that I want to be set that are going to include money in the bank, the number of repeat businesses, the way we structure systems and organization, and hopefully for us to be ready to really take a look at where we're going?

So for us, Sean, the five-year plan that I set is really more as a powering vision that we know that we have a path to go to, but it's not exactly cast in stone. It has to be this because every now and then we'll have to revisit. So but for me, the five-year plan is really just for me to have the corporate discipline most likely that I got from working in a traditional company like Ayala and wanting to apply that to a startup mindset.

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Leonard Grape

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Ep. 450: 3 Leadership Principles That Leonard Grape Learned

Thu, 24 Nov 2022 10:00:13 +0000

Leonard: That's a really very good question. I think primarily Sean, in terms of a leadership principle. It's having the right vision and learning how to do foresight for where you want to bring your team. As a manager myself during this time, usually will do a lot of the corporate disciplines back then. When you like, you'll have the setup like your five-year plan, and even before you do that, you'll have established a very strong foundation on who you are in terms of the unit back then, and I was still in Ayala Land, plus really making sure that you establish the foundation.

The first key principle that I think really works well for me is the ability to have foresight. Ireland is a 30-year company and they're considered a pioneer in terms of master planning communities. So I was really very fortunate to be part of our organization at that time when it was doing a lot of expansions, doing several sub-branding for their different business units. So visioning for me was really very important. That's the one.

The second is culture. And when I say culture, it's not just about understanding your values and their standing, your core principles, but it's really knowing who you are as a leader and how you translate that in the way you do things on a day-to-day basis.

And then maybe the third one is really knowing the financial aspect of the business. I want to contextualize my answer to being a business leader and businesses at the end of it all. It also has to be a healthy profit and loss statement. So those three things are really very critical for me and I felt were foundational, foundational of how I am now. The way I translate that was when I started my company, the venture. The first thing I tried to really sit down and think about is What do I want to happen here? Even if there's not a lot of clarity yet shining at the beginning. In fact, I didn't know where I was going. I really didn't know what to do. All I knew then was I needed a new beginning and I wanted to quit my tenured job to control more of how I'll develop my career. But I needed to really sit down and have something that I can hold on to as a vision. At that time, I think it was as simple as building a company that will help entrepreneurs with their branding and communications requirements. It's that generic for me, but that was strong enough for me to say, Hey, this is something that I can do. And if everyone involved some people here, it's something that we can all latch onto at the beginning.

Second, when I started the Vineyard, I was very intentional about the type of company, at least right now we were starting the type of company culture that I want. Back in the day, of course, I experienced some culture clashes, if I may, or where I had to deal with a boss or with a business transaction within the company that I felt wasn't really 100% aligned with who I am. So the way I do that now would be to make sure that those experiences that they didn't like exactly, I wouldn't have to bring it back now that I'm starting my own culture. The financial aspect is really thinking big while we're starting small, meaning When I started the Vineyard, I already knew that I'll have to make sure that they set up very proper financial operating principles. So that's why even then we were really starting to serve a lot of clients. I already brought in someone who can help me with a financial Pro-forma to make sure that when I make decisions, it has to be a business decision that will be for the benefit of the company. So I guess those three leadership principles if I can call those leadership principles, Sean.

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Leonard Grape

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Ep. 449: Leadership Lesson in Co-Founding a 'Learning Company'

Thu, 17 Nov 2022 10:00:12 +0000

Patrick: We are based in London and we do have an office, but we have engineers in Portugal and Ireland, and not all members of the team come into the office regularly there have been a number of learnings arising from that remote experience, and also some things that have come out of our values. We are of course a learning company and so we want the team to be learning all the time and to be developing and growing.

So we have a very robust system of feedback, situation, behavior, impact, and suggested improvement. And every member of the team who has a 1 to 1 is expected to give that. And it goes both ways. It goes up to the CEO as well as down to the most junior member of the team. And when the CEO gets a tough piece of feedback, when I do, the first thing I do is share it with the whole team publicly. This is the feedback I got and these are the steps that I'm going to take. And the value of that is that other members of the team can look at that and they know two things.

Number one, nobody's scared of feedback in this company because, whoa, he just got some really tough feedback there and he just shared it and he didn't have to. So, wow, that's great. And number two, Oh, I do that sometimes. That applies to me, too. And so by making it public, everyone in the team can benefit instead of just the one person who received it. And crucially, when other members of the team see that they are not emotionally involved so they can dispassionately look at it and go, okay, well, that's interesting.

And they can learn from it in a way that when they receive the feedback yourself, you might be upset, it might be difficult. Yeah, but when you put it out there, it has an amazing power to diffuse the emotional element and supercharge the whole team's learning. And this is something which when new members of the team joined and they heard that this is the way that we do things, there was an attitude of, okay, well we'll see. And then the first time they actually see it happen, it's like, Oh my God, they really mean it.

But you know what? If your leadership team and that's obviously me as a co-founder, the chief exec, if your leadership team believes in a growth mindset of personal development and change and in radical transparency, then this is the way to go.

And this idea that we must be able to fail and screw up and not just admit to failing and screwing up, but actually embrace it and say, here's what I learned. Everyone loops back to what I was saying before about how the education system is really bad at this, because in education if you get something wrong, you failed. That's a bad thing. But in life, if you can only learn from it, then getting things wrong is never a failure. It's learning, it's growth. Yeah. And that's who we want to be as a company because that's the values we want to represent to our users and our customers.

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Patrick Cootes

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Twitter: @patrickcootes

Ep. 448: Learning To Adapt in Today's Disruptive Industry with Patrick Cootes

Thu, 10 Nov 2022 10:00:10 +0000

Sean: Now I want to shift the conversation a little bit and drill down on how important is it for people to be able to learn better as an entrepreneur and as a leader. Because a lot of people tuned in here, maybe some of them not so convinced, not so sold, thinking that, hey, you know, I know what I know, and that's good enough for me and I think I can make it. How important is learning, really?

Patrick: Anybody listening to us who thinks that learning is not important, I ask you to reflect on this. How important is productivity to you and how do you become productive? Because the answer to that question nine times out of ten is about learning. We become productive by figuring out not only the things that we know but also the strategies that we deploy. And if you aren't constantly honing your strategies for productivity, then you are not going to be making progress. So my first answer to you is if you care about productivity, you already care about learning. You've just been calling it productivity, which is fine by me. Hey, I'm not going to argue with you if you want to call it productivity, go crazy. That's cool. My second answer is that the attitude of I know what I know I don't need to learn more has not been the optimal strategy for success for about 50 years.

We are living in the information age, an age of constant and rapid change and disruption in almost every industry. You may have heard it said that every company is now a tech company. And this is fundamentally true. And what that means is if you are not moving fast and learning, you are becoming obsolete. And we all know we've read about the threat of technological disruption leading to some fraction of jobs being automated away. And when people think of that, they tend to imagine jobs in the factory, you know, but that is completely out of date. The jobs that are being automated are the ones that involve manipulating data, and therefore the most vulnerable industries are data-orientated industries, industries like accounting and finance and insurance, where you have a great risk of automation and you need to be learning to stay ahead of it.

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Patrick Cootes

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Twitter: @patrickcootes

Ep. 447: How 'Learning' is different from 'Education' with Patrick Cootes

Thu, 03 Nov 2022 10:00:10 +0000

Sean: But I'm wondering now, how did Milestone come to be? Who thought of this?

Patrick: Okay, so this is this is a journey that I and my co-founder, Josh, the chief exec, have been on together for the last couple of years now. My background is a little unusual for a tech startup. I'm actually a high school teacher. I was in education in Britain, teaching 17 and 18-year-olds for nearly 20 years, and I was frustrated by the British education system, which, like the education system in much of the Western world, is badly equipped for the job that we need to do. It doesn't prepare people for the world of work. It doesn't prepare people for university. It doesn't help people to become self-starters and independent thinkers. And so I was looking for a way of extending my influence beyond the classroom and also doing something about these underlying problems. Now I met Josh, who's a serial entrepreneur, and we got talking he was coming to the end of his time with his previous startup company called Super Awesome, which is the world's largest kids tech company. And they were just at the time being acquired by Epic Games. And he was thinking about his next mission, his next goal. And he wanted to do something around learning.

And what really got us excited together was this idea that learning and education are completely separate things and the tools of education are bad tools for learning a lot of the time. And let's focus exclusively on learners, not education. So we're not LND we don't represent a university, we don't represent an employer, we don't represent a school, we don't represent a parent, we represent learners and we build for them. So that's the core of the vision is of a learner-centered world where anybody can learn anything as fast as is humanly possible, and that that will then be recognized everywhere. Because currently, the ways that employers have of recognizing learning are imperfect proxies. Things like a university degree are a very poor measure of what somebody has learned, and it's an even worse measure of how good a learner they are.

And we want to build a way of signaling how well you learned so that all of those podcasts and the blog posts and the newsletters that you read and all of the comments that you wrote in the margins and all the questions that you asked on Reddit, and Quora, and StackOverflow, and all the answers you gave to other people. All of those things can be combined to form a signal. This guy is an amazing learner. This woman is a thoughtful learner. This person is resourceful, this person is resilient, and doesn't give up. So that we've got a granular record that employers can look at and go, Well, we know what this person, skillset, and attitude are like. So that's the story of how we came to that vision.

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Patrick Cootes

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Twitter: @patrickcootes

Ep 446: The Value of Giving Recognition with Matthew Stibbe

Thu, 27 Oct 2022 10:00:12 +0000

Matthew: There's another thing that I think is really valuable for recognition, right? We have on our Slack, we have a validation channel. And what that is for is peer-to-peer recognition of people who are living up to the values. So it's not top-down, although sometimes managers do it, it's one another recognizing and it costs nothing. There's no cash value. But my goodness, I know for myself when somebody goes, Matthew did this and I think it's a really I feel quite proud and that recognition and as a manager offering that kind of recognition and validation is also critical. It's not only about money, it's about validation and recognition. I just wanted to everything I've talked about has been money based. And I want to say there's more than money.

Sean: No, that is amazing. I 100% agree with that. We practice this as well. In SEO hacker, we have around 40 plus people in the team, and at every town hall meeting we have our clap session because we go to the office three times a week, Tuesdays to Thursdays, and on Tuesdays, we have the town hall meeting. And in that clap sessions, every person in the room gets a chance to say, I want to give claps to so-and-so because he or she did this and that.

So I love it being live for me. I'm an office guy. I'm a face-to-face guy. You know, I've worked we work remotely for two years, from 2020 to 2022. So this year, April is when we started coming back to the office. But I find that it's it's completely different, and more effective for me at least as a leader if it's face-to-face. So we have three days a week going to the office. And I completely agree with what you're doing 100%. And I wish more leaders in the world would do the same.

Matthew: I'm going to borrow that idea clap session. I like that. Yeah.

Sean: Yes, that is what we do. Every time someone says something good about someone, we clap our hands and make sure that that person is recognized.

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Matthew Stibbe

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Ep 445: Why Every Company Culture Should Be Intentional

Thu, 20 Oct 2022 10:00:14 +0000

Sean: So what are some of the things that you have come up with? Maybe a system, or perhaps it's a set of principles to form an intentional culture that you would like to work in.

Matthew: So what levers have you got to manage all of that? Things that have worked for me, had as the company, as articulate marketing grew 5 people, 10 people, 15 people. I brought in external expert consultant-type people who are very, very good at working with a team and then helping them express what they think is valuable about the company. Express what they think the culture is, both as it is and a little aspirationally. And I learned from doing that. So we would have company meetings where we would talk about culture for a day or two, moderated and guided by a professional. And I learned there that you don't want to just import someone else's culture, right? You don't go to the Netflix culture guide or the HubSpot culture guide. These things are floating around on the Internet. They're really interesting to look at. But don't just go right - we're going to have Netflix as culture because it doesn't work. All you're doing is borrowing the form and not the substance.

The culture of the business, especially in the early days, kind of emanates from the personality of the founder. And there comes a time, as you as the business grows, where the personality, the decision making, the charisma, or in my case, lack of it, you know, of the personality of the leader slightly separates from the business.

As that happens, as it stops being me and as I change and as the business changes, what's worth keeping, what's worth changing? So there's this other thing that's going on, an exciting but difficult challenge, which is - what do I like? What do I want to do? Now, not as a founder, but as a leader? What do I do with that? Where do I want to go? What is important about my input to the culture as distinct from the input of everyone else, arbitrating the bits that are important to you and the bits that you're willing to democratize is really important. How do you share the responsibility in the ownership and the authority for doing that?

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Matthew Stibbe

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Ep 444: The 'Lifelong Learner' Mindset with Matthew Stibbe

Thu, 13 Oct 2022 10:05:09 +0000

Matthew: One observation I had very strongly after leaving my first business was, I had spent a lot of my time, a lot of my time dealing with a small handful of employees who were challenging in one way or another. They needed to develop, or they were disruptive in some way. When you have employees, you know, there's a bell curve, there are some who are awesome. There's a big middle of people who are basically pretty good. And then, you know, if you over ten years or you employ a few hundred people, there's going to be a few of them that are just bloody awful. Yeah. And I spend most of my HR time, most of my employee time dealing with the difficult ones. And what I should have been doing was that behavior or that action or that lack of development or that whatever it is, that is a problem that's got to stop or else, you know, and spend little. Time, but be much clearer with them about what needs to change and not agonize over it. You know, but I should have been spending more time with the people who were performing amazingly and recognizing and validating their work and supporting them and helping them be awesome and not get bored and not leave. And then the people who are on the sort of the higher end of the middle bell curve. How do you get them to be awesome, right? Instead of trying to make somebody bad into somebody who's adequate, I should have been making someone good into somebody awesome. And it's about the same amount of effort and intervention, but the payoff is much higher, right? So, it's an easy thing to say because unfortunately, challenging HR problems absorb a lot of time. There are legal implications, and you must coach. And so that's observation number one, pay more attention to the good people.

Observation number two. Company culture is a critical purpose kind of how you communicate that to everybody, and how you enlist and engage people in it. And there's no one single thing that you do. But if you don't do anything, if you are unconscious of the company culture that you want, you will get a company culture. But it may be not the one you like. Okay, there is always a company culture, but part of your job, almost all your job in some ways as a leader is to shape mold, and direct the culture I think knowing that doesn't make it easy, but knowing it is important.

And the third thing, I say this today because I'm in my early fifties and I'm reflecting on a long career and I'm hoping I've got a long career ahead of me. And I'm doing quite a lot of work with a management coach and I'm doing just started a project with a communications consultant and a kind of a coach in that area who's really, amazing. The point I'm getting here is that learning never stops. Here I am. You can go into a bookstore and there are hundreds of business books and business autobiographies of people saying, I'm awesome. I know everything. I've got all the answers, I've solved all the problems. And I am calling B.S. on that. Because if you think you've solved all the problems, you've got a big problem. It's always learning, learning, learning, learning, learning, getting better, getting better, getting better. And that's a hard realization. And I think in my twenties, I thought I knew it all. I was a very kind cocky kid. And I went around sort of being and I hope I'm a lot humbler and a lot more willing to learn now.

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Matthew Stibbe

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Ep 443: 5 Secrets to Entrepreneurial Success with Naresh Vissa

Thu, 06 Oct 2022 10:00:13 +0000

Sean: How do you know if you have it though?

Naresh: I'll give you some signs. When other people want you, that's leverage when other people are recruiting. Hey, I need you to do this project. I'm on this tight deadline. I'll give you an example because my wife is a doctor here in the United States. And as I mentioned earlier, they just don't really understand these concepts of leverage and focus and all these different things. During the pandemic, the peak of the pandemic, the doctors who were working on SARS-CoV-2 patients, held a lot of leverage and they didn't utilize it. I think a business guy who was a doctor would have gone in and said, Hey, yeah, I'll work on these patients, I'll treat these patients, but you're going to have to pay me two times more at three times more or, you know, start your own practice immediately and say, Hey, I'm just going to go out on my own and I'll be able to service all these patients through this practice, right as an independent contractor or whatever. And this is a deal that we're going to do. And they could do that because they needed medical care. They needed as many workers as possible, at least here in the United States. They were flying in nurses and doctors and all sorts of people because there were so short-staffed.

So in any environment where there's short staffing, that's an opportunity for leverage because it's like, Oh, now I'm valuable because they need me to work. And none of these people went to their bosses and said, give me a raise or I'll work. I'll put in this much time right now and see all these patients, but give me an entire month off later this year or sometime next year, this to me, is like a frequent negotiation with my clients. It's okay. Yeah, we'll do this. It's not just pay, but if you want us to visit you on-site, you got to fly us on this airline. You got to put us up in this hotel and you know, you've got to pay for all these different things. There was no leverage. There was no negotiation because you have to feel valued yourself. If you don't value yourself if you don't take yourself seriously if you don't respect yourself, then why should anyone else?

So leverage first is going to come from you. And the way that you build that leverage up in your own head is by simply knowing that you're doing good work, that you offer good service, and that your work, your service, your product is actually of great value, and that the other party won't be able to survive without it.

Sean: Yeah, that's when you got full leverage.

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Naresh Vissa

Website: http://nareshvissa.com/

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nareshvissa

Ep 442: How Naresh Vissa Overcame Age Discrimination in His Early Startup Days

Thu, 29 Sep 2022 10:10:14 +0000

Naresh: That's a very important point, making sure that your clients are happy. Many people in my industry, are looking to make a quick buck. And this was the lesson that I learned early on. This was terrible advice. So personally I don't come from a business family. You brought up the whole age thing and what people are asking you. I don't come from a business family, really. I come from a family of like engineers and doctors. Like workers, you know, like more - like specialized workers, not business or entrepreneurs.

Sean: So the advice I was getting was from, like, engineers and doctors, and it was just completely off base because most of them were telling me, oh, you know, just charge your clients as much money as possible. And yeah, literally, that's what they told me. They're like, just, just charge as much as possible. That's the way that you build. And why? Because here in the United States and our health care system, the philosophy is, oh, just charge the insurance company as much money as you can, and then the insurance company is going to come back and say, oh, you want to charge 100,000 for this procedure? Well, we can only cover 50,000 of it. So then the doctor is like, okay, that's fine pay us 50,000. That's okay with us.

Sean: My goodness.

Naresh: That's that's why everything is so health care is so expensive here in the United States because you can just charge whatever the heck you want. I mean, there were COVID tests that were selling for $5,000 that they build the insure for simple COVID test. I mean, you can go to the store across the street and get it for $10, if not $5, but you get insurance involved or you get a medical practice involved. And they're going to be like, okay, let's just bill the insurer. And guess what? The insurer paid for it. They billed the insurer. Something like 10,000 insurers said, Oh, we'll pay 5000 for this. And they paid it, the insurer paid it and the patient did not care because the patient's insurance paid for it. So the patient didn't have to pay anything for it. But when you look at the bill, it's like that simple test cost 5000 and that's why everything is so astronomical.

Naresh: So the advice I was getting from my family of doctors and engineers was, yeah, just charge as much money as possible. And so that's what I did when I got started. And it was great. As I said, the first year was great, but then I ran into some issues because some clients were like, You know, you're charging us a lot of money and we thought we were going to be getting the moon if we're paying this much money. And it started causing a lot of problems to the point that I even got into a lawsuit with a client who was like, We're not paying. And so that was a soul-searching experience when I got into that lawsuit because I realized that if I wanted to build a truly sustainable business, that would overcome any downturn, a COVID or recession, whatever it might be, I had to change my business strategy so that it would be high quality, low-cost provider.

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Naresh Vissa

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LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nareshvissa

Ep 441: The 4 Most Significant Pillars In Life with Naresh Vissa

Thu, 22 Sep 2022 10:00:13 +0000

Naresh: But if you are that 50-year-old person or the 40-year-old person, you're like, okay, well, I've got the kids, I've got family, and how do I do this? My situation is my own personal situation. Your situation is your own personal situation. Everyone's situation is unique. I think the key is you just have to make a schedule and you have to stay grounded there for it's like a four-legged stool that I focus on mental health, spiritual. Health, emotional. Health and physical health. And all four of these things I accomplish every day. So you might ask. Let me get into the nitty-gritty of what each of these means and how I do it. Well, mental health to me merely means exercising the brain. And I think just working. And I'm a writer. I'm the author of several books. I play chess. Those are great ways. I also do some word puzzles every morning when I wake up. So it's an excellent way to exercise the brain to stay sharp. That's mental health. And then you have emotional health. Emotional health. Basically, it means being around people or having people in your life who complement you and who don't cause problems, who don't put you down, and who is not a hindrance in your life. This was a harder thing to accomplish when I was younger because when you're younger, you're just at least in my situation, you're trying to find your group, you're trying to find who you are. Like, in my case, I moved to a different city where I didn't know anybody.

So sometimes you're just desperate to make friends or meet people. So when you're younger, that's a problem. But then as you get older, then you've got to deal with, let's just say, family issues, extended family issues, things like that, which can cause a damper on emotional health. The key to emotional health is, look, no matter how much it hurts the other person, you have to do what's best for you. So you want to be around people who complement you, who make you happy, and who don't bring you down because you're trying to accomplish a lot in life. So if you have to stop being friends with certain people, then so be it. Go ahead, stop being friends with certain people. If you have to fire a client or two because they're affecting your day-to-day business, fire that client no matter how much money they're paying you. So that's emotional health.

And spiritual health, which is merely just giving thanks, just being thankful every day. It's not necessarily being religious. I am religious, but you don't have to be religious. You don't have to believe in God. It's just the idea of waking up every morning, being thankful, going to sleep every night, being thankful for the day, and seeing what you've accomplished. And then finally, physical health. So physical health is just physical activity. I play tennis like I sprout up swimming, soccer, and basketball. I also go for walks, run when I'm not with my children, and do yoga. You want to try to do something physical every day. When you do all four of those things, you will see your life change and you will see your business improve. You'll see your productivity improve. It sounds like, oh, this sounds jam-packed like a packed schedule. You'll see that your schedule is going to free up more and you're just going to accomplish a lot more and feel better.

Sean: That is amazing. The full pack right there.

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Ep 440: What Led Yasi Zhang to Do Marketing For Blockchain Tech Startups?

Thu, 15 Sep 2022 10:00:10 +0000

Sean: How about your podcast? Can you tell us a little bit more about your podcast? So you started it during a time when you were in a transition in your life, I'd say a major transition because you finally decided that, okay, I probably don't need to work. What do I want to do? Right. And that's what you mentioned earlier. So why did you start that podcast? What's it for? What's your main purpose and who are going to be the people who should listen to your podcast?

Yasi: Yeah, as you said at that time, I was questioning myself, what would I do if money's not a problem? And I have all the time in the world, right? Actually, even years before, I wanted to start a YouTube channel, because when I was living, you know, Democratic Republic of Congo, Sweden, and Singapore, I find it so many different experiences. I want to record it but I will always be very camera shy. And it really took a lot of time to edit, so I never really get it started. And I'm an avid podcast listener, so I listen to a lot of podcasts. Then at that time, just what came to my mind is like, Yeah, why not start a podcast instead of a YouTube channel? I thought it was a great idea because looking back, you see a lot of things happening in my life not just one moment, like, Oh, let's do this. It's a lot of things that happened in the past. So the dots started to connect.

So in the past few years before COVID, I was traveling all around the world for different conferences. I met tons of people. I met hundreds of entrepreneurs, and I had great conversations with them, with them. I talked to them, I think, similar to how I interview people because I ask about their personal story, how they started with their business, you know, that I learned from them. So that's one thing. So I can do this. I feel comfortable. I enjoy doing this. And then secondly, I read a lot of personal development books in 2016 when I was working in Singapore, I worked in the other. The office is in a factory side, it's like almost close to Malaysia. So it took me one and a half hours every day on the road. So I was having my boss noise cancellation. I listen to audiobooks. I probably consume more than 100 books in that year. Then I thought I never had a mentor. Right? When you want to grow and learn something, you need to have a mentor in life. And it's not so easy for everyone to find a mentor in life because you need to have this vibe, and connection with them. But I learned so much from all the books and podcasts and I thought, okay, let me create this channel to extract all the knowledge and experience from my guests and then to help my audience so that they can learn from other people's experiences, even though they don't have a mentor or even though they don't know my guest in person, but they can learn from them.

So that's the starting point of how I design this podcast interview style and focus on the topics that I am interested in. Because I thought if I'm interested in career, entrepreneurship, and money, there must be tons of people out there like I would be interested in these topics. And my initial idea is really like I create something that I enjoy doing. Then I would attract the right audience that will think of the same thing that I do. So that's how I started this podcast this way and this format and this content.

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Ep 439: Yasi Zhang's Advice On Scaling A Small Business

Thu, 08 Sep 2022 10:00:16 +0000

Sean: What would be your advice on the other end of the spectrum for B2C businesses? So let's just say they're selling food-packed meals or they're selling novelty items, and gadgets. What would be your suggestion to them? There are two years old in the business. They have a team, they're making money, but they just want to make more money. They want to be dominating their industry. What digital marketing facet would you suggest to them?

Yasi: So I did a couple of training for startup incubators. I always come back to the first question who is your target audience and what is your VP? Because many people didn't nail these two down. And that's why when I start to run marketing activities, it's not effective. So what it means is that define clearly who is your typical target audience. And I understand it really, really, really well. So you know where to reach them and how to reach them and what kind of key message you're using to reach out to them. And second is to define a clear UVP - unique value proposition. A unique value proposition is beside your product. So your product is solving the problem is addressing the pain points, right? But why do they buy from you? How do you stand out from your competitors? What is there something additional that makes them stick? Make people want to buy from you and keep buying from you? So that's your UVP - unique value proposition. This is a hard exercise for most companies, they didn't spend time working on it so that when they reach out to their target audience, their message is the same as everybody else or their messaging is not really addressing the pain point that the target customer they usually have.

So going back to our YouTube videos - because in our YouTube videos, so you want to talk a lot about the promotion of this project and that project. What did they do? Well, that exactly provides a solution addressing the pain points of the audience, because the audience wants to know how to promote their project and they didn't know what to do. So our video addressed the pain point. And then she talked about a digital marketing agency in Switzerland in the crypto valley serving blockchain tech startups again. We are not a general digital marketing agency. We are only for blockchain tech startups. So then make them feel that we understand them better. So coming back to be to see I think B2C is easier to use marketing tools to reach to a wider audience. But the fundamental question is how the audience profile nearly down and your VP and then work it backward. Establish an effective marketing strategy and plan. When you execute your money spent on content creation, you manage to spend on designing. You manage your money spent on different things that generate the highest ROI for your business. So marketing is an investment, but you have to get the foundations right. Then you are. I will be high, then you will see the growth go.

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Ep 438: How Yasi Zhang Got Into Starting Her Own Marketing Agency

Thu, 01 Sep 2022 10:00:11 +0000

Sean: So I want to ask and you mentioned that you had a digital marketing agency in Singapore. Why did you choose digital marketing as your business and how did you start that?

Yasi: Yeah. So back then I started that company aside is more like a consulting, less digital marketing agency, as is what I'm doing now. Back then I had a full-time job and I have this other side because I told you, right? I always thought about, Oh, I want to try entrepreneurship, I want to just gain more experience. So I started taking one client at a side. And then there are people and my friends, you know, people refer to people. Then I work on a few other projects. That's why I founded the company back then in Singapore. Usually that's how I decide what to do I look at what I'm good at. Then I don't have to spend time picking up a new skill in what I'm good at because I'm already doing marketing for ten years. You know, back then, maybe not ten, five, six years, and this is what I know. And then brand building, this is what I'm good at. And then I don't need to invest in capital expenditure. That's why I use my personal time to exchange for rewards. So that's a natural conclusion.

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Ep 437: What Makes You Grow As an Entrepreneur

Thu, 25 Aug 2022 10:00:10 +0000

Sean: You mentioned personal development. What about personal development is so important in critical thinking and becoming a better entrepreneur?

Carol: Because we're born incomplete. You think about we're born physically incomplete. We're tiny little things and muscles don't work. We can't stand up, can't roll over. As we go along in life, we learn a lot about our physical being. We learn a lot about numbers and everybody knows all that. What we don't do in any country that's been Westernized, for sure now is work on how our mind works and how it gets in our way.

00:00:34

Carol: So I teach people a lot about - I'll give an example of what it looks like because we can't do anything right now because we can't think well and we get scared and we don't know how to manage it. So two things. For example, I teach people to be able to self-observe, and I said this in my books, there's tons of it in my books, especially the last couple. I say, learn to watch yourself. Are you based on what's happening with someone else being reactive, getting upset or afraid or protective or it is what? Don't try and do anything about it. Just start to notice when that happens. Or do you want to, while noticing your ego gets caught up and you either are losing confidence or being overconfident or trying to push people or be an influencer? Somehow it's all about you. Or are you purposeful? Are you able to see not your purpose, but their purpose and join with it? Join the client. If you want to be a great business owner that has a direct connection like B2C business to consumer, you've got to be able to read them, to understand them, if you want to help them. That's purposeful. If you become reactive when they start asking you questions about your charges and your problem with your app and you start pounding on the desk, even if it's only in your mind, you're not going to be a good business owner.

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Ep 436: How To Find The Right Entrepreneurial Community For You

Fri, 26 Aug 2022 08:59:08 +0000

Sean: You follow this idea and a lot of people are in that stage, Carol, more than you know, that they have an idea. They like this idea. They believe it will work. But some people were strong with wondering about these things and ideation and maybe even part of the execution in their heads. They hesitate and they think of all the wrong things that could happen. And then they think, "Oh, well, but I don't have the person with me to start." You had your husband who helped you to start this. What would be your advice for these people?

Carol: So my husband was probably the least helpful of all the people I put together. I mean, he had a full-time job and he did some of the codings, but he actually didn't believe in what I was doing. So there's an important lesson here. He was kind of doing it because I'm pushy. If you don't do things, I push, right? But what I think really mattered there is - partnering is core. Now, there's one thing I do with my modern-day entrepreneurs, because my second book was dedicated only to entrepreneurs who wanted to do a responsible kind of business, not family or lifestyle, but ecological or fair trade or people of color, something they want to do.

And

I said all of you will do better if you will find partners. Like in both cases,

I found a partner here, and finding a partner gives you someone to think with.

So I now pretty much quit doing this in the last year, but I have communities

that entrepreneurs join. They're all been online since COVID, right? And you

have other people to think with because the most important thing is to develop

your capacity to discern what's right. Because our problem is we don't trust

ourselves and we don't know how to think about it. So we want to coach or we

want to mentor or we want like - I didn't ask my husband for advice, not

because he was not a wonderful man, but because I needed to learn to trust me

and he wanted to invest it.

you're invested, gets a thinking partner and a group of thinking partners and

they can be physically where you are. Don't get coaches and mentors. I don't

recommend that. I get communities of other people who have different levels of

experience. Some of them they're called masterminds. But I haven't found one of

those I respect very much. It's more like finding a group of people who want to

start businesses of their own. And you know that if you're thinking with them

and them with you, you're going to have better thoughts. And then secondly, add

to that what I make sure all my entrepreneurs get is critical thinking skills

and personal self-management. Because what gets us in trouble, you were hinting

at it is my own internal dialogue; "Oh, no, what could go wrong? What if

this fails? Maybe I should just get a job and do this as a side hustle?"

Well, maybe that's true but the most important thing is to build the skill, to

sort through all that, and community and thinking partners are the way to do

it.

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Ep 435: From Humble Beginnings to Successful Entrepreneur

Thu, 11 Aug 2022 10:00:20 +0000

Sean: Now I want to hop a little bit forward. So you sold that business and what went through your mind? I mean, you have this pile of cash now and not sure where to go. How long did it take you for you to have - I don't know what you did right after. Did you go on a break vacation with your husband, with your family, or did you want to already look into what's next? What can we do next?

Carol: No, I didn't do anything for a while. I mean, I find that business ideas show up in my head and then I start figuring out whether they make sense or not. That second one came because I'd been sewing for my kids. I never known how to sew, but when I started having kids, I thought, I better learn how to sew because it's expensive to buy clothes. Right? And I remember going at the place it happened was I went into the Bitex, which is a huge fabric store in San Francisco, and was talking with several of the salespeople there and mentioned how I'd like to learn how to design my clothes. And I ended up getting a class, talk to a woman there. And slowly I began to build this idea that if I could make I had to make a pattern for myself. Other people must want to do that.

Carol: Bitex had this set up where you could become a member of countries internationally with cost you a couple hundred bucks and you could then buy the fabrics that the designer used for the pattern you were making. And I thought, Hmm, I should do this for more than me. And that's kind of how business ideas come to me, just like I didn't like being treated as a tenant, and certainly so I created business to take care of that. I didn't like the idea that I always had to take somebody else's design. I wanted to take my own. And then I created that business; before I ever sold it, I created into a community, a network of people. We ran fashion shows in big restaurants. People modeled the clothes they had made using my patterns and my fabric, which brought more people into my business. And by then, I was in graduate school and soon was teaching at a university.

Carol: And that one ended more because I'd figured out how to do it and I was a little bored. And that out of nowhere, well, the fact that I was doing a fashion show and working with Bitex, they talked to the Butterick distributor or whatever they are, who went back and talk to them about what I was doing. And that's how I got approached by them because I was very connected. And I'm always talking about what I'm doing, like you and I right? And I haven't actually talked to this story probably in 30 years, so it's such fun to remember it all. But that led to a door. So another lesson there is keep people informed. Don't worry about they're going to steal your idea. I watch a lot of entrepreneurs get worried. No, tell people what you're doing. Because if you're following something that's coming out of you, nobody can copy it. They may take an idea, but they'll never be able to do what you're doing.

Sean: Yeah. Yeah, for sure. 100%.

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Ep 434: What To Do With Your Money As a Gen-Z with Nicole Alba

Thu, 04 Aug 2022 10:00:14 +0000

Sean: And with that, I'm going to skip to this question. How much of my income should I be investing? Let's just say this person is making 20,000 - the average 20 or 25-year-old working in a 9 to 6 job, or 8 to 5 job.

Nicole: The answer is always 'it will depend.' Say like if you have 20,000 to invest, the answer will depend on your age and your circumstances. As someone who's 21 years old, I can afford to invest a lot more and also a lot riskier because I don't have any dependents. But if you're a lot older, let's say 30 years, 33-35. you probably have kids. You probably have people relying on you. So you can't afford to take as much risk as opposed to me. So the answer here is always like, how much should you be investing? First like, what are you trying to achieve with your investment? Why are you doing that? Are you trying to make your money grow? Capital appreciation? Are you trying to preserve the value because of inflation and then you kind of work towards it? Okay. I want to make my money grow. Okay. A follow-up question like should invest in crypto? Should I invest in mutual funds? Should I invest in this? Another question, like, okay, you can invest in multiple things. There are so many investment vehicles out there. But pick one that will help you achieve what you're trying to accomplish. Know your risk appetite, I think you can probably invest in crypto, but can you tolerate like when you wake up tomorrow morning, a 10% loss? Is that okay? If not, then probably something safer, less risky, less volatile. But how much of your money should you be investing? It will depend.

Sean: Depend. Yeah, for sure. For sure. I think when I was starting out, it was a lot riskier among the stocks that I was investing in, which were all blue chip. And then now I'm investing in crypto, which is super high risk. So it depends largely on where you are in life. I completely agree with what you said, Nicole. That was a very good answer.

Nicole: I think Golden Rule also is like before you invest now, there are things that you need to have before you start investing. If you don't have savings, you should probably not be investing at all. If you don't have an emergency fund, like things for like to help you keep you afloat, if something bad happens, you probably shouldn't be investing any of your income at all. But if you already have an emergency fund, then you can probably invest more, and take more risks. It really depends on where you are at, like how much you are willing to risk. With investments, a golden rule is, and what you can't afford to lose. It's always like that. There's a risk when it comes to investing.

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Ep 433: The Secret to Growing Your Business: Delegation with Nicole Alba

Thu, 28 Jul 2022 10:00:14 +0000

Nicole: I'm at that point that I'm scaling, but at this point, like I'm running my YouTube channel, right? It's pretty massive. And yeah, at this point, people usually hire out things, but it's hard to start delegating. Like, that's what I'm trying to learn right now, to start hiring, like outsourcing things, you know, like to delegate things, get people to help me, because it's hard to scale yourself, I mean, I've been doing everything myself, the YouTube, I research it, I make the script, I film it, I edit it, make the thumbnail, and post. And at the start that's okay, right? It's for fun. But right now I'm kind of reaching a point nowhere, "Oh, my God, it's me. Like choosing between do I write my academic paper or do I finish this deliverable, or like do this YouTube, like I'm at that point and a lot of these things can be solved if you just delegate. And just like you said, the things you should know as an entrepreneur is that you can't do everything by yourself, especially when you're working on something that you want to scale. Yeah, I'm just at this point, I'm having so much difficulty with how do I even start hiring out? What do I need to outsource?

Sean: Right now you're not yet outsourcing anything?

Nicole: So everything is still by myself. That's why like I think your assistant emailed me a while ago. It's me answering my emails. It's me communicating with brands. Everything is me. Yeah just like for the receipts, I manually write it because at the start I really wanted to learn all of this. How does it happen? Because like I was just scared that I hire someone right now, but I will never learn it for myself. But I think I'm at the point where I know what to do. I should probably hire someone now.

Sean: Yeah. Yeah. So completely agree at the get-go. I also did all of those things myself so I learned it. That's actually the very smart thing to do. And then the first jobs that I delegated out when I was starting out are the jobs that for me are the easiest for other people to learn and the easiest for me to let go of.

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Ep 432: Should Parents Teach Their Kids About Money? with Nicole Alba

Thu, 21 Jul 2022 10:00:13 +0000

Sean: There's a question, did your family instill this financial literacy at home, or was it something you discovered with peers or at school? I always thought that financial literacy really begins at home.

Nicole: Great question. I think for us we're Filipino-Chinese right? I don't know if I can speak for you. But I think at home we've always been told and emphasized on the importance of money, you know, like don't buy this and that. I think that's the sense of like financial literacy that I have at home. That it's important to save stores. Don't buy something if it's a waste. Those things are the typical things that have been drilled into me. But if we talk about all those investments, I think that's the extent of my personal finance education here at home. So like being mindful about where you put your money and not just spending it all, blowing it all, and how important it is. But when it comes to all of the things that I talk about now in my channel, I would say that a lot of it I learned on my own by just looking at articles, and watching videos. I actually got interested in personal finance around high school because I kind of felt like a crisis and I don't know what course I'm going to take, but one thing I know for sure is I don't want money to be a problem. Yeah, typically people have money problems if they don't have enough of it. I would say that's mostly what people struggle with.

So I've said that no matter what I choose to do in the future, I hopefully am not going to worry about money. And I just started, I googled 'how to earn money as a student', like 'how to earn money like this and that.' And typically you start encountering resources that say 'you can freelance, you can do this.' 'This is about investments.' It's like that rabbit hole of learning that I was having when I was in high school or after I graduated. And that's like the financial literacy I taught myself. And yeah, financial literacy definitely begins at home, but I don't think everyone has that luxury of parents teaching them how to manage their money or maybe even at school. People would argue that it should be part of our curriculum, but right now it's not. I didn't learn these things at school. It would be nice if it were part of the curriculum, but for me, I had to educate myself. And I think that goes for the majority of Filipinos, and people around the world, are educating themselves about personal finance.

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Ep 431: How Nicole Alba's Love For Personal Finance Started

Thu, 14 Jul 2022 10:00:17 +0000

Sean: So yeah, the next question would be, how do I start managing my money better? I think this might be from coming from the context that she's having some difficulty managing money right now.

Nicole: Oh, this is like hot fire personal finance question. I would always say that with anything that you do, it's always important to know the reason why you're doing it. I think this is a broad question. A lot of people have difficulty managing money. For me, it's easy because I find it fun. I think it's just something that I have fun with, but I know for most people, it's something that they really struggle with. And we all know it's important to manage your money. It's important to be responsible with it - to you can do with money, all those things. We don't need any more people telling us that it's important. We know that. But a lot of us have difficulty controlling our impulses, probably maybe finding ways to earn money, for example. But at least I would say like, how do you start managing your money better? For one is first to figure out why you're doing it in the first place. Maybe you're not managing as well because you think you're impulse spending a lot and you're not. You can't control it. Like you're not very responsible with your money. Try to dig deep at that, why is that the case? Why do you think that you're not managing your money well? Is it because you're probably spending too much? Is it because you think that you're not investing enough? I think that's how it's always how I would start with things. And when people ask me certain questions like this, you should know why are you doing it? Like, why is this a problem for you?

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Ep 430: Vince Shorb: Lessons Learned As a Successful Financial Coach

Thu, 07 Jul 2022 10:00:09 +0000

Sean: And so Vince, I'm wondering during that time when things went bust and you were you couldn't sleep well at night, as you mentioned earlier, how did you get through it? What were the things that you really try to think about that gave you peace or gave you a hope that I could face tomorrow?

Vince: Yeah. There's two challenging times in my life. That first one was in college, and I would say that was a sleepless nights. Worry, concern, really just focus on studying, learning. At that time, it was libraries and Barnes and Noble here. That's where you picked up information. The Internet wasn't out there, but nowadays it's amazing. But during that time, I just focused on learning, grabbed as much material as I could. When we first started, this company originally was right around about two, three years earlier in 2006. But in 2008, 2009, we had a major economic slowdown. We had an event with a lot of sponsors. We did these higher profile celebrity events, a 1000 person shows with celebrities. We had all these sponsors lined up, right. I had a whole concert venue, all these people. And the sponsorship got cut by like ten fold.

I funded it myself just because I made promises and there were things that I personally was just couldn't let that happen. There's too much that went into it. And then it was just that kind of set us back for a little bit. But at that time, I slept like a baby, you know? And it wasn't because of anything. I just felt more confident. I knew the risk, right? I knew what I was getting into. I had plans after plans, I'm big into if this happens, I have five, six plans there. Even as we were getting down to the fourth or fifth plan, I still step like baby. I think it was mainly because I felt more confident in what I was doing. I always kept my overhead very, very low and I don't need anything fancy. Right? I still buy used cars. I don't need anything that's not important to me. So it's a little easier for somebody like me. But yeah, I'd say a big difference between time one, I didn't have the knowledge, didn't have the confidence, didn't have the plan. The second time that was challenging, it was more, 'hey, I had the plan, I had the confidence, and I was okay navigating and again, I slept good every night.

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Ep 429: Vince Shorb's Process On Financial Coaching

Fri, 01 Jul 2022 10:00:14 +0000

Sean: Vince, I noticed that one of the first things that you actually gave advice for is are you going to be able to sleep well at night when you take on this loan? And I wonder right now, I'm just curious how many people actually say, no, I can't. I don't think I could. And how many people say, 'yeah, you know, I sleep well at nigh. No problem.'

Vince: Yeah. You know, on the personal finance side, a lot of people are worried, scared, concerned right now. You know, I'm in the States. I know this is a global thing, too. We work all around the world and there is concern with people and it's scary, you know, having inflation here, the average home pays about 3 to $500 more a month. So that can hit somebody very, very hard. And these people that have these visions for putting away money and they're starting to just make progress, they feel like they sunk back down underwater. So I know a lot of people are having sleepless nights as of right now. You know, we try to encourage that proactive approach. Right. If you feel worried, if you feel concerned now, I felt that way before, too, you know, is my car going to start? Will I have enough to pay rent? Do I have that set aside? I have those concerns, but I think I utilize that as a motivator. I didn't want to feel that way again. So if you are feeling that way now, we can either earn more cut down expenses. Those are pretty much the two ways. But if you're still feeling that, hey, let this be a motivator to gain skills so you can boost up that income, start that side business, you know, finding other solutions to get that up or, hey, cutting that expenses. So let this be a motivator for improving your personal finances or your business finances, whatever the case may be.

Sean: And I notice that you ask the question during the role play that do you have a split between your business account and your personal account? Like how many people actually don't have that? And why is it so important to split that?

Vince: Yeah, we see that a lot. So our financial coaches see that quite a bit out there in the space. So especially with the newer, upcoming startups, right? So there have a business in their drawing off that without a set 'Hey, if you're doing a $4000 a month draw or whatever, that's one thing. But if you're doing half, $4000 a month and oh yeah, I'm short on my car payment or I need money for health insurance this month.' We have a problem on your personal side that can impact not only, again, you and your employees, and your clients. So we really need to stem that tide. I think at least here we see that quite a bit where there's that intermingling. And commonly when we work with small business owners or the financial coaches do, they'll try to figure out what they have in their accounts, how much do they get paid? And they'll look deeper into their finances. They say, 'oh, what's this 3000 transfer from your business account for?' 'Oh, we went on vacation.' 'Okay. Is that a business expense or is that a person?' 'Okay.' So they'll see a lot of this and people don't really understand how much that adds up until again that numbers are in front of them. 'Hey, you pulled over 30,000 from your business to your personal thing for this.' And then this kind of again, that aha moment when they see it in black and white in front of them.

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Ep 428: How Vince Shorb Shifted From Being In to Being On the Business

Thu, 30 Jun 2022 10:00:13 +0000

Sean: And Vince, now that you're into personal finance, I wonder, can we do a little role play? A little role play just for fun. So let's just say I'm a business owner and I'm new. I'm a new business owner. I've been doing this for like a year. I've had some success. And now I'm thinking, Hey. I think I need to take out a $500,000 loan because I want to expand my manufacturing plant and I manufacture pots and pans for for cooking. Right. And I need to hire more people. Got to invest in new machinery from China. I've got to ship it all the way here. What do you think about that?

Vince: Yeah, I think every business is different, right? It's all about risk, right? Or I might be more risk adverse. Somebody else might be, 'hey, let's go for it. We'll roll the dice and maybe they win. Maybe I win.' It doesn't matter, but it comes down to somebody's risk. So the first thing I talk to people is if you do this, Sean, can you sleep at night?

Sean: It's going to be pretty hard because the interest rate is at 7% here in the Philippines. And I got to pay that. You know, I got to cut down on some things that I spend on my lifestyle right now. And I've got to live more frugally for sure. Not sure if I could stick with that. But, you know, I try my best to sleep well at night.

Vince: And are there things you could do, people you could talk to, conversation you can have that can make you more certain of that potential? We're never going to 100%. But are there people that that you can chat with about that maybe it's a current client where you can get a preorder or something like that, would make that more of a idea based on facts instead of your hope for the future.

First place I'll start to say, talk to those people and see, and I want to make sure you're making the right decision for yourself. There's no right or wrong answer to say what's going to make sense for you. If we can figure out, 'Hey, when that returns come in,' if you can sleep at night with taking on that debt. The other area that's I think, a big area for you and a lot of business owners is intermingling their personal finances into their business. Do you have very accurate business finances that are separate from your personal finances or are you drawing off that business account? What does that look like for you?

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Ep 427: The Cost of Keeping Up With The Joneses

Wed, 29 Jun 2022 10:00:16 +0000

Sean: What is it about these people? You mentioned that five, six months later, that's not a long time and they get themselves headfirst into debt again. It is such a horrible thing. I cannot stress enough being a Filipino-Chinese and being super conservative about money - to get into debt. In fact, the first time that I thought I needed to go into debt in business, I was so stressed out. I know that it's something I should never get into, but what is it about these people that they're used to it as if they need it?

Vince: Yeah, I think there's been a normalization of debt and really this starts at a young age, right? So when you're young, first, you have advertisers telling you to buy. If you don't buy, you're not cool, you're not worthy, low self-esteem. We have influencers now, the traditional Kardashians, and things that are showing this high lifestyle. So people are trying to live up to that. But also you have the micro-influencers like those YouTube unboxing videos where these kids are watching these new toys and showing what they got. And then their peers go out and have the stuff so they feel down, and they bug their parents and sometimes the parents will cave in. So it's reinforcing some of these bad habits.

So I think a lot of the reasons people are in certain financial situations is because they bought into this glamorous lifestyle. If you don't have good parents like you had, the parents that raised you with a very frugal living, and if you don't have that to counter all these messages to buy, buy, buy, otherwise you're not worthy. You don't look cool, you're not successful. Especially in the businesses too. I see this a lot with businesses. They just want to get all the new cars and things to show their success in business rather than building that foundation. So. I think it stems from childhood and once habits form, they're very hard to change.

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Does Your Business Need Digital Marketing?

Tue, 28 Jun 2022 10:00:10 +0000

Sean: But what about these SMEs, small to medium business owners? Maybe small business owners are mostly our listeners. What do you advise? Where do they start? They start with paid ads. Do they start with Facebook? Do they start with Instagram or a website?

Farzad: There is a process I always recommend folks because I get a lot of people asking, Hey, that's worth my time for any business. It doesn't matter what you do, whether you sell t-shirts or you sell a software product or you are an SEO agency, doesn't matter. Whatever you do, put yourself in the shoes of your ideal customer. Like, Who do I sell to? Here's my ideal customer as a person X, Y, or Z, and answer three questions. Question number one, is that person aware of the problem that you're solving? Are they actively looking for a solution to their problem? If the answer is yes, then take it a step forward. Like, okay, well, they're aware of their problem where they're looking for a solution. If the answer to that is they're googling about it, then it's almost idiotic not to focus on SEO because that's where your customers are hanging out.

Now, let's imagine that you have a t-shirt company, you sell hoodies and t-shirts. Do people want t-shirts? Do that. Are they aware of the problem? Yes. We all wear t-shirts. Are they Googling about it? Most likely not. Right. So for a lifestyle company, like a t-shirt company, your best bet is probably Instagram or Facebook ads, and TV ads and whatnot. Now let's flip the script. Let's say you run a medical device company and sell very expensive hospital equipment worth hundreds of thousands of dollars. So is your target audience aware of the problem-solving? Probably not, because they're running their business as they would. And you built a better mousetrap. So they don't even know that they would probably need a product like you.

So you even want to stop the research process there and SEO just rolls it out, paid out. Just rule it out. Go ahead, hire salespeople, go the door to door to your hospitals, and start selling this thing to doctors and hospital administration. What I'm saying is there's a very simple check-in understanding of what your customer journey looks like and building your acquisition channel based on and parallel to that. So for us, for example, if you want a link-building solution, as an SEO agency, you're our target customer. Sean are you aware that you have a problem with your link building? Yes. We all need to do link building. We need to set up tools. Are you Googling about it? Yeah, probably. You're Googling about it to find out. What are some of the latest tools in the market? Now let's understand what are you Googling and go cater to that search. So if you go and look up link-building software now Respona should be in the top three. So what I'm trying to say is that it's a very simple process. So if you're new to digital marketing, it doesn't mean either one of these channels works better than another. It's entirely reliant on your business model and your acquisition strategy.

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How Respona Exceptionally Grew Its Organic Traffic

Fri, 24 Jun 2022 10:00:08 +0000

Sean: But that conservative mindset and the question is like, how powerful has your marketing guy been? Because you mentioned that you put screenshots step by step, people and competitors might just download them and copy them. Yeah. What's the trade-off and how is it been? Is it worth doing that, worth exposing how you did it, versus your competitors being able to copy what you did?

Farzad: Yep, it's fine. You mentioned us, Sean, because we have lots of Visme competitors and funny enough, some Respona competitors, direct competitors using Respona for their own outreach. And to be honest with you, I feel flattered when a competing product doesn't use their own product, and comes and uses our product to do outreach. But personally, all we've seen has been growth. We've never had anything backfire. We are very liberal when it comes to the amount of information we share. I do. I love sharing just free information. If somebody emails me with any sort of question, doesn't matter who they are, I normally tend to respond as much as they can. And you know, if you look at the growth rate of our companies, obviously we have lots of competitors. We have a ton of people who are a lot smarter than us. And we love that.

I mean, we welcome healthy competition because it also makes us more creative and figures out ways how we can improve our products and offer better services. And that's the beauty of capitalism, is that competition sparks innovation. So we have no problems with it. And customers that we have are with us because we have the best product. It's not because we are sneaky with our tactics to capture them. You know, you still have to consider that you're selling to human beings. They are not just lead or prospects per se or email addresses. They're humans. And humans purchase things and take action based on their instincts, based on their level of trust. And we're more than happy to share all of that stuff publicly. It's not a problem with us.

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Ep 424: How The Respona Startup Began

Thu, 23 Jun 2022 10:00:09 +0000

Sean: Do you lead by position, by persuasion, by your productivity, by what you've been able to do before, and how were you able to influence them to say, "Hey, this is a new idea of mine, super risky, but it's worth it and you should invest."

Farzad: Yeah. So one thing, Sean, that I always prided myself in is my work ethic. And when I joined the company, Visme was the first company I had joined and still was involved in. I still I'm involved with them up to this day. So I'm a person who worked their tail off and that's something that's quite apparent. And when I tell them I'm going to do something gets done. So over the course of years of working with the team and kind of put that customer acquisition strategy in place, obviously Visme has got a very smart team. I'm just a small part. I can't take credit for their success. These guys are doing phenomenally well and I was very lucky and honored to really be part of it.

But obviously when you work with someone long-term, you kind of get a sense of, okay, what these guys are playing or they actually mean what they say. So when I presented the idea to the founder of Visme - Payman, who is my co-founder around the response side, obviously there was some hesitation and I'm like, I don't know what this is going to help us, but in the end of the day, it was something that was going to help Visme move forward faster, like, "Hey, we're going to build this as a side project for ourselves." And it was sort of gradual over time, that proposition wasn't like, Hey, I have a new software idea, let's invest in it. It wasn't like that. It was more so, as I said, an internal tool that we would decide to build first. And then we were like, okay, well, you know, we already have the infrastructure. Let's put a login page on it and see if other people are going to be able to use it as well.

And so that sort of gradually turned into a business where it was quite clear for us, okay, there is some sign of life there. There is a proof of concept. We already have a bunch of paying customers, so now it makes more sense to start investing more resources. Considering that Visme is still up to today is a bootstrap company. So every dollar we put in is our own money. It's not just some investors' cash. So we had to be very mindful and be pretty scrappy.

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Ep 423: How Wouter Debaere Check Someone's Reliability at Work

Wed, 22 Jun 2022 10:00:14 +0000

Sean: We go through all of these checks and I'm wondering, what are some checks that you have in place if you do have them, to make sure that people you have in the team are at the least bit have a standard level of reliability, and then that is where you measure them to what your actual idea of reliability is. So to give a more concrete example for that question a lot of companies might include it. We have time trackers installed. I use Hubstaff for my team. This is to know who's going to be the terrorist here, right? Who's going to just waste time, get paid, and not really do their part in work. Do you have those systems in place and how do you check if someone's reliable or not?

Wouter: Look, a couple of things to comment on that. So one is you never really know upfront. It doesn't matter. Look, let me go back to your question from Mangtas Internal, but let's talk a little bit about our marketplace. What we deliver to our clients is reliability. The problem that they face today is if I need to find a business partner, a vendor, or an outsourcing partner on the other side of the world through Google, how do I trust that company? Of course, they're good at selling themselves, but how do I trust it? We solve that problem for our clients and we do that by a 13-step process and this and that and you know, nine out of ten times that works. But sometimes it still doesn't. Right. And then the proof is really in the pudding.

Then it's really about giving people trial time and then making sure that you have a process that now you're on the job and having a system on that as well. Now that translates to us internally. We cannot deliver reliability without being reliable ourselves, and that's why we developed it down. We had all these different rules and no, no, no, very simple, but given me, I created a code of conduct. If you ask me, you know, off the top of my head, I would always miss a couple, right? No, no, no. Let's keep it very simple. Very simple. People do need to remember one thing. Am I reliable, reliable, and reliable?

So in our hiring practices to begin with, depending on the role, obviously, it depends a little bit like do we look for referrals and we but ultimately we have conversations with them. We check, you know, the backgrounds and all that. That's one thing. There's a minimum there. But I think where we really, and what I really emphasize and what's really important to me is ultimately we give people chances. There are some minimum checks we do, but I don't want also prejudice too much. Like if you hit the minimum criteria, give us a go. Come work with us for a month and let's see how that goes. But let's be very, very clear. Your trial period ends within a month, and we're going to judge you on one thing only, which is reliability. And you know, black and white. We can stay friends this and that, but there are very clear objectives here. So I don't believe in time tracking. I don't care if you work one hour or 100 hours. It doesn't matter to me if you get the job done with the right quality, based on how you committed it, you're reliable. That's great. That means you're consistently delivering according to what you're supposed to create. You fit in perfectly. And that's why I'm saying the team evolves and changes. It's because we also give chances to a lot of people and ultimately assess them very clearly. We're very upfront about this. We are very decisive in moving forward, like the moment we see the great potential. We can invest a lot of time in that person and is proven to be reliable. Let's go. When the answer is no, we don't waste time, we move on.

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Ep 422: Leading a Remote Multinational Team with Mangtas' CEO Wouter Debaere

Tue, 21 Jun 2022 10:00:36 +0000

Sean: And now I'm wondering, what am I missing when it comes to your leadership? How do you lead all the way from Singapore? You're leading a multinational team from different places, mostly from the Philippines, but from different places. How do people see you as a leader? How do you build on that?

Wouter: That's a very difficult question to answer because that's going to evolve throughout, right? I've led teams for a long time. I'm sure my style has changed quite a bit over time. Also, I feel a little bit uncomfortable, you know, kind of talking about my own style and, you know, let me just give it a go without trying to be too pretentious, maybe a couple of things that matter to me.

I do believe a lot and lead by example, I do think that what I don't like in people is when they boss people around. I don't believe in that whatsoever. I don't believe in massive structures in companies. I like people that just work together. I've always been part of a football team, for instance. Right. And I was a captain of the team. But that doesn't mean people report to me necessarily. That just means like, you know, they probably listen to you a bit more and you have to earn that right to be listened to. You still have to sell, right? People forget this. I have a very different view on sales for instance, like, am I into sales? 100%. I'm selling every day. I'm selling to my co-founder new ideas that I need to align with. I don't believe in basically telling people what to do. I want them to buy into it because then they're all in, right? You listen to people's ideas and make sure you consider everyone, give everybody a chance to speak just to staff in general, to clients, to vendors. You're always selling. And I think that's an important part. I think people forget that buy-in is very crucial. That's one thing I believe in, at least.

As I said, there's a cultural component to it that matters to me. But I think also one thing is fairness is important. Like, you know, it's not my way or the highway. You know, let everyone have a chance to prove themselves and convince me of doing anything else, right? But backed up with data, I will trust my gut more than yours unless you back it up. That's something I always tell people, right? Why would I trust your opinion more than mine if it we're both an opinion, but come with a convincing argument, I will listen for sure. But don't debate with me on whatever its feelings. Right. So, I'm quite black and white, so yeah, I don't look - I am very unstructured on my answer, I'm just showing things that come to mind because I don't really - I kind of go with the flow a little bit.

One thing I also realized I would say is, that you have to adjust your style to the people that you have. Don't think that you can be a person and follow a certain method and rules and expect everyone to just accept it. And that would just work for everyone. You have to say things differently to different people. You have to understand how people think and then make sure you do things the right way to achieve your ultimate objectives. And that just takes time a little bit. You'll mature and you'll also build more chemistry with people, and you'll adapt to that.

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Ep 421: How Mangtas is Building a Strong Remote Work Culture

Fri, 17 Jun 2022 10:00:13 +0000

Sean: So this is one of the mind-boggling trajectories of the job market day, where a lot of people want to work from home, and want maximum flexibility, as you mentioned. But the question is, how are you building a strong team culture? What do you do that is different from what our other companies are doing who are struggling to keep their talents right now?

Wouter: It's very funny because even before the pandemic, in my past job, I was a bit controversial because back then again, before the whole pandemic, I allowed my team anywhere in the world to work as much or as little as they want from wherever they wanted. They had no obligations to come into an office. It's up to them as long as they got the job done. I always believed in that and that has really translated well into today's world because people who taught 9 to 5 come physically to the office, blah, blah, blah, forcing people to do these things, and waste time traveling. All that stuff right? Now are struggling to keep their talents, like you mentioned, because actually people like the efficiency of working from home.

Obviously it's nice to come to an office, but deciding when to do that versus deciding when to stay home, and having that flexibility is what people really, really value today. So luckily I came into this business with that mindset already. So there was absolutely zero adjustments required with or without the pandemic. It would have been my approach anyway. I guess now it's just nice for us because a lot of businesses who are not responding to this make very good talent available to us to pick up. But you had a couple of really good questions. At one point you made was culture, right? And I think culture is very complex, but I think it all starts from the top. It starts with the founders and the executives of the company and how you lead by example. But also it also really depends on how you define yourself as a company and what identity you give yourself, right? So we really spend a lot of time and it took us about a year to really nail down what matters to us the most. And we took a step back and we realized, like, look, if we are going out and talking to people, is it to our own employees, being into our clients, being it to our vendors, being it to shareholders, partners, whatever, you have a very limited opportunity to leave behind an impression. What is that impression? What is the DNA we want to bring forward? And we really spent some time and we nailed it down like we know exactly what we want. It's reliability. It's what we deliver to our clients, and what we deliver to our vendors. It's what we demand from our staff and from us as a company. And that's how we hire, that's how we fire, that's how we instill our operating models. It's all boiling down to something extremely simple. We initially had a whole code of conduct where everybody had to align to processes. All that because I really wanted culture to be central to what we do, but we nailed it down to something extremely fundamental, extremely simple.

And we ask ourselves one very simple question Is that person reliable? Has that person proven to be reliable? And that's the main criteria for us to judge whether it's going to be a good cultural fit or not. There's obviously a little bit more to it, but the rest is extra

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Ep 420: How Woulter Delbaere Started Mangtas

Thu, 16 Jun 2022 10:00:17 +0000

Sean: And what I love about that story out there is you were actually trying to build something else and you found some problems along the way, some roadblocks, and you just tried solving it yourself and this is where you wound up. And how is it doing now? How many people are on your team? How many customers have signed up?

Walter: Yeah, I'm happy to talk a little bit about that. But back to your original point first, it is very, very important to know when to pivot to also continuously find you. Right. We really have this philosophy of really going extremely quick, failing quick, learning quickly, and adapting extremely quickly. And really, we don't claim to know everything to the contrary, but we do learn very quickly and that's really our philosophy. And just going back to what I always say, like if we took that - say, six, seven, eight months to build the product, the platform that we envisioned at the very beginning, it would have been beautiful. It would have had all bells and whistles, but it would not have been fit for purpose because we didn't get that immediate. So we were crappy, scrappy, very early on, very uncomfortable. What we threw out there was embarrassing. But that wasn't the point of it. It was about traction learning, getting feedback, and just evolving from there. So we became mature quite quickly. Right. But anyway, let me get back to your question. So so that leads into my end to the second part of your question, to be honest, which is we have a marketplace live, right? And in all honesty, people tell me, yeah, what's the status of it? It's life. But it was life, like I said earlier, in ten days. Right. It is still life. It's just improved. It's better. It's definitely at MVP level four for what we need it for and beyond. Like it's fine-tuned for scale. It's fine-tuned for different devices. It works properly and it's self-service, so it's fit for the purpose that way.

We have now over 800 vendors on our marketplace. We have also decided to really focus on a specific type of service which is really in the tech space. So we initially started very broad where we had digital marketing, we had business development, we had software development and say, let's do outsourcing holistically, B2B, so we can be that single solution for anyone that wants to outsource. We could upsell that way, which was great. But what we also found is we took things to superficial, to high level. A critical part of what we do is vetting, which is also going to be part of my answer, which is we vet not only the businesses that provide the service to a very high level. Right. And make sure we guarantee once we put yourself stamp of approval that you're dealing with a legitimate business.

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Ep 419: How CEO and Founder Rob Rawson Started His TimeDoctor Startup

Wed, 15 Jun 2022 10:00:15 +0000

Sean: With your 130 employees. You've got leaders there, some senior, some associates. I wonder, how do you try to make sure that they're growing, that they're learning new things, or for your leaders at least, how are you encouraging them to grow in their leadership? Read some leadership books, listen to these podcasts, or get some mentors to help them out.

Rob: Yeah, that's a really good point. There is a book that I've been sending to some of the leaders, which is called How to Be a Great Manager. Very simple title, and it's part of a system called EOS, which is 'entrepreneurs operating system.' And so we're using that in our business, and that's like a system or a structure for your business. It's like an operating manual because what happens is you just run your business anyway or anyhow, there's no set way of doing things. Then that lack of structure is not very effective. So this EOS provides that structure and it provides like a meeting structure, like how should you run meetings? It provides a structure for how you're setting goals, how you sitting these when they call them rock tasks, but they're basically goals that you're setting for the year, for the quarter. You're doing this in a specific way and then you're training your team on how to do that as well. So you implement that same structure throughout the company and that becomes a very powerful way to run your business. So that works for any kind of business as well, not just tech businesses.

Sean: Got it. And is this a resource that people could get online?

Rob: Yeah, you can actually research EOS. It's something you don't necessarily need to pay for. You can just get one of the books and do it. They also have facilitators who help you out to implement it for yourself, but it's something you can just read about and do yourself. It's not that complicated, but it's having a way of doing things that's important, right? And then training your team in and what is the way that we do things and then having a certain structure around your company, like meeting rhythm is really important, having certain types of meetings that you do regularly and how are those meetings run? How do you make them efficient? That's really powerful. And then how do you delegate the responsibility in your company? Who's accountable for each area? That's part of this structure is having not just an org chart where you see like a traditional chart, but it actually shows you each person as they're accountable for what are they doing and making sure that each area of the company is handled by someone.

Sean: How well were you influenced by this book? How much of it did you adopt Time Doctor, and how you're leading and managing the company?

Rob: I'd say we're probably at about 70%, 60%, 70% adopting what they're doing, or I'd like to do it a bit more. I'd like to get it more deeply implemented in the company.

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Ep 418: How To Be More Engaged as an Introvert Leader

Tue, 14 Jun 2022 10:00:21 +0000

Sean: Now I'm wondering when some of your people that you hired and you're paying for told you that - "Hey, Rob, you got to step up. You've got to have more presence in the team. They've got a feeling more as a leader." How did you respond to that and how have you evolved yourself? You said that you had to be more open to that. What happened then?

Rob: Well, I believe just in general, in being open and being able to say how you're feeling to other people in the team, they can be giving you direct feedback. So that is part of leadership too, is being able to get feedback from people and even being heard, it's just you listening to them is very powerful and not reacting and saying, "no, I'm not like that" or dismissing what they say, but just listening, that's very powerful. Because now they feel like they're heard and you're going to try and do something and that's a really positive thing. So I just tried to take it on and it is difficult, honestly, because I'm not always sure what I should be doing. And so it's not always just because I've built this company and the owner of the company, it doesn't make it that I automatically know how to lead a team. Right. And there are different leadership skills that are required the bigger the company gets. So I can imagine leading a 100,000-person company like Apple or something like that would be really challenging. And it's on another skill level that I haven't personally experienced yet. And so it's just a lot to learn and trying to feel like I can learn, I can grow, not trying to feel like I'm just - I know what I know or to feel arrogant that I know everything as well. Just to feel like there is things that I should learn and grow and improve on.

Sean: That's very interesting because even if you're not leading 100,000 people like Apple, you're leading 130 people spread across the world. And one of the things that I personally find difficult to see during the two years 2020, and 2021, is the pandemic. SEO hacker worked fully remote to try and prevent anyone from our team from getting or contracting COVID. And what I realized was the culture that we had when we were meeting here in the office, it's very, very different. And the bond between team members was not as strong as when we were face to face. And as a leader, I find it more difficult because here in the office I'd walk around and see people and I tapped in the back and say, "How are you? How is your family?" But when you're working remotely, and especially for introverts like us who like to work on our own projects, and keep our heads low, I am unable to largely put any attention to that. I'm just working on my own stuff and I wasn't really leading in a way where people felt my presence and I find that the culture severely changed in a way.

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Ep 417: How To Lead a Remote Team

Fri, 10 Jun 2022 10:00:18 +0000

Sean: I want to get some pointers from you with as much as you could recall, and I'm going to rewind it a little bit because I want to know when you tried it out and not a lot of companies, not a lot of people were trying out remote work way back then. You're way ahead of your time. How did you adjust your leadership? And we always say that you got to they've got to feel your presence. You've got to be in office. You've got to show them that you're there. Your hands on you lead by example. How did your leadership transition from being there in the office, them seeing you physically face to face, you're talking with them to now being fully remote? And I guess this question is relevant up to today because a lot of leaders are still trying to struggle, go through the haystack, trying to figure out how am I going to adapt my leadership now with my team.

Rob: Yeah, actually, to be honest, for quite a while, I don't think I've focused on leadership. I don't think I've focused on how do I inspire my team. And it's only more recently that I realized that this is really the key thing that I need to do because we have a bigger company, we have 130 people. And my influence now is really how do I inspire people? How do I make this a mission for everyone? How do I get everyone connected to the direction that we're going? This is a critical thing. So in the beginning when we were small, I wasn't really doing it. I was basically probably a bit more hands-on manager just saying, okay, let's do this, let's do this. I wasn't really inspiring. I wasn't really leading as much. And now I've also got some very senior people around the world, and those senior people demand me to be leaders, to be a leader, because they are basically telling me, well, you need to be more inspiring. You need to be leading from the front and really be that leader. And so that's opened my mind up to it. It's challenging sometimes if you're more introverted, right? I think a lot of people think leaders should be this really like rah, rah, rah, rah, let's go, let's go, let's go. And I think that's okay. That's kind of fun in a way, and it's great if leaders can do that. But I know that there are a lot of introverted leaders, too, and I think they're good. Like they're very effective. And that's that kind of servant leadership where you're making sure that your team comes first, like, how can I serve you? How can I make sure that you're happy and being sometimes the rah-rah-rah leaders, it could be a negative if you're just always in the spotlight and you're not highlighting your team. So I'm now trying to lift up my team, trying to highlight them, trying to be more in the background rather than just saying what people should do or trying to try to inspire more. And another aspect honestly about leadership is you have to have the right people on your team in the first place, the people that are self-motivated. Because if you're trying to lead people that are not necessarily motivated or want to be there, it doesn't work as well.

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Ep 416: Digging Into Transformational Discomfort

Thu, 09 Jun 2022 10:00:10 +0000

Sean: So how do you expect them to give you the best ideas without the entire context of the situation? Because there's going to be some stupid ideas being thrown around for sure. And that's okay because those are still ideas. But how do you now expect that you're going to get some good ideas and it's not going to be a waste of time that you're all there thinking about these things?

Michael: Leaders have to decide what the purpose of this is. If it's to get A-plus ideas from everybody, that's probably not going to happen. If you're also simultaneously trying to build a culture, where folks feel empowered to share what they believe and folks are, to use your kind of ask from earlier paraphrasing, folks are taking the initiative to create their own goals for the year and they're looking at their work from that lens. You should be prepared for some of the ideas to not be good. You should normalize that.

Some of the ideas aren't going to be good, and that's okay. You can actually model for them what it looks like to have some really bad ideas and just make up some nonsense stuff and have them give you feedback on it. I once did a scene where I said, 'Hey, I think all of our consultants should be on roller skates so that we are faster when we're working with our partner organization. I want you all to tell me all the ways that you think that idea is terrible.' And they did. And of course, it is a terrible idea, but I don't know that those two things coexist. Sean, I think you as a leader and other folks listening has to decide what's the purpose of this? Is it to get A-plus ideas? That's not going to happen with folks for whom this is not already informed, part of a practice, part of their everyday if it's around, hey, I'm trying to empower folks to make decisions here and to be leaders when I'm not around and I'm not telling them left foot, right foot, left foot, right foot. Then expect bad ideas, and normalize bad ideas. Make sure that your culture is a culture where bad ideas are okay and that we give each other feedback and we name really clearly without people's feelings or emotions getting involved. Hey, you know what? I don't think that's the most effective idea. And here's why we say it at rebel culture and it's like, take the weight out of it. It's not personal. It's not me against you. It's about what's best for the for the team and what's aligned to the mission and vision. But you said something I think really matters. So I said, how do we make sure this isn't a waste of time if you do this? And 90% of the ideas are terrible? But what you've done is you've continued to build a culture, a rebel culture, where folks on teams of two, three, four, five, six, and so on are starting to now see themselves as more empowered leaders than they were before. That's going to have long-term benefits that far outweigh a wasted 20 or 40 or 60 minutes. It's going to be a long-term better move for your team. And I don't think that that's a waste of time in any way, shape, or form.

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Ep 415: Being Proactive in the Workplace

Wed, 08 Jun 2022 10:00:15 +0000

Sean: When do we need to start doing that? Is it when we bump someone up to be a leader of a team of four or five like we mentioned earlier? Or is it when they're managing a team of ten like two teams at the same time? Because that is a really good thing. That is a fantastic thing to do, develop your team's decision making skills and maybe telling them own up to it. If it fails, it fails. That's going to be your decision. It's your head on the chopping block and I support you when you make mistakes. I'll pay for your tuition fee, no problem. But how do you know when to involve them in your think tank? In your decision making process? In your ideas on the wall?

Michael: It's a great question. When they manage a team at ten feels too late for me, and I think it actually comes much earlier than when they're even managing a team of four or five. You can build people's capacity to be independent thinkers, decision makers. Earlier on, you can have a leader who's managing a team of three and have that leader building that team's decision making skills. You know, their willingness to engage in in tough conversations, their willingness to speak their minds and freely share their ideas. And so then when those people get promoted, if they do, it's already embedded in the DNA. I mean, the question I would ask you to ask yourself, Sean, and for any listeners who are in a similar bucket, is like is the thing you're trying to cultivate at the leadership level embedded in the DNA of the entire organization? Meaning does everybody at every level feel empowered to make these really tough decisions and to have their voice be heard? Now you can't have - everybody can't be the boss. And that's not what I'm saying, I am suggesting that whatever you want to cultivate at the leadership level is embedded in the DNA of the organization. So you are not starting from scratch every time somebody gets promoted.

Michael: I will say this, I'm going to give you some feedback, even though I'm not your coach and you can cut this out if you like. You may have just been saying this as a throwaway line on the podcast, but telling people that their heads on the chopping block, if they make a decision that doesn't work out, is not going to encourage people to make those tough decisions. Right. There's an opportunity there to say, 'even if I have your back, hey, if this doesn't work out, it doesn't work out. The most important thing here is that you're running lead on this.' Right. And that's a different message to somebody, even if that's just a throwaway line. You cast a huge shadow as a leader. If somebody in your team hears that, they're going to be more hesitant regardless.

Sean: Yeah, for sure. For sure. I mean, perhaps I'm too deep into being the leader, you know, that's what I think about every day. My head's on the chopping block if I decide this and that. So yeah, for sure.

Michael: But I know it. I'm with you. I'm in your shoes, man.

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Ep 414: Culture Fit vs. Skill Set: Who Should You Hire?

Tue, 07 Jun 2022 10:00:25 +0000

Sean: How do you identify who's going to be a good leader or who's your potential leader? How do you process these things? Because we make wrong decisions about putting some people in the leadership role, and all they want is the title, the perks, right? And not about serving others. How do you know who's in it because they want to serve other people?

Michael: Yeah, that's a great question. Mean Shawn, our company, we're not involved in that process. We get to an organization after a leader's already in place. Now, do I have my opinions? Can I tell pretty early on if I think somebody has what it takes to be a dynamic leader? So a transformative leader? Yeah, absolutely. But our team is not involved in that process. I will say that one of the things we work with teams on in rebel culture is around hiring and what's your hiring process looks like? All of this stuff goes back to culture. You're hiring process has to resemble. It has to mirror what it looks like to actually work there. So if your organization values data, your hiring process has to be rife with exercises where the potential leader is using data. If you value feedback, you've got to provide the person with feedback and you're taking notes on meticulous notes on how well this person responds to that feedback. I worked with an organization a few years back that valued feedback and coaching above all else. We did some interviews. I helped them design some of their materials and we did some interviews. And it was actually a really interesting process because folks would present potential employees, present performance tasks for us, and then we'd give them feedback. The feedback and their response to it held more weight than the performance task. Everybody was smart. Everybody did a good job in their performance task. What was more valuable was whether folks were nodding heads when we were giving them feedback. Were they taking notes? Were they asking follow-up questions with a reflection on their own work? The folks who did move much higher and much further in the process than the folks who didn't and acted as if that process, part of the process was a formality. So to answer your question, organizations have to hire people. Are there going to be some folks who just want the title, that slipped through? Absolutely. I've seen it. I know you have as well. The hiring process has to mirror the culture and you'll weed folks out right away, or at least many folks. And just recently, somebody, a team we were working with got a quote-unquote rock star to interview for them. They realized right away that this person was more interested in money than doing a great job. And money's great. I'm not knocking money, but this person was very focused on the dollars and cents, and this organization wanted somebody who is more focused on their product and their end results, and they didn't hire the person. And the person was shocked because of their reputation and in that industry, it didn't align with the organization's values and beliefs to hire him. And so he didn't get the job.

Sean: That is how important that is. I agree with you, 110%. Your hiring process is super-duper important. It is critical to guard your house, and your culture. You know, in the preshow I mentioned that we are having a difficult time hiring people. We got so many applicants, so many, but it's hard to hire the ones who fit our culture. And the reason behind that is we are very intentional about our culture and SEO Hacker as well, and we are willing to be penalized. Because the workload is getting tough, we are willing to be penalized for that, for keeping our culture intact.

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Ep 413: Why Cultural Values Drive Leadership Behavior

Fri, 03 Jun 2022 10:00:14 +0000

Sean: How did they make this alive? Because too often do we see core values, mission statements, and purpose statements plastered on the wall. And that's all they are.

Michael: They're espoused. They're not lived. I can't tell you how many organizations I go to in and out of education where folks can tell me what their core values are. They have them, but nobody can tell me what they are. It's just that's a big problem.

Sean: Exactly. So, it's beyond just thinking about it and putting it somewhere. What did these organizations do to live them out?

Michael: Yeah. So, one of the things we talk about in culture is we talk about this term called dust collector leadership. And it's for all the people who have a shelf filled with books on all these different leadership strategies and techniques and all those books are doing is collecting dust because they're not actually doing the stuff that the books say to do. Right. The first thing that's at the heart of this, Sean, is around something that we call fear forward. And I can't think of one example where somebody created a system and then did not implement it where there wasn't some level of fear that was blocking them from the execution right now. One could argue like folks are bad at scheduling their time. So of course, their vision is espoused and not lived because they don't have time to reference it repeatedly. Like all that stuff from my experience comes from a fear of owning I am the leader here. I am going to repeatedly message what matters. I am going to hold people accountable for what matters. This stuff doesn't happen organically. You know I bet many of your listeners know this. This stuff must be intentionally engineered. So, beginning every single staff meeting or 1 to 1 meeting with conversations about the vision and values, having the weekly email or the weekly staff meeting begin with conversations around shouting out colleagues who met the values for that week or however long it's been since you are all together. Referencing them in 1 to 1 meeting, right? Having consistent conversations. In some cases. We have leaders inside of education and outside who we have them meet, shout-out protocols. How many people today are you going to give a shout-out to? Three people, depending on the size of your team. If your team is 500, might have to do more than three people a day to get to everybody over the course of a week or a month.

But all those shout-outs are grounded in values, grounded in vision, right? And so these are intentionally engineered opportunities. But it all, Sean, must start with all these rebel leaders having one thing in common. Regardless of industry, regardless of experience, regardless of skill set, they all are willing to put themselves out there, to be vulnerable, to look foolish, if their thing bombs. People don't like that feeling and these folks don't like it either. They're willing to do it. There's a willingness. We call it a rebel culture. We call it fear forward. We don't talk about overcoming the fear of rebel culture. That's not a thing we don't believe in that. Social media will tell you that and reality television will tell you that you can overcome your fear. Nothing gets overcome. You learn to live with it. You learn to act despite it. Right. And that's what these folks do. They still feel the same fear of the 50 sets of eyes on them in the staff meeting or how that email is going to be received. They fear forward, they act anyway because they know it's in the best interest of their organization.

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Ep 412: The Truth About Maintaining Motivation

Thu, 02 Jun 2022 10:00:09 +0000

Sean: What are the simple ways to maintain your motivation career for career success?

Jeff: I like how you framed it, as you say, how to maintain your motivation, because I also believe that motivation is not external - it's internal, it's intrinsic. So it's something that you do for yourself, not how others would eventually prompt you to be motivated. I follow Francis Kong on this one, he doesn't also like to be called a motivational speaker because motivation is intrinsic. So I like how you framed it. How do you motivate yourself for career success? I guess Sean and I touched on this a while ago, really the bottom line is your purpose, the mission that you have should be enough to eventually - there is this commercial thing. Who do you rise up for in the morning? So who drives you up to wake up in the morning is, of course, that's somewhat a misnomer to say. In fact, God allows you to wake up in the morning. It's not you who drives yourself, but I get the point, you know. What drives you to eventually do what you do each day, day in, day out.

And I suppose the answer to that should be your God-given purpose or your mission in life. See, one of the saddest things in life, and I would usually share this one, is that you have done so much, you know, you've bled, you've sweat, you've cried, you've pushed the limits and you've persevered. You were determined on accomplishing so many things, only to find out it was the wrong thing or it's not what you were meant to do. I think that's the saddest thing in life, right? So we have to be motivated. We have to know the purpose and the mission we have that we're been given by God. And then eventually that would drive you to persevere, to have that grit.

And I don't know if you've watched this movie, Sean. This is my last point. I don't know if you've watched the movie "True Grit" by Jeff Bridges and Hailee Steinfeld. And it's a great movie. She's a cowboy. She had this mission in life is getting back or getting revenge on the person who killed her parents. And she endured so much, she went through that extent of running after, getting a mercenary, getting someone that would help her, and so on and so forth. But that's what it is. People will go to certain lengths, to extreme lengths because they have a goal to achieve. Now, my challenge is that make sure that that goal is what really is your purpose is in life and your mission in life. The saddest part is not when you don't achieve what you want to achieve. The saddest part is when you achieve something and you found that it wasn't what you were meant to do in the end. It's very sad.

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Ep 411: How Leaders Can Help Employees Grow Personally

Wed, 01 Jun 2022 10:00:19 +0000

Sean: Okay. Next question. How does your leadership style contribute to the personal development of your employees?

Jeff: Huge. Huge. And again, it was John Maxwell who popularized this one. "Everything rises and falls on leadership."

Sean: Yeah.

Jeff: The level of growth of any employee within our organization cannot exceed the level of growth that the leader has or where the leader is already at. So means to say, an employee under a certain leader cannot outgrow their leader. So if you're wondering why a certain department or a certain organization is not growing that much, you have to look at the leaders that are at the helm of the organization. So, yes, not just a style, but the character of the leader is highly essential to the personal development of the employees.

Sean: That's right. And so at that, I think people look at you as the leader. It's something that we don't really want to hear. But it's the truth. People will see you and look at us, their role models. If they can't get along with you, they won't go along with you. Also, John Maxwell coined that if they can't get along with you, they won't go along with you as their leader. Right? Another thing that I want to share with you is when it comes to leadership, if you're the CEO or the founder, your core values mission, vision statement and purpose statements usually come from the CEO and the founder. I wrote all of our core values. I wrote the purpose statements that we have, the purpose for the team, the purpose for the clients, purpose for the community and the world. And I wrote our mission vision statements as well. So my leadership extends to the entire organization. Like all six of our core values are principles of mine, and they're obviously not principles of people who come in. Maybe some people who come in would have one, two, or three of them, hopefully, more. But that's it. And the other parts of it they don't have. But we aspire for them to have it and they should aspire to have it, all six core values.

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Ep 410: Why is Shiny Object Syndrome a Problem?

Tue, 31 May 2022 10:00:22 +0000

Sean: We have a question from Michelle, how can one overcome shiny object syndrome in learning something that's beyond your current role? Oh, good question. That's a good question.

Jeff: In learning, how can one overcome the shiny object syndrome in learning something that is beyond your current role? I'm not too familiar, Sean, with the shiny object syndrome.

Sean: It's like "Ooh, I want to learn that" even if it's not too relevant to what they're doing.

Jeff: Oh, yeah. And I think this is a lot of the candidates even direct reports I had in the past have experienced having this one. Even here in Zagana to a certain extent, you would want to try this out, probably this one is good for me, and so on. And you mentioned, that coaching really helps them with this one. The coaching sessions - this is what I would also advocate for leaders in the organization to have is the coaching skills, you have to have that kind of interaction or engagement with your employees where you would as thought-provoking questions that would raise awareness, that would challenge their thoughts so that it would always align to what they want to achieve in life, rather than what you mentioned, the shiny object. "Oh, this is this looks nice. This looks like it's something that's interesting." And then all of a sudden you've spent one whole year accomplishing nothing. I think the coaching part would help your employees figure out for themselves, not you telling them that this is something that aligns with what they want to be in the future, and that would help them avoid this kind of scenario as well.

Sean: You know I'm sure you're going to lose it someday when you're growing older, you're going to lose that. So we all are going to lose that, right? We come to a certain age where we just want to get comfortable in our ways. That's why there's a saying that goes, "you can't teach an old dog, new tricks."

Jeff: I refuse to refuse to believe that, Sean. And I got to be an old dog.

Sean: We all know you're not that old, you know, shiny object syndrome. It's more because you haven't found your burning 'why' in life? Because if you find that burning 'why' and what I mean by burning 'why'. It's you find out the reason why you're born, you find out the reason why you're put on this earth. It's because of that one burning purpose when you find that out. And it could be like two or three things right? Like, for me, it's running my business for the glory of God. And it's also making sure that I give to others, and I give to God, and I give to the church. It's also making sure that along the way I share God's kingdom with other people, such as what I'm doing now. The reason why I'm able to do this podcast is that I have a business that can actually pay for the show and the editors and everything, right? So those are a lot of burning 'whys' for me. And so that's why it could be more than one thing, but if you find it, then all those shiny objects suddenly fade away, right? Because, you know, these are the things that are super important for me. Or it could be one. This is the thing. This is the thing and I've found it. It's my burning 'why' I'm going to focus on this. Suddenly they all lose their shininess or their luster, and you're not going to be after them anymore. You're only going to be after anything that's related to your burning 'why.'

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Ep 409: How to Support Employee Growth and Sustain It as a Leader

Fri, 27 May 2022 10:00:10 +0000

Sean: We have a question. How do you map out a plan for your employees' growth and promotion?

Jeff: You have to probably first identify where do you want to bring the company in the first place? Again, growth in a company happens when your people are also growing. See, I've seen many companies in the past that, as you know, they grew too fast, too soon, and forgot the people that are in the company, and they didn't grow them together with the organization. What happens is that they kept on growing. They hired people from the outside to sustain the growth. But unfortunately, you know, when you put in new blood, it's a good thing once in a while to eventually put in new blood so that it would challenge the organization. But if you keep on pouring in new people from the outside and you're not growing internal, it will eventually disrupt your momentum, your culture, and so on.

Jeff: So how do you map it out? First again, identify the company's objective or your company's roadmap, and eventually translate it to the structure that you have. By the way, Sean. I like this framework. It's called McKinsey's Seven S. So, whenever we have start planning, we would usually use McKinsey sevens to eventually help us what to do with the strategy that we've come up with. So, in that seven S, you have the strategy, the structure, the system, the skill sets, the style of the leader and the shared values, and also the staffing in terms of putting it together. So part of that is your system which you would eventually review and revise in relation to the new structure, in relation to the new types of staff or the number of staff, and in terms of the skill sets that are needed to eventually achieve the strategy that you've set for the organization. So it's something that you would first identify the goals and from that goal, the strategy, identify the structure, what kind of staff, what are the skill sets, and then eventually what are the systems you'll have to put in place. And I think this is one of them, we call it in some companies as the comprehensive talent development program. As you mentioned it is a bit complex, but to put it in simple terms, once you know the organization's goals, strategy, structure, the staff, the system will eventually follow. You'll have to map it out based on how you want the company to grow in relation to the employees that you've hired or you will hire in the future.

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Ep 408: Is it Best to Hire a Team or Partner with an Agency

Thu, 26 May 2022 10:07:08 +0000

Sean: The first one is from Vicente and from Facebook. I have a question. I just started a design agency and I have an upcoming project. It's a design and development project which will be a few months of engagement. Is it best to hire my dev team or partner with a dev agency? And Jeff, what do you think? I want to know what you think about this?

Jeff: Well, Sean, I would always advise most of the companies that I consult with that they should always stick with their core competency and eventually outsource those that probably are on the side or do not fall under their core competence or something that is core to their business. Because different departments, especially this is a design, I would always argue with - not just with Zagana, but with the previous companies that I work with, creatives especially. It needs a different type of culture. And I think this is where a lot of companies fail because they try to integrate, you know, the right-brainers and the left-brainers in one culture, there is a saying that goes - "one size does not fit all," so to speak. So I would say it depends if this is their core business, then you should hire and develop that team to be the best out there. But if it's not and it's just going to be a one-off, it's best to eventually probably outsource to another company, or group, or agency that is highly specialized in that one, especially if it's just a project. Because it really takes a long time to eventually develop a team and the learning curve, you just cannot rush it. And it might eventually cost them to lose that client or at least provide, you know, not a half-baked project to them just because you're trying to subpar.

Sean: Yeah, I agree 100%. I mean, just like with what Jeff mentioned earlier, that if you have a culture that's very creative hiring dev people might not, you know, it will disrupt the culture - 100%. And if you're not comfortable with your culture being disrupted in a more, you know, developers are usually more rigid, more straightforward. More structured.

Sean: So that's going to create a little bit of tension in the culture. Usually, that's good. But if you're if you don't want to manage that tension yet, then maybe outsourcing would be a good option for you. It's not to say that it doesn't work because I have SEO-Hacker, both the web design and the web dev team under one roof, we were all in one office and they worked really well together.

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Ep 407: How to Find the Right People to Represent Your Business

Wed, 25 May 2022 10:00:18 +0000

Sean: How do you look for those people who you mentioned could represent you could represent the brand well and could actually make sales because you're paying a first world country salary, which we're not really used to here in the Philippines.

Bant: You know, it's a great question. One of the things I've found is you'll get a lot of people will tell you like,' oh, well, you need to go hire someone who really knows how to be - a veteran that can sell this or sell that. And when we've hired veterans, the people that are anywhere from 15 to 25 years of experience in, let's say, sales in the market they have not performed for us in any meaningful way. I would say that what you really just need to do is find someone who is going to be a very diligent team member, not too young, but not too old and that they're going to work with you guys in the Philippines to really structure kind of a lead generation system that can perhaps support their efforts. Don't expect any person that kind of says like, 'Oh, I'm Joe Smith and I'm going to walk you into this company and I'm going to walk into that company and I'm going to do this and that.' It's all BS they might get you into one company. It's going to be a slow, expensive, painful process.

Bant: Don't expect that to happen magically. You have to build your own system, make sure that you have people that you can bring on and train, etc. Don't overpay if someone's not willing to structure a relationship with you that is a fair wage, but performance-oriented, they're probably not the right type of person for you. I would say for you as the founder, you should probably spend a little bit of time in those markets that you want to go to and get to know folks. Maybe you as a person that is the face of the business, maybe speak at a couple of events, those types of things. Get a better feel for where you're going and building in the future.

Sean: That's very good advice. And I've always tried to avoid going to the U.S. because it's so expensive. The ticket prices are expensive. Speaking in events, it's well-nigh impossible if you're not in that circle. So but doing the due diligence. I get it. I get it.

Bant: Yeah. I mean, look, I mean, even things like this, Sean, I mean, obviously, like, look, come to Miami, man. I'll show you around. Like, this is how you build relationships - you build networks.

Bant: For me, that that has one of the best pieces of advice I ever received was from an early boss I had in the advertising world, who I noticed that he was always interviewing kind of like young graduates that would come from business school. And I always thought, 'what are you doing? Like you're always like making time for this.' And he said, You know, honestly, you have to basically be your own HR department. You have to make the effort to recruit and pull in and things like that. And so I think that it's the same thing with networking like you're just going to have to make that commitment and build those bridges because that's the stuff that will offer the opportunities.

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Ep 406: Bant Breen and How He Grew and Scaled Qnary Today

Tue, 24 May 2022 10:00:14 +0000

Sean: I mean, it's the leaders dilemma, the founders dilemma. Yeah, we eat problems for breakfast and it just keeps going. But it's also why we pay ourselves the most. Right?

Bant: Well, you know, that's a really interesting one. You know, I actually suffered on that one, Sean. You know, I've read recently about how, you know, there's a lot of startup folks that always say, like, make sure you pay yourself first and I get it. But I'll be honest, I paid myself last, you know.

Bant: For how many years?

Bant: A good six years.

Sean: Good. Six years. Yeah, the first six.

Bant: I would say that I may paid myself the minimum. It's an interesting one because any dollar that I had, I just wanted to make sure that I was reinvesting, making sure that we are putting it more back into the development. And you know, I've had arguments with VCs about this.

Bant: 'You are like, no, no, no. You have - ' It's a real dividing line on the philosophy on this. Some really believe that the founders have to pay themselves and others are like me, where I didn't want to raise a lot of money early, because one of the challenges that I think your listeners might have is that they may feel pretty special when somebody comes and offers them a lot of money. But what they might not fully realize is that that money might come with maybe almost like I don't want to say like poison pills, but like maybe challenges that aren't ultimately good for the company and certainly not good for the founder.

Bant: Which means that like, you know, I'll sit down with these companies that come out of these incubators and they'll say, Oh, yeah, you know, we got we were given a $40 Million valuation and we're crushing it, man. And I'm looking at them. I'm like, okay cool that sounds awesome. So tell me about the business. And they'll say, 'Well, you know, we got the product up and we're, you know.' 'Do you have any customers?' 'Well, we don't have any customers yet, but, you know, we got so-and-so company is using a free trial.'

Bant: And I'm listening to this and I'm thinking like, holy crap, they raised this money. They raised 2 million on a $40 million valuation. And I said, 'So what's your burn rate?' They're like, 'Oh, well, you know, we're probably going to have to do another raise in like six months.' And I'm sitting there going like, 'guys, you are f you're fucked.' Because like, you don't celebrate the valuation basically. I guess that's what I'm trying to tell you. Like don't celebrate paper, celebrate customers, celebrate revenue, celebrate, you know, usage and engagement, celebrate that type of stuff, but don't celebrate things that can be taken away from you in a down round. Right. And that's the thing that I think these people don't realize is that VCs are like, yeah, you know, these founders are smart. I'm going to knock them out in the next round, you know? Right. It's a classic move.

Bant: And that's kind of the stuff I'm thinking about is like founders have to be thoughtful of like what really matters. Keep their head to the grindstone, don't burn through their cash, and don’t make a huge salary themselves. I would rather hit my goals before I pay myself a lot of money.

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Ep 405: How to Build Your Online Presence as an Executive

Fri, 20 May 2022 10:00:18 +0000

Sean: So one of the things that I'm wondering about, aside from the entrepreneur or the executive doing a million things every day, why else should they get your services aside from them being too busy?

Bant: Right. Well, I mean, I think the biggest reason that they do it is that it obviously helps them to garner other opportunities that will help their business as well. So we find that our clients and customers get opportunities to speak at events, speak at online conferences, getting asked to be advisory board members of other companies. We've seen it, which allows them to shape the narrative of where the industry or the market is going. And so being a participant with other thought leaders in your specific space allows you to actually then structure that space.

Bant: It plays a huge role in talent recruitment and retention because I think we're all fooling ourselves. Right now, we're all trying to hire. Hire, hire, hire. It's very hard to hire people right now, but, you know, don't fool yourself. Yeah, don't fool yourself. People are looking you up online when they're coming in for a job and what they see there really matters. So, in the talent recruitment as well as the retention game, it matters. We find that a lot of people leave companies because they feel like they've lost a voice in that company. You know, our solution obviously helps executives kind of regain that voice again, which is quite important.

Bant: And then in terms of sales, we do a global study every year and our research has shown that customers that follow an executive of a company as well as the brand, are twice as likely to purchase from that company. So all of those reasons, I think, really are why you build up your online presence. And also it's just tremendously more efficient.

Bant: And I think it reflects also something that's very human that we shouldn't forget in a digital world which is that - whilst we have the technology to connect with one another in a variety of different ways is two of us are doing right now, Sean - people like to talk to people. I like to talk to you. You like to talk to me. It's just there's something about being human, you know, humans want to know that there's a human being somewhere involved in something.

Sean: For sure.

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Ep 404: Why Do You Need an Online Presence?

Thu, 19 May 2022 10:00:15 +0000

Sean: So we have people tuning in the podcast today. We have over 4000 followers on Spotify, over 10,000 listeners. It's been a little over two years and they're listening to you right now.

Sean: And they're thinking, why is this important for me? I'm just starting out. No one cares about who I am and my business is under the radar right now. It's just been three years. Yeah, I have a million problems. Yeah, I have a million things getting done every day and I have to get them done. But why is this relevant and important to me?

Bant: Yeah. So, you know, when you're starting a business, they're kind of as you outlined yourself Sean, there's very little separation between the founder and their new enterprise that they've started.

Bant: And so when people go out and you go out to meet people in business, whether they be partners that you'll work with, vendors that you need, customers that you want to acquire, they will really want to validate your business. And in some ways, whether they do this before they meet you or after they meet you, they're certainly going to be looking you up online. And what they see there really matters. It matters in terms of your credibility as an executive and as a business.

Bant: And so one of the classic things is that when you look up a business and you find very little information about a company or an individual, it challenges the credibility of that business. So there's a bit of the kind of the instant background check that is very important for startups. What we find is that when an individual builds out a presence, the engagement that they'll get, the exposure that they'll get is anywhere between 4 to 20 times higher on their own pages than their brand pages. And it's much more expensive to grow a brand than an executive page. And so we would recommend that you start there and then kind of do it in tandem with your brand efforts. And then, as you said Sean, at some point, it becomes easier to start kind of naturally organically growing that brand effort. So it's critically important because it gets you off the bat. It gets you some notoriety that can help you raise money. And I can tell you my personal story is that I started posting on Twitter at the time about online reputation management, and I started to get some direct messages back that said, 'Hey, what are you working on from VCs?' And all of our initial money came in from inbound efforts, from things that I was posting out about

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Ep 403: The Rewards of Doing the Right Thing in Business

Wed, 18 May 2022 10:00:14 +0000

Sean: Do you have any advice for people who want to build a business but can't really afford to fail? These are the people that want to know that even before leaping on their entrepreneurial journey, they should at least have a parachute or even a trampoline for them to land on.

Josh: In my opinion, it is really a leap of faith. When I started my first venture, Pushcart.ph - it was on my own. I was working for my family business, but eventually, my dad told me, that before you turn 30 you have your own venture. Because once you pass that 30-year-old mark - your life will be full of risks. So why is it riskier? Because you'll have a family, you'll have kids, and then you'll have tuition fees to pay. So if you fail after 30 or 40, it will be hard for you to recuperate. Imagine if you have a family and suddenly your business failed, who is going to pick you up? So before 30, you start your own business, any failure that you've done before 30, you can easily recuperate. Your family and your friends will always be there, and also your mentors who will help you.

Josh: And for people who needs advice on how to build their business but can't afford to fail, you need to find good mentors who are industry experts in that field. So one example is when we started Zagana. I really looked for a mentor way before taking a step inside an industry that I don't even know how to play in - agriculture. We started as a family business in trading. And from trading, eventually led to online e-commerce. Then now we're back into the traditional agriculture and we're revolutionizing it to do the 30 minutes delivery. And take note that traditional e-commerce before takes five days to a week for the items to arrive. And now we have revolutionized it to 30 minutes delivery. And that's because we were able to get the right partners - these are the proper mentors who have the industry knowledge and expertise on how they will be able to scale it properly. And you need backing, you need to have that billionaire mindset, you need to know who are the people who will back you up with your business, and trust them that they won't let you down. They will support you all the way. They should have this mindset that ‘even though we're not on that successful part of the business right now, we will support you,’ you will really need those kinds of people.

Sean: There you go. I do completely agree. When you start early, it's the way to go and you can risk more and safer for you as well.

Josh: It's always doing the right things and God will provide. So what does that mean? There are two things you should always remember. Do things right or do the right things. For an example of 'doing things right' is the procedures and the rules of the company. So you have to follow this and that. But doing the right things is your integrity. What are the right things to do? Sometimes you have to look into the factors involved, because when you do the right things - God will provide, meaning that if you do the tasks you are given the right way, you will eventually be rewarded.

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Ep 402: How Business Relationship Management Maintains Quality Control

Tue, 17 May 2022 10:00:18 +0000

Sean: When you're looking for farmers or suppliers, what were the KPIs or metrics you were looking for in a supplier to maintain quality control?

Josh: For us, it is always relationship-based, are you in it for the long term? Is this the right partner that we should get? Because when you talk to farmers - first of all, they are already decades in terms of trading their fruits and vegetables. So when it comes to us, we're a new entity that's coming in and they will say "who is this new trader? We're tired of them because most of the time they come and go away." So we want to have a partner who will help us grow and would also like to grow together, in terms of how we will be able to tap into the market - just having that collaborative relationship. And so our KPI is actually basically helping each other, its give and take, it should not be 'because you failed to deliver, it will be deducted to your scorecard.' So we want to make sure we know what's your pain point, you know, what's our pain point and we work together on that.

Sean: Very nice. So more of relationship-driven rather than giving each other scorecards because you know for farmers it's already tough for them.

Josh: Because they will also have the power to not give it to you - the products. They can say that 'I would rather throw my products than give them to you.' They really do have the power to do that. And it is really happening, you will see some trucks full of products and the farmers won't sell them, they will just let them rot because the traders are trying to buy them at a very low price. And remember that these farmers also have pride, and they don't want to sell at below cost, they'll just throw it away rather than you profiting from it. So we always make sure we have the values that are already engraved.

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Ep 401: Zagana's Order of Business Tips

Fri, 13 May 2022 10:00:06 +0000

Sean: We have a question from Nino. How did the agricultural supply chain disruption caused by the pandemic affect your agribusiness?

Josh: And that's a good question. We started Zagana as traditional e-commerce, we take your order and we deliver it in 3 to 5 days. So when we take the order, we send it to the farm saying "here are the orders" then we'll send it to our storages then that's when we distribute it. So that's what we have been doing for the B2B side - that is how we do it before the pandemic because we were delivering to restaurants. And then when the pandemic happened, because of the lockdown, we changed a lot of our supply chain, so it really disrupted it.

Josh: Our farmers were not able to supply the products we asked from them. And there was also a rise in demand because everyone went online. March 15, we opened up our website. That was our first time opening up our website, and then thousands of our orders came in. But because we're doing that traditional e-commerce, there was a big number of orders that we sent to the farm, and that made our farmers baffled as some of the products are not yet ready for harvest. So a lot of items are out of stock and need to be replaced, our customers really got mad saying "why are there no products coming from the farm?" and then the delivery trucks that we use to carry out the deliveries to our customers before, they often get delayed because they need to go through a lot of checkpoints.

Josh: Number one, checkpoints. Number two is the waiting time for the customers to go down either from their condo or inside of their subdivision. So one customer will take around 30 to 40 minutes and think about it that one truck usually carries 30 loads of orders. So by the time, it gets to the 30th customer, some of the goods are already spoiled. So eventually we had to pivot our model. Within a month we were able to pivot it to doing that 'instant commerce.' So what is instant commerce? It's bringing the goods to our storage, keeping them there, and then we start taking orders. So the moment they ordered online, either Zagana.com, Grab, Foodpanda, Lazada, Shopee, Pick-a-roo, or Metro mart. They will be able to view the products that are on stock and out of stock. So if it's out of stock they won't be able to order. So that made it a painless transaction. So if they order and we have it on-stock, we pick it up, pack it and deliver it within 30 minutes to your house. So revolutionizes how we are shopping now digitally.

Sean: Amazing.

Sean: Now we have another question. What sets it apart? So we know that there are other solutions trying to also go into the same industry, and provide the same service. What sets Zagana apart and how did you formulate your unique selling proposition?

Josh: For us, I will say it's the 30 minutes delivery. I don't see any farm-to-table grocery shops that have been doing that and we have the selections, we have selections from high land to low land crops. We have frozen goods like seafood all the way from Capiz, which is the seafood capital of the Philippines. We were able to work closely with the fishermen - what they offer is freshly harvested seafood. Whether it's scallop, Lapu-Lapu, or milkfish, they blast freeze it so that it will maintain its freshness and we ship it to our storage and from there we deliver it to you. Once you open your package you can really smell its freshness from the sea. We are really proud of the technology that we're putting into it. We're studying how we would be able to prolong and maintain the product, and we're working closely with the Department of Agriculture and UPLB in terms of making sure that we maintain this.

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Ep 400: How Technology Can Improve Farmers' Lives

Thu, 12 May 2022 10:00:19 +0000

Sean: What is Zagana's vision as a company?

Josh: I'll start with our purpose. Our purpose is to uplift lives using technology. So technology comes a lot into play. You have the logistics process where you bring the produce from point A to point B. Number two is how you will be able to prolong and maintain the produce. And number three is how you can make transactions as seamless as possible - so we did the instant commerce.

Jason: So our mission here is to bridge the gap between food producers and consumers. So food producers who are they? They are the farmers, the fishermen, the livestock growers. So we are focused on the agricultural industry.

Josh: We have four visions. The number one vision is we want to create and we have we want to create great talents and let them thrive in our Zagana setting. So bringing that culture and providing the right people to put in place will help grow the company and not just the company, but also the community. Number two is we want to make sure that our stakeholders are happy, Who are we helping? We are helping the farmers and the delivery riders. We have to make sure that they have ownership as well because, you know, giving them ownership is letting them know that they should be responsible enough to bring in that service. They will make sure that the product is safe, and they will be able to handle it and give good service. And then our third vision is to make sure that we showcase our values and culture, which entails our vision.

Sean: Amazing.

Josh: I am just going to add to that, so another vision that is very important for us is that we want to farm to be the preferred livelihood. So what does that mean? It means that we want to encourage the young generations to go back into farming. And it is a fact that the average age of our farmers today is 60. Because nowadays there is a bad connotation if you're a 'farmer', so the youth today does not even consider going back into farming. So we want to make it the preferred livelihood. So we want the people to know that there is gold in agriculture. And going back to farming is a really different experience, and some people will attest to that, especially those who are farming nowadays, they realize that 'farming is delightful,' and 'it is also fulfilling to be able to help.' And the other vision is we want to make farming the preferred livelihood, and then for consumers - we want to allow every consumer to have access to safe produce. So eventually we are aiming that we'll be able to provide them our products, something that's very convenient and better service.

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Ep 399: How to Pitch Your Idea to Silicon Valley

Wed, 11 May 2022 10:00:14 +0000

Sean: How were you able to get connected with venture capitalists in Silicon Valley?

Josh: One very funny story. You just have to apply online, and it is also quick and easy. I think there are a lot of people who also applied to Y Combinator. Just send your application and then they will get back to you. You just need to return back their questionnaires and eventually they will call you. Like, for example, for me, when I started Pushcart, I applied for Y Combinator. They sent me their schedule, and the call is usually just 5 minutes. And then they would ask you questions if they decide to let you fly out to Silicon Valley or to meet with them in San Francisco. So eventually I got the green light and I flew in. They just called me and asked me a few questions. Then they got back to me after 24 hours. I cannot believe that within that 5-minute long call, they will let you fly into Silicon Valley, all paid for by Y Combinator.

Josh: And they said, 'Josh, are you free to fly next week?' Then you wonder 'am I really ready to fly next week? Do you have the papers? Do you have the mindset? Are you prepared to fly? So eventually I was able to fly to Silicon Valley, and the next week I brought my co-founder. We eventually got interviewed by four of the panels in Y Combinator. Just from that aspect alone, they will connect you to a lot of investors now. They even connected us to one of the investors of YouTube. And these are very good people who also have deep connections in the Philippines.

Sean: Wow. Interesting. So it's just really one email, right? Just doing it you know - just showing up.

Josh: Yeah, just showing up. Just apply for it and pitch your idea. They won't contradict you. They will just listen to you. You just need to put in that effort.

Sean: Got it. Got it. I want to rewind a little bit and talk about Tesla. So let's go back to the past, so what happened there? What were you feeling and how fast did you have to pitch your idea there?

Josh: Honestly less than 5 minutes. They just asked me a few questions and they said 'okay. I'm good. I like your startup.' - that's how fast it went through.

Josh: It was - maybe it's because we're backed up we were introduced to the right people, especially coming from the Y Combinator people. If they introduce you, they recommend it. It was just really quick, it's like you will have the proof of confidence.

Sean: Wow. And how did it proceed? So you got the 'yes,' from the investor and from Y Combinator. How did it get all the way to here? How did they provide the funds, the mentorship and how did they connect you to the people they know here, and what happened afterward?

Josh: Y Combinator was at the stage of being interviewed. So we weren't able to join the program, but eventually, they were very supportive. As in every quarter, they will get back to us. So even if you don't get into it, they will provide you support.

Sean: Got it. Got it. Amazing. And that's very valuable, especially when you're starting out?

Josh: Yes, yes. Because you will have that connection, you will have that network. At least you've gone to that round, you were able to experience it and you were able to tap the right people for your business.

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Ep 398: Nurturing Your Best Talent and Work Culture

Tue, 10 May 2022 10:00:23 +0000

Jay: And there are not many decisions you make as an organization or as a leader which are truly not reversible. There are very few. Hiring people is one of the kinds of in-between gray area ones.So when we think about the rate of decision making, this is written right into our sensei values. One-way door decisions are different than two-way door decisions. And what I mean by that is some decisions are a two-way door. If you go through and you don't like what's on the other side, you can walk back through the door again. And maybe there's a small penalty for doing it, but it's not that big a deal. Some decisions are one-way doors. When you go through that door, it closes behind you. You better like what's on the other side because you can't come back.

Jay: So I would give an example of that. Taking money from investors is a one-way door. Once you have taken that money and they are now equity holders in the business and are on your board, you can't really get rid of them. Hiring somebody is not a one-way door. It is generally a two-way door. We have to be aware that somebody is leaving a job to come and work for us most of the time unless they were on the market and looking. And so yes, we may have taken them out of a job for them to come and work for us. So it's not you know, it's not a zero impact two way door. But generally speaking, if this wasn't the right decision, it's not the right decision and we can reverse it. With that in mind, you can make a hiring decision more quickly than you might make a decision about taking money from an investor, and you should make it more quickly.

Jay: But think about this is just generally a good way of assessing where you invest your time even for yourself. If you're looking at your to-do list, everything you choose to do is a bunch of things you're not choosing to do. There is never a time. You can pick one thing, and it doesn't mean that you're not doing a bunch of other things. So that opportunity cost has to get factored into it.

Jay: And so if you have some people on your team who are the rock stars, they are your top performers, and you hire someone new into the team and that person is just not good at their job or whatever it is. The longer you tolerate them, the more that your top performers are watching this and thinking, I don't want to stay in this organization because it puts up with mediocrity or it encourages people who are bad for the culture, or why do I have to put in so much effort when these people who have just come in are coasting along and we're in the same role? And so it has a really negative impact on the people who you want to keep on the team.

Jay: We think about culture as a garden and you are the gardener of that garden. Your job is to grow a healthy garden. And the way you grow that healthy garden is you make sure that it gets enough sunlight and enough water and enough nutrients which you can do by providing it the things that are good for it. You can encourage it to grow in certain ways and you have to weed the garden because if you don't weed the garden, the weeds take over. So if you think about your culture as this living thing, I can't force it to turn into something, but I can encourage it to grow the right way and I can make sure it gets the right nutrients and I can weed out the weeds that need to be removed. If I do those things, I will have a successful garden as a leader of my organization, and that's the way that we think about it. And yes, sometimes that means you have to weed out some weeds.

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Ep 397: How To Equip First Time Leaders in Your Company

Fri, 06 May 2022 10:00:16 +0000

Jay: And so if you're thinking about this from a cultural perspective where you're thinking about it from a training perspective, where do we invest in learning and skill development for leaders? Those two moments is the first time you become a leader and the first time you become a leader of leaders. And so the change is important because when you become a leader for the first time, your skillset and your time allocation have to shift. So your skill set shifts because you are now responsible for the careers of other people and you have to be a good steward of those careers. And for most people who become a leader for the first time. If they think back over their own career that got them to that point. Their sum total of leadership training is looking at the managers that they've had.

Jay: So they have almost certainly had a lot of bad managers, and so they've learned lots of things that they shouldn't do because they know how frustrating that is when your manager does that. But the problem is they probably haven't had very many good managers. So, you know, the kind of dark side of the force, but you don't know the light side of the force and you don't know what to do in that light side to be a good manager. And so that's why as an organization it's important to invest in how we equip our first-time leaders with the skills and understanding of what good leadership looks like, not just what not to do.

Jay: The other thing that shifts, though, as I said, is time allocation. You go from being an individual contributor to a leader and suddenly you have to carve time out of your schedule for the people on your team. And that's important because if the culture of the organization is right, your success is now the success of your team. It's no longer your individual success. So now you have to think about how do I enable my team to be successful because that's how I'm going to continue to move up in the organization? It's no longer just I can work more hours or put more effort in or take on some amazing new project. So that's a shift. What happens when you become a leader of leaders is almost a step change in how you have to think about the business. And the expression we think about a lot at that point is going from being in the business to being on the business.

Jay: So the difference is that as a leader of leaders, I'm now a full step away from where the actual decisions are getting made. And so if people come to me as CEO of our organization and they say, 'Hey, we have a problem, what should we do?' To be honest, I have no idea what we should do because I'm not close to the problem generally enough to know the right answer. And the truth is our team knows the right answer. So they're not really looking for me to tell them what to do. They're looking for some guidance about which path is probably the right path. So I'm not ‘in’ the business anymore, but I'm ‘on’ the business. But when it comes to day-to-day operations, I have to allow my team that autonomy and step out of their way enough to say, ‘I'm not the right person to make this decision. You are.’ So what do you think we should do? And if you're stuck and you need me to break a tie, that's where I can get involved.

Jay: And so I think there's some really great coaching around this question of tie-breaking and thinking as a leader that your number one job in the day-to-day of the business is really breaking ties. It's being that final voice that says, okay, you know what, I have heard you out and we're going with a that's a big part of that job, but that requires you to step out enough and be on, not in, so that you can be that kind of impartial judge and be able to make those tie-breaking decisions when they come up.

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Ep 396: A Guide To Recruiting The Best People

Thu, 05 May 2022 10:00:10 +0000

Sean: Is there a reason why you didn't do it in such a way as we did where we have a multiple choice answer and they could just answer the test? Are there advantages to doing it live?

Jay: It doesn't scale as well. So I will say that your approach is certainly more scalable. However, I think the differences between self-reported data and observed data. And so if you ask a candidate a question during a job application process, they are trying to game the system to get hired. So they're not necessarily answering the question in an honest way that reflects them. They're answering the question in a way that gives them the best chance of being hired, even if it's actually; hopefully not intentionally a lie.

Jay: So for anybody who applies to Sensei Labs, you're going to know the secret to this answer. But what we're looking for is the language that they describe the team. Because if the language is ‘all I, I did this, I accomplished this.’ They are not selfless. If the language is 'we did this or even as a leader, I really enabled the team and then they took it and were successful with it.' That's what we're looking for in that answer.

Jay: So we'll ask that question and we're listening to the language that they're using. Are they saying’ I’? Are they saying ‘we’ when they get to the end of it, I'll say, 'hey, that was really great. Tell me another one,' because they usually don't have a prepared second story to go to. So you've got through the managed and massaged language of what they were going to tell you. And now they kind of have to think on their feet a little bit and they have to come up with that second story. And that's where you're going to start to really get to the good stuff, where the message isn't being manipulated as much and you can't get there when you're asking people to self-report that in an application, which doesn't mean that you can't screen earlier through automated means, right?

Jay: But the best people that we've hired over the years were people that we went out and recruited rather than the candidates who have applied. So is not to say that we haven't had some great candidates who have applied. So don't just throw those resumes out when people apply. But if you just think about it in terms of supply and demand, most of the candidates who are the best candidates for your role are happily being very successful somewhere else, and they're not on the market. If you happen to have got lucky with timing and they had decided to look for some new role.

Jay: But the really great people aren't looking. They're in a great job right now that they're being successful at. And so it's your job as a hirer to go out and find those people and recruit them out of those jobs. It's not great for the company that was happily employing them right now, but they are going to end up being some of the best candidates. And you will occasionally get lucky with people who have applied.

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Ep 395: Why Defining Your Work Culture Values is Important

Wed, 04 May 2022 10:00:11 +0000

Sean: And I want to rewind a little bit back to when you started that digital company, so you were able to sell it, but what were some of the earliest challenges that you discovered?

Sean: Because one of the reasons why we started the Leadership Stack podcast is leadership is not really that natural for a lot of people. And even for those who are kind of like they were born with some leadership potential, they still had to hone it. We still have to read a lot of books, listen to a lot of podcasts, and get mentors whom we trust, who share the same values and principles.

Sean: What was it like for you as a young leader, as a young CEO of that small organization when you were starting out, maybe take a time machine back in your head, going back and realize and share with us what were some of your challenges then?

Jay: I think you have a lot of those challenges the second that you're two people. And so if you're a sole founder and you've started your own business and kudos to you, it is a hard path. So there's a lot of bravery in going down that path. But if you are a sole founder and you started your own business and you hire a person, or if you're a co-founder and you're starting a business with some partners, as soon as there's more than one of you, you have a culture.

Jay: And you can be intentional about that culture and you can sort of orchestrate it. It's one of the topics that we talk about in Decoded, which is our book that came out in 2014. The Decoded Company and one of the three D code principles is engineered ecosystems. It's the idea that you can engineer the ecosystem of your organization or of your culture and be very intentional about what that looks like. As soon as you have more than one person, you need to be thinking about what that is because culture scales alongside the organization, and the biggest determinant of culture is who you have in the organization. It's not about posters in the break room, it's not about foosball tables, it's about the people. And as soon as you start hiring, the hiring decisions that you make will determine what the culture looks like as the organization grows.

Jay: And so when you think about people, think of them at kind of three key moments, the choices you make about who you hire, the choices that you make along the way, about who you promote, and the choices that you make about who you fire. And those as a leader are really the three most important decisions that you're going to make. If you make those decisions, well, then everything else kind of takes care of itself.

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Ep 394: How a CEO Prioritizes Self-Improvement

Tue, 03 May 2022 10:02:03 +0000

Sean: Okay. We have our next question from Chucks - how do you find the time, energy, and space to keep working and improving your business?

Ven: That is the hardest thing because time is the most precious valuable resource out there. But this is something you need - we need to build into ourselves. You can't 'not' do it because there's such a thing as working on your business and working in your business. So working in your business is what you do - the things that are bothering you right now, that's your in your business. But working on your business is another important thing you need to do and you have to institutionalize that. So I do have my own - I just finished my think week, so I do take a few days to just think about the business, what we need to do. This is normally around the time that we're planning for next year. So you're really looking at the things you want to do for your business that's not related to what's the current concerns, the current crisis. Like in our family, we learned seven habits very early on, and a large part of that is actually knowing what's important and what's urgent.

Ven: And normally you should really work on what's important even more. And what's important is the viability of the business, the big view, the long-term view, the investments you're making. So it depends on where you're at in the business. Like right now, maybe you feel like there's like wave after wave of problems happening. Just do a little bit of the important stuff first. You'll have actually less crisis down the road. So if you're in that moment right now, this too shall pass camion. But you need to really figure out what's important and try to solve that. And then you go back to what's urgent. And for us it's what's really important is working on your business.

Ven: So like for us to realize like our business is and we're really kind of like a logistics company. So we had to take a look at our warehouses, our relationship with our truckers, our own fleet, the kind of people we would have, and the kind of software that we would recently digitalize our warehouse management software. So these are not easy tasks that you have to really push together. It's like the WMS one is like a two-year thing. It's not easy. And but if you're saying, okay, if logistics is one of the most important things we can do as a business, then we need to put our best investments, our money, our effort, our energy towards that. And it might be difficult in the short term, but you know that you're moving in the right direction and it will pay off in the long run. I think having that courage is really in that perspective is needed. So personally I do think weeks we also follow the Sabbath every week. You really have to take time for yourself. Really step back and have perspective. But yeah, it's probably the most important priority you're going to have, even though it feels like you want to attend to that crisis right now.

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Ep 393: Compensating Family Members at a Family Business

Fri, 29 Apr 2022 10:00:13 +0000

Sean: What kind of leadership style have you adopted that you found to be most useful for your company, for your team?

Ven: That's a great question because I did not adopt it. It was always been who I was. So that's the thing. I found the best parts of myself and offered that. I think you - Sean and I are familiar with strengths, and strengths development. So I lead with futuristic. So I also lead with ideation, strategy, competition, and relator. So that unique combination of strengths is who I am. I had to use the best of me for the company. So if I had a different set of strengths, I would be a different kind of leadership style. So I had to look at and own who I was and be able to use that.

Ven: So for me, I'm futuristic, so I love thinking about the future, I love planning, I love telling others about what I see and giving them a lot of excitement about what we're going to do. Let's look at the technologies, all the cool things, all the gadgets. Let's get into the cloud and the automation and all of that, everything. And because that's who I am, and if I try to be like, let's say I wanted to be just like my dad or just like my mom. I would do a very poor job of that because I don't have those strengths. I had to be the best version of myself.

Ven: That's probably that kind of thing - I didn't really adopt it. It's who I am. And that's what SCPA, our company, got. So if they got a different president, they would get that person's best as well. I'm not going to force that guy to be like me. In the same way, I will never force my kids or my nephews and nieces to be somebody who they're not, but offer the best of yourself and understand yourself. So that's one of the hardest things right, then really in a company, actually, we have everybody take that strengths finder test so that everybody knows what they're good at and how they could offer that to everybody. And even though they're not yet in a leadership position.

Ven: And, you know, there are times, you know, the imposter syndrome strikes. I wish I was like my dad. He was like this. He was like, I wish I was like my mom. She was like this. She was like that. But in the end, I have to be satisfied with the strengths I have and they're pretty awesome as well. And what's funny is that when you talk to the others and they're going to say,' Oh, I envy you have that, I envy you.' And then we just stay in the company and let's work together, right? So that's the best thing because you have things I really need, you know.' So my sister and I, she has an activator. I just love working with her because anything that I want to happen, she just likes, just gets it done. Perfect for futuristic. So yeah. So you have to adapt it. I would say that in our company we adopt the strengths that you have. We offer that up as your best.

Sean: Yeah. For those of you tuning in and who're not familiar with Strengths Finder, just look it up online. Gallup Strengths Finder 2.0. Very powerful stuff. And as SEO-Hacker, we also use that. So all of our regular team members, unlock their top five strengths and we use that to see who they are, profile them and see if they're at the right seat on the bus in our company and how we can utilize their strengths as well. So very good stuff. And we all have strengths. These are things that we love doing, we look forward to doing and we are really good at and we focus on using our strengths in our lives, not just at work but in our family, how we lead our kids or how we deal with our parents or siblings. I think that overall we will have a better quality of life and better temperament as well.

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Ep 392: Skills You Need in Running a Family Business

Thu, 28 Apr 2022 10:00:46 +0000

Sean: The first question, straight to the point - would be about family business. What skills did you find to be the most useful in managing a family business?

Ven: I didn't expect that question because that's a lot of reflection. The thing about family business, they haven't been really writing any books about it, right? They tell you how to be a good employee. And I remember actually there's this really great article like ten skills you need at your job that have nothing to do with your work. So I was thinking just now like, what are the ten skills that entrepreneurs should have that have nothing to do with business, right?

00:01:28

Ven: So I would always think the first thing I would probably say when it comes to family business, in particular, is your ability to manage your relationship. So you have to know your parents, you have to know your siblings and your children in the future. So I had the benefit of having a good example for my parents

Ven: So one of the conclusions my sister and I had when it comes to succession planning, in fact, it's actually succession planning is actually good parenting. One of the things I think that's essential if you're running a family business, it's different if you're just running with business partners is that that relationship management is really key and you need to really do a lot of 'give and take listening' also knowing the times that you're going to be able to say your ideas. So I had a good mentor in my father. He made it easier. It's not easy, but he made it easier. But for me, I had to learn how to pick my spots. Know my place. Leave the ego out the door. I think that's super important. That's going to destroy your business experience or entrepreneurial experience if you let that really affect it. So that's the first skill, I would probably say if you're really managing a family business.

Ven: The second skill I wouldn't say is necessarily just in family business alone, it's really having a clear plan - clear vision. That is something that's harder for the second-gen. I'm a second-gen because the initial vision was from my parents, so I had to come up with my own view of the future and own that because you're always going to feel like I'm just following them, you know? And right now I have the right titles already - I'm president and CEO, so I need to really have that plan in place. I really need to have a view of where we want to go. So those two things are probably in a relationship and the vision is probably very important.

Ven: Going back to the idea about second-gen, I think when I met you I introduced myself as a Gen 1.5 owner, not so much as a second-gen, because the true experience of me owning the business, so to speak, was really about identifying myself as a founder as well. Especially for me, because I kind of started with the business almost immediately. So I joined in the fifth year of the business. So right after college, I jumped in. I was still part of the growth journey. I saw my parents work hard. I saw them by example, you know, lead the company. And then when they turned over the reins to me as president and just last year as CEO, I really had to have a good plan already.

Ven: And it wasn't an excuse anymore that, 'oh, you know, your parents are leading the way.' I became president relatively early on. I mean, it's about my 10th year already. So I've had to develop that vision. And then that's where your siblings will also follow you if they know you are heading them somewhere. You know, it's not something you take for granted. So those are the things I think are important.

Ep 392: Skills You Need in Running a Family Business

Ep 391: Developing Habits that Make You a Better Manager/Leader

Wed, 27 Apr 2022 10:00:14 +0000

Sean: What would be something that you would suggest for people to build into their habit routine to become a better leader and manager at the same time with their work or career?

Darby: Yeah, so I think it's going to be different for everybody. However, what I would say is that what everybody should focus on because this is related to habits is, as you analyze, like sitting down and thinking about what are the activities that you do throughout every day. And I mean, like the main things you do to accomplish what it is you do at work, to accomplish your goals as a company or whatever. What are the things you're doing every single day? Just list out everything and then go through that list and pick whatever that top 20% is. Now, this list, depending on how big it is, could be 10 things. It could be 20, it could be 5, it could be 2, whatever that is. Find the top 20% of activities. A lot of times folks will call these high payoff activities. And those activities are the things you should be setting as habits that you complete first every single day.

Darby: The reason being is, you've heard of the 80-20 rule. So the idea behind this is that this guy named Vilfredo Pareto in the late 1800s came up with this idea. He was studying wealth distribution in Italy, and he basically determined that 20% of all people held 80% of the wealth, which this holds true today, maybe even more lopsided than that. But eventually, he obviously didn't call it that. Eventually it became known as the Pareto principle. And what we know is the 80-20 rule. And basically what it says is that 20%, no matter what it is, 20% of activity results in 80% of the results.

Darby: So Microsoft uses this to their advantage. They determined early on that 20% of all their bugs accounted for 80% of their support calls. So what that meant was, if they went back and only focused on those 20% first, they could eliminate the bulk of their support calls. And it worked. This applies to customers. 20% of your customers usually account for 80% of your sales. 20% of your products account for 80% of your revenue. It may not be exactly that ratio anymore, but that's the idea.

Darby: So in your life and in your daily activities, if those highest 20% of things account for 80% of your results, do those first every day, build those into your habit. Because if you accomplish that 20% and you don't get to some of the other things each day, at least you are 80% of the way there - on completing and helping you achieve success.

Darby: The other part about that is, that those things will change over time, based on your priorities, based on your career. So you should be reassessing those every now and then. You should be sitting down and making a list of everything and then figuring out the top things and constantly reassessing them because they will change and they're different for each individual. So my list I would not list in my high payoff activities checking email. It's probably not for a lot of us. However, if you're an executive assistant that works for a CEO whose main goal is to direct the email and sort that out for their CEO to keep them focused on higher level things. If that's their role, then that may be in their high payoff activities. So it's different for everybody.

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Ep 390: How Do Leaders and Managers Differ?

Tue, 26 Apr 2022 10:00:10 +0000

Sean: I want to start with a question. What's the big difference between a leader and a manager?

Darby: Yeah, well, first I will say, in our world in general, we love to have this or that. You can be this or you can be that. And I actually start off the whole premise of my book with this idea of you've heard the question or you may have been asked the question, are you a manager or are you a leader? And I start off the book by saying, that's a ridiculous question. Like, I know quite a few managers that are really good leaders. And if you say, are you this or that, it kind of gives you the idea that you can't be both. You have to be one or the other.

Darby: And those manager folks are the ones who are - these are skills like people who are highly organized, they're methodical. They're all about, how are we going to do this? What are we going to do? This is how it's going to get done. They're the ones that are able to identify. These are the challenges or the barriers we're going to overcome. They're the ones that are checking a box to make sure the stuff gets done.

Darby: The visionary folks, if you're on that side of that, if you think of it as a spectrum, if you're on that side of the spectrum, those folks are that the high idea people, they think of a lot of ideas, a lot of entrepreneurs who start businesses are high visionary, not all of them, but a lot of them are. So they think of a lot of ideas every day. They're the folks that are highly passionate. They're the ones that - they're not saying what or how. They're the ones that are saying why we're doing it. This is why we're doing it. This is why it's important. And in their mind, when they think of an idea like they can visualize it, it's done. 'We're there.'

Darby: Now, here's the deal. You need people that have both sets of skills. You either need people that are on both sides, or you need individuals who can pull in both sets of skills because you don't want to be at either end of that spectrum.

Darby: If you're that high manager person, you're way over there on the left side of that spectrum. Then that person may only be focused on checking a box and getting stuff done. They don't care why they're doing it. They don't care about who they have to snow plow through to get it done. They just need to get it done. If you're way over there on the other side, you don't really care about how it gets done. You just have all these ideas and in your head it's already done. So what's going to happen is you're going to frustrate people because you're going to move on to the next idea and the next idea and the next idea, and nothing is going to get done.

Darby: So what you've got to do is, is instead of thinking of it as a spectrum, I encourage folks to think about it more like a Venn diagram where you have two intersecting circles and try to choose the best traits from both sides of that spectrum and put those into what I'm calling The Indispensable Leader, which is the title of the book. So if you pull in the best traits of both sides and try to utilize those best things and understand what those are, that's going to help you be more indispensable, be the best leader that you can possibly be.

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Ep 389: The 5 Foundational Principles of Leadership and Management

Fri, 22 Apr 2022 10:00:18 +0000

Darby: The first thing is, as a leader, I want you to always be curious, be constantly learning. Your goal should be a lifelong learner that's going to help prepare you for change. Change is going to be constant. It's going to help you continue to evolve and grow your business as an entrepreneur. If you're running your own business. So make sure that you just stay curious about things. Constantly read, utilize coaches, training, and anything that you can do to continue to expand your skills, your knowledge base, and your experience.

Darby: The other thing is, just understand and this is something I talk about people when I coach them as well as understand not everything is going to be easy. It sounds very simple to say that, but I think sometimes we just think that we want an easy button. We want a button we can push that just makes everything easy. And there are going to be challenges, you're going to encounter them in your career, your life. There are going to be things you cannot even imagine will happen, that will happen to you.

Darby: But looking back, I use that as a learning experience. That really gets to my next point, which is to view your setbacks, view your challenges as learning opportunities. Good leaders will do this. Yes, you have to deal with whatever the challenge is at the moment. Put the fire out, deal with whatever it is at the time, but then make sure you look back at it and determine how you can utilize that to move forward and utilize that experience to get better and make sure it doesn't happen again to help others grow in that as well.

Darby: That leads me to my next point, which is just listening. And when I say listen, I think we have a tendency as humans sometimes to listen to respond, which by that I mean you're listening to somebody and you're thinking about what they're saying and you're thinking about, 'Oh, I know what I'm going to say.' And that's all you can think about. You're only thinking about what you're going to say when they stop talking and we're all guilty of it.

Darby: But instead of listening to respond, especially when you're dealing with team members or colleagues, listen to understand. So really pay attention to what it is that they're talking about and really listen to help you understand. The other part of that listening is one of my mentors actually told me that his advice for a leader was to listen, but then also know when you need to take action because you're in a leadership role for a reason, there becomes a point where you have to make a decision and move forward. You can't get bogged down in it. So listen and then just know when it's time to move on.

Darby: And then the last thing is again, overarching as leadership, this overarching as a human being is just to be compassionate. Everybody has their own crap they're dealing with in their life. I mean, just think of some of the stuff that you have in your life and your listeners have in their lives that nobody else necessarily knows about, or maybe only those very close to you, but certainly not people at work with you. So as you manage people and as you lead people just remember when you're dealing with those individuals, they have challenges they're going to have bad days.

Darby: I mean, your goal should be to help your folks that you're leading continue to grow in their career as well. One of the things I always tell people is, that I want the people that work underneath me to want to take my job, like I want them to be striving for that. Because I'm striving for something above me and beyond what I'm doing. So I want them to actually want that too.

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Ep 388: Darby Vannier's Diverse Career Journey

Thu, 21 Apr 2022 10:00:15 +0000

Sean: What coursed through your mind in deciding that 'okay I'm going to try nonprofit this time, I'm going to try a leadership organization at this time?'

Darby: Yeah, it's kind of one of those things when I coach young people in particular that were just exiting college and getting into their first career. One of the things I tell people is that, what you believe your career is going to be, is probably not what it's actually going to be.

Darby: When I was going to college, I never imagined - I maybe could have imagined managing a retail store. I never would have imagined that I was CEO of a livestock association, especially a livestock association for alpacas. So not something that I could have actually imagined.

Darby: And actually they were advertising - it's an interesting story. They were advertising through an agency, so they didn't list the company name or what it was. They just described the role - reporting to the board of directors, running the company, all of those sorts of things, and so I applied for it. And then when I got my interview, they will tell you who the company is, and I had to look up what an alpaca was before I went to my interview. I had a general idea that it was kind of like a llama then, but I actually had to look up what an alpaca was so that I knew going into the interview what it was.

Darby: And I always tell people it's kind of funny and I use this in coaching also. So if they had put the name of the organization in, I probably never would have applied for it, because I would have honestly thought, how big can it really be? And I wouldn't have wanted to go somewhere where it was just me and one other person or something really small. And it turns out it was much bigger than I anticipated. And I ended up with multiple locations and we went through an international merger with another organization. And it was an interesting experience. And I certainly learned a lot over that time.

Darby: But again, I never would have anticipated that. And in coming to the end of it, like looking back, I was speaking on alpaca DNA testing. And how to verify or validate parentage and bloodlines. And breeding values and stuff, stuff that I never was educated for early on, that I just had to learn as I went. But again, you just don't really know. So as you are evaluating, you're ready to take that next step. It's different for everybody.

Darby: So like. When I was managing at Kinko's, I just kind of got to the point where I'm like, 'Man, I am ready to be done with this 24 hour management thing and this retail management, it's a lot of work. I mean, at one point I worked a 37 hour day.

Darby: So it was pretty crazy. And I was you know - my wife and I were considering starting a family and all of that. So at that point I was like, you know, I'll start looking around and I saw this role and I'm like, 'That sounds like something that I would like to do, and I've never been in the nonprofit sector, but let's give it a try.' And then kind of the same thing 11 and a half years later, when I was ready to move on, it was a similar thing where I felt like I had done everything that I could do for that organization. I felt like they needed to move on to somebody else and it was time for me to move on as well.

Darby: I also was kind of to the point it was a similar situation where I worked for a board, a nine member board of directors, and I got new board members every year. There would be a few that would switch out every year. So you were constantly getting new bosses. So I was ready to kind of be done with that and I decided, let's go back into the for profit sector. And move on to that. But yeah, you just kind of evaluate it as you move on.

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Ep 387: Should You Bring Investors Into Your Business?

Wed, 20 Apr 2022 10:00:11 +0000

Sean: But what's going to be your advice for me, for example, when I'm faced with these kinds of offers, and let's just say I'm open to it because I wasn't open to it when these companies approached me. So, number one, why would I be open to that? What are some of the good reasons why I should be open to that? And number two, should I give them my information, the books that they're asking for? And why is it that that's the first thing that they're asking for, not your three questions.

Jeremy: The best way to approach this would be looking at this from a time travel perspective, which is if you were to invest and receive an investment of several million dollars this year, and in three years you receive, let's say, $5 million, and in five years receive $10 million, as I say, and eventually receive like $50 million. How big a company is you going to be? That’s really the question, right? Because the truth is if I have a time travel machine and I could be like fast forward and be like, oh, if you take a couple of billion dollars and then later you take a few more rounds as a result of that and you become $1,000,000,000 company. And having only raised, let's say, $20 million in total or $30 million, I'll be like, I'll come back from the future. I'll tell you, 'Hey, Sean, take the money. And by the way, that money comes from me,' right? And then it would be great, you know because then we know that, you know, you're going to become a $1,000,000,000 company, that your fundamentals of the company are geared well for high growth and high profitability and everybody's happy. You walk away rich, and a king and the VC are very rich as well for having the investment. Right. So that's the truth.

Jeremy: The reality is that there's another time travel where you hop into the machine. Right? And you see we fast forward, right? Receive a couple of million dollars and then you raise a couple more million dollars, that's to say. And then it turns out that you're not growing as fast as what the capital requires. Right. And you're not achieving that thing. And truth is, your trajectory is going to become one of the 30 of the 40 that don't succeed at 39 or 40 - that failed to achieve a positive outcome for the capital. And at that time travel you see arguments and debates because the VC put money in you wanting you to become $1,000,000,000 company, but you're failing to achieve it. And so, they argue with you at the board, they are debating with you, you come home and you're beating yourself and you work harder to try to make it better.

Jeremy: The truth is that would be the advice I'd give to the founders that have that time travel machine. It's hard to tell, but the truth is the investors don’t also have a time travel machine - that's why they're talking to you and trying to evaluate you to see if you can do that trajectory. But it takes two hands to clap. Right. And that's really, tough. So, the answer is yes. Let's invent the time-travel machine and let's find out - you know, unfortunately, we don't have one yet. It requires the VCs to be self-aware about that because you know, I try to tell you right now there's a lot of Tier two and Tier three and Tier one VCs who have made bets on the roulette wheel thinking that it would be $1,000,000,000 company. And it doesn't work out because that's the name of the game. The difference is that as a founder, you have one spin of the wheel. And for the VC, they have 20 spins on the wheel, right? There's a very different element of the game and one level, but I've also different level expectations and requirements.

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Ep 386: Investors Look For When Investing In Startups

Tue, 19 Apr 2022 10:00:18 +0000

Sean: If, for example, I approach you and say, Jeremy, I have a startup and I need funds and I know you're an angel investor, what are the questions that you start asking? What are the things that you want to know first?

Jeremy: The first question is, why do you care about this problem? And then the second one is why and how it has become $1,000,000,000 company. And the third is what's the hardest part about this business or how would this company fail?

Jeremy: So, the first is very simple. And you really want to find someone who has found a problem fit. That means, you know, the founders often are looking for a problem market fit, which is what can be built that fits the market that it cares about, and does it make sense from economic basis? But I think as an investor, we're looking for founders who understand what they're building and have empathy for the customers and is willing to tough it through. Right. And I'm not saying that if you don't have found a problem, it doesn't mean that you can't succeed in that. On a net market basis, probably the whole population is probably going to take longer for you to understand problems, is going to take longer for you to build a solution. It's got to be longer for you to fundraise. You know, things are correlated with that. So, understanding founder-problem fit is key.

Jeremy: The second is like, why will this be $1,000,000,000 company? And I think the conversation is there as a form of constructive discussion is like, is this going to be a billion a company and how will it become $1,000,000,000 company? And I think looking for mature, thoughtful discussion to say is, is the market size big enough? Are there competitors? Would this be able to generate monopoly profits over the long term? Those are tough questions that the truth is they don't know, and you don't know.

Jeremy: And the last of course is - if this company is going to fail, how would it fail? What are the proof points? Because the truth again is - the majority default case for most startups is they're going to fail to achieve $1,000,000,000 valuation. And so having that mature discussion, again with the person is like - what are the proof points where if we fail, these are points we fail. So that you are aware as the angel investor that the failure happens at that point in the best-case scenario. And a worst-case scenario that you're using to manage risk and understand what the tricky parts of a business that you need to support them more on if you choose to come in. Right.

Jeremy: And so, you're really looking for someone who has that mature discussion across all three because any day you're not necessarily looking for someone for who delivers three perfect answers to those three things. You’re looking for someone who's mature enough and has hopefully thought through those three aspects about it, about why they care about a problem, about how it would become $1,000,000,000 company and thinking about what they need to avoid or d risk. And you're looking for someone who's thought through those three things. And if you find someone to talk to, those three things actually is choosing one thing. You're choosing a great founder, right? The two questions are not there to find true. Perfect answers are to find a person who you're comfortable collaborating with to help answer those three questions on a recurring basis every year for the next ten years.

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Ep 385: How Jeremy Au Invests In and Grooms His Successor

Fri, 15 Apr 2022 10:00:12 +0000

Sean: I'm wondering, how much autonomy did you give this person? Did you let go of your control of the company to this CEO that you hired? And just to give people like me an idea like how much equity are we talking about when we're going to give them a slice of it? Is it like 1%, 5%, 10%? Hopefully not, but I have no idea. And I'd like to learn from people like you've done it before.

Jeremy: So, I'll give you example would be, you know, if you gave away half the company but the person doubled the size of your company, then you broke even, right. If that makes sense, right. A minimum - right? And so, one way to think about it is if you could find someone who's going to 10X your business, then giving away half company is no big deal because yeah, you know, you grew your stake by 10X, right, you know? Even though you gave up half of it, right. So, you still up by five x, right? So, I think I always tell people is that you want to think about your equity stake and then find someone who is so good, that you think is cheap that you're giving this equity stake to - right. And it's a no brainer.

Jeremy: In terms of like letting go of control. I mean, you know, the funny story is that after that hand over, do the handshake and form team, I went for a solid meditation retreat, you know, and it was like ten days. And I remember, you know, it was my first time that I didn't have a phone, no electronic devices. And it was a pain in the rear, honestly, because there was a lot, and I would, you know, be meditating and visualize my phone vibrating in my pocket, even though I didn't have my phone at all. So, it just goes to show how addicted I was to vibrations and notifications.

Jeremy: And, you know, it's all about letting go and being present in the moment. Yet what was interesting was I remember we got a phone back at the end ten days and I was like, open my, you know, WhatsApp? And I was expecting like a bunch of messages from the new person, you know, to ask me for help. Ask you where stuff is? And zero - there was like zero messages, you know, she had gone off and kept going into everything.

Jeremy: And I remember I felt disappointed, you know, I was like, you know, I mean, obviously, intellectually, you know, it would be great if she did not because she was getting stuff done and everything. But I felt like, unwanted - unneeded I mean, obviously, intellectually, I knew that was good. She got it and she had it under control and things didn't explode in those ten days, you know, and she was off to the races, and she did a better job for the company in the next stage than I could ever have had done. Yet, you know, I was saying, like, it was just interesting to have that dynamic, right? Which was to feel that reluctance. Right. And, you know, having to name that feeling was tough because, you know, I felt lonely. I didn't feel as wanted right? And dethroned, right? You know, like that role. Right. And so letting go of that was actually quite important for me. So, it was just over time just being like, Yeah, you know, you always want to find someone better than you, you know, certain aspects.

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Ep 384: A Founding CEO's Guide to Finding Successors

Thu, 14 Apr 2022 10:00:13 +0000

Sean: But when you hire your own CEO, that means that you found someone who is very capable of replacing you and running the business so that it can work on its own. How did that look like for you? What are some key traits that you were looking for? Was it so expensive to do that?

Jeremy: Yeah, I think the fundamental fact is that, you know, work is work. And, you know, companies are made of people and the environment changes, the company changes, and you change. And so, a lot of people are like stuck in a sense that like, 'okay, I will change when I want to change, right? Or change doesn't happen unless I approve it, or I influence it.' But the truth is, every day, you know, the markets change, your competitors get smarter, your friends have different requirements, your clients choose to do different things. That stuff is really changing. Your company is changing because you're already building company. You put your time and effort and if you have that team, they are themselves making decisions about how to grow, how to get better, how to get smarter. And the company is no longer the company you founded but is now a company that's going on to do things by itself, it has culture, has values and so, so forth. And lastly, you change, right? You know, like you're getting all the time and entropy is happening. And truth is all of us are going to be gone for sure in 100 years.

Jeremy: And the truth is, if you think about it like we must give ourselves permissions that we ourselves are allowed to change, that we can want to do different things, that we want to build different things, that we want to create different things.

Jeremy: You may say, like, I want to do something different, but the company shouldn't change. Then it’s very hard to find someone who's going to be replacing you - I think that's one way you described it. But I always remember my mentor was talking to me and he said, Jeremy, your job is to find a successor who's better than you for this next phase of the company. Because the truth is, at a start of this company, there is no one better than you at the founder in building this first stage of company. But your job is to find a replacement who's going to be better than you.

Jeremy: I think the tricky part that you must do is to say, I'm looking for someone who's better than me for this next phase of the company, because the company has changed, and you look for someone who is better fit for that. And the reason why you're leaving, I would like to leave or find someone is because you don't feel like you're the best person for that job because you may have the skills even, but you maybe don't have the passion anymore for it as well. And that's okay to acknowledge because I mean, you know, in today's world, you know, they say Gen Z and millennials are like switching jobs every two years, right, you know? And then here's the founder CEO hanging out for seven, ten more years. Right. And then, you know, like give me enough clothes to get to explore different things.

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Ep 383: How Your Integrity Keeps Employees Motivated

Wed, 13 Apr 2022 10:00:17 +0000

Sean: When facing obstacles and conflicts, how do you keep your team motivated? Alright, I'll let you answer this first Le-an

Le-an: The interesting thing with 2XYou, Because with 2XYou we only have a few clients who have more than two assistants. Like most of them are like 1 to 1. So when it comes to obstacles and conflicts between the team, there's rarely any, which is, I'm really lucky to say. And usually, one of the things when it comes to motivation, team motivation specifically, I always say that my job as a leader is not to motivate but to inspire. It's to keep reminding them, especially when there are hard days, especially when they're like their family life is mixing with their work life. I always remind them that take it one day at a time, and also to remind them of what they're currently pursuing.

Le-an: One of the things is I always ask when they're starting out is what's their big audacious goal? It's something you're really working towards because then I use that of like, this is what you want. And you said that you wanted this, right? So I'm going to help you the best way that I can to get here. What do you want to do next? So it's, it's again, it's going away from motivating them. Like, 'you want this, right? You want this. Let's do this,' into inspiring of like you want this reminding you that this is what you wanted. So what do you want to do next?

Le-an: So it's more of getting them out of the feeling of 'I'm stuck. I can't do anything. I can't, I'm just here' into like, 'Oh, yeah, I have a dream bigger than this. I have a dream bigger than this small problem, if I get to that point of my dream, this is such a small thing compared to everything else that I want in my life. So it's keeping in mind, again, that it's not my job to motivate them. They're self-motivated. That's why they're in this company. But it's my job to inspire them, to keep them seeing the light at the end of the tunnel if they're having difficulties with work, and just take care of them the best that I can. Like I said when it comes to conflicts rarely so far. Fingers crossed there have been rarely any when it comes to obstacles that do happen, again life and work mix up. But I keep in mind of I always - reminded myself like, 'okay, what was your big audacious goal again? Okay, that one. Yeah, I'll help you realize that and then help you in whatever way that I can to get to that point.'

Sean: I love the Jim Collins reference. So you probably read his books, huh

Le-an: Yeah, I did. I read a ton of books. So sometimes I like to spout out quotes and I'm like, where did I get it from again?

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Ep 382: Choosing The Right VA For Clients

Tue, 12 Apr 2022 10:00:14 +0000

Sean: Next question. This is specifically for you, Ms. Le-an. How do you find the right virtual assistant for your clients? There you go.

Le-an: I have a whole YouTube video on that. Anyway, so the main one is actually the values, that's the biggest one is I do kind of have all of the questions that I have the interview questions when I'm interviewing the potential assistant is based on those five values that we have. And then the other one is before I even hop on the interview, is actually give them a skill test so I can see where their skills are actually at on the tasks that their client would need them to be able to do. One of our policies is that once someone's in they’re in like once they're accepted inside of our company, we take care of them the best way that we can. And even though later on our paths change, they shifted or they're doing this, we still try to part as friends.

Le-an: So we kind of have that as going in your taking care of and going out, you're also taking care of having that cycle, having that good - everyone knows that this is how it's been. We kind of get to have the right people right away. It's easier to filter when people see like, 'Oh, this is not just another. I don't even think of us as a corporate job, this is not just another job that you're getting. You're getting into a company that will take care of you, in the best way that we can. And at the same time, you have to show up in the best way that you can, because then that's the only way that the relationship can work. So basically, it's just a mix of values, skill, and then also taking care on the way in and on the way out.

Sean: And that sounds pretty sweet for people who are going to be applying. And there's a follow-up question about that, how do you know if they're going to be responsible and able to manage their tasks?

Le-an: It's an interesting one because, for me, one of the things that I had to learn really fast, working online, being a remote leader, I just have to trust people like that was the first thing I had to give them. So if they're not being able to manage their tasks, I know that they'll tell me if there's something wrong - I can also tell that's the other side of it. Like, one of the things that we have inside of our company is there - even the assistants that are for our clients, they need to send me a daily report every day. Because of that, I am able to catch like, 'Oh, something wrong? Or They weren't able to manage this,’ and I check in on them.

Le-an: So it's just the mix of trust and also having the systems that even if you trust them 100%, there's still some sort of feedback that you receive that you're able to see like, oh, someone's not being able to do as well as they can. And then I go ahead and schedule a coaching call with them. So it's making sure that you do the feedback as fast as you can. This is the fastest way someone can grow and then just giving trust out front, because no one is supposed to really earn your trust, especially as an employee, because you are literally trusting them, at least for me, to another client who's paying us to take care of them. So that's kind of my logic of like I just trust them right away. If I can see any red flags and give them the feedback and usually nine out of ten, like 9.5 out of ten, it works out every time.

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Ep 381: WFH: Balancing Trust and Workplace System

Fri, 08 Apr 2022 10:00:13 +0000

Sean: All right. Next question. As a leader, how do you manage a team or a team member that broke your trust? There we go.

Le-an: Very interesting question. So like I mentioned, I've had times in my leadership that - I've been very honest with this with people, they know - mostly if they ask some things, I do forget because I don't know. I don't know how to bring that up. But like, whenever people break the trust, there is usually like, I always give people the benefit of the doubt. That's one of the things that my mom taught me over and over again is always giving people the benefit of the doubt. There's always more to the story that you see. And when I was at a very short stint as a journalist, I also learned the lesson that people might, will say something on the surface, but something else is going on.

Le-an: So usually when people break my trust, I know that something might have gone wrong, that they're either too shy to admit it or they're too ashamed to admit it. So then I give them that space of like, okay, basically I give them that feedback of you admit that something did go wrong and you didn't you weren't able to tell me or you broke my trust in this way. Are you still going to do this going forward? Of course. Nine out of ten, they'll say, 'yes, I won't do this moving forward.' But then the next time that it does happen, you already had that commitment with them, that they know that what they did was wrong and they broke your trust. And they also agreed, even though it might have been half-heartedly, that 'I will not do this again and they do it again.' That's now up to them. That's not any more me. That's not anymore, like anything that the company was doing. It's now their responsibility to live up to their words.

Le-an: So whenever the second time opens, usually they're really nice, and then usually sooner or later they actually let themselves out. That's one of the things I've seen multiple times is then they see like, 'Oh crap, they're not going to trust me anymore to do this. I'm just going to go.' So that's kind of the natural thing that does happen.

Sean: Yeah. Yeah. And it's always really good when they show themselves the door because we don't have to do all of this government-required stuff and, you know, giving them something, even if they're the ones who screwed up. Good answer. Good answer.

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Ep 380: 3 Lessons New Business Owners Should Learn

Thu, 07 Apr 2022 10:00:12 +0000

Sean: From Alana, what lessons you've learned from your past mistakes can you advise a new business owner?

Le-an: I've been a business owner for like six, seven years now, for like multiple different businesses. There's a ton. I think I'll pick my top three. One is, to surround yourself with the right people, which is what we've been talking about this whole time, is you could have the best copywriter, you could have the best web designer, you could have the best marketer. If they don't have the right personality, if they're not the right people for you, whatever business that you're trying to do, that's just going to fall apart in a few months. It'll have a high, sure - because you have the best people, but then it's going to fizzle out really quickly. That was one of the reasons why I had problems with other employees before, was - that I didn't have a set of values. I didn't have the clarity of who did I really want to work with. And that's how the toxicity started and how all of the other stuff that I was talking about happened was, because I didn't myself have the clarity of who I wanted to work with.

Le-an: Second is to learn from the mistakes of others, which is again books, courses, TED talks, watching out for the people that you like their books, and then watching their interviews. So it's learning from mentors even though you never will really meet them. And then if you can, get an actual mentor also in person who can - have years of experience for the new, and who can advise you on their mistakes and then so you can skip it.

Le-an: And the third one is to - this is a little bit soppy and more for - something I realized as a female leader, not really as a general leader, but just keep in mind to take care of yourself. Like I am such a giver like I have that as one of the things that I know is part of my core, it's just I always try to give, as an ate as like, you know, 'Ate I need this' - 'here you go,' 'Ate I need that' - 'here you go.' I have to keep in mind of setting boundaries and also taking care of myself and being an 'ate' to myself. Like I know if I am not being able to sleep right, I know something's wrong. I'm not able to do my morning routine. Something is wrong. So as a leader, you can only show up as much as what you have in you, what you have inside of you. And if you don't take care of yourself in the right way, you're neglecting your sleep, neglecting yourself, neglecting your own needs because you want to make sure that everything works out fine for your business. The reality is you keep doing that, then even if you have this billion-dollar business, but you're kind of dying that it's not worth it at all. So just find the things, as I said earlier, find the things that you find joy with that you enjoy doing to take care of yourself, to kind of do that refill before you start giving again.

Sean: Yeah. Kind of dying, sounds like a sucky plan, right?

Le-an: Yeah, exactly.

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Ep 379: Stay Curious: A Leader's Best Attribute

Wed, 06 Apr 2022 10:00:12 +0000

Sean: From Pam. What are the most important attributes of successful leaders today? Alright. Very good question. What is it for you Le-an?

Le-an: Someone's always curious? That's the biggest - that's one of my core values, is if you want to be successful in anything, whether you want to be a successful leader, you want to be a successful entrepreneur or you just want to be successful at your job. You have to stay curious. You have to be the kind of person who what you see isn't you know, it's not what you get. You know that there's always something that you could chase, you can improve, or you can upgrade, or even replace altogether.

Le-an: And there's always more and more combinations that you never see. So if you're always curious, if you're always trying to see if there's a better way to do what you're currently doing, it's so much easier for you to succeed, especially as a leader, because then you are also open to the different personalities that you'll have, the different projects, the different, you know, at least for me versus assistant kind of personality. Whenever I see that there is some sort of schism, basically not a full conflict between a client and an assistant, I go in and like, why is this happening? What is something that you're saying that they're understanding differently just because of the cultural differences? So it's giving that space that there's always something to learn. There's always something to explore and dive into and to never really take things as just as what it is.

Sean: So Curiosity being an internal student or - in SEO Hacker, how we call it, is having a beginner's mindset that is very important as a leader and that takes humility as well. So I would say humility is one of the biggest, most important attributes of being a leader. And we tackled that in the question earlier of what if it gets to your head? So you have to have the humility to know that I'm not the alpha male here, I'm not the biggest name boss here around. I'm here to serve my people and to make sure I clear obstacles for them so they can do their best work. That's why you hired them. That's why you want the dream team. That's why you built this company. And if you don't have the humility, guess what happens? You yourself will burn your company to the ground. And that's the most horrifying thing that you're going to be telling your grandchildren. Right.

Sean: So it's humility, for Le-an, curiosity. I would add another one. And this also is very important for me, integrity. You as a leader should be a one-man person. You have to practice the one-man principle. Integrity is a word that comes from the root word integer, which means one or hole. When you're not a whole person, you're different at home, you're different at work. And at work, you're different from person A and person B, that's a red flag. You're not going to be a leader for long, and you're also going to be burning your company to the ground. Because no one likes a person who is not authentic.

Sean: So integrity is very important, both with your people and your clients. Clients will not hire someone or a company who they know doesn't have integrity. And integrity, the problem with it is it's either you have it or you don't. Because it's either one or zero. If your decimal places, it's also not being an integer. That's also not being an integer. So that's also not integrity.

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Ep 378: Getting Out of Your Head as a Leader

Tue, 05 Apr 2022 10:00:23 +0000

Sean: How do you prevent the power of being a leader from getting to your head? Alright, this is about ego.

Le-an: Yeah, that goes back to the beginning of my story of like - when I became CEO, I was 20 years old when I became CEO. And I let the power go into my head immediately, and I had to be brought down also immediately. Basically, the fastest way to do that is to realize that you are not the person anymore who is going to create the results. You're actually the support now for the people who are creating the results. So that's the biggest thing that I still carry to this day is that I am only as good as the people that I support that I work with. That was the one that brought me down of realizing, 'oh, no, yeah, I might have been this amazing employee when I was still the employee. But now that I'm the leader, I can't think that way anymore. It's going to hurt me more and it's going to hurt other people as well.

Le-an: So that was the biggest one of like, I was no one, that was kind of the thought in my head. I was really no one. I became CEO. Yes, because of hard work, but I still had a lot more to grow and improve. And also just keep that in mind of like - I can only be or the company can only be as successful as the people that I work with and the people I support.

Sean: That's very good. And we have a lot of things in common, how we think and our weaknesses. So there were points in my leadership when it gets to my head, especially when people are just straight up going against the tide, you know, it ticks me off. So those are the times that I snap and it gets to my head and I just tell them off. I'm more of a straight shooter, so I could really pierce some people and upset them with my words. And those are the times that I would say, if I could turn back time and change them, I would change them and handle it very differently.

Sean: And you're right in saying that if you realize that a CEO, the endgame is you're going to be helping your people and serving them rather than you being served rather than you doing the work. Then that really changes your perspective and helps you to realize that, 'Oh, okay, if I let this get into my head, I'm going to be doing this all my life until the day I die. I'm going to be working like a horse.' And that's not the future that I desire. Right? So we have to change and adapt and humble ourselves there.

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Ep 377: Learn to Embrace Adversity with Resilience

Fri, 01 Apr 2022 10:00:16 +0000

Sean: There are some things that for me are extremely difficult for someone to be able to do. And I would say that I know human nature to do to a certain degree, I am a lot younger than you are. So I know you have much more wisdom to share and, you know, human nature much more than I do because you've read tons of books. I haven't read any of them. But I know that when you have that kind of discipline, that means you have extremely strong areas of discipline in other areas of your personal life. Can you share some of that with us?

Dave: And so for a lot of my life, I was effectively kind of an outsider. And I think that that fundamentally was a blessing, not a curse for me because it taught me to be very introspective and very observant of human nature, as well as it gave me a really, really thick skin and frankly speaking, not giving a darn about what other people think of me. And so I know that it's really hard. I know it's really hard not to get caught up in what other people think of you, what other people are doing, how you measure yourself about other people. But I fundamentally think I was blessed because I really don't care about that stuff. And I think it goes back to this notion that - for a lot of my life I was effectively alone. Like I was not part of the crowd. I was not one of the cool kids. You know, I had these scars. I was fat. I was obese. Right. Like I was definitely not part of the crowd. I think that actually built resilience in me, which actually propelled me through my career.

Dave: And I would say that thematically, I have seen something very similar among people that are very successful. I'm not saying that they have the same thing as me, but I think that when you deal with some level of adversity, that tends to isolate you. I think that there are kind of like two major reactions, actually. One is they don't maximize their potential and they live tough lives. Right. But for many of the successful people I know who dealt with that type of adversity, it actually hardens them and makes them plow their own path and not care about what anybody else thinks. And so, unfortunately, if you're not born with tremendous adversity, I think you have to think about how to manufacture it. But I think that that's fundamentally what really helped me and not really caring about what other people think and also helping me be very mindful and disciplined about what I wanted to accomplish.

Dave: Because one of the things that I realized when I was a junior person and I was still kind of introverted and not very outspoken, was that if I didn't take ownership of my career and fundamentally change and break some of these stereotypes, I was going to end up in an office dungeon for the rest of my life. I was going to end up being a junior guy crunching away on spreadsheets that nobody cared about, was highly replaceable, and probably underpaid. And I didn't want that for myself. I wanted to ultimately become a senior leader and be really successful. And so I took it upon myself to isolate those skill gaps that I had, whether it be salesmanship or gregariousness, or presentation skills. And I practice and practice those like crazy, just constantly, just like, you know, a basketball player after a game shooting a thousand hoops, I would do the same thing. I would practice presenting in front of mirrors, in front of my dog, in front of my family. Right. I would. I would really analyze the data around like - is my methodology working is effective and I would analyze that and I would iterate, but I think the root of it all comes down to my own resilience, from my own upbringing and really trying to take ownership of my life and not worrying about what other people think.

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Ep 376: Fight Racism: Support #StopAsianHate movement

Thu, 31 Mar 2022 10:00:13 +0000

Sean: Hey, Dave. Just want to say you're a modern-day hero to a lot of people.

Dave: I'm not a hero. I'm just someone that's trying to give back in a really small way. And it's really one of the prongs of my efforts around helping the community, particularly the Asian-American community. I would say, you know, we can talk more about it, but there are really three things I'm really focused on. One is helping Asians get more economic power. And unfortunately, not all of us will be Jerry Yang or Eric Yuan of Zoom. Most of us will work in companies, and most of us will need to figure out how to rise the corporate ladder. And so this book is really my gift to people trying to better themselves economically by rising the corporate ladder.

Dave: The second major area of focus for me is really around policy and politics, but from a new standpoint. So I'm the vice-chairman of one of the leading Asian-American news sites in the U.S. called Asia AM News, ASAMNew.com. And we're a volunteer network. We're nonprofit, but we want to keep reporting stories that are important to the Asian community. And if you have been tracking, for instance, #StopAsianHate before, some of the more tragic events with Michelle Go and Christina Euna Lee, before those events, the mainstream news had actually stopped really reporting on Asian hate crimes. And I think there was a general perception among non-Asians that the Asian hate crimes have subsided. And in fact, that's not true at all. In fact, they've actually gotten worse. And we were one of the few news outlets that continue to report on it. So it just illustrates to me that we need a source of news for our community that will continue to report on the news that's important to us when all the other mass news outlets have gone away. So that's kind of the second major focus of mine.

Dave: And then the third is entertainment. So I'm a big believer that we need to get more Asian faces and more Asian voices in the media. Otherwise, particularly in America, we will continue to be viewed as the other, will continue to be viewed as a foreigner. And so I've been working with media production companies that are primarily founded by Asian-Americans. I've helped finance them. I've helped advise them as well as I just started a new company called Reel 8 - Reel8.com where we've effectively built an NFT marketplace for Asian filmmakers to help Asian filmmakers further monetize their films. So that just kind of gives you a more holistic sense of the things that I'm focused on. And you can get a sense of the commonality is that I'm trying to help the Asian community, and that's a big focus of mine, not the least of which is because I have two boys and I want to make the world a little bit better for them when they become adults and grow older.

Sean: For sure. For sure. And by the way, thank you so much for doing the work for me. I have two boys as well and I'll just ask them to read your book when they grow up. But I'll get a copy for sure. I want to read it. I'm very interested in it.

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Ep 375: How Comparison Steals Joy From Self-Achievement

Wed, 30 Mar 2022 10:00:17 +0000

Sean: You don't need to tell us the number, but how many months of your personal expense would that be before you finally threw in the towel?

Dave: Yeah, it's a little different than that. The way I do things is I and I advocate this actually for people that are looking for yield and chasing opportunities, investment opportunities. I think that fundamentally when you chase investment opportunity, I think you're actually missing the boat. I think you're fundamentally potentially making the ultimate sin, which is trying to keep up with the Joneses. And I think trying to keep up with the Joneses is the most insidious thing you can do in your life. It's the thing that frankly contributes to, I think, the most unhappiness, because then it results in situations where no matter how much money or how much power or how much prestige you have, you're always worrying about what the Joneses are up to. You're always worried about, do they have more money than me? Are they more powerful than me? Are they more famous than me? Do they have more followers than me? And I think that fundamentally becomes a root of unhappiness.

Dave: And I think that a lot of people, particularly on the investing side, get caught up in, 'hey, my buddy at the country club made 10x money or 100x money on some bitcoin investment. I should be doing the same thing.' Or 'my neighbor down the street was telling me about some stock he bought and that really chops me because like I should about that stock.' Right? So the way I think about the amount that you really need to retire and walk away is your personal cost of capital. And everyone's personal cost of capital is different. I happen to be in a situation where I actually grew up in poverty and I know what it's like to make $3.35 an hour cleaning toilets because that's what I did. I worked at Safeway and I was a bagger and I was a janitor making $3.35 an hour.

Dave: And so I always thought about, okay, how much money do I need, Dave Liu, how much money do I need to live and what rate of return do I need to generate in order to hit my personal cost capital? And the reality is, for me, even though I was this big managing director and co-head of an industry group, I lived and continue to live a very modest life. I remember when many of my other managing directors were driving, you know, seven series, BMW, Mercedes, Ferraris, high-speed sports cars. I was driving around in a $20,000 Honda S2000, and many of my partners were making fun of me. Like, dude, like, what are you doing? Like, why don't you go buy a Lamborghini or a Ferrari? And I said, No, I don't want to. Because at some point I want to be able to walk away from this place and I want to make sure that I have a certain lifestyle that I can finance through a modest rate of return on my portfolio without having to work, without having to deal with the rat race.

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Ep 374: Launching a Start-Up at 40

Tue, 29 Mar 2022 10:00:20 +0000

Sean: And I know you mentioned that it took three years for you to turn over everything and for you to make sure that you're leaving on a good note, what hinted you that it's high time to do this now and then on the third year, what made you realize that? Okay, you can't wait any longer - you just have to do this?

David: Yes. So I would say that it was actually in the running you know, I was planning to do this for quite some time. And one of the things that I advocate to young people in their career, which I practiced, was observation and really studying the path ahead of you and determining whether that's a path that you want. As I mentioned earlier, you know, I wrote a book and I have a chapter in my book where I talk about this notion, of mapping the salt mine when you first join an organization. And it always surprised me how many people join a company, start a career, and don't really spend a lot of time understanding what their boss does or even their bosses boss does. And the reason why that is really shocking to me, is that if you're going to invest years, maybe potentially tens of years of your life in a company, don't you want to know where the career ends up? Like, don't you want to know what you're fighting for?

David: And so in my early thirties I started to plan out my own path and my career, and I decided that what I was going to do was I was going to squirrel away enough money so that by the time I hit 40, I would have the option to walk away or have the option to spend more time with my family if I wanted. And so my thirties were really all about maximizing my earnings potential and salting away as much savings as I could so that by the time I turned 40, I would be able to say, you know, this is not for me anymore and I want to do something else.

David: And so when I did turn 40, I finally hit the number that I was seeking in my bank account. I finally hit that hurdle rate that I needed to be able to walk away. And at that point, there were really no excuses for myself. It was like, okay, you got to that number. You saved enough money. You live a modest lifestyle. If you're going to stick around and potentially become that cliche, who is not around for their kids. Then you have nobody to blame but yourself. So at that point, I decided, you know what, I think it's really time for me to pursue something else in the second half of my life. And family is going to come, number one, and then entrepreneurship is going to come number two.

David: It took a full three years before we could find a replacement and I felt that the franchise was in good hands. But I have no regrets. I was able to leave on my own terms as well as leave on good terms with the firm. And I think that bears dividends throughout your career. And so I always advocate to people, if you're going to leave your company, try to leave on good terms because the world is a very small place and you never know when your past will cross again with the people that you worked with. And you never know when you'll need a good recommendation or suggestion on something - related to your career down the road.

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Ep 373: How To Be Good at Hiring People

Fri, 25 Mar 2022 10:00:17 +0000

Sean: And I'm wondering, aren't a lot of companies good at hiring people? A lot of companies have their HR team?

Ugis: Oh, they're terrible. Terrible. They don't know what they're doing.

Sean: Why is - why is it?

Ugis: I don't know. That's why I have my business. I really don't know. Well, first of all, you have to try. And a lot of people just think, "okay, you know, for some reason, this is not that important. I'll never understand it. But outside of sales, I mean, I struggle, maybe product - I struggle to think, what's anything else that's more important than the business? And if you don't hire right, most likely your sales team is not going to be right. Your product is not going to be right.

Ugis: So you know, you can't even separate those two few things. For some reason, people just don't prioritize it. They think, Yeah, it's going to happen. It's going to be fine. That's, you know, if you want to create a nice business, that's just not how you do it. And then okay, let's say you have the first step down. You're trying and that's already good and it's already more than what most people do. You just need repetition. You need to do it a few times. Make some mistakes. Learn from them. Get better.

Ugis: And you know, being a business owner, everyone wants the kind of overnight success. But in reality, it just takes some years to get there. Read books, listen to other people. Tried to shortcut some of those years, so you don't have to take like six or seven years like I had to. Maybe, maybe you'll get there in a year or two.

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Ep 372: The Role of Company Culture in Hiring A-Players

Thu, 24 Mar 2022 10:01:16 +0000

Sean: And what would be some of your best tips? And I'm not sure if you're going to be monitoring the A-player all the way, but a lot of companies also suffer from attrition. And I'm wondering if you hire an A-player, how do you best keep an A-player in the team?

Ugis: I can't say it's necessarily my specialty, but at the same time, I've been a business owner and that's kind of a really important topic. You know, it's again, everyone knows the things that should be done. It's kind of, you know, if you've been on LinkedIn for five minutes, someone's blasting in your face. This is how you make a great culture and they're not wrong. The problem is that it's just not easy to do.

Ugis: So you have to be kind of - your company culture and making sure it's really, really good. I mean, some of the things, some of the practicalities, I think the listeners will have heard them before, but you know, I'd like to provide structure, kind of make sure I'd check in on people regularly, I listen to their feedback. They always know their goals. Another thing that's really important to me and many of these A-player is a meritocracy. Or, you know, a fancy word for saying, if you deliver results, you move up in the company, you get more responsibilities. No toxicity. You know, it's someone's rude or anything like that. You just don't allow it, that's not okay.

Ugis: People, especially big trend these days is flexibility, so let people schedule their own time to work. You still want them to do full-time work, and most people are fine with that if you're hiring full-time, of course. But yeah, if you're allowed them to design their own schedule, even their own way of working kind of, the best people really enjoyed and they appreciate it, and that's what they're looking for. And yeah, if you have some sort of fun elements and sort of company culture, or some sort of events online, in person, that's also a bonus.

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Ep 371: What Is An A-Player?

Wed, 23 Mar 2022 10:07:11 +0000

Sean: And I love the definition that you gave earlier for what an A-player is. Can you define that for the listeners?

Ugis: Yeah, absolutely. And just kind of as a side or background, you know, it is a job market, we call it the job market. And when you go to the market and you're shopping, one of the things that you're looking for is the best prices as well? So that's a part of, you know, getting a good deal and that's a part of what I help my clients get.

Ugis: But how do we define A-player? They don't need to be, you know, have this like high credentials or high pay or anything like that. Actually, high paying can hurt, as I just mentioned. How we define A-player is someone who is in the top 10 of the people who are willing and able to do the work that you want them to do, at the pay rate that you have in mind. So even if you have planned a really low salary, that can be fine if you truly know that's what you want to do because you're still going to select one of the - someone in the top 10 percent for that range.

Sean: I want to start with what you mentioned earlier, which are the job ads? All companies pretty much run job ads now today. Right? I don't know if you agree, but a lot of companies, if not a majority or if not all companies run some sort of job ads, either it's going to be in front of their store or in the newspaper or online. A lot of companies I know to do it online.

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Ep: 370: Motivation and Inspiration Source

Tue, 22 Mar 2022 10:00:15 +0000

Sean: What do you do if you feel uninspired or demotivated to carry on?

Sean: I list down 20 things I'm thankful for and I would thank God for them out loud. That always gets me going. How about you, Karlo?

Karlo: Yeah, that's true. I agree with what you mentioned Sean because I love this principle. It's about thanks-living. It's about being grateful and counting all the blessings that you have right now. And of course, going back with your 'why' in your life. 'Why' you are doing things that you're doing because you want to help your family, you want to bless the community. So I always go out with my own desire and whenever I look at the people around I become motivated. Though, sometimes it's okay not to be oka,y because there will be down moments. But as long as you have people around you, and your families around you, you can be motivated again. And so like what Sean mentioned, you need to always count your blessings.

Sean: Yeah. Motion before emotion, right? Action before inspiration. Make sure you act first. So list down those 20 things, I'm sure you could think of 20 things right now. I'm thankful that I'm alive. I'm breathing. I'm not sick. My family's not sick. I have a roof over my head. So there are so many things to be thankful for. When you remember those things, you feel a lot better. You feel a lot more motivated to do stuff, that for me, always works, and I hope that works for you as well.

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Ep: 369: The Root Causes of Materialism

Fri, 18 Mar 2022 10:00:13 +0000

Sean: Causes for a person to be materialistic?

Sean: I'd say two things. Number one is greed. Number two is lust. That's it. When you lust for things, you want to get them. You want to buy it. You want to own it. And when you have a lot of lust for things, that's greed. So I think those are two causes.

Sean: The root cause would be the heart. The Book of Jeremiah Chapter 17 says, the heart is deceitful above all things and desperately sick, who can understand it. I can understand it sometimes and want to buy stuff. I don't even know why I want to buy stuff, even if it's not to impress other people. It's just sometimes you want to buy something useless. You know, I don't understand why I'm like that sometimes. Thankfully, ninety-nine point nine percent of the time I refrain from buying that thing. But yeah, so that's my take on that.

Sean: How can one get over materialism?

Sean: Have an eternal perspective. If you know that everything's going to burn at the end of the day, then you're not going to invest in this world, and the stuff's in this world, you're going to give. Like 10 percent, I give the God of everything I make. And then I also give to other people like pastors, missionaries to help further God's kingdom. And yeah, I make it a habit to give every month. And I know a lot of people who also have that much faith that they give their tithes and then they give and support pastors and missionaries as well. And God has blessed those people immensely. And I want to be as blessed as they also. The Bible says, give - literally, the Bible says this give and it will come back to you. Good measure. Pressed down, shaken together, running over, overflowing. So that's God's word, that God's promise. If you believe that, then it's going to be true for you. I know it's true for me. And the question is, is going to be true for you, right?

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Ep: 368: Personal Emergency Funds How-To

Thu, 17 Mar 2022 10:00:15 +0000

Sean: Is it important to save for an emergency fund within your monthly budget?

Sean: Short answer to that is yes, and the explanation is when tough times come so that you'll not be taking a loan and be indebted with the interest, you should have an emergency fund.

Sean: For sure, and you know, a lot of people who have emergency funds, if you're single, it's usually because of when you lose your job in the rare case, in the rare event that you lose your job and you didn't plan it, you know you got fired, you got laid off, you have X number of months for you decided to apply to numerous other places, and you can choose.

Sean: Unlike when you lose it suddenly, and it's not your choice and you were shocked. Now you're going to have to bite the next hook, you know, and sometimes that next hook is not the best hook. It sucks. It's not a job that you want to be in. So that's actually a very good reason to keep an emergency fund. But with what Karlo said, there are different strokes for different folks. It's different 'whys' for each person, could be your family, could be a career, could be anything.

Karlo: That's right Sean, it is very important, and especially nowadays, there's a lot of uncertainties.

Sean: Yeah, I heard that the emergency fund that is advisable turned from three months into one year's worth, because of the pandemic.

Karlo: A good story could be the ants, you know. Like the ants they are saving during the sunny days, saving their food and resources so that when rainy days come by, they are prepared, they can still eat their food and survive. So it's the same thing with us. We need to save during the sunny days or during the good times.

Sean: Yeah, for sure, 100 percent. All right, Karlo, what really is it?

Karlo: When it comes to personal emergency funds, we need to know our big "why". Why are we doing it? As Simon Sinek mentioned in his book. We need to start with the 'why' also, in saving money and building our emergency funds. If you're a family man like me, of course, you need to prioritize your family in case of uncertainties. Just like what's happened to this pandemic, a lot of people lose their jobs and some had a salary cut. And so when you have savings or personal emergency funds, you will always go back to your 'why'. Is it your family? Is your organization where you are part of? Or maybe you are helping with some volunteer activities as well?

Karlo: So once your 'why' is clear, you will be motivated despite the challenges because challenges will really be there. There will be uncalculated scenarios, no matter how much we plan, there are just some things that cannot be calculated. But if we are prepared, somehow we can utilize our resources. Just like what Sean mentioned, we are after stewardship. We are entrusted with the resources that we have right now, and so we can use those resources to bless our family, our community, and whatever your motivation is, which is your big 'why'. So I believe that will be our motivation, which we should keep in our mind.

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Ep: 367: Creating Safe Space for Employees

Wed, 16 Mar 2022 10:00:17 +0000

Sean: How can I encourage my team members to speak up?

Sean: They're comfortable talking to me, but it becomes a challenge when we ask them to speak their mind in an app or platform. I guess you have to first, create a culture of safety, an environment of safety where people can speak up. That doesn't mean they're not going to be responsible about what they say, they have to be responsible about what they say. They can't just say things like, they can't just tell you that I feel like resigning and I feel like this, this, and this also feels the same way. Like they can't just say that, they have to qualify it really well. So those are things that they have to take responsibility for.

Sean: All I'm saying is when you create a culture of safety, a psychologically safe zone where people can tell you stuff, they still have to be responsible about what they say. They can't cuss you, they can't say bad things to you. They have to respect you. They cannot behave in a way that is going to be a form of misconduct.

Sean: So that said, make sure that as a leader, you listen to your people. And when I say, listen, you don't just listen with your ears, you listen with your hands also, you act on what it is that they're saying if it makes sense. If it makes business sense if it makes team sense if it makes cultural sense to your team. So I'm not telling you to be a subservient CEO or a subservient leader - that you are going to follow everything that they say, if that's the case you should have just worked as an employee rather than a CEO. You have to make sure that you are making the critical decisions that are best for the entire team, not just for one or two people who are telling you their opinions in that circle of the safety zone.

Sean: So it is a tough dance that you have to do as a leader, but people will speak up if they know that you listen, you have a sound mind, you have wisdom, the wisdom of God and you actually act on the things that make a lot of sense for everyone. I think in SEO-Hacker, that's the kind of culture we have. People just speak up. They tell us what they think. In fact, they rate the management, they rate me and the other leaders. Can you believe that? Every month we get that twice, and when we get scores around 7 and 8 we already get weary? That's how we are as leaders and we really act on what we can.

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Ep: 366: Top Investment Assets for Beginners

Tue, 15 Mar 2022 10:00:11 +0000

Sean: OK. If someone is interested in trying out multiple investments, which one would you recommend?

Karlo: What we always say to our clients as financial planners, is to always invest in an instrument that you understand, do not invest in something that you understand because there are a lot of platforms at this point in time. There are a lot of new platforms that are upcoming, and many people are hyped about it. But that is what we're trying to avoid, it might be a good platform but if you don't fully understand it, you might lose money. So you need to understand a particular investment first.

Karlo: I suggest, starting with a simple one, of course before investing, you need to have an emergency fund. You need to have protection from life risks. So we are teaching it on a step-by-step approach because what happens Sean, is if we dive in investments right away without savings or protection, we might really lose our money because there are risks involved in investing. But once you understand a particular platform, for example, you understand mutual funds, stock market, or even cryptocurrency, you have some parameters. You have some strategies when to cut the loss or realizing game. Maybe you can do it one step at a time.

Karlo: So investing you should focus first on one platform and then eventually you can diversify because diversification is very important to manage the risk. Because our goal is to maximize profits and minimize the risk. Nowadays, a lot of people are being hyped. For example, there's a newly launched platform, people say "let's invest in that, we'll become rich for sure." But that's not really investing, we need to know that there are risks involved, and I know a lot of people who already lost their money because - first, that person did not understand the platform. When investing, it is important to study the platform, once you have a certain volume, maybe you can go for the next platform.

Sean: Yeah, completely agree. In my opinion, one of the easiest ways to start for me is the stock market. Easiest because you can do it yourself, there are so many resources out there. I personally learned from Marvin Germo. I attended his Stock Smarts seminar when he was doing it live, I'm a big fan of his work, his books, and I cannot recommend him enough. Like, if you want to learn about stocks, he is the go-to guy, and the technical and fundamental analysis that I know now is because of him.

Sean: Right now, stocks are doing better - earlier this year. So if you're starting out, now's a really good time. But also invest first in herein, what you know, how much you know about the platform, right? If you're going to trade stocks. Study fundamental and technical analysis first. Don't just buy stocks because someone told you to buy stuff. Crypto is very high risk.

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Ep: 365: Money Habits and Personal Finance

Fri, 11 Mar 2022 10:00:08 +0000

Sean: What are some spending habits we should avoid to help us grow our income? I will let you go first, brother.

Karlo: Well, that's a very good question, yeah? It's really about our habits, well, maybe being unaware of where your money is going, because right now because of the online platforms, it's much easier to just buy and spend right? Then out of nowhere, someone will be knocking at your door saying that they have a package for you. So I think we need to set some limits. We need to be aware. For example, we want to buy things online. You should set around three to five thousand and limit, depending on your capacity of course.

Karlo: Because the moment that we become unaware of our spending, we often get carried away, right? Or maybe for some, by using their credit cards because they can just swipe their cards easily, especially if they really want that certain thing. So, we are becoming unaware of where our money is going.

Karlo: So I believe we need to be aware and we need to set some limits. If we don't set or have ourselves these 'limits', we'll easily be carried away. And of course, 'accountability' or the lack of 'accountability. Maybe if you're still single, you need to have someone who can check your finances, or who can just ask you about your financial management. And the moment that we lose our accountability, is also the time that we will become unaware of our spending.

Sean: That's good. And I'm going to just add on that - the mindset of our money not being ours, you know. I'm a man of faith and what I share is only stuff I really believe in, and what I believe in about money, and about business is we're just stewards. We're not really the owners of our money and our businesses. It's God who owns it, and we're just managing it for Him. So if you see it that way, you will really not spend needlessly. You will not spend out of wants, don't spend 'wantonly' like, "if I like something, I'll just buy it, that's the ultimate decision."

Sean: And that's not how we should do it. If it's a major purchase, meaning it's 10, 20, 30 percent of your income, or of your capital, your savings, you have to pray about it. Don't spend wantonly. But if it is, you know, if you're buying chewing gum, just buy the chewing gum, right? So it depends on how big the purchase is going to be but always be disciplined in how you're spending and always realize that it is a matter of faith. It is a faith-based decision, especially if it's a big amount.

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Ep: 364: How To Plan Your Content on Podcast

Thu, 10 Mar 2022 10:00:11 +0000

Sean: How do you plan all your content as a podcaster?

Edwin: Real quickly. In my podcast, I planned around amazing conversations when I initially launched. And it was very intentional when I launched, I was looking to get to the Big Tech founders here in Toronto, Canada, and the US. Because it was very specific to business leaders, the business leadership genre is a very big space. But if you look at the people I interviewed, you could see there's some intention behind it than most of the companies they were in are tech businesses. And if it wasn't a tech business, it was a tech role or very specific. So that was my intention, how I created that. I've done many other podcasts now. When I got inspired, I did one on Spotify in December after we spoke to Sean and it's called "20."

Edwin: And that's sort of me dabbling in my creative side. But it was a very specific topic on "20" because it was COVID. I wanted to share the five things I learned in 2020. And most people, I'm sure Sean, you've seen this where people at the end of the year, they'll write a blog and they'll write this, they'll do an Instagram Story and they'll do this. So what I did, as is I'm going to do a five-episode mini-series of the top five things I learned in 2020. Like, I literally did it over the weekend. I was so inspired. I allowed myself to geek out on the downtime of the holidays. That's how I planned that

Sean: Amazing answer, dude. That's really, really good. I wish I could say the same for me and Leadership Stack, but how we plan our content is we get a lot of people contacting us for guesting so LinkedIn, email. I don't even know how to get in touch with us. I don't even know how they find out about the podcast, but we got a lot of people wanting to guest the podcast and we just schedule them out. We figure out who the best ones are and we schedule them.

Sean: And also we figure out which ones would be able to work on my time because I'm also a very busy person, especially now when digital marketing is catching up, it's catching up. We're very late here in the Philippines, so now it's catching up surprisingly or unsurprisingly because of the pandemic last year. And we're just trying to schedule the best ones for me to be able to interview, when the date and time are set, I proceed to research about the person. Then I proceed to write questions and then brief the person, the guest on how the show goes.

Sean: We also do the AMA's, the Leadership Stack lives like this episode, and this is going to be turned into an episode on Spotify and YouTube as well because of the content that we're able to produce with your help and questions. So this episode is going to be there someday. I don't know, two or three months from now, you're going to see Edwin again, recorded and YouTube and Spotify. That is how we do it. So there's not as much thought, effort, and preparation as Edwin do for his podcast, and I'm sure his podcast has a lot of beautiful episodes that you'll learn a lot from because of the - you know, Seth Godin who doesn't want to hear Seth Godin, right? I got to hear that brother.

Sean: And yeah, we the podcasts that we do, we also want to make sure that it's also bite-sized, like what Edwin did. By the way, this is the best way to do a podcast or piece of content, whether it's written, it's a video or it's a podcast - when you're inspired, don't let that inspiration go when you're inspired. Grab that moment and produce. That's the best stuff you're going to be able to produce out there. So 100 percent agree with you there, brother.

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Ep: 363: 2 Key Must-Have Characteristics of a Leader

Wed, 09 Mar 2022 10:01:55 +0000

Sean: From your experiences meeting different leaders, what are the qualities all leaders need to have? Wow, big question.

Edwin: I think I've interviewed almost 200 business leaders on my podcast called the Business Leadership Podcast and everything from super excited tech founders. But what I find is that they are visionary in the sense that they know what they want to achieve, but they are also humble, and empathetic that they don't know everything. So they want to build a super team around them, and they want to have them and treat them like, you know, with respect and want to empower them and get them out of the way.

Edwin: But that's what I find, really quickly in terms of what is like - to get out of your own ego. And you know, we all love the title CEO-Founder. Ultimately, we're at the bottom and we're trying to raise everyone else up. We're there to make everyone successful, and there's no job, no role that we can't do to help them. You know, at the end of the day as the founder and the entrepreneur. If everyone fails, it comes to you, and you gotta do it. And that sort of comes with the job description. It may not be written anywhere.

Edwin: Because it's not your people's, you know after they quit, you know, you can't expect them, you need them to have a life. So that's also the empathy and life balance that you want to give your people. But I think my answer is 100 percent visionary, empathetic, and humble.

Sean: Really good qualities. I run a lot of - pre-pandemic, I do run leadership conferences, and I ask people this question: What is your idea of a leader? And then I proceed to write it on the glass board or whiteboard. And you know, some of the most common things that people would say - humility, it's there. Empathy, initiative, execution, diligence, integrity, the list goes on. It's an amazing list, that is what I could say, it doesn't run out, right?

Sean: People expect all of those qualities, right? Kind takes care of people, thinks about their people. Generous, honest. There are just so many qualities of a leader that people look for. And these are people who are team members, their employees, their team members, team players. They look for so many things with a leader that it is hard for even me to say, what are the qualities all leaders need to have? If I'm going to have to say the top three, top four, it doesn't encapsulate what kind of leader you and I should be. Because people expect it to be all of those things. And whenever you and I are not all those things, we're failing as a leader in their eyes, it's that they hold us to very high standards. That's really the job of a leader.

Sean: I would just add integrity to the mix, be a one-man person. When you know how I am here in Leadership Stack, talking to you guys who are tuned in. This is how I am with my team. This is how I talk with them. I'm a one-man person, who I am at home, when I talk with my kids and my wife, I'm a one-man person. It's the same way I talk with them. And I treat everyone the same.

Sean: When you have a private life, and public life, and a different persona at work, it's tough for people to see you as a good leader because you're two-faced and it's hard for people to also trust you, and you're also unpredictable. And when you're unpredictable, that means you're inconsistent. And when you're inconsistent, that means you're not accountable. People can count on you. So integrity is one of the biggest things that I think a leader should have. Otherwise the foundation of people trusting you and allowing themselves to be influenced and led by you. It's not going to happen. So I hope that helps.

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Ep: 362: Top Challenges Tech Startups Face

Tue, 08 Mar 2022 10:01:37 +0000

Sean: What are the challenges you faced when starting up your tech company?

Edwin: You know, a lot of the challenges, like any entrepreneur, is the ability to do many things. So it all depends if you're coming with a large team. But most entrepreneurs, most tech founders, they're doing many things. They're not only building out their stack or their tech stack, their MVP but they're also needed to - we built our business on paying customers. We bootstrapped it, right? The biggest challenge I found was finding that balance of finding new customers, delivering a product, a superior product. The challenge that I'm seeing is finding that rhythm, right, and that balance. But if you want to grow in scale, you got to exit yourself from these different positions.

Edwin: And this is something Sean talks about a lot in terms of and I know we talked about, you know, firing, getting, and how to grow. But ultimately it's finding that rhythm carving out the time to build out the system. So when you hire someone, they're not just there waiting for you to tell them what to do, that there's a system and a process for them to follow. Otherwise, they're just sitting there twiddling their thumbs. So I would say the biggest challenge now that I said that out loud is doing the work when it happens. When I say doing the work is to write out the process right away, like, OK, I close a deal. This is what I have to do next. I got to send an onboarding email. So here's the template, and then I got to do this. I got a log into this system, so they're there. Or what if it's all integrated already, but write down that process right away.

Edwin: I've seen entrepreneurs not have a process after running their business for 10 years, and they're wondering why it's difficult to hire people because you know, "the people come and go. And when I don't know why, I can't keep people" and I say, Well, do you have a specific job role or do you have the process for them? What are they doing when you hire them? You can't just hire them and let them sit there. They get very quickly unmotivated. If you're not empowering these people, then they don't feel worthy or not motivated to work, they're already leaving. That is my biggest challenge - is probably on the scale, understanding processes and systems. It's easy to - especially today, Sean, there are so many tools out there. Like I said, like Bubble, you could resell a tech stack and just label it and you could sell right away. But the problem is scaling the sales, scaling the customer support, scaling the billing, and doing all those types of stuff.

Sean: And that is true 100 percent. But that is also something that you're going to want to do as you scale. Otherwise, you're building the company in a linear way. And the problem is when you lose someone's key while you're building it in a linear way, you're in line suddenly goes flat or goes down because you lose a key person. But if you have your processs documents to back you up when you hire, it's automatic. You hire, they get onboarded, they learn stuff, they read the process document.

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Ep: 361: Before You Get Into Tech Business, Do This

Fri, 04 Mar 2022 10:06:12 +0000

Sean: What are important things to consider if you are planning to start your own tech business?

Edwin: I mean, that's a great question, Pam. I mean, I would have to - that's a whole can of worms. I'd be asking you, Pam, like, what's the tech business? Do you know? Are you a tech founder or are you looking to partner with a tech founder? I guess depending on those answers, you know, understanding where you're fitting this technology in, you know what the pain points are, how did you find those pain points? Where were you connecting with?

Edwin: At the end of the day, whether it's a tech business, a service business, you got to know that there's a need for it and you're filling a gap, because all of us have a billion ideas and whether it's technology or service or whatnot. And we got to make sure that it works well. The challenge, if you're not tech, is finding a partner or someone to help you develop your MVP. Having said that is, if you want to build out an MVP, you don't need to know code anymore.

Sean: Really good stuff. Like Edwin, it has to boil down to what kind of tech business you are planning to start. It's hard to answer this question with just an open-ended, vague assumption that is any tech business because there are just so many tech businesses that you can start today. So many problems you can solve.

Sean: It's going to have to be number one, can you be the best in something in that tech startup that you're going to try to get into? So what is going to be your number one-shot or number one feature if you want to try and go head to head with these other startups because it is a global business, when you start a tech startup, if it's a software as a service business, it is on a global scale and platform, and you're going to have to compete on a global scale.

Sean: And competing globally is very, very tough. A lot of players don't play fair, they don't play nice. I've had the experience of starting a SAS business - Qeryz. It's still up, it's still running. We still use it and a lot of our clients use it as well. And my experience in running that, there's just so many dirty players that you're going to have to go up against. And I'm sure Edwin you've experienced your fair share of that with Slingshot VOIP. So that's something that I would strongly consider. Like, what can be the best? Like who's your target market? Are they startups? Are they scale-ups? Or are they at the big enterprise level? And what will these features fit very well with them?

Sean: So there are so many factors we could go on and on, and Edwin mentioned is a can of worms that you're going to be opening. Yeah, that's true. So qualifying the question further would help a lot. If you're still in discord, you might want to qualify it further so we can help you out better. But otherwise, for me, it's going to be like, what's that one thing you can be the best at when you're starting your tech startup?

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Ep: 360: Is Funding Necessary to Scale Your Business?

Thu, 03 Mar 2022 10:01:19 +0000

Sean: When will you get funding, like taking SEO Hacker to the next level?

Sean: Oh, I've been getting a lot of those questions recently. Strangely enough, this is the fourth time that I've gotten it in a four to five-day span. Seems like a lot of people are interested in investing in SEO Hacker. I think that if I could keep it 100 percent owned by me, like what it is now, I would go for that. It's hard for an entrepreneur to always have someone telling him or her what to do, and I'm the type of entrepreneur where I like being at the helm. I like being on the hill.

Sean: So it is hard for me to tell you when I will get funding because honestly, right now, SEO Hacker does not need funding. We need to invest as well. That's all we need because when you're in the services industry, you usually cannot just buy more stock and sell it for a higher price, like when you're in the merchandising industry. the merchandising or trading industry, like the retail industry, they buy stuff, they sell it in the malls or online, whatever. And what they use with the money when they sell stuff, what they do with that money is they buy more of those stuffs that they think they can sell. So the money just circulates.

Sean: The difference between that and a service company like SEO Hacker is we don't have stocks to buy. So the money does not circulate in that way with SEO Hacker. As the CEO and founder, we have this stockpile of cash, and we do need to invest it somewhere because just leaving it in the bank is not the wisest thing to do. It is not the best thing for me as the CEO and founder to do.

Sean: So if I do need to get funding, it would be for a huge reason. It should be for a huge reason. And I don't believe that we would need funding for the next few years unless we want to buy out a competitor, who is also selling. A really good competitor who's selling. I might get investors just to buy competitors. That's it. Otherwise. I don't think we're going to really need or get funding. Hope that helps.

Sean: Taking SEO Hacker to the next level, the answer there is we're always taking it to the next level. So during this pandemic, where we have a slew of inquiries, and a slew of customers coming in, clients coming in. We are able to already see the trajectory on where we should go and we are leveling it up. We're actually professionalizing the entire company and we are hiring executive-level people already right now. So that is hopefully going to double, or allow us to double or triple our revenues when we professionalize in the next three years.

Sean: My target is the CEO and founder, and the main salesperson of the company is to grow 100 percent each year. So far doing great. Can I take it to 200 percent? I don't know. That's the next question, but 100 percent every year is great for me, and that has been my target ever since I started the company. So we have grown more than that when we were at the very beginning. When you're at the beginning, it's possible to grow 300-1000 percent. But when you scale to a 50 man team, it's already hard-hitting 100 percent sometimes, especially when you're in the SEO industry, not in the tech industry. So I hope that helps.

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Ep: 359: Would taking risks do you any good?

Wed, 02 Mar 2022 10:07:13 +0000

Sean: From Viane, how should I or how do I go all-in with what I've started?

Sean: When you go all in, that means you're sure you're doubling down on what you have. That means, for example, with me, that's when I resigned from HP and finally just went full time doing SEO Hacker because I was so sure that SEO was going to be big because I was an avid user of Google before. Now I keep searching. I'm a very curious guy. How I learned stuff is by searching for it in Google and learning it on my own. That's how I learn SEO on my own. That's how I experimented on the ranking factors. That's how I put up my first blog. That's how I learned to do certain kinds of coding. That's how I learned to edit some plugins and so on.

Sean: And curiosity. Google serves curiosity. Google serves desire. How can it go wrong? How can it not grow? So I doubled down on SEO because I saw how powerful Google is. In fact, today there are people asking Google, Where can I find God? How do I get a love life? Stuff that you usually ask your parents or a close friend, you know? So, you know, given that thought, which is not that, you know, when you think about it, it's pretty sad that people are asking Google that.

Sean: But that shows you how powerful Google is, and that showed me how powerful SEO can be. And so during 2010, 2009-2010, no one knew what CEO was, but I was doubling down on it. I quit my job, which was my only job, and I was very fortunate to have that job because I feel 28 units college. I didn't know why they hired me, but they did. They took a risk with me and I quit, you know, how bad that feels. But I doubled down on SEO and I knew this is the way to go.

Sean: And looking back, it's now 2021. That was over 10 years ago. I'd say it's one of the best things I've ever decided on and I've ever doubled down on. And building the brand SEO Hacker up to this point. This, I believe, is the time for me to finally see how the seeds I planted are growing, because now I can see how many people are just saying, "SEO? If you need SEO, SEO-Hacker." I don't even know some of these people, but they keep referring SEO Hacker to people who are looking for SEO, which is great and I love them, and I'm going to be forever grateful to these people, referring SEO Hacker to all of these clients that also, I don't know, but that's the power of word of mouth. That's the power of doubling down on what you believe in. That's the power of branding.

Sean: Invest in good branding. Make sure you do business ethically and with integrity. You take care of your clients and go the extra mile for them. They'll love you. They will share who you are with the rest of the world who need your stuff as well.

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Ep: 358: Should You Write Copy that Connects or Sells?

Tue, 01 Mar 2022 10:01:38 +0000

Sean: How can I make more enticing copies on my social media accounts?

Sean: A lot of people forget social media is not about selling stuff. Social media is about connections, that's it at the get-go. And I was there when Facebook was starting. I was one of the people who hopped in. I was one of the people who ran ads for the very first time when Sheryl Sandberg finally released the ability to run ads on Facebook. I was there when it was full of Facebook games. I was there. So I've seen the growth of social media, and it didn't grow because it was a great place to sell stuff. Social media grew because it's a great way to connect with people, how you share your ideas, how you share memories, how you are able to consume other people's memories and ideas, and thoughts. It's about connections, so copies on social media that are meant for you to connect with other people, are the copies that will do really well. When you say enticing copy, it's not a copy that should sell, it's a copy that should connect to your target users. That is pretty much the only way you can do it to make it “enticing”.

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Ep: 357: How to Grow Your Startup Organically?

Fri, 25 Feb 2022 10:00:08 +0000

Sean: What are the best ways to grow organically, especially when your startup is still in the early stages?

Sean: The best way to actually generate a lot of words is word of mouth about your business, about your product, about your service because that's free. And that is very, very effective in the sense that when you get referred by someone to another person who might want to get your product or service. That is a very powerful referral right there. And I know because my clients who are loyal to SEO Hacker and what we do and who have reaped the benefits of our work have been referring us left and right, and I'm so pleased and happy whenever I am personally tagged in Facebook groups, whenever there are people looking for SEO makes me so happy.

Sean: It's word of mouth, right? Can't beat it. And one of the other things that I used to grow my business organically, SEO Hacker, is to do content marketing, and I was writing, so it was free for me. That was organic-free growth for me. When I was blogging about SEO, everything I was learning, I made sure that people could subscribe and tune in whenever I had news about the SEO industry or new strategies out there about the SEO industry. And we still blog about new strategies and updated strategies.

Sean: We were able to publish earlier about SEO copywriting, by the way, for those of you who subscribe to the SEO Hacker newsletter, sorry for the double send. The first send was completely broken and we were testing things out I really am really sorry about that, but we were able to fix it. And now, if you want to go ahead and read the SEO copywriting article - How to do copywriting right? Then just go ahead and tune in to SEO-hacker.com, you will be able to find it. So, yeah, definitely content marketing. Write the content yourself. If you're a thought leader like myself during the early days of SEO Hacker, that is one big way for us to do it, and word of mouth marketing is generated when you have a word of mouth marketing strategy.

Sean: And for SEO-Hacker, we follow the Purple Cow principle, which is to make your product or service so good and so great. Go the extra mile that people can't help but talk about you. That is the strategy I use for SEO Hacker, and it worked mighty well.

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Ep 356: The Advantages of Strategic Unpredictability in Businesses

Thu, 24 Feb 2022 10:00:10 +0000

Sean: So what do you mean about being strategically unpredictable?

Len: You do want to be consistent in terms of the brand that you deliver? Right? But as you said, you can become so predictable that you become vulnerable. So what this comes down to, and one of the things and what I talk about in this chapter in the book is what's called the OODA loop.

Len: So it's O-O-D-A, It's an acronym. O-O-D-A right, OODA. It stands for Observe, Orient, Decide, Act. OODA loop. Observe, Orient, Decide, Act. This was born from the military where they were trying to come up with How do we understand how fighter pilots make their decision process and how do we win more fights in the air? And so what they began to understand is that we all, everybody goes through this OODA loop. Every time we make a decision, we go through the OODA loop. But here's the trick. If we're going through the OODA loop, we observe, we orient, we decide, we act. If something happens that disrupts us. We have to go back to the beginning. We have to re-observe, reorient, re-decide, and re-act.

Len: OK, well, let's talk about basketball. So you're a basketball player, right? The guy you're guarding is coming straight down the court, going right towards the basket, you're in the corner somewhere. You don't have to be a mathematical genius to figure out at what speed and what angle to run, to intercept him or her. Right?

Len: Now, when you get up to that person, if they juke, if they dribble behind their back, if they fake or feint and move, that's when we start seeing those ankle-breaking videos where people fall all over themselves, right? Because what's happened is when you observe, you orient, you decide, and you act. You've observed you've oriented yourself. You decide and then they move and everything changes, and your brain goes back to the beginning. It's too late for your body. It's already moving. It already has inertia and momentum, and then you fall over, right?

Len: But how you get there can dictate how successful you are, based on how predictable you are. In business, if we're doing the same things all the time, the same way. And we do and it's all the same, how hard is it for our competition to be able to meet us?

Len: One of the things that you can do is self-disruption. The best type of disruption is self-disruption. As an example, I use Netflix. Everybody knows that Netflix disrupted the movie rental business, right? And you know, that's a big story about what they did to Blockbuster and all that, and Blockbuster's gone and all that. But to me, the bigger story with Netflix is what they've done since. Because they did not stop, they could have stopped and just been this company that delivers DVDs through the mail. Yeah, but they did. They moved to stream right?

Len: And then did they stop there? No, they didn't. They then moved to original content production where they're producing their own content. And did they stop there? No. Now they're getting into game development and gaming. Every time they do that, they force their competition to rethink what they're doing. You know, the competition at first was like, OK, how do we deliver movies through the mail? And then the competition was like, Wait, that's not the game anymore now we got to figure out how to do this streaming thing. Wait a minute.

Len: Now we got this figured out and now we've got to figure out how to do our own content. The more that you force your competition to move by disrupting yourself before they can disrupt you, the best type of disruption is self-disruption. That is a concrete way that you can remain strategically unpredictable. You are not unpredictable in terms of what your goals are, but you're unpredictable in terms of how you get there, which forces your competition to slow their decision process down.

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Ep 355: Why Success Is Not Your End Goal

Wed, 23 Feb 2022 10:00:08 +0000

Sean: How do I, or all the business owners who are to actually, keep at the edge of our seats, not in paranoia, but in vigilance, in our own lives, in our own habits? What's the mindset that we have to have?

Len: I think what I hear from you is, you know when I hear about where you might be becoming complacent. I don't think about you becoming complacent in terms of the business that you have - that business, that you have people running, You're in danger of becoming complacent in life. Right.

Len: And you know, when you talk about what the mindset is, the mindset that I tell people is, and this is why this is so important. The goal, the end goal is not success. The end goal is keeping it. So becoming successful is not the pinnacle. It is the start. How do you keep that success in business and in life? Right. So you're at this position now where you have a successful business and you have taught people and you've given people the right skills and the right autonomy to be able to run that successfully.

Len: So now what's your purpose? Right? So how do you remain useful to your family, to your friends, to whatever relationships you have? Right? How do you push beyond? How do you look at where that next step, right? The goal is not success, keeping it is. And success is not money. Success is happiness. Success is productivity. Success is a purpose, right? And so, you know, you said, you know, after 10, 11 years, I think you said you finally came up with a purpose for your business. Right? Do you have to start spending a little bit of that time thinking about what is your personal purpose? What is your purpose in life? Because what entrepreneurs have a tendency to do is define themselves as their business. But you are not your business. That is not your legacy. Your legacy goes beyond that.

Len: And that's what you have to figure out is, what is my legacy? Do I want to create another business? Do I want to create ancillary businesses as I come out of this? Do I want to be a philanthropic person? Do I want to be, you know, the best father, or the best husband, or the best partner or whatever? I can be, right? What is your purpose that goes beyond that business? Because it sounds like you've done a great job to set that business up for success. And now it's like, what's the next stage for you?

Len: So this applies to personal life as much as it does anything. We have a tendency as entrepreneurs also to further our business to the detriment of our personal relationships. Our personal relationships become second seats to what we're doing. And so, you know, here's a great opportunity to evaluate that for yourself. Where do you stand in there? Like how do you feel about that? What do you want to do about that? So, you know, the way to not be complacent is to continue to ask, why? Why am I doing this? Why am I here? Why am I moving forward? What am I moving forward towards right? And where could the threats come from? If you do that in your personal life, in your business, life will always continue forward.

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Ep 354: Does Your Business Go Beyond Making Money?

Tue, 22 Feb 2022 10:00:14 +0000

Len: That idea is, what this builds into is being able to articulate your 'why.' We talked about this a little bit already, but what this gets into is understanding what your true purpose is.

Len: So, you know, if someone walks into a store and steals something from a store, that person, if caught, can go to jail or they can walk away with a ticket, or they can walk away with a warning. Right. It all depends on a lot of different factors. Right. And I have that discretion to be able to do that. But I also have to understand what the law is. So within your own organization, you have to understand what is the law right? What are the parameters that we work within? Right? It's not willy nilly. It's not like everybody gets to decide what we do. There are laws, right? We have to document that. We have to make it clear what we can do, what we can't do and where the middle ground is right, where we can play.

Len: But the second piece of that is really understanding your purpose. And this is the hardest thing, I think, for entrepreneurs, because your purpose is not making money, that is not what differentiates you. What is your purpose in this world? Why does your business exist beyond making money? And then you have to be able to focus each one of your employees to be able to make decisions within that 'why', within that purpose. Right? So my purpose when I go out into police work is to maintain the peace and provide safety and protection, right, but also to provide the best outcome for all involved.

Len: Sometimes that outcome has nothing to do with somebody going to jail. Right. That is not what they need. That is not the best for anybody, but I have to understand what that means. Right, and that's why we spend so much time going to academy and field training and all the things that we do. Because we have to understand what we can do. What is the law, right? And then where do we have that discretion? But then how do we use that discretion to further our why to further our purpose?

Len: And it's not our personal purpose, it's our organizational purpose that kind of gets you away from like "this person believes that that person believes this." You know, everybody, if they're going to work with any organization, they have to be aligned with that 'corporate why'. Why do we exist? What is success for us beyond money, right? What are we trying to do for this world? What would happen if we weren't here? And then how do we make sure that everything we do falls within that?

Len: So again, there still could be mistakes. There are always going to be mistakes. Everybody makes mistakes. But if we're making mistakes with the right purpose in mind, those mistakes are not going to be too bad. Right? You know, maybe you refund somebody that shouldn't have got a refund. OK, that may cost some money, but the reason? What was the reason, why? Why did you do it, right? If the why is right, you're not going to be too far off base? So to me, those are the two most important things as it relates to a business, especially an entrepreneurial business, because they're hard things to do. You have to document what the law is. What are your procedures and your policies? And what do you do? And then you have to make sure that everybody understands why we're here. What are we here to do? What is success for us?

Len: Yeah. And I love the fact that you just said that time because of a purpose statement, right? So many organizations spend so much time on their mission and their vision that nobody ever understands what it is, and nobody even understands what the difference is between the two of them. The most important thing that a lot of organizations don't do is a purpose statement, and a purpose statement is the one that actually will guide people the right way.

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Ep 353: Why Success Makes You Vulnerable to Complacency

Fri, 18 Feb 2022 10:00:08 +0000

Len: And so what we learned about complacency is that number one, the more successful you are, the more vulnerable you are to complacency. Right. So you look at people, you look at businesses, you look at relationships. And that was light bulb number one. I was thinking to myself, "Man, how many times do we say, how could they have fallen so far, so fast, right? How can you know, blockbuster has messed it up? So bad? How could Kodak? How could Sears? How could Circuit City? How could all these businesses that were so big, like too big to fail? How did they miss it?" Right. And so obvious to us right now? How did that happen?

Len: So that was like, I mean, and you say, how did this, you know, these friends that, you know, I've had this long marriage and happy marriage, and all of a sudden they're getting separated or divorced. How does that happen, right? I start saying, Well, gosh, that relates back to this idea that the more success you enjoy, the more vulnerable you become to complacency. So I was light bulb number one. Light bulb number two was this idea that complacency is born from overconfidence and self-satisfaction. Right. And we see it all the time and we see it. You know, there are things that we do because we think we've got it figured all out, right? We understand our competition. We understand our business. We've been doing this for years. Nobody knows it better than us. That's the danger point, right?

Len: Once you start thinking like that, that's when you become vulnerable. And so that was light bulb number two. I was like, "Man, because this is, you know, in law enforcement we talk about, you know, something simple, like doing a traffic stop and we might do ten thousand traffic stops and never have a problem. But with that success, then the danger is that you become overconfident instead of watching where everybody is and watching hands and doing the things that you need to do as you're walking up to a car, you saunter up.

Len: Instead of being aware of where you are in relation to the light behind you in the mirrors you're not paying attention to. When you're talking to the driver, you might lean in and put your elbows on the window or something, and they might put their hand out and you might reach into a car and shake a hand. Right? All things that we're taught not to do because they put us in danger. But you do that enough times with success. And you can convince yourself that you're successful because of the things you're doing, as opposed to the fact that you've been lucky. And so that was kind of light bulb number two, is that this idea that overconfidence can breed this thing? So you want it three light bulbs on it? You didn't give me this question ahead of time. I don't know.

Len: But, you know, I think light bulb number three is how quickly things can turn, you know. And this is what we see in the academy because we watch videos. We, you know, we watch some pretty hard things to watch, you know, things that start out as seemingly innocuous and seemingly safe that can turn on a dime. And all of sudden, someone's getting shot, the magnitude of how quickly things can go from right to wrong. And that's kind of like one of the things I talk about in the book and a saying that I tell my kids all the time is everything goes right until it doesn't. And when it doesn't, it often goes really bad. So just because things are going right doesn't mean they're always going to go right. And that was kind of that third light bulb that says, "You know what? This is something that people need, that I need, that I need to find out for myself." And then because I needed it, I knew that I could translate it to other people.

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Ep 352: Is it Worth Investing in Self-Improvement?

Thu, 17 Feb 2022 10:00:13 +0000

Sean: How much is too much to pay for self-improvement? What are the factors to consider before enrolling in a high ticket course, or hiring a mentor or coach?

Toni: Interesting. Okay for me, in my experience, I've never paid for a coach or a mentor. I never hired one, although I do know that there are people who will accept mentees, and then there's like a fee in exchange. But I actually allocate a portion of my income to my education fund. So on that fund, I know that, for example, if I come across a seminar, a paid talk or a course that I want to be a part of, then I just tap into that fund because I know that fund is really reserved for that purpose. So it's a bucket that I replenish every month so that in case I come across just what I've said, like a mentor that I want to hire, or a course, I can just tap into that fund. So I guess it really depends on how much of your income you're willing to budget for that. But in your case, since you are a mentor to a million already. So what do you say about that?

Sean: Actually, it's funny because a lot of people ask if I can mentor them, but I have rules if you want me to mentor you. It's not a lot. It's just three rules. Number one, what did you do about what we talked about? If we had the session already, what did you do about it? Because if you don't didn't do anything about it, then don't ask me to be your mentor or we can be friends, but not a mentor-mentee relationship, right? Number two would be, to ask me questions. Ask me your questions. So before we meet, I require you to have a list of 10, 20 questions or, you know, five questions, whatever it is you want to learn. And that's it. And number three, would be, when do you plan to apply all of these things? So it could be like questions first. When do you plan to apply? And then the next meeting, 'okay, what did you do?" just like that. It's actually quite simple how I mean their people. But if that isn't followed, then we shouldn't be mentor-mentee. And then I also don't book you. Usually, as the mentee, you book the mentor, you ask for the time.

Sean: And then this year we're planning to professionalize. So it's the first time we're considering hiring an executive, you know, an EVP, an executive vice president to join the team. I had no idea. Again, I'm an idiot when it comes to that. So I hit up the president of Ayala Land International, Ms. Ana Tatlonghari. I ask her, 'Hey, can you just give me one hour of your time?' And she's like, 'Of course.'

Toni: She's really open to it, huh?

Sean: Yeah, I spoke. I spoke at their event like three or four years ago, and she's game, and I learned a lot. And right now, we're trying to figure out how we're going to meld that in. So. And guys here's the thing: I didn't pay anything for any of that. I didn't pay anything. But I love these people. They know if I could be them, I would. But they didn't ask for my money. And this is because these are people who also love helping other people. Now, nothing wrong with paying for self-improvement, having an education fund like Toni, actually, I would recommend you have that because when an opportunity comes that there's a really, really good webinar that you could enroll in, or a really good coach or mentor that you can get might be life-changing, but do your research first.

Sean: "Okay, is this person really good to be a mentor? Does he or she really have the heart to help people or just for the money?" Because there's a lot of so-called "gurus" who are really con-artists" So there's a lot. I'm not going to name any. I'm just going to tell you, do your research.

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Ep 351: How Does Financial Health Impact Your Well Being?

Wed, 16 Feb 2022 10:00:13 +0000

Sean: Now, how does one create the prosperity mindset when you don't have enough money or are just living off your savings?

Toni: How do you create the prosperity mindset, Sean?

Sean: It came from the book Rich Dad, Poor Dad, that changed my perspective. So Robert Kiyosaki stated in the book, 'the world is rich. It actually is very, very rich.' If you look at the GDP of the US, for example, how many trillion dollars per year they produce in business and you look at the Philippines, how many billions of dollars in our own GDP, right? We're not on the trillions, but we're still like on a billion-dollar scale, that's what we produce as a country.

Sean: And so I thought, that's a lot of money, you know, that's a lot of money. How come people keep thinking that, 'life is difficult, earning money is difficult, working is hard, there's not enough money.' Those are the things that I usually hear. I didn't grow up in a rich family. Actually, we're like, you know, we had enough to get by, and I would often hear that I'd often hear that from my parents that "life is hard, earning money is really difficult." And then when I read Robert Kiyosaki's book, I thought about, 'Where does the billion-dollar GDP of the Philippines really go? How can I also get into that GDP?' Right? And what you have to do is really add value to yourself, so you can add value to other people. And that's what the world will pay you for. That's my take on that.

Toni: OK. So speaking of books, the book that changed my entire perspective about money is the 'Secrets of the Millionaire Mind' by T. Harv Eker, and I always promote this book, even though I am not paid to say this. But that was the very first book that, as you said before I didn't really have - I did have a stable job, but I couldn't save, and I couldn't even save five percent of my annual income back then. Because I would always think that it's okay when I finish all the money I have because I know next month I'd be able to get it again.’

Toni: So I realized the error of my ways when I read that book and I learned how you should change your money script. So you know how sometimes whenever we see, let's say someone riding a sports car, we would always have that negative mindset or would usually think that "he or she's boastful." That's how we view people who had the money back then, and sometimes we tell ourselves, 'Oh, I'll never be able to afford that. So if you keep thinking this way or if you maintain this perspective, then you will feel as if you'll never be as successful as your wealthy friends, and this is basically an example of having a negative money script. So your money script will shape the way you view money. And that's why another part of having a good money script is to have a direction for your money. So your money needs to have direction, and that's why, as financial advisors, we do financial planning because it's important when you have a plan for your money so that at least you'll be able to shift your direction, you'll know your biggest "why" about why you're saving and why you're investing. So even if you don't have enough savings, thinking that you have these certain goals, you want to be financially free, you want to be able to work at the job that you love without worrying about money, then you will be more motivated or you'll shift your mindset to abundance when you have a direction for your goals. So that's my take on it.

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Ep 350: US Stocks Investment How-To for Beginners

Tue, 15 Feb 2022 10:00:12 +0000

Sean: Which US stocks would you recommend for beginners?

Toni: Recommend. OK, but first thing before I say my answer, I just want to give this disclaimer. Don't transact or don't buy stocks just because you hear it from me, or just because you hear it from Sean. So like going by Marvin Germo's words, you know, investing in U.S. stocks even is all about conviction. So take the time to build your conviction on it.

Toni: But let's say if you want to be more passive, you want a less hands-on approach than Warren Buffett advocates index fund investing. So, you know, the index fund, basically it tracks the S&P 500 or the Fortune 500 companies. So if you don't want to spend a lot of time thinking about what stock from the 500 to buy, then you can just simply own every piece of that stock in the Fortune 500. So that's what an index fund is. You can look up Vanguard Growth Fund. That's why I like the VOO or the Schwab S&P 500.

Toni: But how I do it personally is I like to separate that into two categories. So one, is more on future U.S. stocks. Stocks that I know have potential value to go in the future. And then the second category would be branded stocks. So these are stocks that already have a large presence. We all know them. They're familiar to us.

Toni: So if you want to choose what stocks to invest in, focus on the sectors that you have conviction in. Like, for example, there are tech stocks that I believe have the potential to grow or make you money in the future. Like, for example, a lot of people are now entering the EV market. People are now switching to sustainable stocks, and more and more people are buying electric cars, right?

Toni: And I believe that 10, 15 years from now, we're all going to shift to that system. So that's why a lot of people would invest in stocks like Tesla or even NIO, right? But for example, if you want to go for stocks that focus on streaming or online platforms like Facebook or Zoom, or Netflix, I think we've seen at the beginning of the pandemic that, you know, Zoom boomed because there was a demand for it.

Toni: So I still believe that even after the pandemic, once everything cools down, people would still be using Zoom because now we've sort of realized that, you know, we can do everything online now, we can have meetings through Zoom. So that's why I also personally invest in platforms like that. Well, another thing would also be fintech stocks. So fintech stocks like Paypal or Square also have a lot of potential because more and more people are doing cashless transactions now. More and more people prefer that because, you know, we're trying to limit contact and all of that.

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Ep 349: How to Improve Your Leadership Expertise

Fri, 11 Feb 2022 10:00:09 +0000

Sean: How do we improve our leadership expertise, how we lead other people, how we influence them on a deeper level, more than work and on the higher form of sort of principle? How do we elevate their principles to be better in terms of morality, in terms of what is acceptable to society at large? Is there a way for us to hone that?

Alan: Yeah. When I think about influential and powerful expertise, I actually start you mentioned before adopting a geek perspective, right? So from a physical science perspective, right? Influence or the way they are referred to in physics would be, maybe 'power' is the change of someone's work over the change in time. Right.

Alan: So in order to move something, we need power. in order to heat something, we need power. In order to change anything in the world, we need power in a social setting between people. We have the same sort of idea. I think leadership is really about changing people and influencing people.

Alan: There are researchers who have identified probably about seven different forms of social power that are exerted in the world. Expertise happens to be one of them, but a couple of the others are things like coercion. Right? And this is an area that's really susceptible to fraud and manipulation and power. Right. It's this idea of coercing people into doing what you want them to do, which is sort of the antithesis of what I think of us as an expert influence.

Alan: Expertise is more about information, power, and rewards right there. There are benefits to actually pursuing certain courses, and this is where you know it's hard to teach morality right in this world. The world is depleted of adequate levels of moral judgment, and people are doing what they can to raise to a level of power and influence, oftentimes very negatively.

Alan: Unfortunately, expertise is used for some of the greatest advancements in the world, but expertise is also brought some of the worst catastrophes and destructions you know, that are known in humanity. Right. And so it's an instrument of tremendous influence for good and for bad, right? And I'll leave it to you and the audience to decide how they can influence moral agency and moral power in the world.

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Ep 348: Why Curiosity Makes One An Expert

Thu, 10 Feb 2022 10:00:13 +0000

Sean: I want to rewind a little bit and ask you about; what separates people who breakthrough and become experts, in spite of all the adversity, criticism, and the hardships that it takes to be one, versus someone who tried to become an expert but didn't quite make the cut? What's the separating factor between the two?

Alan: Yeah, I actually spent a lot of time studying the attributes of experts, and in this particular subject, I've sort of narrowed it down to one attribute that seems to make a difference. I'm sure there are others, Sean, but there's one that stands out the most to me, and it seems like there are people who have just an insatiable curiosity, right? They just keep asking. They just won't stop pursuing the angles and the differences. And there's this unending curiosity.

Alan: And I think that really distinguishes people who are going to be able to move past proficiency and into a stage of excellence if they just, will never find the end of the knowledge that they want to obtain. What makes someone an expert is not the accumulation of all available knowledge, it's the accumulation of all available knowledge and then going beyond the accumulated knowledge, right? That's the distinction right out of someone who is proficient versus someone who steps into the darkness of excellence and someone who goes beyond what is already known.

Sean: Got it. That's very good to know, curiosity.

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Ep 347: Is Being Proficient Enough?

Wed, 09 Feb 2022 10:00:11 +0000

Sean: And what's the problem? Why aren't more people doing it? Why aren't more people going out of their way and asking for help from mentors?

Alan: I think it's probably because most of us believe that good enough is good enough, right? We advanced down the process of development of expertise, and we got to a point that I would refer to, in the literature it seems reference is just an element of proficiency. Right? 'I'm pretty good, right? I've got a level of work that is adequate. You know, my managers don't sort of question my ability to deliver a right. And so I'm proficient. I'm good enough.'

Alan: And getting beyond that to the truly exceptional right is a big leap. And it's hard. It's hard to develop expertise. It takes practice. It takes time. It takes commitment. Oftentimes, you're never thanked for it. And so why do it? When you do put yourself out there in expertise, you get shot at more than you get praise right, people. People are critical of you more than their, you know, admiring right. And so it's a hard sort of thankless world, but it's an important one because it's truly exceptional. It's truly an expert that actually changes the world, right? They make a big difference, disproportionately. So I think that we all need to pursue expertise beyond a level of proficiency. We just need to be just the best there is at it. I think it's fundamental and just taking it a step further.

Alan: We're all familiar. Mean most people are listening to us and probably be familiar with this hierarchy of needs, right. At the base of our needs. We have these physiological needs. I need to sleep and eat and have shelter, right? And we go up to like social needs. At the top of Maslow's pyramid of needs is this concept called self-actualization, which is I have a need to become the best I can be. I have a need to explore and go beyond what's been done before. It's a human need. It's an attribute. So that's something that very few people actually accomplish in their life is this idea of self-actualization. But it is a need. It's a fundamental biological, you know, wired into human DNA sort of need, that we all should be pursuing.

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Ep 346: How Do Experts Build Their Confidence?

Tue, 08 Feb 2022 10:00:06 +0000

Sean: How weighty was it that you knew what your expertise was? You knew that you were an expert in this, this, this, and that, so much so that you deciding on risking some of your hard-earned money seemed like the best thing to do.

Alan: Yeah. What is that about entrepreneurs, right? Sean? I mean, why would someone do this? It's kind of masochistic, really. Right? It's really you don't know how much pain you're going to be inflicting on yourself when you do these things. And part of it is, I mean, candidly, it's somewhat naive, right? But I mean, in answer to your question, right? One of the attributes that people really hope to see in experts is the same thing that drives people into expertise. And it's this exuberance or confidence and your ability to change things, right? To do things a little bit differently and better. Right. And so that's really what it came down to, right? Experts are effective and influential if they're confident, and entrepreneurs will just absolutely fail if they're not confident, right? So I had some confidence. Maybe false, not well-placed confidence at the time, right? Because I learned a lot of things, right, but confident nonetheless.

Sean: Okay, another thing that I'm wondering about because when you're an entrepreneur, you got to be good at selling. If you can't sell, there's no business, no customers, no business. Now it's from being an IT expert, in-depth you know it up and down. You mentioned database server time, that's like, I'm a geek, right? I'm a geek. I know a geek, when I hear one, we're both geeks and we geek out in what we know, we're experts that stuff. But when was it when you decided "I got to learn how to sell and I need to sell and I got to be good at it? I got to be an expert at it”? When was that time and how did you hone your sales skills?

Alan: Well, it actually came to me, right? So I mentioned I was at Ford Motor Company and at that time, well, I mentioned this to you, maybe I should highlight this a little bit more. I was on the supplier's face of the business. I was communicating with suppliers and they were pitching to Ford Motor Company constantly, right. That they were selling to me, they were selling to Ford. And so I was able to observe all of these suppliers one after another sort of come in and talk about their solutions. And sometimes it's, you know, nuts and bolts and wheels. But sometimes it's, you know, consulting and, you know, a whole bunch of really strategic items. So I observed it from the buyer's side. But then when I went to the consulting company, I was on the selling side, right? I was pitching to large organizations for custom development, and I followed salespeople around for five years, helping pitch our solutions to large customers. And so that two-dimensional perspective on the selling process, as the buyer, and as the seller really opened this world or this idea of selling and producing revenue for me. It helped a lot.

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Ep 345: What Makes a Great CEO?

Fri, 04 Feb 2022 10:00:07 +0000

Sean: When's the best time to know that you need to hire people already?

The best time is number one when you have the budget. I mean when you don't have the budget, you can't hire them because you're going to lose money. So you have to make sure that you've got a budget. You have to make sure you have the money and you have that revenue coming in that's going to be sustainable for you to pay them, pay for their salary, and their benefits, whatever. That one has to be checked for sure.

Number two, if you have a job that you must quit doing as your business grows. So I mentioned earlier that I had to quit being the janitor, I had to quit being the accountant, I had to quit being the legal team, I had to quit being the writer, I had to quit a lot of my jobs when I was starting out as a freelancer. And then focusing on leadership, focusing on sales, which are the things that I really need to do. Those are the things that I must do and only I can do them.

So when you get this realization that you have to go and do that and be the best you can be, be the best CEO you can be, be the best founder you can be and focus on things that you're really good at, you're going to want to start to hire people to fill up that gap where you're weak at, and that you have to quit in. That can only be possible if you're making more sales.

If you're not making more sales, if you're not closing more deals, if your revenue is not increasing, that's not going to be possible for you. You're always going to be working that job and you might not really like it, but you've got to do it. That's because sales are not good and it's not coming in. I hope I answered that question.

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Ep 344: Is Your Business Visible Online?

Thu, 03 Feb 2022 10:00:11 +0000

Sean: Next question, at the moment, the platforms that I am operating on are Facebook and Instagram. And I paused the production of my product since I want to further improve and optimize it, so basically, I'm back to R&D. When I reopen the business, should I build a website or should I stick to these platforms and build the website later on?

I think if you're doing well on Facebook and Instagram, it's not a problem for you to continue on doing Facebook and Instagram. But I would always say that the website, your website, is super duper important because Facebook could just snap its fingers and remove your Facebook page.

And it happened to some people I know, and to some clients that we have served. Thankfully, we were not doing Facebook, but we were doing the website and SEO, and they lost their Facebook page just because of some guidelines that they crossed or just because they were reported by some anonymous person and the reason was not even real.

So they're losing and bleeding business just because Facebook suddenly decided to put down their Facebook page. And Instagram is owned by Facebook and operates in pretty much the same way. When they think they should suspend your page for a while, and that while could be like a day to a month right, and you lose a lot of business and money during that time. Then you just can't do anything about it.

This is why I say having a website is extremely critical, especially nowadays, because that website is controlled by you. Facebook and Instagram can't just snap its fingers and remove your website. Also a lot of people are searching on Google when they're considering buying your stuff. They don't really search it on Facebook and Instagram, they search it on Google.

What's the price? If they have competitors, what's their price? What's the difference between the both of you? We call that the consideration stage. And when people are considering buying a certain product from you, they search it in Google.

And if your website isn't there and if the answers aren't on your website, then that's going to make it very difficult for you to convert those people to your customers or your clients. They're probably going to get it from your competition. That's not going to be healthy for you.So definitely I'd say have your own website on top of the Facebook and Instagram page that you have already.

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Ep 343: Competition or Profit: Which Should You Prioritize?

Wed, 02 Feb 2022 10:00:15 +0000

Sean: What are the advantages of a reseller business?

The advantage is mostly it depends on the reseller business that you've got. So if you're a consigner, you have a lot of advantage because you don't need to pony up capital at the get go. You just sell and sell and get a part of the profit. But if you're an outright reseller, that means you buy the inventory outright, that's a lot more risk for you.

But if you're confident about the product that is going to sell well, buying it outright is better because it's cheaper. You get to have a better deal when you're going to buy everything. So going back to my example earlier, if I'm going to be selling titanium mugs and I'm sure it's going to sell well and I have a supplier, maybe the manufacturer is supplying me or I import it from China.

If I buy it outright in bulk I get a much bigger discount, which means if I resell it, I can sell it at a bigger profit margin. But if I'm a consigner, what that means is I don't buy it outright, I just display it in my shop or just sell it online. Usually that means you're a dropshipper and you get a smaller percentage of the sales.

But that's a lot less risk for you still, because you don't need to pony up that capital to buy a lot of the items. So there are a lot of advantages if you're just reselling. I'd say if you're starting out, go for the consignor route, because it's a lot less risky and you get a better idea of what things you could sell well and what things are pretty slow for you.

I'm not sure if the question is going to be compared to anything, because it doesn't stay there. But maybe one of the ways to look at the question is: What are the advantages of a reseller business vs starting your own brand and selling your own products?

Starting your own brand and selling your own products is an uphill climb. But when you are on the top of the hill, then that hill is protecting you from competition because you've got your brand going on for you if you're able to do it well.

So there are pros and cons. The longer game would be starting your own brand and starting your own product lines. That's definitely the longer game. That's a lot more profitable if you got things going good for you, but it's also a lot riskier. It's a lot riskier.

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Ep 342: What Should You Give Up For Growth?

Tue, 01 Feb 2022 10:00:10 +0000

Sean: What would be some words that you would want to give to these business owners who are not only frustrated at the government, at some of their people, maybe at their business, but are also in a desperate and depressing situation right now?

Craig: Yeah, it's a great question, and I'll take myself back to that situation in the global financial crisis. So I went 18 months where my lunch was a bread roll and salad that my wife made, it was probably worth less than $1. And I did that for 18 months, and during that time I made some decisions. So the key bit of advice here is, you are at a crossroads in your life where you are required to make some decisions. Are you going to continue to bang your head against the wall like this for however long? Or are you going to make a decision to make a change in your life?

Craig: The decision might be "Ok, this is now I've made my decision that I'm going to move forward and what I need to do. There is a need to grow and evolve. I need to build my mindset. I need to build my skill set. I need to find an opportunity that will allow me to fulfill my true potential.” So low cost, low risk and limited potential opportunity which is what I've done in the Philippines. I used to run events in Makati for thousands and thousands of people would turn out when I would turn up in there. So budgetary wise a low-risk, low-cost opportunity, could be as much as two hundred dollars. And then you get a website and a product and a, you know, this something to help you work. Yes, some business tools, et cetera, that could be the thing.

Craig: But the point is if you keep taking the same skills, the same mindset, the same attitude in the next ten years when the next pandemic comes along with the next global financial crisis comes along, and the next lockdowns, and the next whatever. If you haven't made the change today, you're going to be in the same position again back then.

Craig: So the point is you need to make a decision. Life won't bless you if you don't bless yourself. I think it's good as 'if it is to be, it is up to me.' You know, the 10 two letter words that I heard in my grade 10. When I was leaving Grade 10, I left home from there and it was, the principal said. 'If it is to be, it is up to me. Now go and spread your wings and go and make something of your life. And from that point on, I've made something of my life.

Craig: Your business might be salvageable. You might be passionate about it. I'm not saying you have to quit your business. It might be something temporary and then you can soar like an eagle, but you might if you're in that situation where you go, you know, even if everything opens up, this is a dying industry or I'm not passionate about it or I'm not making enough money out of it, or, you know, it doesn't give me the lifestyle that I want to leave. You know, they're the reasons that this injunction in life should lead you in a new direction.

Craig: I feel that I'm leaving into a new direction myself, again get it to innovate and evolve and what I say to people, what I'm building now is going to make quantum leaps of speed this time. You know, I went up in exponential. Next time is going to be quantum leaps, for sure.

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Ep 341: What Podcasts Can Do For Personal Growth

Fri, 28 Jan 2022 10:00:09 +0000

Sean: What are some of your top three or five leadership lessons for leading yourself and the team that you could share with us today?

Craig: Look, I'm always about the evolution of yourself, so I've invested, and not everyone has the capital to do that. So you need to lean into podcasts like, you know, listening to your podcasts, my podcasts, whoever, to continue to grow and evolve your mindset, your skillset. Everything about yourself needs to be a constant and never-ending form of growth. If you're not growing, you're dying, as I say.

Craig: So I think the best leaders in the world are continually improving and leading by example. So if I was leading a team of 100 people, for example, I want to be leading by example to start with, and leading by example is doing the activities that I expect those people to do. So there's no point in me just being that authoritarian leader where I'm just telling everyone what to do all the time. I want people to say that "Hey, Craig rolls up his sleeves. He's putting in the hours. He's continuously been doing things to improve our organization as a thing." So I think leading by example is critically important.

Craig: Having a world-class team around you is, you know, you want to have an advisory board of good quality people to bounce ideas off. So I learned through reading the book from Ray Dalio, one of the wealthiest people in the world called Work-Life Principles, and he talked about the concept of triangulating decision making.

Craig: And what he meant by that was simply - let's put it into a health context. Let's say that you had been given a poor diagnosis from your physician about your health and the strategy that they were going to use to intervene, to try and help you in that situation. So he took that as really good advice. But let me just get another opinion from a highly credible person, and let me get one more opinion from a highly credible person.a

Craig: And by having three different perspectives on his situation. He was able to form a view I'm not going to go to on the operating path. What I'm going to do this person, he said, "You could probably change your lifestyle if you do this, and you could do this, and then you could potentially manage it." So he said, I'm going to go down that path first, and then we can intervene if I need to. Take that whole idea into a business. And that's a priceless idea in terms of being a great leader as well.

Craig: And I think the best leaders in the world are those 'build people up.' So building that relationship, helping them grow and evolve, understanding the why’s of their desires, what's going to make them tick, give them more opportunity. They're looking for more opportunity, and building this is sort of like a build them up model rather than a corporate ties. Hey, I don't want you to take my job model. It's helping people grow and evolve to fulfill their potential. So let's hear some insights into what I say is really important. I think good leaders are always trying to innovate and use the world's best practice, whether that's bringing new technology to the table, whether it's, you know, it might be a, you know, introducing a month, a weekly update, you know, team meeting or something like that. So continually, to innovate and bring in the world's best practices is important as well.

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Ep 340: How to Grow and Make Yourself Better

Thu, 27 Jan 2022 10:00:10 +0000

Sean: One of the things that asked the most, especially in my live events or on my AMA's online, is how do I ask mentors for their time? How do I ask them to mentor me? When you mentioned investing in meaningful relationships, it's kind of like the same approach, right? Where you go to a person, just hit them up. What are your thoughts on that? How do you do it? Yeah.

Craig: Look, I'll share a quick story with your audience. It's probably the biggest lesson that changed my life. It's how I got my first mentor, and it happened through extreme gratitude and generosity. Now, what happened there? Like, a lot of people, do things with this "I'll do this for you if you do this for me," type of expectation and that can work. And I'm not against that. But what happened to me when I started off my business career, I was approached by a professional basketball team. They're on TV every week, and I said, Hey, would you be interested in sponsoring me? And again, business alchemy comes out of me. Then I said, Well, I don't really have the money to be a sponsor, but if you have a raffle, maybe I can give you 10-12 months' memberships, which were about fifteen hundred dollars each, and you can raffle and make fifteen thousand dollars. How would that go? And I would be extremely grateful.”

Craig: So what happened there was the time went on a lady comes in. She was a player's wife and she goes, "Oh, thank you for the twelve months membership. I'm going to give you basketball tickets to watch my husband play this week." And I put the eight basketball tickets in my drawer. Now, a week goes by and a young family comes into my gym, they love the gym and they're all signing up.

Craig: And I just pull the basketball tickets out and I give it to the family now that I didn't know who they were or anything. But what happened was this guy was a really, really highly successful businessman and he comes back into my gym on Monday and he says, "Craig, that was extremely generous of you. We've got a corporate box at the football. You know, the where you get 50000 people into the games to network with like twelve guests. You can be my guest this way." Now, this guy is not only a dear friend of mine, but he took me under his wing as a twenty-two-year-old. He taught me how to invest in property. He taught me how to, which is where I made my most money now. He taught me how to navigate finance through the global financial crisis. He's helped me when I've invested in private companies. For the last 20 years, he's been a constant go-to person for me. Now, if I didn't use those basketball tickets, who's to say that he would have ever invited me to his corporate box the next day.

Craig: The point is, sometimes to get your foot in the door, you nearly need to go over and above the call of duty to get in front of that person. And now last year, I interviewed people like Dr. John Demartini, Michael Lane, who's the founder of Success Resources, who's running events with Tony Robbins, the biggest business coach in the world Brad Childers with over a thousand franchises, you know, guys that were worth hundreds of millions of dollars.

Craig: Just one thing, too. Like, I read about this in my book as well, if you want to grow and evolve to be the best version of yourself, the thing that you need to do is continue to increase your human capital. And what I mean by that is to join groups with people that are doing something a bit better than you and they can help you rise up. But when you start rising up, one of the best things that you can do is reach down and help pull someone out.

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Ep 339: How Craig Schulze's Personal Brand Story Started

Wed, 26 Jan 2022 10:00:12 +0000

Sean: So, Craig, usually I start the podcast with the founder's journey. What led you into entrepreneurship and what allowed you to hone your leadership and management skills?

Craig: So I left home to get a good education, to get a good job. So financially, I've been self-funded since the age of 17. I became an engineer, and I didn't have a burning desire for trading time for money, so I fired my boss when I was twenty-one years of age to follow my dreams and passion. And that was a fitness industry. So 21, I knew - I bought about a fitness club. I knew nothing about business, probably at 21, not too much about life. But what I lacked there, I made up for the will to do whatever it takes to have success, and that meant personal development, growth. I would read books on sales, marketing, you name it. Every single night I'd fall asleep with a book across my face and I learned how to build a business.

Craig: Three years then, I was a multi-award-winning trainer, so imagine one of the states of Australia. I was the number one guy in that state, and I started building up notoriety, which is one of the keys to success. And what I do coach a lot now, is to be that leader in your niche, that market leader in your niche, and more opportunities will come your way. Moving on from there, I set up five fitness clubs, sold 22 franchises, started investing in property. And in my mid 20's I'm like, "Wow, business is easy. Yeah, this is an easy game for me." I would start a business, build a business, make money investing property and so the wheel was working.

Craig: And I hit my first speed hump in business, which was a global financial crisis. And at that time I nearly lost everything. To give you an idea of what happened is banks stopped lending me money so I couldn't sell franchises. Banks stopped lending me money so couldn't pay for the renovations to the hundreds of thousands of dollars to start a new gym. Banks stopped lending money, not just that my gym clients were going "Craig, we love you, but we're going to - we're worried about our income." A lot of people right now are worried about their income same back in 2008, so I lost a lot of my clients and then the US dollar to the Australian dollar changed that much. My equipment cost went up hundreds of thousands of dollars overnight, and this is one of my biggest lessons in business was risk management. So I was an aggressive guy that everything went really well and I nearly lost it all, and it took me three years to come out of that.

Craig: Three years later, I was making more money doing that than owning five gyms. And then in 2011, a company said, "Look, Craig, we've heard about your success. We'd like you to help us expand our product range around the world." And for the next 10 years, which is to where we are now. I built a business into 100 countries and over six million US dollars in that time traveled all around the world. But in 2014, I went through my biggest challenge in life, which changed my whole vision and perspective of life, and my wife and I, we lost our first son. He was a stillborn baby. And from that, that led to me building out a personal brand, and that was around the whole idea, which is what I said in my son's funeral. "My son didn't get one breath on the planet. We're all in the game. Go out there and make the most of your one shot at life." And you know, it took me four years before I launch out. In 2018, I wrote a book called You've Got One-Shot. And then I had a podcast where I interviewed over a hundred and fifty of the biggest thought leaders in the world.

Craig: I have invested very heavily in myself. So I've worked with some of the biggest names in the world, invested about half a million dollars into my personal growth and journey.

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Ep 338: Why Hard Work Yields Good Money Values

Tue, 25 Jan 2022 10:00:11 +0000

Sean: What advice do you give your kids with regards to building wealth and managing finances?

Randell: All right! Here's where people are surprised because I'm the finance guy. People think that my kids are really experts in finance. Contrary to popular belief, I do not open my PowerPoint on the dining table or put it on my tv and talk about these things. I do have a little bit of talk with them, but it's not like that.

As a parent, it's really more like setting examples for them. I want them to see that their daddy is hard-working, doesn't spend unnecessarily, takes care of the future and they see it that way. From time to time, we remind them they need to save but I don't force it. At the end of the day, number one, there's way too much pressure on kids. You don't want to add that pressure to your kid. I'm very careful about that.

I want them to make their mistakes. I want them to learn from those mistakes and even finances. So I teach them the basics. Like when they were very young, I taught them that money needs to be earned. It's the value of work. You know I want them to understand that my money is my money, it's not theirs, so they have to earn it. They have to create it so work on it. That's number one.

Number two, I teach them how to spend properly so they don't just buy anything they want. Number three, following that, it means that they need to save, that not all of their money is being spent. And finally, I also teach them to give because generosity needs to be taught. If not, they might become greedy and think it's all about it.

So earn, spend, save, and give. These are the basics that I taught them. Then later on, when they saved, I told them to put it in a mutual fund. Now they're older, my wife asked me to teach them how to invest in crypto. You know it's hard for a person to get used to earning big right away without really exerting that much effort. You're teaching them the wrong values.

Look at those young crypto millionaires, it's like they don't do anything anymore, anything productive, anything of value, because they have money. What do they do with that? I don't know where they spend it. That's not the kind of value system that I want to teach my kids. I want them to work hard and then later be wise in managing money.

I will not get into the secrets and all these things. They have to learn it and they have to see it from me. I picked up a lot of my entrepreneurial skills from my dad. So it's like that. My dad wasn't a businessman all his life. He's not giving us lectures and talking about it. We see it, then we ask about it. When we're a little bit older, we get more curious. Sometimes he involves me, asks for my opinion, and that's why I learn.

Sean: That's great! And that's also in the Bible, in Proverbs, right? Money fast gained is money fast gone as well.

Randell: Yeah! So again my tip to parents is, you have to be very careful. Don't try to teach everything to your kids because sometimes part of the learning is experimenting, trying things, making mistakes, and don't compare your kids with other kids.

That's the challenge now, because now you see Instagram families, looking perfect and all these things. I protect my kids from that, the pressure of society. Now two of them are adults. I'd like to say I taught them something and they're practicing but far from the public eye.

Sean: That's great! That's good stuff and I'm learning from you as well.

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Ep 337: Is it Wrong to Have More Money?

Fri, 21 Jan 2022 10:00:12 +0000

Sean: What is a simple rule for managing your finances?

Randell: Well, number one, simple rule, I've been married for more than 30 years. My wife told me, "What is yours is mine and what's mine is mine." That's the rule. That's the only rule I live by. know this man is in that role as the only rule. I live by it.

I guess for me, number one is I respect money. I know money is more and everything, but I respect money. I know it's a limitation and I also need to manage my behavior around it. I heard this from Marvin, that it's not wrong for you to have money, what is wrong is for money to have you. So money for me is just a great tool, but not the end goal. That's very clear on my end.

My rule is number one, and this is just me sharing it, automatically, I tight. This is a value system that I'm not going to debate whether it should be tight or not, but this is something that my wife and I believe in and practice and stand by it. So we tight. Next is, we save. We have to provide for the family's needs. That's clear, but you also save. So apart from providing, you're also saving. That saving will lead to investing. And also we give.

A big part of our income is used to support missionaries, campus missionaries, and long-term missionaries in the advancement of God's kingdom. This is on top of our tights. And my joke is, the amount of money we support can also provide for another family. It's sort of like that because that's our value system and that's why I work.

During the pandemic, Sean, of course, when March hit, I was like, "What are we going to do?" As all of us are not salary people and then we're giving salaries. So I said, "What are we going to do? How long will this last? Do I need to liquidate? Do I sell something? How much money do I have?"

And then one of the things that bothered me in a good way is that you know I support a lot of these missionaries and give money to those things. What's going to happen to them? They are dependent on what we give them. I mean not just me but collectively. So if I stop and everybody stops, what will happen to them?

So I made this prayer, "Lord, can you continue to give me work so that I can continue to support them?" And the Lord was so gracious. I never stopped working and I think I got busier. I never stopped working and not only did I not continue supporting, I added even more last year. I think this year I also added some. Do you get what I mean?

I even have increased my support to some of them because I feel inflation and everything and I'm assuming that some people were not able to support them, so I have to level up a little bit.

Sean: Wow, that's amazing. That's a very encouraging thing to share here.

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Ep 336: Randell Tiongson's Outlook on The Philippine Economy

Thu, 20 Jan 2022 10:00:16 +0000

Randell: I'll give you words that are cautiously optimistic. It's not looking too good, I believe. Of course, there has to be a benchmark. If my benchmark is going to be our neighbors, we are lagging behind it because we've taken a long time to try to do the vaccines, opening the economy, and things like mass testing. That has an impact on the economy in general. So again, that's a problem.

So in that case we are lagging in terms of our recovery. It's going to take a long time for us. A lot of the economies have begun to open. We are lagging. We're still in the process of: How do we open it up more? And it took us a while to get a groove in managing the pandemic, so that's having a problem in the economy. That's why unemployment is high, productivity-side, supply-side is not yet there, and demands have been low. So it's going to take a longer time for us to recover.

But we're seeing signs of growth. We have to be more patient. Maybe you need to give the Philippine economy a two-year reprieve. Do not expect much this year and maybe next year, but I believe we're going to be in full swing in two years from now.

So opportunities to take a look at: What can I do now that we're waiting? Do I start investing? So there are opportunities for that. Do I look at certain businesses that will do well during this time? So the economy is slowing down. The economic recovery is slower notwithstanding. There are opportunities that are for us to find there.

Ep 335: Is Cardano a Better Investment than Ethereum?

Wed, 19 Jan 2022 10:00:11 +0000

Sean: We have a question here about ADA Cardano. So what do you like most about ADA (Cardano)?

Sean: I don't know if you have a vlog about that. I haven't checked yet.

Randell: I don't. I'm careful because if I say anything, it's like a recommendation. Right? But personally, I'm very transpired with these things. That's my biggest exposure - Cardano. Out of all of my cryptos, that's number one. Followed by Ethereum and then Bitcoin. People think my number one is going to be Bitcoin. It's like Cardano.

I like Cardano because number one, what's being used now is Ethereum. So ETH, Ether's being used a lot in the systems. And I'm not a tech guy, maybe Sean you can answer that. But there's a lot of flaws with Ethereum also. It's slow, cash fees are high, scalability issues.

And here comes a company like Cardano which was built on things, because it's founded by the co-founder of Ethereum, to begin with, built on and corrected the mistakes and the scalability. So that's one. So I guess it's like an improved version of Ethereum where it's more ecologically friendly and stuff.

Also, the business model has advocacy and is standing for something. So that guy, whatever his name is, really wants African nations to apply this that will bring down corruption, improve poverty, and finance. These things we've been doing, we've been advocating since time immemorial, financial inclusion, but of course, we're limited. I mean how many people have bank accounts?

So now he's finding a way not to bypass but make it more inclusive. And I believe that's going to change the future. If they do what they're saying, it's really going to change. So I'm banking on that and I hope you know I'm right in that scenario. That's why I'm a Cardano fan.

From an investment perspective, with the recent decline of Bitcoin, with the Elon Musk thing, it dropped and I saw Cardano decoupling from the movement of things like Bitcoin. Because when Bitcoin moves, everybody follows.

Cardano's starting to have a life on its own. So people are slowly seeing there's something in this coin. Of course, that's a big debate because you know other guys, I think Marvin and the others really think it's going to be Ethereum because of the NFT scene.

But there are also other people that say, "Oh wait. This is the next-gen. This is where the movement will go application-wise." So finance guide again, put in both. Right? Marvin and I are opposites. He has more ETH than Cardano. I have more Cardano than ETH. So we'll see. But I'm a big fan.

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Ep 334: Why is Managing Finances More Behavior Based?

Tue, 18 Jan 2022 10:00:13 +0000

Sean: Why is managing finances more behavioral-based?

Why is it behavioral? Because whatever you actually do is what is going to be affecting your finances. Why we say it's more behavior-based than anything else is because when we say behavior, it's actually what builds habits. And habits are so important because habits are what you do on autopilot. These are things that you don't think about, that you just do.

And so a lot of people today their just do it habits sometimes involves just opening Shopee and Lazada. You know those are wonderful e-commerce platforms, but once you spend time with them unnecessarily and unproductively, you start buying stuff that you don't need. That's not going to be good for you.

It is behavior-based. It has a lot to do with your habits, the habits that you build. And so I'd say, you have to change behaviors from the mind. You have to invest in what you will know, is what you will practice in behavior so that your habits will follow your behavior and you read a lot of books about personal finance management.

Randell Tiongson, the author of the book, No Nonsense Personal Finance, is a really good book to read and that has the five levels of personal finance management that you have to follow. It's an amazing book for you to read.

Another author that I do recommend and have personally read is Dave Ramsey's The Total Money Makeover. They have US culture in the book, but it's also the same principles, the five steps to personal finance management, which is really the fundamentals of what you have to fall into and what you have to do if you want a good foundation in your personal finance management.

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Ep 333: When Should You Sell Your Business?

Fri, 14 Jan 2022 10:00:10 +0000

Sean: Well, you know, a lot of people go through that when times get tough in business, we look into ourselves again and we wonder. "Why am I doing this again? Why am I going through all these hard things, dealing with these difficult people in my team and in my client's list?" So what happened then? How did you get to realize why you still want it to go on?

Jan: Well, increasingly I didn't and I think, you know, the moment you get to that stage, word gets around. So, you know, you start to get approached by all sorts of VCs. And, you know, out of all the businesses who were under various pretext, you know? And it was a really interesting one because, of course, that so it's a very sort of shark-infested water and very male-dominated too.

Jan: So nearly all of them come in and say, "Well, you know, you're having a rough time and you know, you're having problems, but of course, you want to because you're a woman."

Sean: That's not nice.

Jan: It wasn't the very best way to get on with me actually, there was probably a certain amount of research in manufacturing. But it was a very tough gig for women. But no, it was hard, and so I got some office on the business, you know, so shall I` or shouldn't I, pulled out the last minute, you know as many people do and that's your baby is sensible. "Oh, my goodness, what do I do if I don't have this too?" comes into it.

Jan: You know? So I wasted some years actually, to my anger, I should have taken the first offer it was the best offer and it would have been the best for me - "argh, damn it."

Jan: But I didn't anyway, and in the end just got to the pitch and I thought, you know, "I really, I cannot. I was getting so ill with them, you know, I just can't do it." And somebody wants to take over the brand, the people that didn't want the actual unit because it was too far from them, it was a competitor. So we just made a deal, you know, within a couple, literally a few weeks. I think three or four weeks took it far. And it was just done, you know, and I thought I would really regret it.

Jan: But by that time, I woke up and I thought, This is wonderful. I am so pleased. Why didn't I do it five years ago? And I think a lot of people say you should get out before going too long, too late in your business when you've seen it all before, and it gets that pitch at your signature before. It's definitely the time you should get out because it just doesn't do it for you anymore.

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Ep 332: When to Switch from Startup to Leadership

Thu, 13 Jan 2022 10:00:13 +0000

Sean: Look, Jan, a lot of people, when they hear the leader, the thing that comes to mind is the guy or the girl that's most paid, that gets the special parking slot, that gets the special corner office that gets all the perks of the executives like. These are the things that come to mind in our world today when you say, leaders. So what do you mean when you mentioned earlier that you're going to have to be a leader in the scale-up phase later?

Jan: You've got to be, for one who continually inspires people, which doesn't have anything to do with the pay at the office or any of those things you mentioned, unfortunately. But you've got to be the one that gets everybody going. That can be your investors, your stakeholders, your people most of all. You know, you've got a layout that gets people so excited that they want to get on that train ride, and they want to develop themselves and do better so the next day.

Jan: And you've also got to find the people to do it. You know, if you can do those things if you can lay on a vision and keep people on-site and inspired and keep finding people who are ideally better than you are. And that means you've got to be pretty secure because you've got to take on people, you know who you look up, "Oh, without them what would I do." But you know, most of the people like them, are going to take your business forward?

Jan: So yeah, it's a lot about finding the right people, people where it's just lovely - I think it is Warren Buffett quote, but you need intelligence, integrity, and energy, that's right, because if you think, if the people you need to take on, you want to be intelligent, you want them to be good at pushing the business forward, but you want to have the energy, you know, there's nothing worse working with flat negative people who go, "Yeah, we could do that." You know you want them to go, "Wow, how exciting."

Jan: And that helps you feed off their energy, too. And I think that's really big. And people forget that you need the energy to flow both ways. Then it's about the integrity thing, of course, because they have to genuinely buy into your vision. As well as, you know, integrity at the other end does not actually help themselves to everything in the business that we're talking about, earlier.

Sean: For sure. And you mentioned that in the startup phase, we both agreed that you're the go-to person during the scale-up phase, when you're the one, in your words, casting the vision and inspiring your people, does that mean you stop being the go-to person for these tasks?

Jan: Yeah, it does. And I think that's really hard. I mean, you know, to some extent, you need to be available, which is a different thing from being the person who steps in and does for you. You have to let go and let them do because you simply can't do the visionary stuff otherwise. You have to be on peak performance.

Jan: And I think that's one of the really hard transference because going back to the people we are with the imposter syndrome and we know we put a lot wrong and all this, you know, to say 'I am worse because I am leader,' I am worse saying, 'no, you don't, I'll do it. You know, I'm going to stand back from here. I'm not going to be the one who works till midnight' is really, really hard.

Jan: Because once natural inclination is to function and do it for them, and help out because that's what we want to do. We want to help people. But you can't, you're actually going to have to stand back, and you're going to have to work on you, and you're going to have to let them develop because that's how you get better people.

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Ep 331: 3 Compelling Scalability Lessons for Business Owners

Wed, 12 Jan 2022 10:00:10 +0000

Sean: And what were some of the things that maybe give me the top three things that you learned during that startup phase all the way to having two factories and 40 people?

Sean: That's a pretty good scale. It's actually a very good scale. You can live off of that. But from Point A where a lot of people are, you know, a lot of people are starting out, they have no idea, they're clueless where to go, what to do, it's too difficult. It's so difficult to start a business all the way to growing your business, making it more stable. What are the top three things that you could tell us?

Jan: I think one of the things that I would say is don't let that lack of knowledge hold you back. Because so many of us are really ignorant when we start, and even people who've gone to colleges and got book learning, it doesn't totally prepare you for the experience, I don't think, you know.

Jan: And so don't let that lack of knowledge, don't let anything that frightens you hold you back, you're only going to start and at worst you'll fail, but at least you'll have tried. But it's really true that you've got to start. So I think don't let that lack of knowledge make you feel worse than anybody else. You're just as good as everybody else. So that's number one.

Jan: Number two, I think it's really important to decide where you're going and why you're doing it because I think that focus on being passionate. I mean, in my case, initially, it was literally putting food on the table for the children, which is a real push. You know, it does focus you quite well, but if you've got a drive, it can be for your kids, it can be to change the world or to build a huge business or whatever that is pushing you on, be really clear about it and be really determined that that's what you're going to achieve. And then when you have a bad day, you want to stay in bed and we all get them, you know, it doesn't matter because that drive is enough to get you right down and keep you going. So I think that's really important.

Jan: I would say on, let's chuck in a practical one. I think learning your figures is really important. I was terrible at Math at school, you know. It wasn't something that interested me at all. I loved words, ended up a writer after all. So, Math was a horrible subject, but you know, of course, I had to do it when I had a business. And actually, it didn't matter that I was bad about it. I had a calculator and I began to see that money and business is about patterns. That began to intrigue me how you work the patterns, you know, so don't let fear of money and go and find out how to reach your own money. Don't give it to somebody else to tell you what's going on in your business. I think really, it's so important in those early stages to learn everything yourself about the financial workings of your business.

Sean: That's very interesting. A lot of people would say that you should hire an accountant at some point. What do you think about that?

Jan: I think later, the better. I think you will always run it better the more you know about finances yourself, you know.

Jan: And you know, again you get problems later on because, you know, you'll get to a size that you might have an in-house accountant? And of course, you know, or at least an in-house bookkeeper. And if you don't know how to work with figures, I regret to say that human nature is what is facing almost the amount of fraud in the accountancy industry. And you know, if you don't know, or can't read it yourself, you're setting yourself up for a huge fall. But I do think it makes you build a better business if you understand it.

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Ep 330: How to Introduce New Ideas in Business

Tue, 11 Jan 2022 10:00:04 +0000

Niño: Growing up in a family that wasn't really into business since they are licensed professionals, every time I pitch a business idea, they tend to forcibly alter or worse reject some of the plans which I think would be detrimental for the business. How do I change that while still maintaining a good relationship with them?

Sean: That's a pretty tough question. If they're the ones in charge, it's going to be difficult for you to tell them that this is how it should be done. There are some things that people who have been doing it while will not accept, especially if you're new. It's a matter of humility.

People who are not humble to accept change and change is one of the hardest things to accept because you're comfortable. When they're comfortable about how they've been doing things ever since and it's working, and if it's not broken, don't fix it, then any suggestions that you throw their way, unfortunately, they're not really going to listen to it.

It's hard for a young person to give advice to someone who's been doing something for a while. The best way you can help change these things and improve these things is to show them. So I know a story about someone. It's a true story. It's a pretty big appliance company here in the Philippines and before the pandemic, they didn't want to invest in digital marketing. So what this guy did, he's the one who shelled out the money. He's part of the family, but he's a distant family relative, but he shelled out.

He's the one who invested his own money in digital marketing and he studied it all and did it by himself. Older people in the business, pretty big business actually here in Metro Manila, in the Philippines, I'd say, didn't listen to him. And what happened was it became so successful that right now in the pandemic it amounts to a big chunk of their sales. I would say, a really big chunk of their current sales, because no one's going to the malls. Not a lot of people are going to the mall or risking their necks out there, so they're selling a lot online from the website. And that is because he made sacrifices.

So my answer to you here would be the same. You'd have to make sacrifices and you'd have to set the model for your ideas on how you think the business could improve. That is how you do it while maintaining a good relationship with them because if you don't have a good relationship with them anyway, you're not going to be able to pull anything off. This is a tough answer and a tough situation.

It's really tricky for me to answer this, but yeah, thankfully I have that case study and that worked really well for that company and that person that I mentioned, and that's a true story. So you could do it that way. I think that works really well. That's going to take a lot from you. I hope that helps.

All right, Niño, I hope that helps. Hey, you have the last question. Do you want to move on there?

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Ep 329: How to Keep Going When You're Unmotivated

Fri, 07 Jan 2022 10:00:11 +0000

Niño: I sometimes stay away from goals, and I tend to procrastinate, what do I need to do to keep me motivated?

Sean: This is the struggle of a lot of professionals actually, so you're not alone in this. A lot of people struggle with that. What I realize is if your goals, if the reason why those goals are on your plate is not big enough, then you won't work hard enough. So it may be that the goals are not that big enough for you in your life. It doesn't matter that what you think about it is not big enough. It doesn't matter too much to you. It might be one of the reasons why you tend to procrastinate.

Because if it is something that really matters to you, matters a lot to you and you meditate on it, you think about it, "When would I be able to finish this? When will I be able to do this? What would happen to my life if I actually accomplish these things?" Then you'd do whatever it takes. That's going to be your burning why. Why do I have these goals? Why do I want to achieve that? That's what we call the burning why. If it's burning hot enough, if it's big enough, you're not going to procrastinate.

One of the other things that I do to make sure that I hit my goals is, it sounds so simple, I keep a task list in my calendar and I make sure to clear my calendar for things that I want to do that are important but not urgent. Because there are so many urgent things that would come within your day and it's going to demand time from you. So in order to keep that at bay and make sure you have focus time because when you do deep work you're going to need one hour at least of transitioning into that deep work.

What do I mean by deep work? It's like writing a book, writing a process document, writing your mission vision statement, writing your core values, and I had to do that. I'm the CEO. I was the one who wrote those things for my company. I needed deep work, and that, again, is one hour of transitioning in time. So maybe four to five hours of focus time, that's what I needed to do that.

And in order for me to do that, I have to block off my calendar and tell my team, "This is off-limits, you can't book any meetings here." So that's one of the things that I do to make sure that I am on track with the things that are important and I need to do and I don't procrastinate.

Because sometimes procrastination is also a result of you keeping on accepting work. Anything urgent, just throw it my way and I'm going to accept it and I'm going to work on it. And then you realize the day's gone and that important thing that you wish to do, or you planned to do today, is going to be pushed to another day and you don't have the same inspiration on that day. So those are some of the things that I do to make sure I hit those goals and don't procrastinate.

Your second question: What do I need to do to keep motivated? Always remember why you're doing what you're doing. Always remember why you have those goals in place. There's a reason why you have those goals, those important things, and if they're burning big enough, bright enough, you're going to be motivated to finish them on time.

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Ep 328: A Budget-Friendly Way to Do Market Research

Thu, 06 Jan 2022 10:00:05 +0000

Sean: From Mich: What are the best and most cost-effective ways to do market research for a learning and development business?

The easiest way? Look at Google trends. I mean just punch in Google Trends. It's free. Put in Google Trends. Look it up on your browser and just check those keywords for online courses, for example. Online courses for brewing kombucha, for example, just because I have kombucha right here.

So if you want to look at the market, how big the market is, put in Google Trends Philippines and then put in the keyword like online courses for brewing kombucha. You will get an idea about how many people are searching for it on Google. Because if a lot of people are searching for it in Google, that means there's money to be had there. And you can still rank for that. You could create a website for it. You can market your Facebook page there. Do whatever you need to do to make sure that you reach those people and generate income.

That is free. That's easy. You could do that in 5-10 minutes, maybe 30 minutes if you have a lot of keywords you want to check. But that's how I do 100%. Or if you have a little bit of budget, sign up for SEMrush. Just a disclaimer, I'm an affiliate of SEMrush (from.seo-hacker.com/semrush), and it would be amazing if you could use my affiliate link for that so that they'd know that I still refer clients to them.

So, if you're interested in SEMrush, let me know. I'll send you the link and you can sign up. And I use that personally to check if there is a market for a certain business that I want to get into. That's how I do my market research. I hope that helps.

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Ep 327: The Rundown on Employee Evaluation

Wed, 05 Jan 2022 10:00:07 +0000

Sean: How can we better evaluate our employees?

I would say, evaluate based on your core values. That's one that for me is very, very important. You don't have to copy our core values, right? I mean it would depend on your founder's DNA. I know a lot of companies here in the Philippines have malasakit. That's one of their core values and that's really great by the way. I'm thinking about incorporating that into our core values as well because that's a really good Filipino trait and word to have. Malasakit.

And if you have people who have malasakit for your company, for your team, I think that's amazing. We don't have that yet in our core values, but we do have grit, respect for work, unity, being a challenger, clarity, and experimentation. Just six stuff, and we evaluate based on that.

How well do you stand up when you make mistakes? That's grit.

How early are you in terms of meetings? Are you on time? Do you log in on time? Do you really complete work on time? That's respect for work.

Unity is about: Do you gossip? Do you confront people who need to be confronted? Do you allow incompetence to run amuck in your team? That's unity.

Challenger is: Do you go the extra mile? If this is what's asked of you, do you do more? Do you work harder?

Clarity is about making sure that when you say something, the other party understands what you mean. The biggest mistake in communication is the assumption that it already happened. So clarity is super important.

And experimentation is all about trying out new things in the spirit of having a positive outcome, and not being afraid to make mistakes.

We evaluate based on those values. For every person who asks me in my team, for example, for a raise or for feedback, we check how well they have done in terms of those six core values that we have. So I'd say always evaluate based on your core values and on what they bring to the table. At the end of the day, it's what they bring to the table.

Of course, maybe you're wondering, where is competence in all that? If they're not competent, then they're bringing the company down. That's not a core value. It should be their permission to play for your team, right? If they're not competent, they really should not be in your team.

Maybe you're wondering why is integrity not a core value.? Well, integrity, if people don't have integrity, they shouldn't be working for you, right? Because they're going to steal, they're going to steal time, they're going to lie, it just doesn't make sense. So it's a permission to play value.

You have to identify the core values of your company based on what you really value, but you also have some values that are permission to play. That's the minimum thing that your people have to have, otherwise, they shouldn't be part of the team. Integrity is one of them and competence, of course, is another one.

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Ep 326: Should You Improve Weaknesses or Strengths?

Tue, 04 Jan 2022 10:00:10 +0000

Niño: The next is: In either choosing a business or a career path, which do you think you should anchor it on: your passion or your skill set?

Sean: In my opinion, business or career path, if you only had two choices, passion or skill set, I would go for skillset. Because if you're so passionate about something but you're not really great at it, that's going to take you a while to get paid well and to really enjoy the team, enjoy the work and enjoy the job. So I'd go for a skillset. You're really good at it and you have to learn to love it.

Here's the truth. You're not really going to love 100% of what you do. That's why we call it work and not play. A lot of people think, "I should love my work, so I don't have to work every single day of my life. You know, it's fun for me because I love my job." You're going to learn to love it up to 50%. And if you love 70%, 80% of it, fantastic, great for you, but it will never be a 100%.

Even for me as CEO of SEO Hacker, I've been doing it for over a decade now. I don't love 100% of my job. There are parts of my job that I don't like. It's really like that. Work is like that. There are some parts that you're not going to like. I wouldn't focus too much on passion. I know a lot of people, a lot of speakers would say, "Focus on your passion. Focus on your passion." But if I'm going to choose between skillset and passion, I'm going to choose skillset.

So when I was starting out I knew I love writing and I'm really good at it. So that's great because I have both. But I'm also quite good at logic and understanding how code works. I can't build code. I can't write code that well, but I understand how it works when I read it. So I pursued SEO.

One facet that I loved about SEO is writing. I'm not really that great when it comes to marketing. When I started out, I'm not really that great when it came to programming. So I'd say maybe 20% to 30% of the job I was passionate about. The rest I was not passionate about.

I was not passionate about legal matters. I'm definitely not passionate about sales during that time. I'm an introvert, so I'm not really good at sales. I'm not great at drafting contracts and proposals. I didn't like a lot of things about the job, but I did have the skill set to take me to the next level. So yeah, my answer: there is going to be a skill set. I hope that helps.

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Ep 325: Imperium Empires’ CEO Interview: What Makes A Sustainable Tokenomics?

Fri, 31 Dec 2021 10:00:10 +0000

Joining Mr. CEO at 22, Sean Si, is Mr. Marvin Germo, a stock trader. They will also be accompanied by none other than Mr. Cliff Yung, the CEO of Imperium Empires!

Stay tuned as Mr. Cliff Yung gives a sneak peek at this upcoming GameFi project - Imperium Empires - the first AAA quality space metaverse that will take NFT games to the next level!

Listen up as they also discuss crypto gaming and what makes a long-term and sustainable tokenomics. Catch all of these and more only in this episode of the Leadership Stack’s Ask Me Anything!

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Ep 324: Fail-Safe Growth Hacks for Creative Entrepreneurs

Fri, 31 Dec 2021 10:00:07 +0000

Sean: And talking about growth, all these books that you were able to read through, how did you know what books you want to read next? And how, what other methods of growth do you have, aside from books? Did you have mentors? Did you pursue them? Do you listen to podcasts? Do you watch YouTube videos? What channels do you watch? Can you share some of that with us?

Chris: I would always go to the bookstore. Yeah. We don't really have bookstores anymore, but these bookstores are known, go to the business department and grab a stack of books. And just go, you know, you buy a book for $9. I buy five books, go home and read them.

And you started seeing like patterns of like the same people showing up over and over again, know, this guy is writing a book and this guy has a newsletter. So I get a newsletter, Dan Kennedy is one of the guys' newsletter. Just you'd see names popping up over and over again, like people who are really out there doing it or somebody who has a lot of books.

You know, some of the leadership guys like John Maxwell, right? That guy has a lot of books, you don't have to read them all, but you know, you could read a few of his books to learn ideas about leadership.

Michael Gerber. I've actually read all his books. He really wrote the same book over and over again. It's really the same concept, but they're really solid.

But I think that is, initially that was something I really did. And then it was things like seminars and conferences you can go to. And there are different ones, you know, like say someone like Tony Robbins has sort of the self-help. How do you get motivated to attend conferences? Well, I'm pretty motivated, so I didn't really need that, but any kind of business-related stuff, I would look at who's a great business leader? Who's going to speak in it? Who's going to be there?

And so I would go to things like that. At some point. I actually, it's funny, my business got audited by the IRS. This is a funny story and it was fine, but they wanted, they need to look at your finances. And so my accountant said, "you know, I do your taxes or your finances.

You're fine. You're not, there's nothing to worry about, but you don't know anything about accounting. So we're going to go to this meeting and don't say anything because everything's fine. So you talking can only make things worse," right? He's like, so just go to a meeting and don't talk. Let me talk. I said, "Okay, great."

So I sat there and they talked about finance and I had no idea what they're talking about. I was like, I don't know anything about accounting. And so after that, I started taking accounting classes and I took about, I don't know, like three or four years' worth of accounting classes.

I really became like this a really beautiful funny accounting person. Yeah, I actually, it's funny because one of my accounting teachers who I see kept in touch with these, she goes, "oh, you know, they have a program at Harvard business school, you should really look into doing it." And I was like, "I don't know if I have the time." But I just learned all about the accounting side of things.

And that was a gap. So I knew marketing. I had learned management and I knew I wasn't very good at it. I learned all sorts of things, but it was like I didn't know anything about finance. So about 10 years ago, I learned as much about small business finances as I could have. And I didn't do it all at once.

I took a class in the summer. I took one in the fall. I took basically, you know, four classes a year for like three years. So I took basically all the classes you would need to have a degree in accounting.

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Ep 323: When to Delegate Roles in Business

Thu, 30 Dec 2021 10:00:11 +0000

Sean: Aside from taking your name off the wall, and stepping back on the sales process. What other things did you fully commission or fully delegate so that you can work on the business rather than in the business?

Chris: Yeah, well, and I think it was gradual, cause I started out doing everything. So the first thing I took myself out of was any kind of the front-end customer service type of thing and organizing the office. So that was kind of the first night that it was hiring other teachers to take some of the students.

And then, as the marketing became more complicated, you know, I got into doing websites, really digital marketing. We first started getting into it in 1996 and back then it was AOL homepage. There was no Google, Google that people forget, the Google didn't exist. You really couldn't find anything on the web.

So you had these weird AOL home pages and you know, or like what, like if you had a website that, you know, you could have like one page, not everybody had mean.

But for us, we said, okay, we built a website. We've held the whole region. So we, I learned how to build websites, not doing code, but like templates, right? Like whatever, Go Daddy website. We learn how to do that. And so as I learned that I learned what worked and what didn't work. And that was something I found somebody to do for me. So someone else does the websites now I talked to them about it, but, and talked about the content and things like that.

But I stepped back from it. So gradually you sort of can step out of different roles. I'm very actively involved in our Google advertising and our Facebook advertising. Someone else actually does our Facebook advertising, but it's, it's something that I'm involved in as far as messaging and the images and what are we presenting to the customers, but I'm not the one actually uploading the picture and typing things in.

So you're able to kind of, you still need to be there, but you're doing maybe a different thing. Strategic work, I guess, would be the term to do this.

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Ep 322: When Should Your Business Hire People?

Wed, 29 Dec 2021 10:00:11 +0000

[00:00:00] Sean: So you have this beautiful engine of marketing for you, that's just driving in leads, just driving in the sales for you. And the other guitar teachers didn't have it, as you mentioned earlier. When was the time that you finally realized that “I have so much going on and I can't just throw these leads out the window, I got to hire people?”

Chris: I think that was the point where I had done my own space and I was still sort of doing the networking, but I was advertising in the yellow pages. If you know what the phone book is - I know the younger people will not remember. They're used as a book before Google, which everybody used. And once I started and I was the only guitar teacher who bought like a yellow pages ad.

So you'd go on yellow pages. It'd be like, you know, little listings of every person. And there was a big ad that said guitar lessons, all ages, all levels, expert, you know. It's like a thing about it - I read a book on how to write a yellow pages ad, designed the ad and the phone was ringing and I was like, well, I could have a waiting list and make people wait six months.

Or I could hire a guy to come in on Saturdays and Fridays when I'm not there. And so it was just that. And so then after that was full, I said, okay, I'm going to get two offices. "Hey, the office next to me, is open enough. Okay well, I'm going to hire another guy. And at that point, I had added two more guys, actually.

So it went from me to four people, almost like, "Okay, now there's an office of fire." And so then I, you know, you need to hire a secretary, basically, someone to handle the scheduling and someone to help you keep track of the billing. And so then it just sort of kept going like that. And this was - this was then what I just compressed was like 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001, like another four year period work, like it just kept growing.

Sean: Got it. And when you were hiring your first people, what were some of the challenges that came up? Because I know when I was a first-time leader. Yeah. We were both business owners, but we were solo flights back then. But being a first-time leader, what were the first difficulties that cropped up for you?

Chris: Yeah, I knew right away. I had absolutely no idea what I was doing. Like I knew a lot about marketing. I knew a lot about the front end of the business, like teaching guitar. And then I was very good with talking to people and I liked the client. I understand marketing. You know I was never a manager.

I had no management experience. I mean, even as a kid, the jobs I had. I delivered papers, there was nothing to manage. You know, and in the restaurant job that I had, I worked in a kitchen, I was making pizza. So I had no management experience. I didn't know - there were no software. There were not, you know. We got it, at some point I had a computer and got an Excel spreadsheet and that became, you know, keeping track of the finances and I have to pay these people all the time.

And what I did that it got a lot easier. You know, it started like explaining stuff to people and writing like an employment agreement and then not, you know, I guess they would say, okay, so if you start at two o'clock, you need to be on time. And if you can't make work, here's what you can do. And just spelling out all the different things about the job, what the expectations were.

A lot of stuff I took for granted. You know, if I had a client at 2:30, I didn't show up at 2:45. You show up on time, things like that, or just how we teach the classes. So we started, you realize these people need some training, and then we're looking to you to explain how to do things and set the borders and the parameters. And it took me about a year to figure that out.

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Ep 321: Should You Work Harder or Smarter?

Tue, 28 Dec 2021 10:00:07 +0000

Sean: Did you establish it early on in life? And your dad did an amazing job training you and making sure you knew the value of hard work, which is pretty much a lost art right now and lost discipline with Millenials. I'm a millennial by the way, so millennials younger, you know, we always say "work smart." Don't work hard, but Hey, work hard - that's key.

Chris: Work smart and hard, you know? So it seems like when I started the music school, going in and networking with the stores where the clients were, was the smart move. Yeah. There wasn't an instant message. I couldn't send someone a text message. There was no Facebook. So that was when you had to go face-to-face.

Yeah, to me, it wasn't hard work. It was time-consuming but it was the smart thing to do. I was the only one doing it. None of the other guitar teachers are doing it. They're all complaining, you know, like whatever.

Sean: And did you get rejected by some of those guitar salespeople, guitar stores that you approached?

Chris: Yeah, you know, when you had the - because these are salesmen, right?

And so you had in any business, 20% of the salespeople make 80% of the sales and then the bottom they come and go. So when you go in there, you know week one, you talk to everybody, you come at week two, there were five guys. Now, one of the guys is missing and there's a new guy.

By the end of the month there's really one guy who's there every week and they, and the other, you know, the other four guys are just transitioning. So you figure out, okay, I really only need to talk to this guy, the rest of these guys aren't going to be here. And then at some point, this guy, the sales manager, and then at this point, the guy, the store manager. You know, you watch them move up so you can kind of see, okay you figure out who the person is very quickly, who's going to hook you up. And they know that you're sending them clients.

Sean: Yeah. How often would you get frustrated that the guy was talking to him, building this relationship with his is he's gone. So he's one of the bottom 80%?

Chris: And I realized early on, it was like, okay. So it was just like with my dad’s company, it's like, you know, there is a top salespeople.

There are the people who grow up in household. There are other people that do things and then there's kind of the other people. And so you don't know you give everyone a chance and it just seemed like the thing. I actually liked the hustle and I liked outworking and I really didn't want to get a job.

I didn't want to have to get a job. You know, I had a music degree, so what was I going to go do? You know, I was, I always wanted to be a guitarist, so I was pursuing what I wanted to do. So it seemed to make sense to say, okay, there's going to be some obstacles along the way, but you don't give up.

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Ep 320: How to Communicate Ideas to Your Boss

Fri, 24 Dec 2021 10:00:09 +0000

Sean: What's the best way to tell a boss or client that their business idea may not be as viable as they think? And how to position your alternative solution? Oh, good question.

Erika: Give them a comparison with their business idea or tell them that, "Oh, you know, if we do this, we can insert reasons here." Tell them how your alternate solution is better without undermining their idea. Do you get what I'm saying?

Sean: Yeah. And how you can ask it is, "Well, boss. What do you think about this?" And then tell them your proposed solution there or your alternative solution. And if they accept it, that's fantastic. Don't get hurt or don't feel bad if they adopt it as their idea, at least you know that you did what is best for the company and for your leader. That's how I think about it instead of having a bad business idea pulled under you. I think that that is something that you could do.

"Boss, what do you think about this?" Or if you're talking to a client, "Sir or ma'am, what do you think about this idea?" You don't even tell them that your idea is not good. It's not going to fly. You're going to have a problem here, here, and here. Just tell them first your proposed solution, and they're going to think about it, play around with it a bit.

And I'm sure if they're smart, they're going to come up with a combination of your proposed solution and the good things about their business idea, and it's going to be a collaboration between you both. No one likes it when people criticize or shut down their ideas. That's for sure.

Erika: And be sure you're prepared when they ask more questions about whatever it is that you're proposing.

Sean: Yup, a hundred percent agree.

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Ep 319: How to Make Your Communication Skills Better

Thu, 23 Dec 2021 10:00:10 +0000

Sean: What would you say will be the top three, I'd say the top three biggest mistakes in communication? And I know I was horrible at it when I started, but I couldn't really tell you, oh, this is the worst problem. When I was a leader, early on, and this is the first communication problem they have. But what will be the biggest, most common problems and communication that you see today in leadership?

And how do you get over that? How do you overcome it?

Mark: First is not knowing your audience. Who is your audience? Whether it's you and I speaking one-on-one, what do I know about you? Or whether I'm speaking to a large room of people, who are they? Why are they here? Where are they hoping to get out of it?

So knowing your audience, knowing their context, knowing their needs. Second, is actually once I know that, communicating in the right style in a way that is receptive. I would never go to France and just start going on the streets and speaking English and expecting everyone to know it. They might know it. They're surely not going to be receptive to it. Right.

I should try to speak French. I should communicate in the style that works for that audience. This is what we all have to do. It might not be a different language, but there are communication styles. And that's why I really focus on in the book, is understanding your audience, how to communicate in that style.

Even when you're doing that, the third thing is just the conciseness of communication. It's recognizing what's pertinent information, what's extraneous, and a lot of people don't know how to really focus on the important.

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Ep 318: How Does Social Media Help Businesses Grow?

Wed, 22 Dec 2021 10:00:09 +0000

Sean: How can I expand the reach of my business on social media?

Erika: So first off, make your social media pretty. Kidding aside. Aside from it being aesthetically pleasing because it is important right now on social media and for people to notice you, then it has to look nice.

But then at the same time, what do people get from what you post? So that people will be more interested in what you're offering. Keep posting that so you'd be able to reach the people that you want to reach on social media.

I think if you're just starting, just choose one or two social media platforms that you want to focus on, like maybe Facebook and Instagram, because you might get overwhelmed if you're going to go everywhere else. Sean, what do you have to say about this one?

Sean: I'm going to say the hard and painful truth about it, that you have to cough up money, that's how you do it. I mean, Facebook and Instagram is a for-profit platform and there is a balance that they're trying to tiptoe around. Look, a lot of people on social media, you and me included, we don't want to see a lot of ads. We don't want to see a lot of companies selling us products and stuff, right?

So how Facebook prevents that from happening is by prioritizing supposedly your personal network, friends and family, and they make sure that everything that you're going to see that's not friends and family is paid. That's it. There's almost zero organic reach now for Facebook pages and companies. Almost zero because they did it that way that you have to pay for you to expand your reach because people don't like seeing a lot of ads. They don't like being sold to. They don't like seeing irrelevant stuff on their newsfeed.

So as business owners, it's a pain for us because we want free reach. We want free stuff, free marketing, free advertising, and free placements. Sadly, that's no longer the case. But in the early days of Facebook, I've experienced that when one ad would cost you .0001 centavos. That was way back 2009.

Erika: Really?

Sean: Yeah, oh man, those were the days in which your organic reach could still skyrocket, but now you have to pay up. That's really it.

Erika: But if you want to have a really fast reach right now, try to explore TikTok. I mean, I'm just starting advertising on TikTok. I should start doing it, but I feel so old. It's so hard for me to do that. I really have to learn it since it's one of my goals this year to work on my TikTok platform.

But I've been hearing from a lot of business friends, coaches, influencers, and business owners, they have a really fast reach on TikTok. As long as you know how to do it, and it's bite-sized information so you can do a lot of things there.

00:03:19

Sean: Which reminds me, my team created a TikTok account. I tried it out. Shout out to Toni Aquino and Marvin Germo, who has been goading me on to go there. They've found huge success on that platform. I haven't yet. Let's see. You know, let's see.

I think that if you're looking for organic reach, it is one of the platforms that actually can give that for now. I mean, YouTube is also really tough now so I heard TikTok is one of the platforms that you can go to.

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Ep 317: Negotiation Mistakes New Businesses Make

Tue, 21 Dec 2021 10:00:10 +0000

Sean: I started out as a freelancer. Grew it from a one-man team, we're now a 50 man team, but how do you network when you're a one-man team, and you've got no company logo, and you got no company records, you don't have your receipts. No one knows who you are. And I started out when I was 22 years old. Hence the book CEO of 22.

How do you network well? Cause a lot of people will look at you and say you're two years. To service my business, you or too inexperienced. There's a lot of X factors in between. Where do you start?

Mark: Well, first on the note of being too young, being told no. Anyone starting a business, and that can include your personal consulting business. You are going to be told no over and over. 'I don't want to hire you. I don't want to work with you. I don't want to work for you. I don't want to partner with you.' Lots and lots of nos. You need a lot of perseverance. You also need to understand where the 'No's' are coming from, and what's motivating that.

If they're all saying because you've never done this. Is there a way you can go out and do that? You, if you want to do graphic design work, you can be a graphic designer as we rebuild a website for a nonprofit. And on the other side, he'd come out and say, look, I have helped to create a website or someone who's interested in doing copywriting. You can do copywriting for the website, or you can be the programmer for the website. And so you start to gain experience. Now it's volunteer work, but it's still a real experience you say, I deliver that, look at my work.

But now when it comes to networking, a mistake people make is to think, I only want to network with people in my field. Don't limit yourself that way, because you want a broad network. Cause you never know when someone's brother or someone's neighbor suddenly needs someone with your skillset, but also you want to, when you network put yourself out there.

I don't have a website. I don't have a logo. I don't have a brand. In fact, the way I landed, one of my clients is because I'm a member of the New York City CTO Club, where a group of CTOs, come together, and once a month we get together for breakfast. We hear a speaker.

We also have a very active mailing list. On this list, people ask questions. I need help with this, thank you for doing that. Can anyone recommend this? I am very active on that list. I am always answering questions and helping out. This does a few things, one, it just makes me a good person. I help out others but also makes me visible.

Not just that they know my name, but when they hear me answer a bunch of questions on a topic, "Mark seems to know something about that." In fact, I've actually been interviewing these past few years when I've been answering these questions. I don't know with whom or for what job, but I am conveying myself as an expert. This, by the way, is why people will write books, do podcasts, do blogs, put content out there.

It is saying, look at what I know. And so when I said, I am looking to do some fractional CTO work to help out these companies part-time, because I want to do some time marketing my book. I had one of the members of the CTO club reach down and say, "you know what? I have a need. You'd be great." Right. I was 90% of the way to the job because she had gotten to know me over the years through everything I talked about.

And so all of us do that, put yourself out there. Help others. And that's how you're building up your reputation and brand.

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Ep 316: Why Online Stores Make More Money

Fri, 17 Dec 2021 10:00:06 +0000

Sean: What was the biggest difference when it came to marketing your online store versus your physical store? There you go. Erika, I think that's for you. I don't have a physical store.

Erika: Marketing online is easier. It's easier because people are all online and you just have to worry about your social media accounts and your Facebook ad spending as compared to having a physical store. We did as much as giving out flyers. Can you believe that? We gave out flyers in the village and I don't even know if that worked as much. There was really no way to track unless you ask people, "Oh, how did you learn about us and stuff?"

Although I also did market my physical store through online channels, I also did Facebook advertising to lead people there within the vicinity. Yeah, I think that's the biggest difference when it comes to marketing. It's just really easier online, and it's more accessible. If you want to market for free, there are a lot of ways to do it.

Sean: Yeah. A hundred percent agree. I think marketing today, marketing is the same whether you stay traditional or digital. Marketing is marketing. It's all about getting into the face of your customer or potential customer. And right now, where are your customers? Most of them, if not all of them, are for sure on their smartphones. And when they're on their smartphones, they're digitally connected. That's why digital marketing right now is so powerful.

And imagine a lot of physical stores, even restaurants are being marketed digitally right now. There's no shame in flyering, by the way. If it works, that’s perfect and fantastic. No one should dictate how you should market so long as you are getting into the face of your potential customer that is a respectable marketing channel.

A huge difference is it's a lot cheaper marketing online. It takes a lot less people compared to when you're marketing traditionally like billboards, magazines, newspapers, TVs, radios. It's a lot cheaper. It takes a lot less effort to market online and you get to test it better because now you could run two different ads and see which one performs better.

But you can't do two different TV shows because that's going to be super-duper expensive for you. So it's a boon and it's a gift when it comes to being able to market online. It's a gift for SMBEs out there and business owners who are starting out.

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Ep 315: How to Negotiate Without Feeling Drained

Thu, 16 Dec 2021 10:00:07 +0000

Sean: Do you tackle when people do get emotional in a negotiation? For example, I know that there are times when I personally felt offended, when there are negotiation counterparts when I was starting up SEO-hacker, who would give me a super-duper low price and would try to just shove it down my throat, that I have to get that deal so that will make some, one person feel bad.

How do you usually respond when that happens?

Mark: Some people just take the classic hard-line, "I am going to beat you down and get the lowest possible price." Some like to use intimidation. You see this particularly if one party is just physically bigger, louder, comes off stronger, and they wanna intimidate the party. But we have to remember as business negotiators. Again, there are exceptions like these hostage negotiation cases, but for, I suspect most of the audience here, we're business negotiators, this is about a business deal.

And really whether that person is big or scary or loud or quiet, doesn't matter, it about does the deal work for us? And so don't be afraid first to walk away if it's not a good deal for you, but then also to recognize if you yourself are getting emotional. If they're trying these things to just tweak you to just put you in a state where you basically make a mistake because you are so emotional, it's okay to take a break.

It's okay to not respond to that email immediately or to say "let's come back to this tomorrow, or I just need to step out" or even "I need to go to the bathroom for just a few minutes, we can keep going," and just walk out, recognize you you're in that mental state. And then you can use calming techniques.

You can use techniques like my friend Olivia Fox Cabane has a great book called "The Charisma Myth." And there are techniques in there, for example, you just step out, go to the bathroom, whatever. When you're doing that, think about your loved ones. Think about your pet. Think about that childhood toy that made you happy.

And just in your mind envision this, and that's going to shift your mental state from being in that angry, emotional, ‘I have to fight back because that person said something very mean’, to I'm thinking of my childhood pet. I'm imagining playing with my dog. I'm relaxed. I'm happy. Okay. We have an issue on the table. I'm going to come back to it, but I can do so in a state where I don't have those emotions clouding my judgment.

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Ep 314: Best Social Media for More Audience Reach

Wed, 15 Dec 2021 10:00:12 +0000

Sean: When it comes to online selling, is it better to have an Instagram shop or use FB Live? Have you ever sold using FB Live?

Erika: Yes, we're doing that right now.

Sean: There you go. Okay, so how was it?

Erika: Well, we tried both. We tried Instagram Live and Facebook Live. We did much better, like way better on Facebook. Our viewers on Facebook Live reached 200+ viewers, which is the highest. On average, we have 100 to 200+ viewers. On Instagram, it's lower, maybe around 30 viewers or even less.

I think it's because, on Facebook Live, you can ask people to share it in groups, to share it on their profile, to share it on different channels, as compared to Instagram Live, you can't share it anywhere else. Although if you want to try Instagram Live, what we ask our viewers is to tag their friends. Maybe they'll see the comment and join in and hop in on the live.

But yeah, when it comes to online selling, Facebook Live has more reach, although we only do it once a week. I know some people do it every day, but since our brand has an e-commerce website and all of that, we just do Facebook Live as a bonus. It's also the trend nowadays, let's try it.

But we've seen really good results. Facebook Live or Instagram Live? We go to Facebook Live. We don't do Instagram Live anymore. It's often the same people on Facebook Live. When we do Instagram Live, our regular customers will just go there, so might as well just stick to one platform, which is Facebook Live.

Sean: Are you the one selling?

Erika: No, I tried it. The first one, I was the one selling. It's a lot of effort, but it's fun. It's really fun because you get to interact with them immediately. And there was a time I was trying on the clothes, and it was tiring. I have so much respect for people who do Facebook live every day and who are willing to change clothes. It's so much work.

But no, I don't do it anymore. I just did it twice. And that was not even two succeeding weekends. I guess that was a month apart. I suggest you drink a lot of water.

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Ep 313: What's Better in Negotiations: Logic or Emotion?

Tue, 14 Dec 2021 10:00:09 +0000

Sean: And would you say negotiation is more of convincing from a logical standpoint whereas you mentioned earlier, I have a team we've worked well together and that might justify a higher value for the contract that I'm selling, or would you rather go for a more logical approach where you would say with, with this team that I have, you're going to be more comfortable.

You're going to be safe. Because we all know how to work with each other already. Which one would you lean more towards the rational, logical side or the emotional side when negotiating?

Mark: Well, those are both rational arguments. If you say we're going to be a better team or we connect better or communicate better, that's a logical argument, even though you're arguing, there is a better emotional component to it.

Now you can use rational arguments and most of what you should do when you're a novice negotiator, focus on that. Focus on logical arguments. And it's always about what you want. It doesn't matter what I want. I might want a million dollars. I might think I deserve a million dollars, but if you don't believe that, it doesn't matter what I want, what I think. I have to convince you. Here's a reason why a million's justified based on my experience, the value I bring.

Now, there are times when you do want to get emotional. I don't talk quite as much about this in the book. There are other books. So Chris Voss, I think has a book on this topic. I haven't read it.

He was the FBI negotiator, their lead negotiator. So the FBI, the federal bureau of investigations, he's dealing with some gunmen, who's taken a hostage, I'm doing business deals. I'm saying, this is why you should pay $50 million for this company. Here's why it's going to justify the value. We're doing this over hours, days, weeks, most likely.

And we know we can walk away from the table. We'll take this up next week. When you have a hostage negotiator, it is all emotional. There's no logical appeal. He might bring in a little of that, but he knows you're playing to their emotions. You do sometimes have that in business.

I was just advising someone on dealing with a co-founder. I said, look, logically, you should be able to do more, but everything you're telling me about your co-founder. Your co-founder is not going to behave rationally. Your co-founder just views this in a certain way. And he's going to draw a line in the sand for emotional reasons, and you have to decide, can you live with that or not?

So we do sometimes even businesses have to recognize there may just be an emotional tie, an emotional limit, but I would say for many of us start up just focusing on those logical arguments.

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Ep 312: How to Decide Your Product's Profitability

Fri, 10 Dec 2021 10:00:05 +0000

Sean: Mitch asks, how do you test the demand for your product or service before launching it? This is a really good question, especially for startups.

Erika: I used to do this back then and I did a pre-order. I think you guys all know what pre-order is. So you post about your product, you hype your product, tell them the benefits and for them to purchase your product, you offer them a little bit of a discounted price since it's a pre-order, before it gets launched.

Through that, at least, you don't have the product yet, you just order based on how many people would order your product or service through the pre-order. And then that's how you'll know if there's a demand for your product or none.

00:00:52

Sean: That's really good. Actually, that's one of the best ways to do it , because right then and there you have a working case study for you because there, they coughed up money. In pre-order, they actually pay you the money and you get the volume and you get to talk with them as well.

There is another way that follows the lean startup model. This is especially if you're going to be launching a software product or service. And that is going ahead and having a prototype and asking friends and family or your target market, your potential target market, how much are they willing to spend for such a service or such software for them to use it?

And the lean startup model really relies on what the author, Eric Ries, calls the fast feedback loop. This is a book you can actually buy The Lean Startup book. And the fast feedback loop is all about the MVP or what he calls the minimum viable product.

So if you're selling a titanium mug, for example, I have a titanium mug here. It's just filled up with water. Instead of paying and ordering 2000 units of this titanium mug, which costs a good amount of money, you just buy a hundred steel mugs. And then, tell people, what if this was titanium and this is that amount, would you still buy it? Something like that.

So you get that feedback and you get a good idea about how many people are willing to buy your product. With service, it would be the same. If I would do this for you or if I had the team that can do this for you at this amount, would you buy it? Getting that feedback and asking them why. Why would you buy it or why would you not buy it? That's going to help you tons. You just have to have the humility and the diligence to take note of the data. That's it.

Erika: Yeah, we also do that with our swimsuit designs. Sometimes if there's a new design coming up, we make them choose on Instagram stories, which one do you like better? And then if we get enough people who like this one and that's the time that we say, "okay, this design doesn't work. They like this one better, so let's release this one. Let's launch this one." Yeah, ask for feedback from your customers.

Sean: Yeah, perfect. That's A/B testing and really good stuff.

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Ep 311: Reverse Engineering as a Successful Leadership Method

Thu, 09 Dec 2021 10:00:10 +0000

Sean: What would be your best advice for entrepreneurs who are still in that rut, where they're just trying to think if they're going to throw in the towel and finally give up?

J Haleem: Don't give up. Shift. You got to shift. You have to shift. I heard this years ago that the smartest people in business know when to let something go, and not hold on to something. So they always say the new normal, you know, certain things that we have before the pandemic is never going to be in there, you know, and you have to be that person.

Don't be a blockbuster. Don't be a Kodak. There'll be these people, you know a series of robots. Don't be these people that don't shift in business with the time. Get some training, get that certification right now. Some people are offering it for free now. And learn something else, learn a new skill, get to meet some new people when you go to a new city.

You know, some, every city is not shutting. Now I know it's here, you know, Atlanta, Georgia, it never shut down. This whole state of Florida never shut down, if you want to work in the states, go to Georgia, go to Florida, Texas, that's another state that barely ever shut down. So, you know, Elon Musk must've moved his whole company to Texas.

So, you know, you have to be willing to shift. The people who didn't shift as the ones who - because it was so much opportunity as entrepreneurs. I always told people, I said this all through the pandemic. The pandemic is and was horrible for health. But in business, the pandemic can be anything. You know, you think about the people with Uber, you know, taxi cab drivers, Uber were there in pandemic at some, at one point, you know.

The pandemic can be you getting sick. Or without COVID-19, you still have other things, so you have, we had a thousand-year flood in 2015 here. That's a pandemic. You have businesses underwater here. That's, for a business that was just like the pandemic. What did they do? They rebuild, they went and got another space.

They got government assistance. And when it head-on and did something different. You can't just keep trying to fit a square peg into a round hole. Like if that's gone, if you had skills enough to build one thing, you can build something else. Now we get too sentimental about certain things and I get it, maybe you raised your kids in that business.

Maybe you raise your kids with the revenue from that business. I get it. But you gotta shift, you have to shift and you have to pivot. Everybody saying that word during the whole pandemic in the height of it, pivoting. Nobody likes to hear it now, but it's a fact, it's a paradigm shift now. Things are different and it's okay for you to go ahead and learn a new skill, but you got to continue to get better. You have to continue to learn things.

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Ep 310: Should You Practice Financial Leveraging or Bootstrapping?

Wed, 08 Dec 2021 10:00:08 +0000

Sean: Would it be advisable to highly leverage your business? I think this is making your business collateral. Would it still be considered good debt? I'll go ahead first and answer this one.

With leveraging your business, not a lot of banks would allow your business to become leverage especially if you're starting up. They won't even lend you money. You have to be established for at least five years. Show them your ITR (Income Tax return). They know your bank account, so they know if you're making money or not.

Before you're able to secure a loan and it's not going to be the loan amount you want. It's going to be less than that. So it's pretty tough even loaning money from the bank when you're a startup. But if you have a big brand, for example, Ford. The logo of Ford was actually turned into collateral by Alan Mulally, who is the CEO of Ford, the one who turned it around. And he used that blue logo literally as collateral, and so the bank loaned him money for that.

So that's an example of using your business as leverage. But otherwise, if you don't have a brand that powerful, I doubt you can use it as leverage. And would it be considered good debt? Good debt or bad debt will still depend on what you use the debt for, not on what your collateral was.

So even if you use your house as collateral, but you use it as collateral to buy a boat, for example. Strictly speaking, if it's a boat that you're going to use for personal reasons, it's not an asset. A boat depreciates and saltwater corrodes it. So that's a bad debt because you use your house as a collateral loan for a boat.

But if you're going to use it to start building, then yeah, that's good debt.

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Ep 309: 3 Leadership Principles of a Serial Entrepreneur

Tue, 07 Dec 2021 10:05:31 +0000

Sean: You shared, some of those core values earlier. I'm wondering now, what are, maybe your top three leadership principles that make your role, make you who you are, and make you successful as far as you're concerned. Can you share that with us?

J Haleem: Well, for me, you know, definitely, authenticity is number one. Authenticity. You gotta be yourself. You know a lot of times, and again, I've been in a space where I wasn't, because I was trying to fit in, in this space because again, in business, when you don't have the upper hand, you kind of got your toe on the line until you do, or at least you get an even, or you want to even the playing field.

But sometimes you get comfortable in that space and then you lose yourself. You know, you've been playing that role so long. You think, you know, you're at home in that space. So being authentic and remaining authentic, you're actually helping out yourself, which is first, but also in the long run, you're helping yourself as a leader.

Because somebody is looking for you, somebody's looking for that in you so that they can have somebody to show them the way. And a lot of times you'd be surprised that somebody had come from where I come from, got a job, and they might not know that I understand their story. And they're trying, and they're struggling to fit in. They're struggling to make it. And if I just showed a little bit of who I was, they'll say, okay, well, if he can do it, I can do it. So number one for me is always about authenticity. You know, you definitely have to be authentic.

The integrity piece - your word is everything. You know, a lot of times even you in entrepreneurship, a lot of people think you got money, but you don't. Just because you started a business, all you have is your word. You know, all you have is the fact that you are able to do everything you say you're going to do, and the more that you, you know, keep your word. It's definitely, you're going to be great. You'll be fine.

So just trying to be impeccable with your word, you know, something's going to happen if you can do nothing about it, but if you can control it, be impeccable about your word, you know.

And then building relationships. Of course, you gotta be a great relationship builder to be a leader. Like you can't be a leader if you don't know how to, you know, bring people together. And so, you know, when the people, talk about me where I'm from, you know, I wanted it to be like I'm not a stranger to anybody. Oh, someone's heard about J Haleem, especially if you're talking about in the business spec spectrum, no matter what kind of business it is in my city, somebody knows who I am.

That means that I've made a nice dent in the area of building relationships so I can help individuals, because leadership, people are looking for you to be able to point them in the right direction, so if you don't have a relationship, how can you do that?

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Ep 308: The One Life-Sustaining Skillset Your Business Needs

Fri, 03 Dec 2021 10:00:11 +0000

Sean: All right, what are your tips for people having a hard time choosing what type of business they want to start?

Erika: I guess you have to keep asking yourself questions like: What are your options? What's your situation? What do you offer? What are your talents? What resources do you have? Like I said earlier, I just really focused on what I wanted to do, what I wanted to be at, and that was fashion, and then something that I knew that I could do at the comforts of my home online.

Because during that time, I was young. I think I was 18 years old and I was a mommy. I had to take care of my baby and at the same time earn a living. So, given the situation, I can't go out. At that time, I didn't have a helper I could afford so I had to do everything. I really am the Jack of all trades that Niño mentioned. Even changing diapers, I also did that.

So, ask yourself those questions, and then eventually you'll figure it out. And of course, don't forget what you really want to do so you won't get burned out of the business and it won't feel like work in the beginning. Because it's really the first few months or the first few weeks, you won't probably earn enough or sustainably for it to go.

Sean: Yeah, at the beginning it's really a grind. You don't really make much and then you hire people, and sometimes their salary is bigger than your take home. I mean I personally experienced that when I was starting out, and those are the times that you're going to be questioning your purpose. Why did I start? Why is my employee's salary bigger than my take-home salary? It's tough.

It's tough so my answer to this question is, make sure you choose the business that you're willing to suffer for. Erika said the word passion earlier. And passion, if you take it from the Latin definition, means suffering or sacrifice.

It should be something that you're willing to suffer for, something you're willing to sacrifice yourself for. That's going to be the business that you should start because otherwise you're going to quit halfway and you're not even getting the first fruits of your efforts. It would be a waste if you quit halfway. So that's my advice for you there.

From Tin, what could be your best advice for those who can relate with the Jack of all trades thing mentioned earlier? Tin has a small clothing business and she's a one-man team. And yeah, that's the question. What's the best advice?

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Ep 307: How a Side Hustler Triumphed to Leadership

Thu, 02 Dec 2021 10:00:16 +0000

Sean: So what gave you the sign? Like 'Hey, because a lot of people don't like doing things to just throw in the towel and quit, right? It's not for me. Hey, I don't like doing this. I feel so tired afterward. Cause I feel like this is something that, you know, I could hire someone to do this,' but in your case, you went ahead and took the grind. I mean, how did you know that this was something that was going to direct your future and you’re going to build your business with this even if it's not something you really love doing?

J Haleem: I never even knew. I'll be honest with you, I never knew. Again, I sold my camera. When we got back here, my son, my wife was pregnant with my son. She couldn't get a job. She was making a lot of money in the DC area. And down here, you know if you make a lot of money like that, so people didn't want to pay her.

Plus she's pregnant with a kid and I am still a felon at that time, so I can't get a great job. And again, once I saw it I'm like, listen, I have no money, so let's sell this camera. I want to have no 2000 out of the camera and I can do nothing with it. Let's make the money, we can pay our rent.

But literally, this man gave me the camera back and was like, I said, “Okay, well, look, this is what I do. I'll take pictures for you, no matter what.” And so he's a pastor of a church. I took pictures of the church, but then people started asking me to do it. And I was like, “Okay, I needed the money.”

So I take the money. I worked at a crappy job for like $8 an hour job for a little while. And I was taking pictures. I had a college friend who had a car dealership. I would go with him to get cars from the auction. And, you know, I started hustling. So while I'm going with him to get cars from the auction, I got smart in watching him and I said, “Okay, well, listen, I know how to do it now.

So his business is picking up, so he was like, “Well, you go by yourself, you can take the guy.” So now I would get a hundred dollars for a car. He'd pay me $200 a day, you know, just to go ahead and go get, go with the guy. Then it went from that to, we go on that one day, we going to three days a week. So now I'm working like three jobs.

I'm taking pictures, I'm working at a hotel for $8 an hour and I'm running, working at a car dealership. And so I'm doing all this stuff at the same time, but the pictures is starting to pick up. And then it was about 2015 when we had a, it was a lot of stuff happened in South Carolina. You probably heard about the Emmanuel 9.

When the guy shot the nine people in the church in Charleston, South Carolina that happened and we're in the Capitol. And so they had to bring the Confederate flag down. I was there for that. I shot that. We had a historic thousand-year flood here. I shot everything for that. And I got on the mayor's radar and the mayor had me do work for him.

We knew we were getting relief, help from other cities, other major cities in the region. He would have me as the only photographer shooting. And so I got to put on the map from there. Then I started working with a lot of big-name companies and big-name law firms and stuff like that. And my career just took off from there.

But I never knew I was just, you know, using it. I wasn't going to put it down because I felt like one spiritually, I was like, God was in the midst of that because I never asked for paying me the money. I even asked, "you want the money back?" He says, "no, I want you to use the camera." I said, okay, cool. And I did so, and it worked out.

Sean: So that's like a Divine intervention right there.

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Ep 306: Keys to Overcoming Fear in Networking

Wed, 01 Dec 2021 10:00:07 +0000

Sean: From Erika. I know that networking is a big factor in growing my business, but I'm nervous to speak to more experienced business people. How can I become more confident?

Join a networking group. That's one of the easiest ways. So some people who are afraid of public speaking actually join those masters and learn public speaking there, and at the same time, get to mentor other people who want to learn public speaking, and they could be business people too. I know a lot of business people actually join those masters because they want to get over their fear of public speaking and they want to communicate better to their team.

I'm a JCI Manila member. That is a really good network for me. I meet a lot of really great people who have a big heart because JCI is all about giving back to the community. It's a charitable organization, but you know, there are a lot of people there who have big businesses as well. So consequently, we help the community, we help give to charity, but we also help each other out. And we trust each other because before you get into JCI, You actually have to have a big project done successfully, which is fundraising, turning over that event that you're going to be doing to give back to the community.

So, members of JCI Manila, you know that they pass that test and that creates a stronger bond between us. So join those groups where, yeah, they're going to ask you for time. I mean, with JCI Manila, sometimes they ask me to connect a certain speaker to the chapter or sometimes I speak. I spoke recently for the JCI Manila podcast. You know, it's one hour. It's not big. I enjoyed it completely.

But sometimes they're going to ask you for favors that you have to go out of your way and you really just have to do that because you love the chapter, you love the people there, you love what you're doing with them. And they trust you more. You build more rapport with them and they get your business more. That's how I network. I give back to the community.

There are a lot of people and websites that SEO Hacker works for. And we don't ask for payment because we know that they're giving back to the community. For God and Country, we don't charge. So that's something that we strongly believe in. It's not all about money and that actually has paid us back multiple times. So yeah, hopefully you learn from that.

What's your take on that, JM?

JM: First of all, thank you very much, Sean, and for SEO Hacker for everything that you're doing for others.

So Erika, my encouragement for you is to really challenge yourself. Because if you won't be able to challenge yourself, then you won't be able to grow. You won't be able to grow in your personal life and even in your business. So just like what Sean mentioned earlier in the year, join these groups and train yourself. Even go to YouTube. There are a lot of courses there that are free. You can learn from other people who already experienced this and who are confident in public speaking. So I think that is very important in order for you to challenge yourself and in order for you to grow more.

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Ep 305: Why Entrepreneurs Need People Skills

Tue, 30 Nov 2021 10:00:36 +0000

Sean: What does that look like? Because a lot of people think that they know how to deal with people. Hey, when I was starting out, I thought I knew how to deal with people, but it turns out looking back now I'm connecting the dots. I was an idiot at it. And so what do you mean when you say that you got picked up because you knew how to deal with people?

J Haleem: Well, when he was telling me was, you know, again, he had a young lady, I'll tell you real quick, I had a young lady and she wasn't young, she about 50 years old, but she was the best person for the job. Literally far as skillset, but horrible, horrible, horrible temperament.

She's yelling at everybody. She's straight-up military style. You know, I understand that you have to deal with each person differently. I want to get to know you. I want to get to know what's going to make you know to be the best employee. What's going to bring the best out of you, you know? And then I'm willing to work beside you.

She's like she was the type. This is your job. You need to know how to do it. Not I'm not going to be here to help you. I showed you already. So no, I'm going to make it easy for you to do your job. So the same way you don't do your job, I made it easy for you to fire yourself. So it was just a great situation. And then not only dealing with the employees and that being a project manager, but I also had to deal with the facilities manager.

I had to deal with the owners of the building, of the space. You had to be able to turn and have to wear different hats. So not only was I equipped to go ahead and be on my regular uniform, but I could put a suit and tie on as well and have this business meeting talking about this new project because again, they'll have events, this is extra money.

It was the base contract of a million dollars. But if they have these events at the space, that's going to be another $20,000. I got to talk. I gotta be able to negotiate in that and say, how much are we going to charge? Because we have to bring new people in here. We got to do this. You got to clean up.

It's so much stuff going on and she was not even prepared for that. She's been totally overwhelmed dealing with that. She just, all she knew, was a practitioner. She wasn't a manager, you know, and that was the thing.

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Ep 304: How to Become a Life Coach

Fri, 26 Nov 2021 10:07:03 +0000

Sean: Question from Mich. I'm a former employee. As someone who wants to enter the coaching industry, there you go, or any business of help, how can I manage the feelings of guilt when charging clients?

JM: I like the analogy that when someone is sick, you go to a doctor. Right? And you also pay for the service of that doctor. And when someone is going through a mental challenge, they also go to a psychiatrist and they're able to pay for that psychiatrist as well. So as a coach, I also know that this is actually one of the challenges that we're having as coaches. Like, “I just want to help that person, but you know, I also need to charge this client.”

So I think it's very important that if you want to be a coach, number one, really give value to what you're doing, your job, and how you're helping other people. And number two as well, let your client value what they're going to have with you as well as a coaching client. So I think it's very important that you, number one, give value to yourself and to what you do. And number two, help the other person value what you're able to offer him or her as well.

So yes, and God bless you. We need more coaches during this time as well. So yeah, I hope that helps.

Sean: That's really good. If I can add just one little thing.

JM: Sure.

Sean: I always say when people don't pay, they don't pay attention. The people who give value to what you do, they're going to be willing to pay value for it. So, you know when someone's going to be a serious coachee and they really want to change their life. Or they just want some extra words that they want to hear, you know, they're not going to want to pay for that.

So I actually like people who pay better because I know that they're going to be valuable customers or clients to me as well. And the potential of them being a promoter or giving me word-of-mouth marketing is also a lot higher, so it's a win-win.

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Ep 303: Should You Standardize Business Processes?

Thu, 25 Nov 2021 11:54:44 +0000

Sean: Can you give us a little bit more idea about what that means when you say standardized things? What does that really mean?

Dancho: Healthier way is that when we started Bizzbee, it was project-based. Someone gives you money. You have one month of work and that's it and you need a new client. Working with long-term clients gives you monthly recurring revenue, which is much healthier because you're not every month starting from a clean slate, but you already have; like we have 2030 clients at the moment.

So you don't start with zero, you already have the cost covered, so that's much healthier rather than doing from scratch every time. In terms of systems and processes, now it's much clear. Okay, now we need new employees then it's we have a clear agreement. Project managers tell my wife, okay, we need employees.

She puts the job ad, puts some Facebook paid ads on the job ad. People are applying. Then the project manager interviews them. She decides who she keeps then my wife actually builds the contracts, enforces them, and everything. This is actually standardized.

Before that it was like, we need them, employees. Okay. What should we do? I don't know. What about you? I also don't know. Let's ask Dancho and then they come to me and I'm like, man, come on this has to be standardized. Or, "well, we actually put the job at nobody applied." Did you put some ads on the job post? Nope. Well, how will you expect people to see it? Okay.

People applied. Should we accept this or this? I'm like, that's not my problem. Actually, the project manager needs to decide because she needs to live with the decision. If I decide for her, then you gave me the wrong people. And we did that. And then, okay, but now what should we do? We need a contract. We need this X, Y, Z.

And I was like, man, this has to be standardized. Clarity helps everybody because you know, what are the next steps? What are the next steps? And this is just in-house. I'm also talking about with the. Like we have a new client. Okay. What should we do now? I don't know. Well, give them a contract. Okay. But, how are we going to start? We were like, no, we have an onboarding process. Step one, kickoff meeting, introduce the project manager, the copywriter, the nurture specialist.

Okay. Step two. Copywriter books and meeting with the client in order to do an interview, to understand the passion, the driving force, and everything, because she needs to create messages that are specific to that client.

Step three, the project manager gives them filters and LinkedIn sales navigator and everything. Step four, we wrap up everything and we decide on the starting of the execution. Stage five, clarity. It's good for us, but it's also good for the client because when you reach a supplier and you see that they have no structure, you're like I'm going to run away from here as fast as I can because of the structure gives clarity.

Managing expectations. I know what to expect when I'm getting a supplier. So it's like, okay, what happens to your steps 1, 2, 3, 4, 5. Okay. Now I know where I am through the stages. So this systematization and standardization are actually having a healthy business because when something is wrong, you can isolate specifically at what stage is not working.

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Ep 302: Creating Safe Space for Employees with Depression

Wed, 24 Nov 2021 10:28:12 +0000

Sean: How can employers manage depression in the workplace? How can employers qualify feelings of sadness as reasons for employees not being able to come to work?

JM: So I think having that time in order for your employees to have that safe space for them to let you know what's going on in their lives. It's very important to manage depression even before it starts. Meanwhile, when there is already depression, it actually depends on the level of depression. There is depression that is still normal. “Normal.” But there is depression as well where it's already considered clinical depression.

So when it comes to clinical depression, you need to be able to consult a professional already, professional help for that in order to help your employees and in order to manage depression. Besides what I mentioned earlier, what's important, not just for the employees, but for the employers as well is for you to really take care of yourself mentally, emotionally, physically, and spiritually. So make sure that there's support for that as well for them to be able to know that there’s support from the company. And there's also a way for you to help them.

So there's a lot of things actually with depression, Sean. And just a few things in order for you to know if you're going through depression is that there are extremes. Okay? So if there are already extreme things in your life that are going on for more than two weeks already. Like if either you eat a lot or you don't have an appetite. Okay? Two extremes or you just want to sleep. All-day, you just want to sleep or you couldn’t sleep. So extreme things. And if there's no longer passion to do the same things that you ought to enjoy before. So those are just some of the things that you can look for, a sign if you are having depression already, or if your employee is having depression already. So I hope that helps.

Sean: That really does. I'm not an expert when it comes to depression. We've had a couple of people struggling with this actually. I wouldn't say I'm the most brilliant help they’ve ever gotten. But what I do believe about this topic, which is a sensitive topic, is that a lot of people tend to not feed their spirit. You know, it might be hard teaching to hear coming from me, but people who have faith, you know, who believe in God and believe in the spirit will understand what I mean.

We're not just meat and bones. We're thinking beings with a spirit. We consider the heart and the brain as important parts of our functioning bodies. The spirit is also a very important organ that's invisible. You can't see it, but it is as important as your heart and as important as your brain. And the spirit needs to be fed so it has kind of like an appetite, like your stomach. And if it is not fed, I think that is where the depression creeps in because you lose the appetite to live. Life becomes bland. It's lackluster.

It could be a slew of different triggers, but I think the root cause is always you're poor in spirit. You haven't fed your spirit. You haven't had the time to pause and think about what you lack in terms of faith, in terms of your walk with God, in terms of your personal growth and improvement. And a lot of people who struggled with depression, I believe, spend a lot of time not thinking.

We have, as a generation, lost our ability to think, really think. And sadly that's because of the advent of the internet and unlimited entertainment that we have. We just don't need to think. We can be entertained 24/7 today. And that I think contributes to the spirit of depression. I can't really say much about it, but what I do know is part of it, maybe a good part of it is about the spirit. And you have to feed your spirit.

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Ep 301: Are Relationships and Mentors Important in Business?

Tue, 23 Nov 2021 10:00:17 +0000

Dnacho: There are hundreds of ways of how you can generate leads. And then how our client knows what's best for them. And you know, you're going to need years to try all hundreds of them to see what is the right fit for you. And then we said, well, you know what? We do really the outreach. So which type of companies would really benefit the most from the outreach.

And when we saw that the high ticket service providers and seeing them as high ticket service providers, not that just because they have expensive services, it's because they have a unique sales process. When it comes to 50K sales. First, it's a really long sale cycle. It's like in months in years in some cases.

So it's not like impulsive buying costs, swipe your credit card. Then there are always multiple people involved, even if it's a 50K website as a platform. Yeah. But then the procurement manager, then the marketing manager, then the CEO, then the CEO needs to take it to the board. The board needs to get approval and it is really a complicated sales process.

The rewards are also good. I mean, when you sell 10K service, you're like, okay, if I sell five services in total, that's like a 50K, which is a good deal. And when the reward is good, you could actually afford more on the lead generation. And here is not just that as a motivation, we saw that, well, you know what actually, in the high ticket service provider, people.

It will not work. If I go, hi, Sean, I'm selling a 50K would you be interested in buying it? Not thank you very much. Next one. Hi, I'm selling a 50 K service. Are you interested? No, thank you very much. But it's really relationship-building. And people are lazy, I mean, even when we're talking about marketing agency, they're like how I can get you five fleets and that's it.

And with the high-ticket service providers, it's really relationship-based. So trying to reach out to people, start some chit-chatting, start some conversation starters, try to qualify if they have a problem or not, if not keep them in your circle. I mean, Sean, our extreme was that we were working for a company real estate from Ibiza and they were looking for an investor for 10 million euros.

And we were like, okay, our outreach framework is the same. We just need to adjust it a bit. So we screened the whole of Europe, finding investors for real estate investors, property investors, we found few hundreds. We started reaching out to talk with them, but not even a letter from a pitch or from a sales or for something.

The whole goal was to find the potential investor, invite them onto Ibiza on a yard, to do fishing with the real estate agent company. And then during the fishing, they can start talking. "You're a nice guy. What do you do? What I do? Okay. Let's try to see some business". Because at that level they don't buy projects, they buy into people. Sean, you're a nice guy. What are you doing? I want to invest in whatever you're doing.

I have a lot of money. Project - there will be good projects, bad projects, but if I see that you're a good guy. I want to invest in whatever you're doing. I mean, I'm giving it as an extreme because it was 10 million euros.

That is really why we choose the high ticket service providers because relationship building is more important than actually getting the lead because not every prospect that you're reaching out to is the right time at the right moment and ready to come on a call. But on the other hand, if you build a relationship around your client, even after six months, they've decided that they need that solution. We want to position our clients as the go-to guy for that field.

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Ep 300: Can You Kill Fear by Taking Risks?

Fri, 19 Nov 2021 10:26:08 +0000

Sean: Our next question is from Erika. I want to resign from my current job to focus on my career, but my fear of failure is stopping me from doing so. What should I do?

JM: It’s very important for you to recognize why you're having that fear of failure. With your current job right now, do you want to resign because you really want to move forward and grow? Or do you want to resign because there are some things that you can't deal with in terms of your current job right now? So those are my questions for you because I think that's very important for you to recognize first why you want to resign from your job. Okay?

Because whatever it is that is hindering you or is leaving you that fear of failure, wherever you go, whether you're going to stay in your current job or focus on a new career, that will really affect you and your performance. So make sure that you take some time first and think about what are the things that are giving you that fear of failure. So deal with that first, and then after that, think about whether you need to resign from your current job. Because right now it's also very hard to get a new job. So unless you have a new job that will really take care of your financial needs, then I think that's also a go, but otherwise, really think about it. Okay?

Sean: Well, if you want to resign on to your current job to focus on your career, first, you have to know there are people relying on you and you are also relying on that job. Can you really afford to lose that job? Because if you can't, that's going to create financial problems. Were you able to build on your emergency fund, which is six months to a year worth of your salary? If you're able to do that, then you can take it a step further and finally think about that career you want to jump into.

How big of an opportunity is that really going to be for you? If the opportunity is bigger than what you're doing now in your current job, then it is worth considering transferring to wherever it is that you want to go to. I don't think the fear of failure should stop you. Life is about taking risks. You know, when you're in your job, when you have a job, you're just outsourcing the risk to your boss. But your boss still holds your risk. Why? Because if the business fails, if your boss feels the business goes down, you will be affected as well. You're also going to lose that job.

So where is your security really held? Where is your success really held? Why are we so afraid of failing? Life is about risks. So it's all about assessing if the opportunity is greater. And can I really afford to lose my job right now to shift into that opportunity? Those are going to be the questions that I'm going to be asking myself if I was faced with the same question. And if the answer is yes, the opportunity is great, I'm quite sure that it's going to be really good for me, and I am secure, I have my emergency fund settled in, it's not going to be a huge risk for me, then I am going to make the shift.

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Ep 299: How to Choose the Right Project Manager

Thu, 18 Nov 2021 10:01:05 +0000

Sean: And now I'm wondering, how do you find those right project managers that you mentioned earlier?

Because I'm sure you've found a lot of wrong ones. How did you get the right ones?

Dancho: Very hard. For me at the beginning, maybe that's juniority and then becoming really an expert in the field, but you do a lot of interviews and some tests and personality and stuff just to get the right guy, and at the end of the day, it's not the right guy.

And I give up, I give up on trying to find the right guy. Now my different strategy is to grab five people. I start working with them for three months, and then I see what they're made of. Because on your CV, you can put so fantastic stuff on all the magic that you've delivered. Then very well polished or on the interview because you know that you're being observed. You can start pretending, faking it even. So you cannot really evaluate whether someone is good or not.

So our whole logic is to take them, work three months with them. You've realized if someone is sitting next to you for three months, you can understand their character, their soul, their intentions because you cannot fake it for three months. It's a long period.

And what we were starting doing here in Bizbee is like, we grab - we actually take five, seven interns put them for three months and after three months we take one or two. And we know that that is the best from the best because you got 50 applications, you take five to seven people, you take one or two.

And we don't hire managers, we grow managers. So from the people, someone will grow or show some interest in marketing. We're moving them in marketing they'll show interesting sales. We're moving them to sales.

And it's really evolution rather than a quick fix. And it's much longer. It's much more expensive when you think about it, because I need a lot of time to grow people. But at the end of the day, I tried every other way. I tried hiring experts in their field and then they come with a big ego behind them. Like, you know what? I have 10 years of experience, I know how to do it. We're like, well, look at the market - the market needs this, it’s not whether what you want or you don't want, the market needs this. If you can fulfill it, perfect; if not, there's no point.

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Ep 298: Why Entrepreneurs Need a Day Off

Wed, 17 Nov 2021 10:03:41 +0000

Sean: The next question is from Erika. I can't seem to relax as I'm always thinking of my business. How can I fix that?

I understand where you're coming from because business owners, especially when you have a new business, it's exciting. When you're excited, you keep on thinking about that certain thing that you want to engage in and it's tough to not think about it. Right? And then there are also problems that would crop up. It's actually quite common for problems to crop up when you're starting out in business and so you think about it more. And then there are things that you have to do as the business owner. Usually, you have to do a lot of things.

So there are tasks that I still have on my plate that I actually need to finish. And when am I going to do them? I'm actually going to be doing them tomorrow or Saturday. And I keep thinking about those tasks because I need to finish them. Sometimes I think about them, “When can I do this? I want to finish all of these.” And it's tough. And I understand what you mean.

How can you fix that? One of the ways that I fix it is, I have a task list. If you don't have a task list, all of that burden is going to be on your brain. And you're going to be thinking about it, because if you don’t think of them, you might forget them and that's going to screw you up.

And there are days I finish 15 tasks. There are days that I have so many meetings, I just finish 5 or 10 tasks. But actually if you finish three super important tasks, that's it. That's all you need to do. Usually just three super important tasks for the day. That's all you need to do.

But yeah, so I'm in that stage in my life where I really have to work hard and work long. Maybe some of you are saying, “I thought that’s just for startups.” Here's news for you. I’m 10 years in the business, you're still going to have to do that sometimes. Okay? Less of it, but there are some days you will still have to do it. So with the task list, you outsource that thinking. The next thing is you book yourself in your calendar.

So book yourself, because if you don't book yourself and block off like 3, 4, 5 hours in your calendar for that important work, that's going to get filled up by some other people – calls, clients, et cetera. So you have to finish these important things. And of course, take one day off. The Sabbath, it could be a Sunday for you, for Jews it's Saturday, it doesn't matter.

Take one day off. Make sure you're able to rest, recuperate, and reflect where you are in life. Are you still going in the right direction? What are some of your goals five years from now? Are you moving towards that? Pray, meditate, read God's word, listen to the Sunday message. That is super important, and that will keep depression at bay as well.

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Ep 297: When to Quit Roles in the Business

Tue, 16 Nov 2021 10:04:11 +0000

Sean: I want to, so I listed down so many questions in my head, as you write. Sharing your story about how you started up you know, as a, I could resonate with you so much because when I started SEO-hacker, some 11 years ago, I was doing everything and so were you as the CEO and founder. And one of the main goals is to, as you said, take yourself out and work on the business rather than in the business.

And you start quitting jobs. Like I start quitting being the janitor. When I finally had enough revenue to hire people. Now, I wonder what were some of the things that you started quitting as your business grew? And I want to know, like which ones did you quit first and which ones did you quit last?

Dancho: I quit everything, now I'm just focused on growth. But when I started, I started quitting the execution because fulfillment is the easiest part. If you have a client, if you manage to sell it, if you clear out the expectations and also on the execution, you have clear procedures and steps that need to be followed.

And this is actually what helped me because I have a saying Sean, that entrepreneurs are a bit lazy people. They try to automate or standardize everything because it's a lot of effort to invent everything from scratch every time. So when you have clear procedures, you can just share the execution with someone else to help you.

The second thing that I quit as a job was project management because when you have 5, 6, 7 people that you need to manage, it's a full-time job. How are you going to focus on growing your business when you're focused on doing the execution again? Just from a management perspective.

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Ep 296: Fueling Your Business With Your Goals

Fri, 12 Nov 2021 10:00:11 +0000

Sean: I have hit some speed bumps on my journey to starting a business and I'm starting to feel discouraged. How can I keep pushing forward?

Get mentors. That's the best thing. I mean, when I'm stuck in a rut, I actually ask mentors because they've been there, you know. These are people who have also struggled with the things that you are struggling with, or have failed where you’re struggling with, and they got up and they learn from it.

Mentors are good because they evaluate their failures. They evaluate their experiences. If they didn't, they'd still be failures and they're not going to mentor you. And make sure to choose your mentors well. Make sure that they are mentors with no agendas, that they really have a helping spirit. There are people who just want to help. They have a helping spirit. Make sure that they are those kinds of people so that you can ask them for time and ask them questions.

And also respect them. Respect their time. When you ask them for one hour, stick to one hour. And make sure you prepare your questions before the mentorship session. Don't go into the mentorship session and say, “I'm here. I want to learn from you.” Mentorship is not like that where you sit on the teacher's feet and get enlightened. Mentorship is about asking questions to people who have gone the way. So prepare your questions ahead.

With my mentors, usually, I have 20 questions. I'm just being safe, but usually, with 5 or 10 questions, the one hour has gone by. It has flown by. But I prepare a set of 20 questions just in case there's still time I want to squeeze that in because I want to learn from this person, you know. So that's how I do. And I feel encouraged after that because I realize it's not so bad where I am. It's actually worse what they've gone through because of technology or the advent of, you know, having mentors like this person or that person.

So get mentors. That's one of the ways that I have been able to do it. And I found it very encouraging, very enlightening. I mean, I'm not going to be where I am today without my mentors. That's how important they are to me. How about you, JM?

JM: Besides getting mentors it's important for you also to get a group that can encourage you. I hope I can pronounce it right. Inklings. Have you heard about C.S. Lewis? And then the other authors also, they have this group called The Inklings. So they meet every week for a certain day. And then at a certain, I think that's a cafe in the UK and then, they will just meet, and discuss the books that they're writing about.

And so it's very important for you to have those people who can give you support and feedback when it comes to the challenges that you're facing. And also to give you encouragement whenever you need it, whenever you feel stuck, or whenever you feel, I like your words earlier, you're paralyzed, Sean. And I know a lot of people are dealing with that also nowadays. So that's my encouragement for you to get a group as well, besides having a mentor, which is very important.

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Ep 295: Is Word of Mouth Marketing More Effective?

Thu, 11 Nov 2021 10:00:13 +0000

Sean: I wonder, word of mouth marketing is arguably still the best form of marketing that any company would have.

That is kind of what you did right there for you. But when you look at a lot of companies, even the big ones, they don't have a word-of-mouth marketing strategy. They would have an advertising strategy. They would have a big idea strategy. They'd have an SEO strategy, which we both are very fond of, but not - no real word of mouth strategy.

Vince: Sometimes the word of mouth strategy is hidden in other layers.

So there's a couple of core strategies we use in - like when I'm dealing with agencies in large corporates, particularly initially some small companies as well. There's a couple of methodologies we use. One of them is any advertising that we're doing, particularly TV commercials and things like that.

There is this, this holy grail that we want to achieve and that holy grail is getting people to change their language. And I'll give a good example of this. I don't know if you, like, we had this in New Zealand. I don't know if it's in any other country, but we had a Continental Cup of soups, right? So it was a cup of soup brand and Continental had these ads that used to run.

"Got three-thirtyitis? It must be time for continental." And three-thirtyitis wasn't a real thing. It was just their way of describing the afternoon slump that everybody in the corporate world would feel. So you're in your job when it comes to about 3:30 and you're like, "oh, I don't want to do my job. I just want to go home. I'm tired now."

And it's because you've got that slump that happens after lunch. You've had a big feed, all these kinds of things. So they owned this message. They owned this concept called three-thirty itis. So that became something that became a word of mouth because everyone started using that language. But to achieve that, by the way, is incredibly rare and incredibly hard.

This was the holy grail. It's actually very difficult. The other way that I do encourage everyone to do it and corporates do it. And they kind of hide the word of mouth within this, as the whole concept of a friend gets a free campaign. And you'll see this with some of those deals that corporate strand, where they're like you know like power company is a good example this.

Some power companies over here go, "Hey, invite your friends. And for everyone that signs up, you get $50. Oh, you both get $50 off your power bill" or something. So they're using you as their marketing engine. You're out there telling people, "Hey, come and sign up with me. You'll get 50 bucks. I'll get 50 bucks and we'll both have our power in the new company."

So that's an aspect of word of mouth that can be cultivated by brands rather than relying on people out there.

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Ep 294: Is Time Management a Waste of Time?

Wed, 10 Nov 2021 10:00:57 +0000

How do you manage your time?

I've touched base on this before. You don't really manage time. Time goes on, you can't stop it. You can't manage it. We have 24 hours a day. I don't have one second more than you do. So you can’t really manage time, what you can manage is your energy. You manage your energy. Make sure that you give a hundred percent of your energy to things that matter, things that are important to you, or things that are an emergency or a crisis. You give your energy to that.

Otherwise, don't spend your energy on things that are not important and not urgent. So wasting time, that's what we call wasting time or killing time. That’s actually energy you spend on things that are not important. Because again, you can’t manage time, you can just manage your energy. Make sure that you have priorities, just three. One, two, three priorities for the day. Where if you finish all three priorities you're done for the day, you're happy, whatever else you could finish is a bonus.

That's how I do it so that I feel productive every day and I actually finished a lot of important stuff. I have priorities. I have my task list, my to-do list. I finished like 15 tasks a day. There are a lot of days I finish, most of my days, I finish 12 to 15 tasks. But if I finish just three tasks, I'll be happy already. I make sure that I still give my best, you know, and that's a big deal for me. That's what makes me successful in other people's eyes. That's why people think that I do a lot of things, but really it's just three major things that I need to finish every day and everything else is a bonus and I give it my all.

So make sure you have priorities and stick with those priorities. Don't use your time and energy on things that are not important. That's going to be my advice for that.

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Ep 293: Should You Really Go for Paid Ads?

Tue, 09 Nov 2021 10:00:14 +0000

Sean: Here's my next question for you. Marketing is something that we do and something that all business owners should do, but there is confusion happening, whereas people are thinking, okay, how am I gonna follow Vince's advice and tell who I am to other people without running ads. Do I need to spend on ads? And how can I spend on advertising when the pandemic is there, the lockdowns are there, what do you think about that? Was it smart for them to cut their marketing slash advertising budget during the lockdowns?

Vince: A hundred percent, I mean, there are multiple reasons that it was a smart thing to do. First of all, because in some cases it's inappropriate, depending on what it is you're offering, depending on what your services and your product sound and things like that.

To market it to people in a time where everybody's in chaos. To market to people in a time where everybody is fearful, they're losing their jobs. They don't know what's around the corner. They're in a sense of heightened anxiety and there's an ethical aspect to not marketing to those people. And I'll give you a good, like over here in New Zealand, we live in a really peaceful country.

We live in an amazing country, but from time to time, we have these disasters that happen. We had the Christchurch earthquake, which was absolutely devastating. A lot of people lost their lives. A lot of people lost their homes. A lot of businesses went under and everything.

The moment that that happens, just about every single business in New Zealand, certainly all the corporates I was working with, we all killed our budgets and we said, we're not marketing to anybody right now. Right now, our only focus is to make sure that people aren't vulnerable and we don't want to be marketing to a vulnerable individual. We also had a while I was at Cigna, we had a shooting at one of the mosques in Christchurch, but burrow crushed it.

So they had the shootings in the mosque there, and it was an absolutely devastating, terrible time. A lot of people lost their life due to just ignorance and stupidity from, from an individual. And as a result, we immediately killed all of our budgets. We took our ads off the air. We took our digital budgets offline, all these kinds of things as well. Because, and there's a state where people are emotional, where people are anxious and there is a moral obligation to you as a marketer to go, you know what? Let's let them get through this, before I start trying to ram things down their throats.

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Ep 292: Why Your Business' Scalability is an Afterthought

Fri, 05 Nov 2021 10:00:08 +0000

When starting a business, how much time would you spare for you to know that this business is scalable, or will it just be a waste of time, effort, and resources?

For me, scalability is something that you don't really think about at the starting line. You don't think about that because you don't even know if you're going to succeed. You don't even know if you can stabilize it. So scaling it up is an afterthought. So yeah, I didn't think about how I could scale SEO Hacker up when I was starting out.

In fact, I thought about just having like 10 or 13 people and that’s it. But now we're 50 people. I really didn't think about scaling up. I thought about how I can stabilize it once it's so stable, well, not so stable now because there's a pandemic. But once it is a lot more stable, you think about scaling up. That's the time you think about scaling up. You don't usually think about it when you're starting a business.

When you're starting a business, all you think about is how you can make it stable, secure, how you can pay my people, how you can make sure cash flow is good, revenue is greater than expenses. So when you're five years in the industry, I'd say. So you're no longer a startup because you're five years in, you're in that awkward stage of the business where you think, should you make it grow? Should you stay as is? Is it stable? Is it secure? So I think that's a scale-up stage. That's the stage where you think about scaling up.

And SEO Hacker, I wouldn’t say it's a very scalable business because one manpower is like one client. One is to one, so we need to keep on hiring and we need to keep on getting new clients and it's almost on a one-to-one ratio. A scalable business is a software business where you only have one server, for example, it’s a cloud server and you're serving a hundred thousand people at the same time. That is a very scalable business.

All businesses are scalable. That's a fact. All businesses are scalable. The question is, how fast can you scale it? How fast can you scale it? And how efficiently, in terms of money, in terms of capital and operating expense, how efficiently can you scale it? For a software business or a software as a service business, one server, a hundred thousand people, you can very, very efficiently scale it up.

I mean, your costs could be Php 1.00 and your profit could be Php 100.00. So you could give a 30% discount, it doesn't matter, because you're still making a lot more money. But in a services business like SEO, the ratio is not the same. It's a one is to one ratio if you're a white hat SEO company like we are. So it's not that scalable compared to a software company. But if you're going to compare it to a real estate company for example, then SEO is a lot more scalable than if you're renting out hotel rooms, or if you're renting out condo units, because you can't just keep on buying hotels, keep on buying land and building hotels at a fast rate, I mean, if you're starting out or if you're just five years in the industry. So it's not as scalable.

So it depends on what industry you're in. It depends on what business you have, but all businesses are scalable. It's just a matter of how fast you can scale it and how efficiently you can scale it in terms of OPEX and CAPEX.

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Ep 291: Branding and Marketing: What's The Difference?

Thu, 04 Nov 2021 10:00:11 +0000

Sean: And one of the age-old questions that are often seen and often asked in Facebook groups now, especially for startup Facebook groups is, what's the difference between branding and marketing?

Vince: Oh, okay. So not much. It's kind of like the age-old question. What's the difference between marketing and sales, in reality, they're all blurred.

They are all kind of the same things. Essentially, if you think about branding in a traditional sense, branding is as two things. It is how your customers perceive it. So that is how they see you, what they think of you, their sentiment towards you, all those different things. And this is the weird thing that people have to get their heads around.

As often, we do our best to control our brand. We do our best to design our brand, but the reality is it really is down to how people perceive you. You could, you could say I'm the most trustworthy brand in the world. I want to build. I want to be the new Volvo, you know, where everything's about customer safety and it's all about, you know, looking after their customers and they trust us intensely.

But the reality is if you're Volkswagen and you're, you know, out there kind of skewing the tests and doing some Chiddy-dodgy kind of stuff out there, the customers are going to see you in a very different way from how you perceive yourself or want to be perceived.

So branding really is about their visibility. The other side of branding is who you are, and this is where your kind of branding comes from. As one of the first exercises we ever do with entrepreneurs, when we're working on branding workers to go, what's important to you. And by that, I mean, like, what are the things that you are not negotiating on?

What are your values? What do you stand for? What is your story? How did you get to where you are now? Where did you get to all of those aspects together from who you are as an entrepreneur or from who you are as a startup? And that is your core brand.

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Ep 290: How to Start SEO Without Getting Poisoned

Wed, 03 Nov 2021 10:00:14 +0000

How does it feel like doing SEO for years knowing every Google algorithm updates and intricacies of SEO? For those who are just starting SEO, digital marketing may seem overwhelming. What's your advice for those who are just starting to learn today?

How does it feel like? It feels like you're a pro basketball player. I mean, when you play basketball, you just know when people are in certain places in the court and you can make passes that seem miraculous and you can make shots that seem miraculous, but it's just that you play the game for so many times that your brain is hardwired to do things automatically. You're hard wired to just play the game really well.

It's a lot like that, you know? They call it court sense in basketball. You have the sense of the court who's where, and at what time, who's running, and at what time. It's like court sense because you played so well so many times in such a long span of time, you get better at it because your brain is just subliminally doing a lot of stuff.

That's how it feels like with SEO. I've been doing it for over a decade. I feel like I understand Google on a very deep level that I can't extrapolate in words. I just know what's happening when I check a site. I just know what's wrong with it and how I can improve it. That's how it works with me now that I feel like a lot of SEO people who are like me practicing it for a very long time and doing it ethically would say the same.

What's my advice to those who were just starting?

Keep going. I mean, SEO is a discipline. It's all about consistency and discipline. There is no magic to it. There's no tactic that could take you from nowhere in the top 100 to the first page of Google. It’s nothing like that. There is no tactic. It's all discipline and hard work.

If there was a magic pill, it's probably poisonous because it's an unethical practice and you can get penalized for that. So just keep reading, keep experimenting, be consistent with your write-ups, be consistent with the fundamentals, always keep learning, be on the cutting edge, because Google keeps changing and you have to learn with it. You have to change with it and adapt. So yeah, that's going to be my advice for you.

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Ep 289: Exceptional CEOs Do This To Succeed

Tue, 02 Nov 2021 10:04:59 +0000

Sean: But before I let you go, I want to ask you one last question. And that is for those entrepreneurs or employees who have a side business or are thinking of jumping ship and starting their own thing. What would be your one big advice?

Josef: One advice is extremely difficult for this question, but let's give it a shot. But I think if there's anything to prioritize and purely speaking from experience because I don't believe that I am anyone to preach to anyone. Right. I'm just like everybody else. Who's just trying stuff and making mistakes and just doing our best, moving one step at a time.

So, but what I personally went through is what I'm going to recommend, which is a personal amount of attention, which is really looking after yourself and starting right there.

It doesn't matter how brilliant the idea is or how magnificent the team is. If you are not in the right state of mind and in the right point of your life, to be able to actually really give it what it takes to make something like this work. I'll give you, I mean, my own personal journey was, you know, you were saying earlier about this guy with no vices and a hundred percent vegan.

Like it didn't start that way for sure, and there's a reason behind that. And I think there's a reason why most people who you meet with those kinds of extreme things because they really probably went through something. And I was one of those guys and I definitely did not have everything in line and I did not like myself whatsoever before those changes, I really didn't.

And it was of course holding me back in business because I just didn't feel like I was the right kind of person to drive anything like this, less alone make an impact or inspire people. So I quit drinking completely. I quit smoking completely and yes I took on meditation, became vegan it sounds ludicrous.

Like I am one step shorter of spending time in a monastery, you know, but jokes aside. This acted as the catalyst to actually teach me the most important life lesson, which I think is the thing, which I live by the most, which is discipline. And let's be careful here to distinguish discipline from burnout or overworking, cause they're very different things.

So discipline is literally in my eyes, the most important word when it comes to building a startup, doing well in school, becoming a professor like literally anything that you want to achieve starts with that standard that you hold for yourself and how you apply that. And again, it does not mean overwork. It means the opposite. It means imparting correct discipline and balance on yourself.

It's just astronomically important because it acts as the catalyst for everything else. When you find that you can do those little things every day, with discipline, even starting with making your bed, you know, little things like that and spirit on for health, then starting a business just becomes one of those other routine things that discipline allows you to actually embark on.

Everything else, then we'll just grow and we'll just become the catalyst because if your personality already starts getting used to that, then having the discipline to really run it a business is just another thing. It's just another run that day. Right?

So rather than obsessing over the idea, or obsessing over whether the timing is right, or whether you have enough money to start a business, that's the most common one, I think. Forget all of that stuff, and first look at, am I right? Am I ready in my personal life to be able to actually go on something like this? Because if you are, everything else will follow.

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Ep 288: Highly Recommended Books for Entrepreneurs

Fri, 29 Oct 2021 10:01:22 +0000

What are the best business books for you?

I usually recommend Good to Great by Jim Collins. Good to Great by Jim Collins is one of the books that have really opened up my mind on how to take a good business and make it a great one, because good businesses are everywhere. In fact, I would say almost every business you see is a good business. Bad businesses just go down and shut down in a couple of months and that's it. So you don't usually notice them. You don't see a lot of them. But good businesses are everywhere. How can you turn your good business into a great business? Now, that for me is a worthy read and so Good to Great by Jim Collins is one of the most recommended books that I will tell you.

The Tipping Point by Malcolm Gladwell is another good book. That talks about virality. That talks about word of mouth. That is a really good book if you want to make sure that your business has some word of mouth marketing going for you, how you can do it and to realize how much word of mouth really does for your business, and how powerful it is for your business. That's another good book.

If you want to improve yourself, How to Win Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie. I could not recommend that enough, that's a really, really good book. For leadership, I’d recommend The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership by John Maxwell. I've read that three times. It’s a really good book, really good stuff. Especially if you're the founder and CEO of a business, you will need that. Because who you are inside is how you're going to lead outside.

So yeah, I hope that helps. Those are some books I've personally read. And if you are able to get one of them and start reading them, that will do you a lot of good.

Follow up question. What are the must read books for entrepreneurs?

Yeah, so I mentioned some of them actually already. Must read books for entrepreneurs, I would say those same books. Built to Last, there you go, by Jim Collins is another book. Built to Last. It's a white book. If you want to know how to do your mission, vision statement, purpose statement well, first time around, although when I read that book, I didn't do the mission, vision and core values that well. I made one, but I had to revise it soon after because it didn't work.

But that book helped me to realize how to do it better. So now our core values are something that we really practice. We hire by them. We fire by them. We promote by them. We penalize by them, by the core values and it works now. So that book has helped me a lot in how to create the best core values that we can so that we can have a culture that really works that's about growth, that's about family, that has the least amount of politics, and it makes for a really wonderful, wonderful place to work in. So yeah, that is Built to Last by Jim Collins.

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Ep 287: The Risks You Face as a Young CEO

Thu, 28 Oct 2021 10:00:10 +0000

Sean: I'm wondering now, how young are you really?

Are you like - I don't know, I have no idea. You look so young, but you have such an amazing experience already at work.

Josef: So I'm 29. You know, so I got the job at Penn brothers when I was 20's, my board definitely didn't know that I was 26 that's for sure. But they didn't ask so I didn't lie, they just didn't ask, which is great.

Which is different because here in the Philippines, you're allowed to ask, in the UK, you're not actually allowed to ask. Right? So they always have that going for me, yeah, in interviews you’re not actually allowed to ask that question. And I've been through this epic 180 when it comes to age in business and I'll explain why.

I used to have the biggest chip on my shoulder. And I used to kind of go around with this. I'll even call it kind of obnoxious, but immature sense that I used to say at work - age is just a number. It means nothing like you can be CS you know, an MD, CEO at any age, which I still believe by the way that is still true, you really can because, you know.

But I kind of always took it like a personal thing that I couldn't get CEO roles, because people were just like, who is this young kid basically? He needs to have more experience on the CV. And I always felt that that was unfair because it should be about, you know, ability and personality and attitude before actually doing that.

I think you wrote a book on this subject, right? So I think for sure, you probably know about this way more than I do. And I wanted to break through that and I wanted to prove to people that you know, young leaders should be promoted and should actually have the opportunities, not just because there's an age on the paper, but because they're the best person for the job. Like that's the key, are they the right person for the job at the right time?

But then actually funny enough, my last couple of years, and I'm sure this just comes when you mature and anyone who's younger and listening to this will probably hate me for saying this, but there is a lot in maturity right. There really is, and you always look back on yourself and say, what were you thinking?

And the same here in five years, I'll look back on this interview and say, Joseph, what were those answers? For goodness sake. Because that's just the beauty of life, right? You do constantly evolve. Maturity just means that you just - you do get better. So you can become a CEO at 22. That's unbelievable. It's another level.

You can become an MD at 26. It can be done. But at the same time, if there's someone who is older and trying to give you their wisdom and saying experience, I don't believe there's any need to look at that person and say, what are you talking about? I don't need experience. Because it has a huge amount of value. That's for sure.

That was a long way to digress to your answer or your question of how old are you?

Sean: And I completely agree with what you said, starting out young and having these major daunting responsibilities, such as being managing director and CEO at a young age, it doesn't help if your ego gets in the way.

That's what I can say, for those of you who are young, driven, and have found some level of success, that is one major thing. You always have to push out of your way - your own ego.

When people are giving you advice, listen, be hot iron and if the blacksmith strikes, you just make sure that you follow suit and learn from that. And yeah, I'm sure you have had a lot of mentoring moments. You're not going to get to where you are, if you're not open to other people's wisdom and learn from their mistakes, rather than just making your own.

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Ep 286: Why Your Business Stopped Growing

Wed, 27 Oct 2021 10:00:12 +0000

Sean: From Niño, I’m 19 years old. I currently have three businesses – affiliate marketing, e-commerce, and local business. Wow, congratulations.

Toni: Wow.

Sean: It somehow hit a plateau. I'm in analysis paralysis. What do you recommend?

I'm not sure why and how you hit a plateau, but I think it's about marketing. When your business hits a plateau, usually it's about marketing or product or service. Those three things are the major things that I look at. Is the product or the service being saturated already in the market that the demand is low and supply is high?

If that's the problem, you have to innovate a new product, a new service, or on top of your product, or on top of your service, some value adds. If it's a marketing problem, it could overlap. The product and service saturation could also be a marketing problem at the same time. So usually it is a marketing problem. You're not marketing well enough and smart enough.

I'm not sure what your business is, but the first thing I'd look at is search. My business is SEO. I manipulate search results for a living. So what I look at is what people search for in that industry. I use aquascape.ph. We had a lot of questions last time. Aquascape.ph is a website I set up just last year because of my aquascaping hobby. We’re selling almost every day, aquatic plants and livestock.

Now I'm going to look at what people are searching for, like what plants are being searched for the most. And you can look at it on Google trends or you can use SEMrush. We're affiliated, so you could use my link. Go to from.seo-hacker.com/semrush. They have a free tier, so you could use their software for free actually. And you can check what people are searching for. How much volume does that search term have a month? So people are looking for blue shrimp, a hundred a month. Did it grow to 200 this month? Did it grow to 300 this month?

So you can check that data and see, do I still have a really good market? How many competitors do I have sprouting up? What are they doing? You could also take a look at that if you're not so innovative, because there are people who lack imagination. They are not that innovative. So what you could do is you check out what competition is doing, either from here or competition that's not really your competition because they're from abroad. You could also look at the internet. Use the internet.

That's what I'm going to be doing. Check the market, check your marketing, check your product and check your service and see where you could create a new niche market that you can serve.

Ep 285: Does Autonomy Help Make Better Business Decisions?

Tue, 26 Oct 2021 10:00:16 +0000

Sean: Now I'm wondering you are also the managing director of Penbrothers with maybe more or less 70 people working with you.

What are some of those lessons that we can learn from you right now?

Josef: Yeah, so I mean a huge amount, right? I don't think Humble would be anything like if it weren't for those experiences in Penbrothers. So I'm very, very lucky and thankful to my co-founders at Penbrothers and the entire team because I've had there over three years of really learning what it takes to lead a team, to build a startup, and to scale a startup.

Right. I think we only had 17 people at Penbrothers and now we have pushing 80 people and we employ 500 people for other startups around the world. So I've been very lucky there, I think. But funnily enough, it also has no downsides, but it has as a funny, a couple of curveballs. And I'll give you one, which is more of a personal thing, it’s my fault, not anyone else's.

But like, at Penbrothers right now I have a C team, right? So I've got a COO, a chief transformation officer. I have extremely senior people who I can rely on for all these different things. And so going from that, which is really just, okay, hi, Patrick, Tom, whoever it might be. This is the problem. Let me know what help you need to go and fix it. I'll speak to you in a week when we've got brilliant solutions on my table. Right? Fantastic.

Compared to when I experienced a problem at Humble. I'm kind of looking around, where's my Patrick, my Tom, and my guy and there's no one, right?

So there's no more delegation. It's almost like you've gone back 10 years in kind of how you run an organization and go from really delegating all these tasks to a big stable team, to getting your hands very dirty and doing it yourself. When normally that progression is the other way around. Right? Normally you kind of go from doing it yourself all the way up to eventually leading on this.

So that's quite a, I hope slightly amusing kind of curveball there, but in terms of lessons learned, I mean, I think managing people, in general, is always one of the most crucial, if not the most crucial lessons learned. Because whether it's an intern, whether it's a COO, whether it's an investment board, whether it's a client or a customer, being able to manage relationships and speak to people, and understand the maturity of how that changes through time and how you need it.

Adapt the way that you're speaking, depending on the culture or the person, the stage of the person, the feeling of the person is really an art form, which I think we never stopped learning. And that is something in Penbrothers. That's, I've really, really learned because I'll speak to sometimes very junior people, other times my co-founders, and completely different sensitivities as to how to speak to people there.

So that's one I think. Another one I think is culture building, which again is, it's got similarities to that one. But culture for us is so important. And I think you learn that only when you've been in it, because of course we can see the big, beautiful companies, the Googles, the Canva's of this world, and we see all of this amazing culture.

But to actually be there and experience how to build culture and is really, really important to then understanding what you do need to do, right.

Things like that are so difficult and I learned that in Penbrothers, by making lots of personal mistakes, but also seeing some good times also with regards to culture development as to blossoming into what it is now. Because then of course in Humble, when you're starting from scratch, you get the chance to do it all again from the beginning.

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Ep 284: Things to Know Before Your First Startup

Fri, 22 Oct 2021 10:00:15 +0000

Any advice to people who are starting a startup?

Toni: Sean’s the perfect person to ask.

Sean: The most important thing is cash flow. Make sure your revenue is greater than expenses. Don't let other people tell you otherwise that passion is the most important thing, sleepless nights’ the most important thing. It's not. It's cash flow. As long as your revenue is greater than your expense, you're doing well. If expenses are greater than revenue, you're screwing it up and you're bleeding out and you have to stop that.

So anything to make sure your cash flow is good, keep on doing that. If you have to sacrifice your own lifestyle, to make sure cash flow is positive, do it because I did it. If you need to sacrifice sleep for it, do it because I did it. You have to sacrifice a lot. That's why they say your startup is like a baby, it needs you. It needs a lot of nutrition. It cries, you know, it brats out.

Toni: Attention.

Sean: It needs a lot of attention. There you go. So you have to sacrifice a lot for it. The word sacrifice. That's why they say passion is also important because passion, the Latin word is pati, which means sacrifice. If you're not passionate about your startup, you're not going to sacrifice for it. But that doesn't mean if you're passionate about it, it's a good business. If cash flow is negative, no matter how passionate you may be about it, it's not a good business for you during that time.

So, yeah, that's my advice. You really have to save. Sacrifice. You're going to go through a lot, but here's the great thing about it, you learn a lot. You learn a lot, not just about business, but about life and you learn a lot about other people. That's your tuition fee. The tuition fees are your sacrifices, the tuition fees are your effort, and if you lose money, that's also part of the tuition fee. I know people who started up and lost money in their first few startups.

Now it's a blessing for me, I didn't have to go through that. My first startup SEO Hacker is already doing good, but I still had to pay the price by learning a lot from the wrong people I got in the company during the first years. So yeah, maybe that's the second advice I'm going to give you, make sure you hire the right people. Prolong the hiring process. Take your time in hiring them and hire ahead.

Don't hire when you need them, because you're just going to hire whoever comes along because you need them. So hire ahead. If not, you’re going to be a hostage. And if you hired the wrong person, they're going to burn up your company, your startup. They're going to burn your baby. And since it's a baby, it's very vulnerable. So yeah, I hope that helps.

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Ep 283: What is Building a Sustainability Startup Like?

Thu, 21 Oct 2021 10:00:13 +0000

Sean: Joseph, one of the first things that I usually ask my guests is the startup journey because that is one of the things that I find people super interested in, I am super interested in and I find that my guests are super delighted to tell us the story. So we'll start with that. How did you get the idea of Humble?

Josef: The story of Humble is an interesting one because. It's not like there was one clear moment and then suddenly humble was here. Right. It was really kind of a series of events I would say. And it really started when I met my co-founder, which was three and a half years ago, Nina and we were both working for a different company and we met and we really realized that our values are extremely aligned.

And we really want to create something that was meaningful with genuine impact, but we just didn't know where to start. And we felt that our impact was almost insignificant because we were just a couple of people. So that sort of stalled the practicality of coming up with an idea, even though we knew we had to create something. Even sustainability back then really wasn't necessarily at the very front of our minds.

It was just creating impact in general. So then the years kind of went by a little bit and we got to the end of 2019. And Nina and I went on a trip to the UK to visit my family actually, went to see my family. I tried to go back once every year. See it has been more difficult recently, but I still have family back in the UK.

My mother happens to be a very active environmentalist. She's actually a member of this group called extinction rebellion. Non-violent protest groups really encourage governments to take action on our climate emergency.

And I think she was probably the first real catalyst to show us, okay, sustainability is really, not just a problem, but it's an opportunity. And we saw that so many wonderful organizations out there trying to address this problem, you know. Greenpeace, extinction - so many, but not many of them were actually coming at it from a kind of solutions-driven, tech startup, positive points of view for consumers.

And it's essentially a numbers game. The more people who take small steps towards living sustainably, the greater impact we have and the greater chance that we have of actually achieving sustainability. So all of this sort of spiraled into one and, you know, we were thinking of what kind of idea can we come up with?

How can we do something towards sustainability startup? and Nina and she first came up with the idea of clothing, and kids' clothing. And I'm sure you can probably identify with this, but kids' clothes are very short in lifespan, right? And very quickly you buy and you spend on something new, and then you realize - okay, if I have a younger brother or a younger sister to hang this down too fantastic, then you get one use.

If you have 2, 3, 4 children and fantastic, even more use. But at some stage, that stuff is just going to go to waste. So she came up with this concept of really circular kids' clothing and making sure that you know, how can we give one child's clothes to another, once they're finished using it and create this kind of circular ecosystem.

I heard this idea and just thought, why don't we think a bit bigger, right? It's not just children's clothing that we're not using properly and actually enjoying the rest of our lifetime, but it's everything. We looked around. All of the clutter in our place looked at the plastic in the corner, the furniture that was kind of over here, but a bit dated, the clothes, the electronics, and realized what if we actually gave this service, which makes it extremely easy for someone to be able to declutter their home or office even, and give it a meaningful outcome, free of charge and will turn up when they want us to?

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Ep 282: What Should You Know Before Investing?

Wed, 20 Oct 2021 10:00:14 +0000

What are factors I should consider before investing in anything?

Toni: Okay, let's go back to the basics. We've said this first, determine your investment objectives. The second factor would be your timeframe. Are you going short term, medium term, long term? The third would be your risk appetite. Are you a conservative, moderate or aggressive investor?

And then I would say the fourth would also be, another factor is the size of your fund because the strategy for someone investing 10,000 is different from someone who's going to invest a million. So you also have to take the size of your fund into consideration. And then the last one would be your knowledge in that investment. So how much do you know? Again, we're going back to the golden rule, never invest in something you don't understand. So those are factors to consider. Is there anything that you can add to that?

Sean: I'd say, you should have something for emergencies first. Because if you invest and it hasn't made money yet, and usually investments take time. Right? So usually you’ll have losses. First couple of years, maybe the first three years, usually you will have losses. And then an emergency happened, you had to pull it out, you're going to pull out with a loss, which is, you should have not invested it and you should have just kept an emergency fund first.

So make sure you follow the five steps to personal finance management. I would say that's very important because a lot of people make that mistake. They have no emergency fund, are not yet insured, and they went straight to investing. So I feel like that is a common problem because you get penalized when you pull out that investment to pay for an emergency.

Toni: Right. So, establish your foundation first. Like what you mentioned, emergency fund and get yourself insured. In other words, you protect your wealth before you start accumulating it through investments. Because it’s also a waste, if you're going long term, you need to pull it up because of an emergency and you’ll be back to zero. So it’s a waste, it's just going to pull you back. It's going to pull you back further from reaching your long-term financial goals.

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Ep 281: How To Protect Your Brand SERP

Tue, 19 Oct 2021 10:00:06 +0000

Sean: Now, the last question would be what do you do when you did your best to secure the first page of Google, top 10 results, you got your website, fantastic stuff.

Get your social media platforms, edited it as best you could. And here comes a scandal that has your name on it. How do you get rid of that? Because we got people asking me that stuff. Well, not all the time, but there are those difficult questions that come by. What do you usually say to them?

Jason: Well, there are multiple aspects of this, some of it - in fact, looking after your brand SERP, I've just said not only is it a great business card, it's helpful to your audience, it drives your digital marketing strategy, but it also protects you because if you've got control of the first two to three pages through content that you've worked on actively either you control your semi control.

It's difficult for that negative content to then rank because it has to prove itself to be useful and valuable to your audience in Google's eyes. And that's very difficult to do from page five or page six. If you've done what I've just told you to do over the couple of two to three years. And you'll probably get very, very stable and that's the other thing is brand SERPs tend to be very stable once you've worked at them properly.

You will have protection against that kind of problem. Then you have the question once it does happen, I'll tell you what not to do, and that's trying to drown it. Traditionally, ORM will say, let's create lots of articles and we will create so much content that we will do.

Now, if you think that through it doesn't make sense and it simply doesn't work. Because what you're doing is creating brand new content that has no value in Google's eyes and expecting Google to put it right in front of your audience front and center. It won't do that. What you should do is what I call leapfrogging, is find the content underneath that is valuable to your audience that is helpful to your audience. And help Google to understand, that is better content for it to be showing your audience more representative of who you are more helpful to them than the negative content that's currently ranking. And then leapfrog over itfor it.

Sean: Got it. I got an answer now. Thank you for that.

Jason: In fact, as the brand search guy, I'm going against traditional. ORM techniques, online reputation management techniques, and saying the best way to do it is to control your brand SERP, then you control the message. If you control the message, that negative stuff has trouble getting anywhere near it.

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Ep 280: Is It Better to Save or Invest?

Fri, 15 Oct 2021 10:00:08 +0000

Sean: Is it better to save or invest? I'll let you answer this one.

Toni: Well, normally we all start by saving first because that's how you develop the habit. That's how you develop the mindset of simply doing delayed gratification. And then once you've established the habit, then you can start investing. But again, like what they say, if you just put, if you save most of your money in the bank, it loses to inflation, so might as well invest anything excess of your emergency fund. It’s like that. What's your take on that?

Sean: It goes hand in hand. It's not an either-or. It's not an either-or. They don’t compete. I would say, you have to save and invest. So you save first, build up your emergency fund, and then you save some more and use it to pay for your insurance, and then you save some more and that's what you invest.

So, yeah, it's not an either-or. I can’t say one is better than the other. It's a process that you have to have both.

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Ep 279: SERP 101: Why Branding Matters

Thu, 14 Oct 2021 10:00:16 +0000

Sean: One of the things that I'm wondering about, so whenever I pitched to clients about SEO, it's going to be all about them and the ROI cause so a lot of business owners, that's the bottom line that going to matter, you know. How much money can you give back to me if I invest in your company, in my SEO, what's the search volume that I'm going to get every month, and how much of that am I going to be able to convert to leads or sales.

But I could see that in your case, your branding is more of protecting your brand, making sure that your brand is ranking for what it's supposed to be. And you're represented well by your search engine results page. And I wonder, how did you have that conclusion that, oh, this is going to sell well, compared to selling SEO and selling them ROI, which is a lot of business owners like hearing that stuff?

Jason: Yeah. I mean, if you look back at my career, which I've now walked you through, I didn't do music because I thought I was going to make boatloads of money. I did it because I enjoy music and I wanted to play music and entertain people. I didn't make cartoons because I thought I would make boatloads of money.

I'd made cartoons because I wanted to educate children. I wanted to create something positive for the world, and I wanted to be a blue dog in a cartoon singing silly songs, which is a brilliant job if you can get it. By the way, anybody who's interested in getting it, it’s a great job. Those are two of the best jobs in the world.

I do things because I believe they're fundamentally interesting, important, or helpful to people, whether those people know it or not. And I think brand SERPs is a great kind of follow-on, although, but it is saying, Hey, this is really important. It's actually really interesting. And you will get an awful lot out of it, even though you've never thought about it before.

My job is to educate everybody. To say you don't have to work with me, but think about it. Think about how important that is. Think about how important that business card on Google is for you, for your business, for your bottom of the funnel, for your post funnel clients. In terms of conversions for the prospects, but also keeping those clients on board and not, not having them jump ship because you've got a bad result pitching up.

And making sure they've got that consistent message all the time when they're coming to your website. As I mentioned earlier, their journey with you starts when they search for your brand name every time. Most people or a lot of people will come through to your site through Google and that message, they can see it potentially multiple times a day if they're using your services multiple times in the day.

And you know, that's kind of message that sticks it's as important as your home page on your website, I would argue. And from that perspective, I am now saying, well, if I can push forward the idea that this is phenomenally important, even though I can't measure the ROI. From my perspective, personally, I'm doing something I'm really passionate about, and that is worth making less money as it were.

So if I could make a million dollars doing SEO for people, which I probably could, I would rather make 500,000 doing brand SERPs and enjoy myself.

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Ep 278: Does Your Behavior Affect Your Finances?

Wed, 13 Oct 2021 10:00:10 +0000

Sean: Where can I spend my money if I'm 13 years old?

And if you're 13 years old, save it up, dude. I mean, if you have money as young as now that you've saved up. When you're as young as 13, the behavior is more important. The behavior, the mindset is more important because you're not yet worried about a lot of responsibilities if you're living with your parents. So just save as much as you can so that when the time comes when you have to support yourself, you have to support a family, you know how to save. You have that discipline, that behavior, and that mindset already with you.

Money is all about behavior. Just as business is all about behavior. Most businesses close down 9 out of 10. It's not because of the economy. It's not because of the pandemic. It's because of behavior. A lot of business owners, the behavior is let's wait it out. March 2020, it’s ECQ, let's wait it out. Let's just wait and see. The government says, oh, by May or by June, we’re already okay, we're going back to normal. What happened? In May and June, nothing was normal. And those business owners are still in a wait-and-see mode and they've been bleeding out. It's a behavior problem. And finally, they closed business because they couldn't bleed out further.

But those businesses that have the behavior of, we can't wait this out, we have to do something right now and pivot, they're the ones actually thriving right now. So business is all about behavior, just as money is about behavior. And when you're young and you're still in your formative years, I'd say 13 to 20 years old, it's still quite formative, although independently formative, rather than parental formative. So your parents aren't influencing you as much now when you're a teenager, all the way to when you're 20.

You're being influenced and you're solidifying yourself, your identity, and your behaviors during these years. And so I'd say save up. Make sure to solidify that discipline that you can save money and you can say no and deny yourself some things that you want to buy. How about you, Toni? What's your take on this?

Toni: You've said it all. When I was still, I wasn't even thinking about where to save yet and all. Actually, no. I posted a video back then of me making a video about how I budget my 20 peso allowance. So if you guys haven’t watched it, go ahead on my TikTok, you'll be able to see it. I was 10 years old and I was showing my 20 peso bill. And yeah, during that time I was already learning how to budget.

Wow, at 13 years old. Okay. So if you're thinking about it now, then definitely in the years ahead, you'd be able to establish yourself. You'd be able to learn how to manage your money better because you're already thinking about that as early as now. It makes me proud.

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Ep 277: SERP 101: Building Your Brand

Tue, 12 Oct 2021 10:00:08 +0000

Sean: A lot of people miss that out, don't they? When people search for their name or their company name, there's just stuff that gets in there that is not something that the person or the company would want in their brand. What led you to focus on being the brand SERP guy?

Jason: And that's the interesting point. And that's a great question is from saying actually I didn't want the blue dog to be so prominent. It's not that I didn't want it there. I don't want to deny that I was the blue dog, but it's now relegated to a little image in the knowledge panel on the right-hand side.

And the left-hand side is dominated by digital marketing stuff. The brand SERP guy, the knowledge panel guy. Basically, me expressing the brand message I want to project to my audience and the brand message I've built up so carefully on my own site, on my social media platforms, on every piece of content I publish, and in this podcast.

The brand SERP guy, Jason Barnard does brand SERPs. He's a specialist in what appears when your audience Google's your brand name or your personal name. And that brand message is reflected in my brand SERP. And if you look up your own company name, I will bet my bottom dollar. The message you've worked so hard to build on your own website and on your social channels is not reflected accurately by Google that your brand message on that brand SERP is distorted and it doesn't need to be, you can actually control it.

Google wants to show your brand message, if it can understand your brand message and your brand messages relevant and helpful to your audience, it will show the exact brand message you want. And it's up to you to make sure that Google knows what it is. It should be presented to your audience because of what's Google trying to do with that.

When somebody searches your brand name, they're trying to get to your site or find out more about you. Google wants to show them your audience who are a subset of its users. The information and the opportunity such as videos, Twitter boxes, knowledge panels, links to your site, site links to the login page on here, or the contact page or the newsletter page.

It wants to show all of these things if they are helpful, relevant, and useful to your audience. All you have to do is demonstrate in your videos, your Twitter boxes, your contact page, your newsletter page - are helpful and valuable to your audience searching your name on Google.

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Ep 276: Tips and Tricks to Save Money

Fri, 08 Oct 2021 10:00:11 +0000

Is there a specific budget rule on how to save money?

Toni: There's actually none, like we always say, personal finance is personal. In terms of the percentage of how much you allocate your savings, your investments, your operating fund, that's for you to decide initially. But they say, the old rule is the 50-30-20. Like 50% to your needs and then 30% to your savings and then 20% to your wants.

But again, it also depends on your income. So the higher your income, then you also have to change the percentage that you set for your savings or for your investments. But in your case, how did you do it, Sean, when you first started out, like when you started having a system for your money?

Sean: I went through a phase in my life where I was eating a pack of Skyflakes for breakfast and lunch. The thicker one.

Toni: Me too.

Sean: Yeah. You probably understand me when I say saving is a must for survival during that time. And I carried that over up to today. I mean, the toys that I buy are, it's just like you, you get your budget for crypto investment from your brand deals, I get it from my public speaking money. So whenever I have a talk and a client pays, I tell my wife, oh, this is my play money. This is not the company's money. This is my play money because I spent time and it's my one hour when I spoke there at that conference.

So yeah, when I was starting out, I saved a lot. I probably saved 50% or more. Now I save 95%. So I only spend like 5% or 10%. I don't spend too much. I don't spend too much, especially now during the pandemic. If you keep buying stuff, your house will easily be filled with things and I already have too much stuff in the house and I have to get rid of some actually, so I save a lot. So for me, the rule is just to save as much as you can.

Toni: True. What can help also is just to simply automate your finances already. Even in my case, what I do is when I receive income already, I set, I allocate a portion of that straight into my savings and straight into my investments, and I just spend whatever is left. It helps me better. So that at least with whatever money that's left, if I end up blowing it again, then at least that's fine because I've already saved initially before I started spending. So that can also help you.

But if you're asking for a more specific percentage, just like what they say, if your cash flow is healthy if your operating expenses or your needs don't go beyond 60%, so maybe that can be a benchmark for you, but it still depends. It depends on how much you're earning. It's going to be different from a minimum wage earner and different from someone like Sean. So he saves 95%, which means 5% of his income goes to his needs. Right?

Sean: Yeah, I just save as much as I can and live a simple life. Don't try to keep up with other people because you're never going to be happy. And you have to be at peace with yourself, meaning, you’re okay with yourself, who you are, you know who you are, you're aware of your character, you're aware of your identity and you're at peace with that, you're not going to need more stuff. What you're going to need is more maturity in life and in your spirit, that's it. You’d come to that point.

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Ep 275: Building A Role Around A Hire

Thu, 07 Oct 2021 10:00:12 +0000

[00:00:00] Sean: Let's fast forward a little bit to the next company that you built. Why do you say that it was a very interesting time for you? You mentioned that you have 14 people you're working with you like them. They like you. What are some of the lessons that you learned from them?

[00:00:16] Jason: Well, I mean the first company, I wasn't the boss, I was one member of the band who happened to have created the record company. Because I was the only person who had any kind of experience in money and business through the economics degree, although I didn't actually have any real experience.

And then I got to Mauritius and we had, we create basically a blue dog and a yellow koala cartoon online. And we ended up with 5 million visits a month and a hundred million page views a month on the site for kids up to 10 years old.

And obviously, I couldn't run that on my own. Initially, I did the first three years just myself. And when we got to Mauritius, I thought, right okay, I need to get a team together. So that they can help me, especially with the client support with the technical side, with the animations, which we weren't very good at, I wasn't very good at.

And it turned up in Mauritius and it didn't occur to me that when you move from France, where there is 56 million people, incredibly well-educated country to Mauritius, where there are a million people and it's part of Africa and it's obviously kind of not got the skillset that I had come to expect in France.

I didn't really think, oh, if I turn up and say, I need a PHP and my SQL developer, there actually won't be anybody qualified to do the job. And it was literally, that was my problem. And so I did, I announced, I advertised sorry for these jobs and it would be PHP, my SQL developer, cartoon animation, somebody else to do some cartoon animation, and I would get applications from people who had absolutely no idea what they were doing.

And somebody came in and said, well, I do a bit of excel. And when you say excel, isn't, you know, high level - server level database management. It's excel, which is a spreadsheet and it's nothing to do with it. So then what I eventually realized was there was no point in trying to find people who could do specific jobs. I needed to find people and then fit the jobs to them.

So, what I ended up doing is doing interviews for jobs that I advertise and then taking just the people that I thought, yeah, this is going to work out, we're going to get on. And then saying to them, what do you like doing? What don't you like doing? How can we build this job around you so that both you are enjoying the job, you're bringing value to the company, you know, moving the company forward? And that was an incredibly big wake-up for me, that helps me. It helps me out today because I'm doing the same thing again. But, you know, I got one guy who came in and he was supposed to be doing marketing and it turned out that he wasn't very good at marketing.

He wasn't very interested in marketing, but he was really good at spreadsheets. And he was really good at calculating weight ratios, for words and pages for search engines. And I said, why don't you just do that? And he locked himself in his office for a month and came up with a spreadsheet, that could calculate the exact ratio of words you needed in a page to rank number one on Google, this was back in 2002.

We ranked number one on Google. Some of the pages still ranked number one on Google, which is an astonishing achievement. And that was just a case of standing back and saying, actually, what are you good at mate? And he said, "well I'm, I like that and I'm good at that."

And believing in his ability to do it and giving him the leeway to actually get on and do it. That was a big eye-opener.

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Ep 274: How Can You Be Financially Stable?

Wed, 06 Oct 2021 10:00:14 +0000

Toni: And following up, I have a question for you. So when did you start saying that, “Ha! Okay, so I am financially stable now in your point of life? Let's make it more personal, I guess. When did you feel that you are financially stable?

Sean: Oh man, it was a journey. I remember when I wanted to get married and here in the Philippines, that means a boat load of money, right? Especially in the Chinese community. So I'm Fil-Chi. I'm more of a Pinoy than a Chinese now because I speak better Tagalog than I speak Chinese. I’m actually not that good at speaking Chinese. And being Fil-Chi means you have to have like, 300, 400, 500 guests in your wedding, which is a lot. For me, it was a 500 guests wedding. And so I would be tilted to becoming unstable again, during that time.

If you don't have those gaps in life where it's going to drain your money, like buying my first house. That was something that put me in debt. Was it a good debt? I would say so. I would say it was a good debt and I loaned my house for 10 years from the bank. But I had the discipline to attack that debt and pay it off in three years. And by God's grace, I was able to already pay it in three years. So again, it's not that complicated. It is difficult because you have to have a lot of discipline.

There are times in my life where I become a lot less stable suddenly because I make investments and I loan from the bank, but I have a steady stream of income to expect. It will fluctuate because it’s a business. So business is not always good. Sometimes there’s a season that this is as good, and sometimes not so good. But still you can expect something there and you can project, that’s why I loaned 10 years to pay, just to be safe. If something happened unexpectedly, I have 10 years, the bank's not going to foreclose on me. But my goal is really to attack it in three years and be done with it.

So I hope that sheds light. I'm not sure if I answered the question, but I hope that sheds light.

Toni: Yeah, you did. You did. Like you’ve mentioned that it was a long journey for you until you actually became financially stable and you had to make a lot of decisions along the way, like getting mortgage loans and then getting married, expecting what? 300 guests?

Sean: 500 guests.

Toni: 500 guests. Okay.

Sean: Yeah, that wedding was expensive, but it's for the parents. It's for your parents. That's how you honor them. How about you Toni? Since you asked me, we're comparing notes. I want to do the honor and give you the question back. When did you consider yourself being financially stable?

Toni: Well, I would say when I first started to take on a lot of side hustles, I was not stable because sometimes I would get this amount of income monthly, and then sometimes there’s none. Freelancers here could relate because we don't really know when we are going to have that stable source of income. And even when I was earning on a good month, sometimes I would have nothing left to save and I guess it would be because of my spending habits.

So I did start seeing or telling myself that I am financially stable when I'm able to put off this certain amount of savings monthly and I actually started investing. So that's when I realized, okay, I got the momentum and I think I am stable now because I expect a steady source of income coming in and I know how much to set aside monthly for savings. Then I got to do the things that I like, traveling and treating my parents. That’s it for me. That to me is when I realized I was stable financially.

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Ep 273: How To Lead A Diverse Team?

Tue, 05 Oct 2021 10:00:12 +0000

Sean: So what are some of the lessons that you took away and that experience where you don't like the team, but you produce magic when you're on stage?

Jason: Actually, that is an interesting question because number one is the team is together because we played well together. Not because we liked each other.

So actually being on stage was the time that everybody kind of came together in a cohesive unit. And I think we got off stage and sulk in our corner. So the point of the team was the music. It wasn't the rest of the stuff. And when we were creating, we would argue, you know, writing songs, people argue all the time. And it was pretty, pretty boring a lot of the time.

And if you ever got ill, it was really difficult to deal with. And one thing I learned there is, however tired I am, however pissed off I am with everybody else in the band. When it comes to saying I have two hours and I need to perform for two hours as I need to look happy for two hours, I need to perform, do a show for four or 500 people who have come to see us.

However tired I am, however much I don't want to do it, how much I've argued with the people in the band, I can do it and it looks good. And that's the point from my perspective is you can always push through if you've got the willpower to do so. And a lot of that has to do with adrenaline. You get a little bit of adrenaline running and you can push through something for a couple of hours.

And my way of thinking of that was saying - "yeah, I can always do it whatever happens" and you know, 600 times managed to, I mean, most of the time I actually really wanted to do it, but every now and then, you know, you're out a little or annoyed, you don't, but you can still get through.

Sean: You know, It's something that I think I have to think a lot about because teams today, we don't operate like that.

And you mentioned that you like to work with people you'd like, and who like you otherwise as leaders, we both know it's not sustainable. And when we're on stage, on-air, when in our business, we're not playing as well as we want to be like how you guys play on stage.

Jason: Yeah, I think kind of the music, the creative side, and the fact that you've got a crowd of people who are getting really into it, means that you think. Well, actually what I think doesn't matter. I'm not here for me. I'm here for them, and therefore I will perform, and I will forget that maybe we had an argument just before we came on stage.

If you search the barking dogs, the ace of spades, you'll see a video of us playing and you'll see that you know, it made a pretty good show. I'm very proud of what we did.

And the other thing, of course, is even if you're underperforming a little bit, the other members of the team, the group can pull you up. With music, it's the whole thing, or it's nothing. So if I'm not up to or on form, somebody else will pull through for me as it were. So, you know, I kind of said, well, I can always pull through, but obviously I need help.

And the team helps, the group helps the other people in the team-group help. And I think that thing is it's always for the audience and it's not for yourself.

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Ep. 272: How Can You Win Clients Over?

Fri, 01 Oct 2021 10:00:10 +0000

How do you stand out in a client pitch amongst the competition?

Client pitch is all about the client. It's all about the client. If you're able to read the client well, make them laugh, communicate well with them, connect with them, that's it. That's how you stand out because there are so many people in client pitches that really suck. They're really bad in pitches. They just read the PowerPoint, read from a script, or they have memorized the script already, the FAQ is in their head and they just answer it, you know, frequently asked questions by the clients. They don't even connect. So people who connect, that's really important. That's how I stand out because I make sure I connect to the people I talk with. I make sure that I make them realize, aha, yes, that's true.

When people actually tell you you're right, those two words, that's very important. When they tell me in a pitch, “you know, Sean you're right.” I know I have them. Because rarely will you tell someone you're right unless you really agree with them. Sometimes people will say yes and that's it. But, you know, yeses I find are cheap. Yeses I find are cheap. Especially in a pitch when people are saying, yes, it's cheap. They probably said yes to the last guy, the last girl, who pitched. But when they say, “you're right, you know, you're right”, that's how you know you got them.

So connecting with your, I would say purchasers or the C-level executives in a pitch that is critical for you and you have to hone that skill. Connecting with people is a skill. Taking the time to communicate with them so that they really understand what you mean, is a skill that you can hone.

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Ep. 271: Simplifying Your Brand

Thu, 30 Sep 2021 10:00:08 +0000

Sean: I want to know, how do you break a brand down? How do you simplify it? Is there a process that you use to do that?

Jennifer: A lot of whiteboard space and markers and pens and paper? It's really just been like, just that, like, literally it has taken me a long time because they are some of the - one of the difficulties when you look at building a brand, it intertwines into really everything in your business. Right.

It all kind of intertwines with your business. And there are so many layers in it that all work together that all affect it's - I always give the analogy of kind of like it's making like a sauce, the things you put into your brand, you add one thing and you change your color and it changes, it affects everything else and you're a brand, right?

It is difficult, you know, and it's taken me a while to work out. Right. What can I give - self-false is the philosophy that it's a really powerful self-contained nugget that they can take and run with and never get, you know, never worked with us again. And it's been trying to pull those out and really just, like I said, honestly, just spending hours and hours going right.

It started kind of with over a kind of a big program and then breaking that down. And if I have this module and this is, you know, a self-contained /module, right. Well, how can I break that module down now? And then breaking that down even more and just kind of working from there. And there's some stuff that I would never do as kind of micro kits because they weren't self-contained.

That would probably do more harm to their business than good, you know if they tried to do it and didn't implement it correctly or do follow up with it. So it's pulling out those nuggets that I can give them. And then eventually in the membership, what I plan on doing is actually doing live teaching and the group in the community with some of the more complex.

So filling in those gaps between the nuggets that they have and giving them that, giving them that kind of live interaction, that if they have questions or things like that, then that they can ask.

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Ep. 270: Effective Ways to Foster Employee Loyalty

Wed, 29 Sep 2021 10:00:06 +0000

Sean: How to foster employee loyalty?

Loyalty is a two-way street. If you show it, they're going to show it back. If they don't show it back, those are particularly evil kinds of people. They pay evil with good, so get rid of them. But people who have a good heart, they're grateful, they have a debt of gratitude, that is what’s important. For me, people have to have a debt of gratitude.

I’m one of the people who have a debt of gratitude, that’s why I also don't like owing people favors. I don't like owing people favors because I have a debt of gratitude and I feel like I have to pay it back. And some people, when they call the favor, it could be outrageous. You have to make sure that you have people in the team who have a debt of gratitude. They are grateful. They're thankful to you. They have loyalty to you for what you've done, for what you stand for, for the contributions you've done for the team and the company, for your character, and they respect you. All of those things play a huge factor.

Also, if you have a certain employee in your team, who is disloyal to you, who gossips about you, who slanders you, especially if this person is in a higher position, like a leadership position, get rid of them. That's going to be a sickness and cancer in your organization. So that breaks down even the most loyal employees. That breaks them down. If you have someone in a leadership position, that's not loyal to you, get rid of them immediately. So yeah, there are so many ways.

Showing your employees how good you are, and really, you know, having integrity. Being a one-man person at work, at home when no one sees you in your decisions, that is very important. Having integrity is very important. Serving and helping your people is also very important. Teaching them, making sure they learn the craft, making sure they're successful at work, at what they do, that fosters loyalty.

There are so many ways to build it. And there are also so many ways that it could break down. Sometimes it's not your fault. Sometimes it's just because you're keeping disloyal or evil, particularly evil people in your team, especially in the leadership role. So yeah, I hope that answers your question.

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Ep. 269: The Key To Achieving Work-Life Balance

Tue, 28 Sep 2021 10:00:14 +0000

Sean: One of the things that you mentioned earlier, step back, look up. I'm sure you've had those weeks where you feel like you're gripped by your business or by your clients and your quality of life as an entrepreneur suffers. I've been there and it's horrible because I am hot-headed, ill-tempered, and I feel stressed often.

What are some of your best pieces of advice? I'm happy to say I'm a little bit done with that right now. Just a little bit, but I have some ways to go. It's clear for me what I have to do though, but there are some people that just don't know where to start. They just think they can't take that two weeks off. If they do the house is going to burn down.

What are some of your best pieces of advice to entrepreneurs who are in that rut?

Jennifer: Radically, you know, that's been a lot over the past year and that's a lot that I haven't marketed on because it was just me, you know, now in the business had a business that completely changed.

You had so many of the things going on and really my life was chaos and it's, you know, to say the least. So I think it's looking and finding the flow. I think at first of all, it's realizing that you need to build a business that suits you, that makes you happy. Now, happiness and hard work can go together. I think a lot of times people think, oh, it has to be easy.

No, we can work hard. You know, when we do need to work hard. Well, that doesn't mean we aren't happy in the business that we're building. So I think, first of all, it's getting clear that the business that you're building, isn't modeled off some internet guru, you know, going, oh, put up the sales page and get, you know, 500 million pounds.

And it isn't, it's built for you. It's built that works with your life, work with your schedule, works with the amount of time that you have available to put into it. So we're not completely overloading ourselves and going right. I have to do 30 hours' worth of work, but really I only have 15 hours.

You know, available on my schedule because of kids or whatever the case might be. So it's fine. It's, it's being aware that yes, here's what I have to put into the business and getting very clear on that and setting those boundaries. Now, then you may find, yes, you need to work an hour in the evenings, you know, or two hours in the evenings after the kids go to sleep.

And maybe that allows you to take dinner time off, you know, to spend with the family after school and things of that nature, you know. For instance, that's something that I do. It's getting clear on what you want your business to be, getting clear on what is going to make it, it makes you happy to be in your business when working.

And then also finding flow and finding, you know, and it's hard for early entrepreneurs to kind of do this, but setting, setting boundaries, maybe theme days, you know, you can say right, getting rid of a lot of context switching, you know, when we do a lot of context switching, we're bouncing from one thing to another. It's completely wasting time.

I believe also, and again, this is something that I worked very hard to sort of weed out is working on their own things of their own time. So it's, it's finding the right, what is it that I need to work on right now? What's, you know, what's the major thing. Do I really need to do five podcasts?

Do I need to have a YouTube channel and do a need to, you know, be on Facebook for three hours, scrolling endlessly and you know, the part about in canva for two hours? No, keep it. We need to keep our time lane. We need to find flow. We need to find our focus on what are the main things that are going to move the needle in our business.

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Ep. 268: How Hard Is It To Run A Business?

Fri, 24 Sep 2021 10:00:05 +0000

Sean: I know a lot about my craft, but not about how to start and run a company. What do I need to do to change that?

You have to learn how to start and run the company. So how to start a company is not that hard. In terms of legal speak, you just have to register it in DTI or SEC, if you want to go corporate right away. So starting a company is not that hard. Running it is a lot harder. So hiring people, making sure that you serve your market well, making sure that you're still the best at what you do, those are the things that I think are going to make it difficult for you. Leading people as well is very hard. Managing them also is very hard. Two different things, but both hard things that you need to do.

Yeah, those are some things that you're going to have to learn from mentors, from books, from podcasts. I learned a lot of them when I was starting out from books. And I had a couple of mentors as well, who I could ask questions. So this is a really good thing that you're asking me this question because now you're going to have ideas. Some books that I suggest you start with are Start with Why by Simon Sinek and Good to Great by Jim Collins. Those are really good places to start with.

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Ep. 267: Managing Personal and Business Crises

Thu, 23 Sep 2021 10:00:07 +0000

Sean: Grit is even more important than standing up when you fall down, that's even more important than being a great leader and a great speaker when you're in the world of entrepreneurship.

Life is hard. I'm sure you would agree. And the sooner people realize and accept that the better you're able to deal with it.

I haven't met a pessimistic entrepreneur yet, all entrepreneurs I believe are optimists. But what do you tell people who are in the rabbit hole, you know, in their minds, they're going into a downward spiral? They feel like they're a victim of life and they feel helpless. What are some of the things that you tell them?

Jennifer: Number one, I would say to look up. You can't see the light if you're always looking down at your feet. If you're always looking down, you're going to continue to dig down so try and change your perspective.

You know, look up, look at, try and look at things differently. Look at things from a fresh point of view, step back for a week. You know, step away from your business for a week, if you need to, or two weeks, and then come back to it and maybe you'll have a new, I mean, sometimes it could only be a couple of hours. You step away from something and you come back and you have a different point of view.

I think that's important, you know, try to look up. I think also, and this, you know, I'm very blunt and very honest, I think you have to - I think there is sometimes no easy way through it. You just have to stick it out. It can be crap at times and it can feel very difficult, but we have to just kind of say to ourselves, right. I can get through this, I can get through this.

You know, and at the end of the day, nobody's making you be an entrepreneur and nobody's making you run your own business. If you feel it is too hard and doesn't such a situation that you have, because like you said, things and life change, you know, things happen and it's okay.

It's okay. If it doesn't suit you as well, you know, you don't beat yourself up because it's not working for, you know. So don't be afraid and don't beat yourself up if this isn't for you. That's fine.

You know, if it is for you and you, and you're saying, no, this is what I'm driven to do. I have to see my ideas out there. Look up, change your perspective and just say to yourself, I'm going to get through this. I have to get through this. Yes. There are going to be bad times. But imagine then when things start to get better, how good that's going to feel. Think forward, look forward and say, right and a year from now, where could I be with this? Where can I be with my business? Where could it be with my brand? What could I be doing? What major impact could I be having? What ideas of mine could be out there? You know, having an impact and inspiring or empowering her, whatever it is that you want to do with your business.

So it's having that forward thought and that perspective I think.

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Ep. 266: How To Turn Your Hobby Into A Business

Wed, 22 Sep 2021 10:00:09 +0000

Sean: How do I know when it's possible for me to turn my hobby into a business?

When there is a viable market. When they actually want to buy from you. When what they want to buy from you is something that you can source or produce. So speaking from one of the experiences that I have had, I turned my aquascaping hobby into a small micro-business. So I sell aquatic plants and livestock on the website, making the price very competitive by checking out what's in the market and it's doing quite well. It's doing quite well, I would say.

Before I turned it into a business, I had an overflow of stock. And I know I'm going to have a weekly overflow of stock that I'm not going to use and I'm just going to throw away. So I decided to start the website so as not to throw away those plants and those fishes because they're overpopulating already. They're overgrowing the tanks that I have and it would be a waste. So instead of throwing them away, I put them for sale on the site. And I don't run ads. I don't want to oversell them. So I don't run any ads. It's just SEO. People search. They find the website. They add to cart, checkout, and we got a sale going for aquascape.ph.

So for me, that's how I turned it into a business. I realized there's demand. And I realized that the competition is not really that great. They don't have their own website. They're not organized. And I figured that might be something that people would want to shop from, a really good website, good experience on mobile and desktop. And it just so happens that I have SEO-Hacker, and it's something that we can do. So there's my competitive advantage there. And we just shot at it, you know, gave it a shot and it's working pretty well. That's what I could say.

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Ep. 265: Why You Should Build Your Brand

Tue, 21 Sep 2021 10:00:12 +0000

Sean: We can't really see the numbers or imagine the numbers in our heads when you say you have to build a brand, build a good brand. What are the returns? What are some of the things that you tell clients who asked you this question? If there are any of them. Why should I build my brand? Why should I focus so much energy and effort and money on it? What could I put that in sales and marketing and HR and operations? What would you tell them?

Jennifer: Well, I think the biggest thing that I say to our community at Brand Evolution and the students would be that it's kind of a saying I'm known for whether you like it or not. You have a brand and make it work for you and not against you.

Because as soon as you walk into a room, as soon as somebody sees a social post, as soon as somebody hears you speak, listens to your podcast, anything they're actually interacting with your brand. So if you could imagine, you know, your business is like a donut. So the audience is the outside run of the donuts and your business is the center of the donuts. See all that space in between, that's your brand. It's the space between your business or your products and your people or your audience.

And we need to fill that space. So now we cannot make people think, feel, and say certain things about them, about us in our business, but we can influence that. And that's really where your brand comes in.

It helps to influence and helps to impact what your audience and hopefully one day your customers think about you or your business, I should say, how would they feel about your business and what they say about your business? Because after all, that's what we want. We want our people to love our business and our brands.

We want them to buy and we want them to share. And that's really where your brand comes in.

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Ep. 264: Is A Financial Advisor Essential For Wealth

Fri, 17 Sep 2021 10:00:11 +0000

What type of services do financial advisors provide?

Toni: I would say, you know, a common question that's in line with that is, do people really need us? And that's a common question that I get, even on TikTok. Come to think of it, today, the most common problem that we see is that people have, you know, there's a lack of financial education. I mean, you can admit that they don't really teach personal finance in schools, or at least in my school, they don't. And number two is that they don't have a financial game plan. And then number three is they don't also have their own financial coach or a financial mentor.

So we can all agree that people need guidance when it comes to their finances. And I would say that there are times wherein, you know, a lot of financial advisors, they’re a number of them just push products. Right? But you know, that should not be the case. And in my team, we’re trained to do it the right way. So what we do basically is, okay, let me visualize it. So there's this point A which is their financial situation now, and then their point B. So part of our jobs is to know what their goals are. How can they reach from point A to point B? Or how can you bridge their gap?

So when clients approach me, they're looking for something bigger than what they have now. It's either insurance, educational planning, or health insurance or retirement funding, and all of that. So there's always a gap. And most of the time they don't even know it. Like, let's say for example, when I do a policy review or when I tell someone that, okay, do you have insurance? You'd be like, okay, I have a policy already. But then when you do the calculations, when we do the numbers, you can see that sometimes there's a gap. They actually need like 3 million coverage for their whole family, but they only have one million.

So in other words, we help clients reach their goals. We help them bridge the gap between point A and point B in a sense, you know, you can see us as financial doctors. So right whenever you go to a doctor, doctors ask questions and then from there on, they make a diagnosis. So it's the same for us, right? We ask questions and if the clients give us the right data, then we can give the right recommendations. Because our rules at the end of the day are to help them reach their own financial goals and identify those gaps.

Now, to be specific about the services, as I've mentioned, we do insurance planning, we do educational planning, investments, we also do debt management, and even tax planning. But there are also other financial advisors that offer more services. So there are financial advisors who are also accountants. Or there are also financial advisors who are lawyers, right? So you can also get extra services from them. And, you know, it really depends on every financial advisor. So those are the services that financial advisors usually offer.

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Ep. 263: How To Overcome Common Business Problems

Thu, 16 Sep 2021 10:00:08 +0000

Sean: What are some of the most common problems that people tell you, people, who work as an employee, that you are able to help them with?

Lou: A lot of the time, so it usually starts with team dynamics can often be an issue and people not knowing how to best handle a dominant manager for example or an unmotivated team member.

And what I always say to people in that respect is you can't control those other people's behaviors. What you can control is how you respond to those. And so I teach them tools and techniques to allow them to get to know themselves better so that they are then better equipped at handling all the different kinds of people.

Another really key thing is their own self-belief and self-confidence, self-esteem, you know, all of the rest of it that has probably been instrumental to the fact that they're still there. They're still somewhere that they may realize they shouldn't still be, because they've been there for 10 years, 20 years, however long.

And that comes down to their own sense of self-worth and their own sense of self-esteem, self-confidence to actually do something about it. And so we do a lot of work around that as well. We unlock all of those old stories that we carry around with us, or that, you know, that I often refer to it like a backpack full of rocks.

It's all our old bullshit stories from childhood, from, you know, experiences of the past that create our limiting beliefs, that creates our, you know, our fear-based behaviors. So I just help them unpack that rucksack and reframe those old stories and they go away feeling a lot lighter.

Sean: That's awesome. So it's mostly about coworkers.

Now let's go to the business owners because they come to you because they're stuck somewhere in their life. Right. That's usually the case. What are some of the most common problems of business owners when they come to you and look for a solution?

Lou: Lack of a clear strategy, overwhelm, and again the lack of self-belief. And this is where I, being a self-love advocate because I really helped them do so much work on themselves.

They become unstoppable. So that mix, that combination of getting to know yourself, getting to know your, your own limits and setting in place a really clear strategic direction, but then in their business. Is it completely tailored to where they want to go? I don't believe you can have one without the other. You can have all the strategies in the world, but if you don't believe in yourself, you're not going to get to where you want to be.

And you can be the most confident person and have, you know, doing all of the inner work. But if you haven't got a clear strategy for where you're going again, you're not going to have a successful business.

So those two, and we integrate the two so much so that they step into their own self-belief. They step into their own unlimited selves, knowing where they're going and knowing who they are and that sets them off. So yeah, they often come to me because they are, they've got, overwhelmed. Like we talked about before that shiny object syndrome, they tend to do all. They haven't got quite the clarity. And I'll tell you the number one thing that people often come to me with and they haven't realized that they're not doing. They haven't truly nailed who they're talking to, why they're talking to them and how they can help them.

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Ep. 262: How Mentors and Values Can Change Your Life

Wed, 15 Sep 2021 10:00:13 +0000

What type of coach should people in transition seek - career shifters, aspiring freelancers, or entrepreneurs? How does one decide if they need a coach or a mentor or expert in the field they want to pursue?

For me, I'm more of a mentor than a coach. Although I am a certified John Maxwell coach as well as speaker, but my style is more of mentorship because I do share my experience. Of course, if you want a field in ballet, you should never get me as your mentor because I have no experience in ballet. But if you want to do it, if you want to go start a business, I could help you there. So I think you have to seek people who have gone the way, made mistakes and stood up, and became successful. I think those are one of the best mentors to get.

Coach? I would say, a lot of mentors have helped me, definitely. I do have a coach right now. I am being coached to help to balance my life. That is one goal I want to have this year because I'm just choked with a lot of work. So I did hire a coach and yeah, so far so good. So far so good. What's your take on this, Toni?

Toni: Well, I would say to help out Mitch, maybe, the first thing that you need to identify is, what is it that you want mentorship around? So you need to identify what your mentorship objective is. Because if there's one thing that I learned by meeting different mentor circles is that there's no such thing as one mentor for everything.

So you look for people whom you want to model. So even in my case, I have a mentor in the insurance industry. I also have another mentor for social media branding or social media growth. And then I have Sean Si whom I consider as my mentor when it comes to leadership. Right? Leadership. I even have another one just simply for, like what said more of like a life coach. Right? Because, you know, that's why I'm very grateful that I have a trusted female mentor that I can turn to for advice and inspiration even as someone who is still quite new in the finance industry.

Her name's Joan. I'm not sure if she's tuned in, but you know, she taught me how to become a tough performer. She taught me how to build relationships with clients. So in a sense, when you do have a mentor/coach, you can model them so that you can accelerate your own success. So it really helps when you have guidance who can help, especially when you're starting out new in the industry that you want to be in.

Sean: Yeah. Very good answer. So with mentors, if you do get a mentor, there are things that are important for a mentor. Number one thing that's important is you remember what the mentor gave you. The advice. Number two, you actually do some of it. Whether you do it exactly as the mentors said it, or maybe how you think is best, doesn't matter as long as you do something about it. And you have to be the one to schedule routinely with your mentor. So I do have a mentor right now. I am learning. A lot actually. Super. I am learning so much. And I scheduled with him and I wrote my questions before I met him.

That's so important because there are some people who come to me for mentorship, sit down and then, you know, like nothing, we just talk. But, you know, a mentor-mentee relationship is all about asking questions. So before I ask this person for one hour of his time, I make sure that I have a lot of questions already. Questions that I really want to know the answer to and how he's doing it. And then when I sit down that one or I ask it. And after the one hour is done, I make sure to cut it there. I don't take up more of his time. That's how I do it.

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Ep. 261: Why Purpose And Passion Must Work Together

Tue, 14 Sep 2021 10:00:11 +0000

Sean: How about the people who were so passionate and the purpose was clear at the get-go. I mean, I'm going to take you as an example since we already have your story here, you started out, you said you love your job. You were in your twenties and then moving to your thirties, forties, somewhere in between the line got blurry.

It's not, I don't believe it's just, you're a bad boss, although that does contribute a lot to kind of mud - muddling, muddying down your passion in your purpose. Right. But somewhere in between, and this happens to a lot of people and they lost their passion because they lost their purpose.

When does that happen usually? And what triggers that?

Lou: Well often it's such an unseen thing that it can happen so slowly. It usually just gets eroded away over time. I think what happened to me was, and I don't think in my twenties when I was loving what I was doing, that I realized I was fulfilling my purpose.

I was just doing what I loved and looking back now I can see that it was really aligned with my values. And I think then we change. We grow don't we - we moved to new jobs. We moved to different careers and we think that that's going to be the golden bullet and it isn't, the grass is always greener.

And that's the danger, I think because it can be very difficult to recognize that the passion and the purpose of, you know, disappearing because it can be such a slow, unseen process. And it can be, you can get 10, 20 years down the line, turn around and look back and go, how did I get over here? I was supposed to be over there and, and, and that's the danger because people don't realize it's happening.

You know, when either they get so sick because they're so stressed out or whatever, or, you know, like hit a milestone birthday or something like that makes them just stop. Or, you know, the global pandemic has made a lot of people stop and reevaluate their life, that you can turn around and look back at your journey and say, was I really supposed to be here?

And that's when it happens. But I think overall it's a slow sort of eroding of your purpose and your mission.

Sean: And this is why it is so important to have, if not a daily then every other day, right. Just stop, pause, take a walk, think, breathe the fresh air, journal and realize, am I still on track with my life's purpose?

Lou: Yeah. I couldn't agree with you more.

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Ep. 260: Why Choosing Goals Before Investments Matter

Fri, 10 Sep 2021 10:00:10 +0000

What should I invest my money in – insurance, stocks, et cetera?

Toni: You know that's probably my most asked question even on TikTok. And the reason why I cannot always give a direct answer is that I don't know what your goals are. So, you know, the word best investment or perfect investment is relative. So it really depends on what your goals are.

Okay. So the first thing that you need to do is to set clear goals with achievable targets. So that's very essential when it comes to financial planning. When I ask people, okay, what is your goal? Sometimes they'd say, okay, I just want passive income, but you need to be more specific. How much do you want to earn on an annual basis? Or at what age do you want to retire? And from there on, you'll be able to identify what investment strategy is suited to get you or to help you reach that goal of yours.

And then the first thing that you can also consider is your timeframe. So there are many different investments that they're suitable for short-term investors, for midterm investors and for long-term investors. So let's say, if you're going short term, then the options are money market funds, their bonds, government bonds. And then if you are looking for midterm, there are balanced funds. And then if let's say you want to go long term, then there are stocks or even crypto. Right?

And then of course, another thing that we have to consider is your own risk appetite or your risk profile. So you need to identify if you are a conservative investor, meaning you're more suitable for low risk, low return type of investments, or are you moderate or are you aggressive. So from then on, if you're able to assess your own profile, then you'd be able to identify which investment vehicle suits you best. And you can seek out credible experts who can help you out with the financial process of that or simply do your research.

Sean: Perfect answer. I mean, I couldn't add so much more to that. Maybe I'll take on the personal growth route in answering this. I'd say you should also invest your money in yourself, growing yourself, and paying for more education. I always say during my talks, when people hire me to speak about how I became CEO at 22, I say, do not let your schooling interfere with your education.

A lot of people when they graduate, they think that's it. This is as much as I could grow and school has helped me and I have the diploma to prove it. And that's it. Finally, I get to work and make money. That's a problem right there. Education, learning, it never stops. And if you stop with school, then you are actually leaving a lot of money on the table because there's so much to learn. There's so much to invest in when it comes to knowing more about it.

I have had a lot of investment paying for things that I learned, public speaking, leadership, some certifications, profiling people, being able to read them better, being able to lead and coach them better as well. And it has paid off in dividends for me. So at the end of the day, it's not all about money. It's not all about passive income. It's not all about retirement. It's also about, how much growth did you have as a person? How many moments did you have in life? Because life is made out of moments, not really of a balance sheet. So yeah, I hope that helps.

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Ep. 259: Bring Out People's Best Selves Through Coaching

Thu, 09 Sep 2021 10:00:16 +0000

Sean: So I'm going to tell you, I'm going to tell you it's - something that I don't really share out there, but I'm a certified John Maxwell coach and speaker, but I find that coaching is not something that I love to do, because coaching requires a lot of listening to people. And helping them figure out within themselves.

What's the solution is, I'm more of a mentor, like ask me questions. I'll tell you the answer. Let's keep it short and sweet. That is something that I highly respect for coaches because it takes a lot of patience and a lot of listening to be a coach. But I've seen the results, there's a lot of happiness. There's a lot of positivity and realization with the person after each session. It's amazing.

And you mentioned earlier in the pre-show that the reason why you're doing this guesting on podcasts, sharing your wisdom is to make a positive impact in the world. I just want to know, where did that come from?

Because that comes from somewhere very deep. It's not every day that you meet people who say that “I want to impact the world positively.”

Lou: When I'm working with my clients and they have a breakthrough, or they, you know, like you say, being a coach is about holding the space for them to realize what's already inside them.

And I very much see my job as, like you say, listening to that, and just asking the right questions to help them see what's already there, asking difficult questions at times and challenging questions. But whether they have that breakthrough or when, when I get messages from my clients saying, I've just done this today, I couldn't have done it without you.

That is so rewarding. My clients come to me and they've got big goals. They've got really big goals. They want to find out, figure out why they're here, find out their purpose so they can have more fulfillment in their life.

But what they don't realize when they come to me is that it will make them better parents. It makes them better partners. It makes them better colleagues. It makes the better friends daughter, husband, et cetera. Because of the small incremental changes that they're making in their life, as well as the big huge changes.

And to see that and to see the difference. And we were chatting before, when we were about there, the ripple effect of changing one person's life, doesn't just change one person's life. It changes another 10, 20 lives indirectly.

And having seen the power of that on my own coaching journey, I know I'm a much, much better person now. I have coaching myself. I have a couple of coaches that I'm working with. It means that I have stepped into the best version of myself, which allows me to help others become the best versions of them.

And yeah. If we can, by inspiring one person to go, "I want to figure out what my purpose is. I want to know what my values are. I want more fulfillment in life." I want to be part of that ripple effect of positive impact. Then that can only be a good thing. We need more positivity in the world. We need more people who want to make a difference and that's absolutely vital.

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Ep. 258: How To Achieve Financial Independence

Wed, 08 Sep 2021 10:00:11 +0000

How can I save up enough money to start a business?

Toni: I guess for me, once you're set on your goals, as I've mentioned earlier, I guess, and you've already established your foundation, then I would say to really organize your budget or really set aside or have a different fund simply for that goal that you have, which is to save up for your capital. And again, if you're working right now and let's say your income equates to your monthly expenses, I would say, find ways to cut back.

And if that doesn't work, then you really have no choice, but to increase your income or find other sources so that you can be able to save more. Because at the end of the day, there is a limit to how much you can cut back, but there's no limit to how much you can earn. So that's what I would say, or advise someone who wants to save up money for a business.

Sean: Great. It makes a lot of sense. That's actually the perfect answer for it. It’s either you cut your expenses or increase your revenue. I didn’t have a lot of money when I was starting. I had 1,300 pesos. That's my capital. You don't need a lot of money. That's the truth. If you think you need millions to start your own business, hundreds of thousands, that's actually not true. 1,300 pesos, believe it or not, I cannot make it up, that's how much money I had when I started out SEO Hacker.

A lot of people would say I was in the right place at the right time, I'd say it's a series of divine appointments. And there was a need and the need was people wanted to rank their business online for certain keywords. And SEO does that. I had my blog. I learned what SEO was. I was able to supply that need. They were willing to get someone like a, nobody like me, you know, 28 feeling units, guys, from LaSalle. That's like a death sentence if you didn’t know. 28 units slapped on your transcript of records, you're probably not going to get a great job. Right?

So, yeah, I ran with that. I ran with 1,300 pesos. 800 pesos I used for the hosting per year. That's how much it cost. And 500 pesos I used for the domain name, seo-hacker.com. One year. That's how much it costs. And I started writing, people started inquiring. I started getting deals. My first deal, 50,000 pesos a month, six months locked in contract and I used that money to grow the business. Hire more people, get my first office, pay for the utilities, electricity, water, internet, you know. That's it.

So it would depend a lot on what kind of business you want to start. But if it's a service-based business, you don't need a lot of money. Just need a lot of grit, a lot of guts, and you need to work really hard and you need to pray hard as well.

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Ep. 257: Is It Time To Change Careers

Tue, 07 Sep 2021 10:00:09 +0000

Sean: So Louis before we, before I asked you any of my questions, I'd like to know I saw in your profile that you - just like a lot of people today, started in the corporate world.

I started in the corporate world, but I ended up just staying there for five months before starting on my, my own business. Which I didn't know would be where it is today. I thought it would fail because it's my first time. But I want to hear, like, what is it like for you when you were in the corporate world?

Because now you're a life coach and we do - strangely, we'd have a lot of guests here. Some of them, even C-level executives right next to Warren Buffet who quit and became a speaker, and became a coach and a mentor. I don't know why we have a lot of that, but I'm happy because you guys are the ones who really want to help people.

So I want to hear it from your story. What happened?

Lou: Oh, for sure. I was in the corporate world for a lot longer than five months. I was in the corporate world for over 20 years straight out of uni. I started off life in the world of market research, consumer insight, and I absolutely loved it. I really loved it.

I was traveling the world. I was living in London. I was going to all these amazing cities, talking to amazing people life was good. It was only then probably, and that was probably, I was in my twenties then into my thirties and forties, I'd have my children by then. I married, feeling a bit more settled to the traveling wasn't as much and all the rest of it.

And it was really probably as I was approaching 40, that I just started to think, is this really it? Is this really it? Am I going to spend the next 20, 30 years getting out of bed and you know, not feeling fulfilled? I was then working for a very large global FMCG company. I had a horrible boss that I really disliked.

There was no mutual respect or anything there. I just didn't feel like the work I was doing was making any difference. You know, I was a very small cog in a huge, huge wheel, absolutely it. Me being able to make any kind of difference or impact was just not happening. And actually, what started my journey was as part of a sort of personal development program in this corporate job, we did a piece around purpose and what our purpose was.

And that actually woke me up to the fact that staying in the corporate world was not my purpose, that I had bigger, better things that were meant for me that I was meant to do. And with my background and being a qualitative researcher, talking to people, getting the best out of people, I realized then that I had to leave. I had to figure out what it was that I wanted to do.

And then finally, I opened and closed lots of doors. I explored different avenues that didn't work out, and that I didn't enjoy. And I think we have to do that in many respects, but that journey took me nearly five years to finally figure out what it was that I wanted to do.

And then I finally landed. And it's so obvious, it's one of those things that it's so obvious when it finally - you're finally confronted with it. I should coach people, you know, coaching other people to help them figure out their purpose and to help them find fulfillment in life. So they don't have to take five years to figure out why they're here.

And so that's what really started my journey and yeah, escape the corporate nine to five and haven't looked back.

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Ep. 256: Can You Skip College To Start A Business

Fri, 03 Sep 2021 10:00:18 +0000

Toni: I have a question, actually, it's from me. Do you think, and I've also had people who approached me and asked the same question. Should I finish college?

Sean: That is a very, very good question to ask me.

Toni: Because people now are questioning, actually a lot of content creators on TikTok were saying that you don't need a college degree to start a business. Like, you know, instead of spending money on your tuition fee, you could use it as your capital to start the business. So I want to hear your thoughts as someone who graduated college and now is super successful and super-rich. I think we’ll learn a lot from you, even me as a young entrepreneur and also the many Zillennials that are watching, that are watching and currently in college and trying to get by, or hardly getting by.

Sean: Okay. First of all, that's a very good question, especially for those who know that I almost got kicked out of college and not doing IT work now. I'm an IT graduate, not doing IT work. I'm in the marketing industry, digital marketing to be specific.

My answer would be, it depends on your risk appetite. So if you want to have a fallback, definitely finish college. Let's say your business doesn't fly, doesn’t succeed because of whatever reason, then you have something to fall back to because you have a college degree. That's how I see it. That's how I look at it.

One of the things that I also imagine doing maybe someday is to migrate to another country when I'm older. New Zealand has zero records of the virus in this whole fiasco, worldwide. So when I'm older, it seems like a good place to retire. And you know, here in the Philippines, my chances of dying as a senior is very, very high if this happens again. So I wouldn't want that risk. I guess if I don't have a college degree, it might be difficult for me to migrate when I'm much older. So those are some of the things that actually come into my mind personally, especially during this time.

Yeah, I would say it depends on your risk appetite. If you have a high appetite for risk, you really think you can make it, go to the moon and back and you're still alive and in one piece, then, by all means, skip college, you know. But if you want that safety net for yourself that you know, if my business fails, at least I have a diploma for this, at least I graduated and I can still find a job, then definitely graduate, definitely finish college.

Toni: Cause I remember Pastor Dennis answering the same question on TikTok and he was like, you can do both. Like, if you're going to school from 7 AM to 2 PM, then you can work on your business afterwards. Something like that, then he would show his diploma and he’d say, “this is the best investment I've ever made.” And then he would show his college diploma from DLSU. So yeah, I think you guys have the answer. There you have it.

So identify your risk appetite and I mean, would you agree that not everyone is suited for business?

Sean: Yes. A hundred percent. I know some people are straight-up telling me I don't want to do business, I just want to be an employee. And no judgment from me there, you know. They want to do that, that makes them, then go ahead.

Toni: Right. Right. So when people, you know, when the business path doesn't really pan out for them in the future, then I agree with you, at least you have a fallback, you have a degree that could help you get into corporate, and you'd be able to learn a lot from there. You can also get mentors there as well. And eventually maybe start a business on your own. And at least you already have the connections, you also have the working experience. And unfortunately, like 75% of the employers here require someone with a college degree to start.

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Ep. 255: The Key Secrets To Strategic Growth

Thu, 02 Sep 2021 10:00:08 +0000

Sean: So one thing that we would rarely tackle in the podcast is strategic growth. We rarely tackle this. And that's because a lot of our listeners are startup entrepreneurs are side hustlers. We also have some C-level executives listening in. And so I think this is going to be a very valuable for them. Why is strategic growth so important? And how are we going to start it if we're just considering it right now as a CEO, founder, who just started our business? Maybe it's in the growth stage. We're five years running. We're trying to get more business and it's pretty stable. We're not hand to mouth as in the startup stage already. How do we start it?

Tom: Let's simplify it. Right, I mean, as I mentioned earlier, Every company wants to grow. So any planning session is going to have some kind of assumption. We want to grow sales by 15, 20, 50%, whatever. We're going to introduce new products, which will, you know, stem to growth.

So, growth is always part of the equation. While strategic comes in, is to make sure that growth is aligned with your vision, right? Because so many companies get distracted by the new shiny object. You know, competition is doing this, you know, we got to react and do the same thing. You know, it totally takes you know, off course. Okay. I'm a, I'm a Coca-Cola and I'm about refreshment. Then Pepsi's launching all kinds of chips. You don't see Coca-Cola going into that market because it's not refreshing. Right.

The key for strategic growth is to make sure that it's aligned with your vision and you're growing. So one of the things that I try to simplify for folks, and look, I don't care if you, you know, you can, you can really complicated or just answer yourself two questions, you know, where do I put my time and where do I put my money?

Right. And, I don't care if you're an individual with a household or you're a, you know, $10 billion company. It still boils down to those two questions. How do I spend my money and how do I spend my time, “my resources”? Right? What are my people working on? That's that's. All right. And, and what investments I'm making that that's money.

So it's, it's that simple. And then you, you kinda make yourself four quadrants. Four quadrants for time and four quadrants for money. And the first quadrant is what is urgent and important. The second quadrant is what is urgent and non-important. The third quadrant is what is important, but not urgent. And the fourth quadrant obviously is not important, not urgent.

So let's spend a little bit time on that. So, let's say I'll take myself as an example. We will all spend at least 60, 65% of the time on things that are urgent and important. I mean, that's the nature of the beast, you know, it's important to us and it's also urgent.

So you got to do it right. It is family. It's your anniversary, it's urgent and important so you better take your wife out to dinner and buy some flowers because it's your anniversary, right. It's urgent and important.

Sean: Otherwise it turns into a crisis.

Tom: Exactly. But where most of us make the mistake is we spend time and money on things that are urgent, but they're not so important.

Right. And they may be important for other people, but they're not important to your cause, to your vision and to where you want to, but they are urgent, you know, they're pressing.

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Ep. 254: Money Matters: Wisely Managing Your Finances

Wed, 01 Sep 2021 10:00:35 +0000

Sean: For absolute beginners, where should we start?

I guess this might be from the perspective of personal finance. Yeah. Let's answer it from that.

Toni: Okay. So more on money management. Well, okay. So I need to know more about the profile of this person, but if you're seeing, okay, so if we're talking in steps, I would say the first thing that you need to do, which you've mentioned earlier is to find ways to invest in yourself so that you could earn more later on. So once you're able to create that stable source of income for you, then of course you need to learn how to handle your finances.

So the first thing that you can do is to record your expenses or to create a budget for yourself. So I know a lot of people tend to shy away from this, or sometimes people would say that you’re stingy if you budget. But you know, a way to be yourself is to, again, run yourself like a business. So I tell this to people all the time. Imagine a business trying to profit, but they don't keep track of their expenses. So it's the same thing for yourself. You can run yourself like a business so that you can determine your own profitability.

And the only way for you to know that is of course if you write it down. So it doesn't matter where it is, you can write it down on a piece of paper, on an Excel spreadsheet, or using an app. You just need to know your numbers. Because it’s hard to run the numbers in your head. It's very difficult to do that because sometimes people go, oh, I can afford that, or I don't think I can afford that. But how do you know you can afford it if you don't even know your own financial numbers? So I would say that's the first step that you need to take.

Sean: Yeah, I think that that's a perfect answer. Can you give us the top five practical tips about money?

Top five? I would say it's probably going to be the five personal five steps. Right? Number one, establish a positive cash flow. Number two, get out of debt. Establish your emergency fund or if you're running a business, we call that a safety net. Get insured because you have to protect and secure your money-making assets. If that's yourself, then it's yourself. If that's your business, then it's your business. And lastly, invest to grow your money.

Toni: That’s the perfect answer. But if we’re talking more practical tips, like, is it more of how do you save up spending? All right. Maybe I could talk about how, okay, let’s make it more actionable. So one thing that you could do is to time your purchase. So we know that the common financial mistake is when people buy things, right away, especially from Lazada or Shopee. So what you can do is to, I would say, follow the three-month rule or at least the three-week rule.

Okay. So let me back it up by research. So they say that whenever you go shopping or whatever you splurge your money on, research has shown that dopamine doesn't actually hit from the purchase itself, or it doesn't come from the purchase itself. It comes from the anticipation of the purchase. So when you delay your gratification or when you put off your purchase to a different time, then you can come to yourself that, okay, maybe I don't really need this item, or I don't really need to buy this one. So that's one tip that I could give.

And then maybe another one would be to negotiate. Negotiate price when possible. So when you're buying every chance you get, you need to ask, okay, can you do a better price for me? Right? Because what's the worst thing that can happen if you ask for a discount? And they might say no, but that's just as bad as it gets. And if they say, okay, we'll bring it out, then I think it's a gain for you. So you can do this when you're purchasing car insurance or when you're buying things online, you can do that too.

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Ep. 253: Making A Simple And Clear Vision Statement

Tue, 31 Aug 2021 10:02:46 +0000

Sean: You mentioned the second pillar of your book is vision. I'm sure that the four pillars are interconnected together. I want to go deeper, dive into vision. Why is vision so important? How does it relate to your company's culture? And as a founder, this is one of the things that just flies over the heads of founders, right?

We're just looking for the next meal. Vision is not something that we're thinking about. If you ask a new CEO founder, He would probably say, oh, the vision is to close more deals. The vision is to make more sales. The vision is to not go bankrupt. So why is vision so important and what kind of vision are we talking about here?

Tom: Well, look, you know, vision is, yeah. If somebody tells you a vision is not to go broke, then you probably will go broke. You look, vision is your long-term "why”. Why do you want to do this? Right? And there's some great examples out there, and there's some terrible examples out there. And if you steer away from your vision maybe 15, 20, 25 years down the road like for example, Coda.

All of a sudden you're out of business because you lost the vision of where you want to be and why you want to do it. So great companies have visions that don't really change over time. So the one I use all in one, I like to use as an example is Coca-Cola and I have to be careful because some people make a distinction between what is a mission statement and what is a vision?

I try not to get too technical on that. I say, look, you're going to have a statement that defines your future, and then, so your long-term future. And it doesn't change in two years. It doesn't change in five years. It doesn't change in 20 years. So Coca-Cola is "we refresh the world." If you pick up a annual statement from 50 years ago, they'll say the same thing.

So it's really, really important because if you have a simple vision statement and I emphasize a simple and clear vision statement, your employees can buy into that, your suppliers can buy into that, your customers can buy into that. Everybody kind of understands it and say, okay, that makes sense. I'm on board or I'm not on board, you know, either way.

But I can tell you, you know, Coca Cola, if you go ever go into a boardroom and say, yeah, I got this great new product that I think we should do. And it's not refreshing. They'll probably chase you out. Right? So it's all about refreshment and, it's all about global distribution, global implications. You know, if you look at a can of Coca Cola, it doesn't matter if you're in Singapore. If you're in Saudi Arabia in Dubai, if you're in Kiev Ukraine, if you're in, you know, Chicago, it's, it looks the same.

And if you crank it open, it's going to taste the same. Right? It's refreshing. That's what they're all about. And when Elon Musk, colonizes, Mars, I guarantee you Coca-Cola is going to be up there, right? It goes it's. Now we refresh the world. What's the definition of world. Well, right now it's earth, but Hey, when we are

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Ep. 252: Business 101: Choosing The Right Idea and Strategy

Fri, 27 Aug 2021 10:00:11 +0000

Sean: How can someone protect their business or content idea from being stolen during pitching? When is it okay to steal and when is it crossing the line?

I would say this rarely happens. I would say this rarely, rarely happens. So ideas are cheap. That's what I always say. Ideas are cheap. A lot of people have a lot of ideas. That's the truth. A lot of people have very nice ideas, maybe even brilliant ideas. But if nothing is done about it, it's just an idea, you know. The problem is there are some people who have an idea and they keep talking about it and they don't do anything about it. And then someone thinks that their idea is also brilliant and actually does something about it.

That's when we say, oh, that person stole that other person's idea. But in reality, we have a lot of talkers, not a lot of doers. And these talkers talk a lot about their ideas. It's the doers who get to do the idea. So the usual case of this is there's someone who keeps talking about his or her idea, and you just keep talking and talking and sharing it with everyone. Unfortunately, within that crowd, there's someone who's really looking for an opportunity to do or start a business that is perhaps a new idea.

We have some companies in our world today that actually were kind of like that, you know. They kind of stole the idea. We have Uber, we have Lyft, Grab, they have the same business model. But the first-ever one that did that business was actually Lyft, but we don't know them now because the others stole the idea and flew with it. That is what I think about this question, right?

How do you prevent it from happening to you? Don't talk about your idea to people you don't know, people you don’t trust. Have self-control. I know that as a founder and as a visionary, you might want to keep casting the vision, you might want to keep talking about it. Some founders, some visionaries, that's how they make it grow within their mind and heart that finally, because of telling themselves and other people repeatedly, they finally get the oomph, you know, the drive to do it themselves and to finally start it. That's how they build it themselves. But when you are that kind of person, and you keep doing that, or you start doing that, make sure you're doing it with the right people

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Ep. 251: Why All Leaders Must Invest In Company Culture

Thu, 26 Aug 2021 10:00:12 +0000

Sean: First is culture, and we have tackled culture numerous times in the podcast, but that is really because it is so elusive on how people can grasp and concretize culture. It's not something that you're going to have a formula with. It's not something that I could just give you a blueprint of, what is so important about it that is one of the four pillars of your book?

Tom: Well look, every organization is going to have a culture. It may be a culture that you haven't designed. Maybe it's a culture that you didn't want, but it's like an organism is going to happen. So I always tell people, look, you might as well take the time and the effort to try to design a culture that you want breeding in your living organization. Because if you don't spend that investment in time, it will be there, but it may be a toxic culture.

It may be a culture that you don't want in your organization, but because you didn't pay attention to it, it kind of just took a life of its own. And it happened. The second thing I'll talk about is that culture is never negotiable. So if you're an organization and you can have, let's say it's a young organization and you don't know what your culture is going to be.

You can have all the discussion upfront to say what our culture should be, but once you decide what the culture should be, you can have dissension. It's going to be that culture and if people don't buy into that culture, then they don't belong in your organization. In fact, I tell young executives all the time and because I guess in the old days, you know, when I was a younger executive, three career moves in the span of about 25 or 30 years was yeah, that that was acceptable.

You know, and now you have, you know, people changing jobs, you know, three jobs in five years, right? So there's this constant, that's when you know its constant turnover. But I tell folks, look, it's very easy in today's world to look up a company and look at their website, look at some articles. And, as soon as you look at their website, their culture and their vision should be apparent. If you don't see it, or if you don't understand it, that's a yellow flag.

And then also do yourself a favor and say, could I live in that culture? Could I, you know, be really good at it and achieve stuff in that culture? You know, how will I function in that? And, if it's not clear to you, don't even take the interview because I guarantee you within six months or a year, you will leave because you will hate it. Or they will ask you to leave. Right?

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Ep.250: Should You Work With Your Spouse?

Wed, 25 Aug 2021 10:00:13 +0000

Sean: Dan asks, are there challenges in working with a spouse?

My answer Dan would be, it is the most amazing thing for me. I have nothing that I would say is a challenge with working with Apple. Maybe it's just because it's Apple and she's a brilliant, fantastic, loving person that is so easy to work with.

Apple: Of course there are challenges. We are very Yin and Yang, right? But Dan, it's very enjoyable. It’s very challenging, but you have to set clear lines. I think it's all about setting clear lines. Where do you set the line between this is your turf, this is mine, this is your responsibility, and this is mine? And it's all about respect. Even if you don't agree with your spouse or you don't agree with how he or she does things, respect and trust. Trust him, trust her that he will pull through, and he or she will be the one to fix the mess that he or she creates. And yeah, that will also grow your spouse and grow you as the spouse.

So there are a lot of challenges. I'm sure even just having a spouse has challenges and working with one also has its own set. But I also want to be very honest with the listeners that we don't have much challenges, Sean and I, to start with in terms of working together. Because again, there are clear boundaries set by him and by me. And I also respect that we have similar work ethics. We like getting things done and we like doing things excellently. So I think standards have to be set as well when you work with your spouse.

Also as a spouse, so I'm his wife. So as a wife, remember that he is your leader whether you are in the house or outside the house. So that is for the wives out there. It's God's design that we submit to our husbands, no matter how hard it is, but we submit because we know that it is His will, and it is really through Him that we are submitting to, and not always to our husbands.

And also, we don't just take matters into our own hands. I'm talking to the wives that when we don’t like something, we do something, you know, we take matters into our own hands, we change the course, or we suddenly just don’t follow because that's going to affect the whole team. It's not just about a husband and wife this time or a family, it's the whole team. You should know that in the bigger picture of things and the bigger mesh of things, it's your husband or your spouse that leads you and leads the whole team. Yeah.

Sean: Perfect. Yeah. And Dan I leave you with these very, very wise words that I heard before from Comedy Central. What do you want to be? Do you want to be right? Or do you want to be happy? So think about that.

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Ep. 249: What Makes A Good Leader

Tue, 24 Aug 2021 10:00:22 +0000

Sean: True that, and Patrick Lencioni always says there's no other way to do leadership than to serve others. Right?

And if your motive is to be served and to climb the ladder and get the perks, then don't lead because the world will be a worse place with you around. You mentioned earlier in the pre show that the book has four major topics. I don't want to preempt it here because it's your book. And I want you to be the one to tell the audience.

So can you run us by it one by one?

Tom: Sure. Just a little background again, the way I came across the four keys is as I started, you know, I've started writing all these stories down and then I said, I can write a book on it. I said, "well how can I frame all these stories into a book?"

And, and one of the things that upon reflection I came to was look, I've had some successes in my life and I had some failures in my life. And when I was successful, I found that these four key principles were all firing on all cylinders. So things were working. And then some of the times in my life where things were not working too well, I looked at it and said, well, Not all four of those keys were there, you know, some of those keys were missing, so I said, okay, well, there's obviously a pattern here.

Now let me ask a question and look at some successful companies and some successful leaders and, and to see, do they have those same four keys? So lo and behold, I said, yeah, they do. So that gave me the inspiration to actually write the book to say, well, these four keys not only worked for me, but they also worked for other successful companies and leaders.

So the four keys are, you have to have a very strong sense of who you are, what your character is. So as an individual, your character is extremely important. They're built on your values and if you're a company then your character is your culture. And in fact, if you're a startup company, the founder's character used to become a de facto culture for that organization until they start thinking about it, planning it and changing it.

All right. The second one I already shared with you, which is my vision, every great company, every great leader has a vision for themselves and a vision for their company. The third one is strategic growth. You know, strategy is always fueled by growth. Nobody wants to be worse off than they were yesterday.

They don't want to be poorer than they were yesterday. They want to be more out of shape than they were yesterday. They don't want to be worse looking than they were, you know, yesterday. So. It's all about improvement. So it's all about strategic growth. Growth is the key word and strategic growth really has to be aligned with your vision.

So don't be kind of distracted by the, the latest, shiny object and the, and the fourth one, which is very dear to my heart is the team. You have to have a great inner circle. So when you build your team, make sure that they balance you, they balance your weaknesses. So you surround yourself with people of strength and where you are weak. Surround yourself with diverse thinking.

That's also key, and diverse thinking really comes from diverse thinking, but also Latin Americans will think differently than Europeans and relativity, you know, than Americans or people from the far east. So diverse thinking, you know, also comes from, geographically where you are, it comes from socially where you are. That all adds to diverse thinking.

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Ep.248: Market Research And Inventory Tips For Business

Fri, 20 Aug 2021 10:00:10 +0000

Sean: All right. The next question is from Patrick. How do you do market research for your business? What are the factors to consider to have a business that has a market?

One easy way is actually to put the keyword for that business. So for example, if you're selling Taho, maybe put that keyword on Google and see how many people are actually searching for Taho. So I'm going to go ahead and open an incognito tab and share that screen with all of you. This is just one way to do it. I'm not saying this is how you should be doing it. So yeah. Why not Taho? Right?

Calories, benefits. Okay. Vendor is there, right? It's one of the, what? Top one, top two, top three, top four, top five, top six, top seven. It's a top seven most searched for keyword when you type for Taho. And then for the eighth and ninth, you just know these three, these four, actually these four right here, these are people looking for the Taho. So do you have a market? Probably, yes. Right there and then that could be one part of your market research.

You also have other tools that you can use. For example, like SEMrush. Just a disclaimer, I'm an affiliate. SEMrush is a partner of mine. I love their software and if you want to use it, you can use my link in the website: from.seo-hacker.com/semrush. Yeah so you have the keyword research here, or you can use the Keyword Magic Tool. I just go usually for a Keyword Magic Tool. The Philippines would be the country and you put in Taho. So right here, you would be able to see, oh, there's 33,000 searches every month for the word Taho. What's happening in there?

So you could take off like south, chevy. These are not the words you want, because obviously these are keywords from the US. Right? So just exclude them from the results. You can do that. Yeah. And then you could just zone in on the keywords that you might want. Like the vendor. Definitely that's one. So there's a thousand searches per month for that. Strawberry Taho, probably. Homemade Taho, yes, probably. Strawberry Taho Baguio, yeah.

And then you add up all of the volume and you get an idea right now that, oh, probably we have like, I don't know, 15,000 searches every month. That's a pretty good number. If I can service that with a website where people can order Taho and I can deliver it to them at home. Perfect. Then you have a working business. That's one easy way to do it. So Patrick. I hope I added value to you by showing you exactly how I'm going to do it. Yeah. That's how I do it.

Why don't I do more business if I know how to do it this way? I can't manage more people and more and more businesses. That's the easy answer. I'm already giving my best a hundred percent with SEO Hacker. So just choose the business that you're going to give your all to. Focus on that. Right? You can't split yourself too much.

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Ep: 247: Practicing Self-Awareness In Leadership

Thu, 19 Aug 2021 10:00:12 +0000

Sean: It's a matter of awareness. Here's the thing for a leader like me, for example, to be aware, you're the CEO, you're the president, you're the founder. Here's the problem. Not a lot of people will say to your face that, "Hey Sean, this is the problem with you." And sometimes we could be blindsided to it. Totally unaware that we have that problem.

The problem is people don't want to speak up to you because you're the founder and CEO. How do you get over that? What's the solution for that?

Jason: [00:04:43] That's the question that I get asked a lot in my coaching with leaders. One of the things that people say is that, how do I get more self-awareness if nobody speaks up? Right?

So the idea of speaking up is the idea of safety. It's actually boiling it down is it’s really safety. When you get safety, you get transparency. You get, "Hey, Sean, that really sucked what you just did." You know, you get somebody who can actually say that to you because they know that tomorrow they won't get fired.

So the idea of safety, and how do you create that safety is actually through the first conversation you had with that person, the very first conversation, and it builds on that. So for example, if you, if they ask a question. So, let's say they say, "Sean, I think you are a bit, you are reacting too fast," right?

"You're a bit rational. That I think we should think about this," that first response that they have gives them the historical records of: What should I do in the future? And if you say something like "you don't know anything," oh, if you say something like "I'm the boss," then that is a historical record in his mind to say that, you know what, then that's true and I will behave differently after that. And slowly the voice gets quieter and quieter.

So for a leader, one of the most important things is that - anyway, when I go through organizations, I know whether that organization has safety. They call it psychological safety. You can call it relational safety.

But If people are asking questions and they're able to actually question you back, "why do you say that?" I know that the organization has safety. If nobody's speaking. Because all, when they think back or when they hear historical records or we can call it "gossip" or so, historical records of other people, "you know what you, you spoke to Sean, I'll tell you what, you know, James, you spoke to Sean two years ago. Yeah. Where's he now he's not here. Yeah, he's gone, I don't think so be careful."

So any kind of data we want to build on it and every one of us. There's a ton of historical data. It's very ingrained and we call that culture. So what you want to do is that you want to start to be very careful at very small things, because you can change the thing about history is that you can start writing a new one.

So the next time somebody asks you a question, Sean, in front of people, for example, use that as a way of demonstrating the, "Hey, you know what? That's a great question. There is no stupid question. That's a really great question. I appreciate you sharing with me that. Yes, I'm rash. A lot of times I'm rash about this and you know what I appreciate you, and I hope that you can carry on to share me these things. Because as a leader, I need information. The more information I have, the more data I have, the more I can make better decisions.

If you say it that way, you will see a change in the historical records and you'll get more and more of these questions coming to you.

And when you have that, you have more data points coming in. And when we have more data points you higher self-awareness.

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Ep.246: What You Need to Know About Starting a Business

Wed, 18 Aug 2021 10:00:09 +0000

Sean: Do you have any pointers on how to properly manage a newly opened business?

My biggest advice would be to always be on the block. Always make sure the revenue is greater than expenses. That's the biggest thing right there. So if your expenses are lower and you're selling more, you're making more profits, you're making more avenues, for me, you're doing a great job. That usually entails you being very hands-on, working long hours, wearing different hats, and sacrificing yourself, you know, for starting that business. That's what it takes. If you're not willing to pay that price, do not start a business because you're probably going to be on the red and bleed out expenses, probably going to be greater than the revenue.

Apple: For my advice, that would be to think ahead before you implement rules, before you implement perks for your team, for your company. Think ahead. Am I still going to be willing to give this to 100 people next time if I have that many people under my wing? Will this rule be practical, even if I grew up to this size? So those types of things, that's my pointer.

It's really fun actually how Sean and I experienced this, especially Sean and Kevin. He started this business with his brother, Kevin Si. But when they were starting it, he was also “consulting”, consulting with me, sharing with me his ideas. And I was sharing with him that, yeah, you ought to really be careful of the rules and of the perks that you will be giving your team because in the end you can never take it back.

When a group of people, for example, the first hires are already used to the set of rules, then you suddenly have to change them, to adjust, for example, working hours from it used to be half day and then now you have to work full time, same pay, that would just create chaos and a lot of disagreements with your team. Or the number of leaves, for example, you gave up five VLs and then you said you suddenly want to make it three for a year. Yeah, again, that would definitely create problems.

Also another pointer, which hopefully you already know is to do everything that our government does, at least bare minimum, do everything that our government is requiring even for a small startup business because that would prepare you. That would prepare you for when you are going to scale up and when you have more people under your wing.

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Ep: 245: How To Help Your Team Recognize Their Strengths

Tue, 17 Aug 2021 10:00:22 +0000

Sean: Now as a leader, here's the thing. How do I identify that they are meant to do this and that? Because people want to do what they want to do. They want to grow and flourish where they want to be in, but they're not always going to tell you that.

And they don't always recognize that they're Eagles. They don't always recognize that they're penguins or ostriches. So how do you identify that? And then how do you lead them to be more of that?

Jason: [00:05:10] So, this is a great question.

And when I coached many directors in MNCs and business owners, this one question as well, how do I understand the strengths so that I can deploy them better? Most of the time, I'll say 99% of the time people, managers would deploy based on this. They ask certain questions; "are you good at it? You're good at it?. Okay, great that's one box. Do you have experience? Your have experience. Oh, five years? Okay, great. That's another box."

So your competency becomes the only; competency and experience so l put that together as very much competency - the only benchmark. So if you're good at something, I give you the task to do it. The funny thing about this, if you think about it, Sean. There are some things you do that you do quite well, that you hate doing. It drains the heck out of you, right?

And that is the trap that most leaders fall into. The assumption that the leader will make is that Sean, if you're good at this, I would dare say that you like it, but it's not true. So we have a framework called primal greatness, where we actually break up the entire work that you have into four quadrants.

And the Y axis is competency, high competency or low competency. And the X axis is what we talked. We talked about this whole idea of: Are you energized or are you drained? So if you break down all the tasks that you do. The first task you think about you break it down to, do I feel energized or drained and do I feel competent or not competent?

You've got a very beautiful four quadrants where there is a task in everything. And what a leader needs to know is that leader needs to know, "Hey, you know what? There are things that energize you and things that drain you. I want to try to focus on the things that energize you on the right hand side." So if I understand that, then most likely there are things that energize you that you're not competent.

Which is the lower quadrant now, but they're things that energize you, you are competent. What I want to do as a leader is to understand that, hey, you know what, you're competent in it and you feel alive doing it. I will give you more opportunities. So those are the strengths that you have. Those are the things that I will say that I can depend on you and you feel that, "yeah, I want to work on this."

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Ep.244: Why Your Business Need Leaders AND Managers

Fri, 13 Aug 2021 10:00:08 +0000

Sean: The next question from Erika is, do you consider yourself as a leader or a manager?

Apple: I would really prefer that it would be my people answering this, but I would have to honestly say that I'm both. I am a leader in the sense that I know I could give them a bigger picture of where we're planning to go as a team. I also lead in the sense that I lead from the front. So when I tell them to do something, I make sure that I do it myself and that I do it alongside them. I lead, especially in a crisis that I'll make sure I'm with them when the going gets tough. So that's how I see myself as a leader.

As a manager, a manager helps people get things done and tells people how to get things done. So I would suggest, I would answer it, not really suggest, but I would answer it as I am both.

Sean: Brilliant. Maybe if you asked me a little over a decade ago, I'd say that I think all people should be leaders. But now that I've been running SEO Hacker for more than a decade, I've learned so many things and I would say the companies need both leaders and managers. And often if you're the C-level executive or the founder, you're going to wear both hats.

Now, a lot of big companies don't need leaders. They need managers. And I learned that in one of our podcast episodes, actually, because they want the status quo. They don't want people who are changing things almost all the time in their direction. And leaders do that. A lot of leaders tend to do that. So a lot of companies, I realized, need and want managers. And they got the definition wrong, they keep saying they want leaders.

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Ep: 243: How To Identify Your Key Strengths

Thu, 12 Aug 2021 10:00:06 +0000

Sean: Now there are some listeners here may be wondering, okay, how can I do that? How do I know my strengths? What's the next step for them?

Jason: One of the ways that - one of the best ways that you can actually understand what is your strengths, imagine this like, so Sean when you first started doing your work and all that, right?

When you're doing certain things about your work, are there some tasks that you look forward to?

Sean: Yep, for sure.

Jayson: You enjoy doing you look forward to, and when you're doing that task as time kind of stand still, Like "Hey what three hours has passed?" You get great satisfaction as well.

Sean: Yeah.

Jason: Yeah. So all these things are clues to the strengths that you have.

So one best way. And I called it the whole idea of your emotional compass. Let your emotions be the compass of where your strengths are. So give you an example. If you're doing 10 different tasks at work, I can almost guarantee you maybe three are things that energize you. Rest of them you are okay doing, maybe four. The last few, it drains you, emotionally it drains you.

So one best way really is to take stock of all the things that you do. You can be an entrepreneur, you can be a business unit leader, or you can even be an individual contributor. Of all the things that people ask you to do or you must do, what are the things that energize you the most, you feel alive when doing it? And when you feel alive, you must like, when you're doing the task, you look forward to that task. Then while you're doing it, wow time goes past, really fast. You get into this thing called the flow. And when you understand that when you finish that task, you look back, Hey, I want to do more of that.

So your emotions play a great part in understanding how you navigate, what are strengths that you have and what are some of the things that you may be not using your strengths. So use the emotional compass that you have to say that, "Hey, yeah, I do feel energized during this." That's a clue.

And after a while, when you take stock of all these things, and if you go back into time, the last five years, 10 years, and you put in more different tasks that you do, and another 10 tasks, different tasks you've done over the last 5-10 years, you will see a pattern.

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Ep.242: Effectively Managing Millennial and Gen-Z Teams

Wed, 11 Aug 2021 10:00:11 +0000

Sean: From Erika, how do you effectively manage your team mostly made up of young people, millennials or gen Z? I'm going to let you answer that first.

Apple: We do it how we would like ourselves to be managed. So we don't micromanage people. We give, we set the goals and we respect how they will do it, when they will do it. Well, of course, that is also setting the deadline. Young people, older people would like to be respected, would like to be listened to, and would like to grow. So that's something that we promise our team.

We grow them. We make sure that they won't leave our team as is where is how they work. They will definitely learn skills. They will definitely learn how to lead other people as well. That is if they have the initiative to want to learn that. But we always give that opportunity to other people. And we welcome suggestions as well. So how we lead is how we want to be led. And that is being given direction and being given the freedom on how to do things the way we do best. We also allow them to go from one team to the other to explore if they would like to do that. So another way we lead is to give opportunities for more growth.

Sean: A lot of people, Simon Sinek and all the other speakers whose voices are generally heard about the millennials and the generation Z. Well, we've seen this in the YouTube videos that the difference between millennials and the boomers or the gen X-ers is that when millennials and that includes me, by the way, and Apple, we're both millennials. When we work, we want to work with a bigger purpose than just having a paycheck. We want to know that what we're doing matters in the grander scheme of things.

And so in SEO Hacker, we do our best to show people, this is what your work is doing. Oh, you're writing articles. It's not just because we want to share that on social media. It's because that article that you wrote is actually getting traffic for the website perpetually every day from people who matter and who become customers for our client. So we connect those dots for them and that gives a sense of purpose that's bigger than the day-to-day grind. That's super important.

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Ep.241: How To Build Multiple Income Streams

Tue, 10 Aug 2021 10:00:38 +0000

Sean: And you talk about spokes and I'm wondering during this pandemic, what happened to be new spokes?

Because I'm pretty sure with the way things were going on for you, you've managed to figure out some new potential spokes, or you actually built those spokes already by now. I'm wondering how did you discover them and how did you get them connected to your business?

Sensei: I'll stick with real estate right now. My real estate business is the largest business out of all my businesses. Be honest with you. I haven't had to create new spokes for this business. I already had them. I lost a few spokes because my real estate business is education. We offer nine different educational courses to teach people either to build a real estate business or build a real estate portfolio.

We have coaching consulting. Those two things are completely different. And then we have the investment opportunities, where we help people build a real estate portfolio for residual income so they can retire financially secure. The spoke that fell apart in this business here is our education. I do live events.

I believe and I know for fact that I get better statistics teaching people hands on how to build a real estate business than to do it over online or from zoom or an online course. The pandemic hits. I can no longer do that. I can't go out in the public and do that anymore. I'm stuck. So I've lost a lot of revenue on the live education side. That hurts, but it doesn't hurt me as much as it hurts my competitor. Because I have a lot of competitors that solely focus on that. Now, maybe they've been able to make up a difference because they have some online classes, but people like to commune. They like community. So when they want to learn how to build a real estate business, you will have a good percentage of people that want to learn online.

But I find those people that want to learn online are really not the ones that going to be successful because they want the easy way. I can't kick you online, but I don't mind getting in your face and making you do something when we're in person. Cause I'm going to make you do it, whether you like it or not, because you're going to learn how to do it.

And I'm going to make sure that you're going to become a positive statistic for my business because ultimately it helps me and it helps you. Even though that I've lost revenue there. I have been able to focus my energy more on real estate sales, which make more money. On my education, education makes money, but I find more enjoyment out of the education.

My investments make much, much more money than the education. I don't find as much enjoyment because I'm really behind a computer screen all day doing it. There's no physical activity with that. So even though I lost revenue there I've gained revenue over here. And in the meantime, like I mentioned to you before, I've been invited to do several reality TV shows.

That's a hit and miss. There's no guarantee that you'll make it. And I don't even want to do that. I want to be more like the United States Navy seal - it's under the radar, able to capitalize on things that no one else can find it. I don't want to be in the spotlight where everybody's looking at you. I don't need the fame.

I got a radio voice. I don't have a TV face. So now I'm thinking, you know what? Okay. So I can't teach live. Now. It's time for me to open up a podcast and I want to be like Sean.

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Ep.240: How To Build A Dream Team

Fri, 06 Aug 2021 10:00:18 +0000

Sean: We have one from Erika. Do you have any tips on how to build an effective team? A team that does not need supervision and consistently delivers great results.

Wouldn't we all want to have that kind of team?

Apple: First off, thank you, Erika, for your question. I believe it first applies to who you let in your team. So it's very important how you filter the good from the rotten eggs out there. Secondly also is, well, I do this, I do this quite often. Before I allow one team member to continue on the process of being hired, I pray. I pray for this person first if he or she is really a good fit for the company. I look at three C’s. That's chemistry, competence, and culture. So with these three, if it's a good fit, then he or she gets to the next stage or next phase.

Sean: You have to build it from zero, meaning, you hire them one by one. And when you hire, you have to make sure that the people you hire are the people you want. They're self-motivated. They have their own initiative to get stuff done. They have initiative to improve things, innovate, improve the process, and deliver results. These are things that a lot of business owners love to hear because there are people who are the wrong kinds of hire.

It's either you hire them and they're the wrong fit, or they're not in the right position, they're not in the right place on the bus. And what they're doing is something that drains them instead of energizes them. And if they are drained, then you will have a team full of people who are slow moving or non-moving, and they become a source of frustration rather than a source of joy. So you have to build that kind of team one by one. That's my answer to you. And I have a lot of episodes about how to hire the right people.

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Ep.239: Why It's Important To Delegate, Not Micromanage

Thu, 05 Aug 2021 10:00:15 +0000

Sean: There is a way to delegate and you know how it is. Can you share that with us?

Sensei: I had a hard time. I had a big struggle learning how to delegate. Like I said, in the beginning, I'm a control freak. And then the next thing you know that, okay, I delegate a job, but then I'm micromanaging. You know, I'm looking over your shoulder. That drives me nuts.

It was driving me nuts to micromanage because now I'm looking over your shoulder, but I'm not doing what I'm supposed to be doing over here, not being productive. And if I'm looking over your shoulder to see if you're doing it right or for me to not critique but criticize, then I'm not being productive and creative and making money over here.

So I had to learn by stepping out of myself and looking back in, what am I doing? Can I be honest with myself on how I'm trying to delegate and manage versus micromanage and critique and criticize? And so the first time delegating a job out was a job that I would absolutely hated to do and, or a job that was so remedial that I didn't want to spend time on it.

Something that was easy. And so my first delegated job in the real estate business, I ended up just hiring a kid in school to do some simple math, adding and subtracting. Which is, you know, smarter than me because I'm still using my fingers, honestly. So it was very easy task. All they had to do is take a look at this number here, subtract this number here, put it down on paper over here.

That was it. Now, do I really want to spend my time doing that? So I delegated it out, look over the shoulder and I wouldn't, you know, I do it this way. I do, I file things this way. All right. So what I ended up doing is this. I said, I have to stop doing this. I'm driving myself insane. I drive a lot over the years and I love road trips.

I'll go and say, step one, go to www in Finland. URL step two. Here's the credentials to log in. Step three, go click on this taboo here. Step four, do the, and I go through the step by step bullet pointing things out on my phone, voice dictation. Next thing you know, I'll send it over to myself. I'll clean up real quick. Great. I got a page in the manual to do step-by-step for this specific task.

And I kept doing that over and over again. So I will work during the day in real estate, but then I would drive an hour to get to one of my martial arts schools, seven days a week. That's round trip. That's 14 pages in my manual. I just got completed.

I would clean it up, put this manual together and I - "look, come over here." So I'm hiring a kid on Monday. I got I've already hired him. He doesn't even know. I know he has the heart and I know he has the smarts. But he's never gone through an interview process before. And so I'm going to put him through the interview process, but he's already hired because I know no that he has the same core values I have and he's right out of high school and he's wanting to be an entrepreneur and he's already started a very small graphic design business.

But what I'm going to do is I'm going to sit them down, take them through the interview process. I'm looking at his communication skills. I'm looking at his heart and looking at his smarts. And when I bring him in and train him, look, it's simple. My manager, assistant manager will take them to say, okay, we have a manual for this task right here. We will walk you through it a few times. Great. You got it. You're on your own. Finish that task. You did it well. Great. Let's upgrade you to something a little bit more difficult.

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Ep.238: The Importance Of Having Different Mentors

Wed, 04 Aug 2021 10:01:17 +0000

Sean: From Patrick. Question is, who do you consider your mentors in life?

So for me, if you have more mentors for different areas of life, because a mentor who is great doesn’t really mean that he/she can mentor all areas of your life that you want to grow in. So I would say, like, get one mentor per one area of your life that you want to grow in. For example, for stocks, it's definitely Marvin and it didn't have to be like a long mentorship relationship. Sometimes I just ask him via Facebook messenger like, what he thinks about this, what his insights are about either this stock or this cryptocurrency. And then for finance, I have a different mentor for my spiritual walk, which is an everyday discipline. I have a different mentor for business, especially when I was starting to try and understand valuation of a business: How do you sell a business? How do you value a share? I also have a different mentor there.

So it would depend on what part of your life you want to grow in. You have to be very specific about it. You know, I learned that people, we fall into the trap of thinking that we grow personally in all areas of life, just by living. That's not true. And that's because, as we grow up and get older from a child, we grow taller, we grow bigger, and we grow faster. We can do a lot more things. We're more knowledgeable. We grow a little bit wiser with some experience in life. We get a lot of these things. And we think that growth is automatic.

Here's the problem. Growth is not automatic. In fact, after you graduate school, whether high school or college or post-graduate, you don't learn new things anymore, unless you're intentional about your growth. So being not intentional about growth is a problem because a lot of people think that after they graduate, that’s already it. That’s your education so you’ll stop there.

Don't let your schooling interfere with your education. Don't let yourself get into that trap. Get mentors because after you graduate school, they're going to be the ones who will hyper speed your growth in terms of wisdom, what you want to learn in business, or what do you not want to learn in stock trading, investing. Get mentors in those areas. Always desire and pursue growth. Be intentional.

Marvin: What I do is, if I know someone who knows something more than me, I just ask them. It’s like that for me. For example, I want to learn something about SEO from you, I just message you right away. Is this okay? Something like that. Or for example, with Carlo Ople, we talked about the Satan rubber shoes. I asked him: What’s your take on this? So if I don’t know something, I just like asking. And I think that's where I learn. So even with the investments that I try to make, I try to learn as much as I can, but I also try to learn from experience.

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Ep.237: How Gossiping Kills Businesses

Tue, 03 Aug 2021 10:01:32 +0000

Sean: Having the right people in the right team is extremely important, but not a lot of entrepreneurs know that, especially when they're starting out. I didn't know how important it was when I was starting out. All I thought was I have to have this position filled because I can't do the job anymore. And what that ended up for me is when I hired the wrong people, they would burn more of my stuff down and I had to fix that as well.

And it didn't make sense for me to hire them in the first place. You mentioned the word gossip. How bad is it when people gossip, because it's almost like a pastime culture here in the Philippines.

Sensei: I think that's everywhere.

Sean: Pretty much everywhere. Right? Cause we're human beings. You know, some entrepreneurs would just let it slide. They just think to themselves out as natural, that's normal people, gossip, but you single that out. There's something that you know about gossip that is dangerous for business. Can you tell us a little bit more about what you know, so we can learn from you there?

Sensei: Gossip is a killer. It's a killer of business. It's a killer of relationships. Business is all about relationships. And if you've got someone that likes to gossip in your business, you can expect to lose other employees or vendors or clients. Look, I nip it in the bud right away.

I'm not a boss. I'm terrible at being a boss, but I believe I'm a good leader. There's a difference. People, fear bosses, people follow leaders. See? And so I have to lead by example. I don't gossip. I'm very straightforward. Some people don't like the bluntness of being either black or white in conversation. They want me to go around. That's not what I do, but I'm not rude or crass or any of those things. I will approach you in a very professional, kind of a fun manner because I joke around and I love doing scare tactics to all my employees around here, but here's a thing.

If I've got someone that is producing any type of gossip, I will always have the manager of the office. Take them off to the side and explain, this is something that we do not do under this roof here or anything wearing the logo of this business. Gossip is not allowed, if you do it, it's in your own home.

We set the rules right away. We would draw the line in the sand. Don't cross that line because if you cross that line, you're in the wrong territory and we're going to push you back. I give one warning, second warning, I'm sorry you're done, you're out. Because I cannot afford to pay someone that is killing my relationship.

And unfortunately, like I said, there's no fail-proof system out there, but as a manager, as an assistant manager, as a leader, or as a boss, we must keep our eyes and ears open for these types of unwantedness in the office space.

And it must be nipped in the bud. Not what you said. It's kind of normal. No, it's not normal for Black Belt investors. No, it's not normal for 360 Martial Arts Academy. What's normal is being truthful and being helpful to our vendors and clients.

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Ep.236: NFT Investing: Should You Buy NBA Top Shot

Fri, 30 Jul 2021 10:00:14 +0000

Sean: What is your most favorite Top Shot moment you bought so far? What is Top Shot first? Maybe we have listeners here who don't know.

Marvin: Do you want the blockchain answer or you want the simple answer? Let’s go with a simple answer. The best way to say it ist, it's like NBA cards, but it's a video version which is online. That's it. You collect it online. That's what it is basically. You're collecting moments. If with NBA cards, you're collecting pictures printed out on cardboard. In Top Shot, it’s a digitized format which is videos. That's what it is basically.

Sean: Do you have a favorite?

Marvin: When you go that route, you can separate it as what you look at as an investment, and then what you look at as a collection. So if it’s a favorite as a collection, it would be Steph Curry. This is what I believe also, NFTs, I think will be easier accepted as an asset than other Cryptocurrencies that people don’t understand. Why? People understand that when I buy a LeBron James, I get to understand the value easily as compared to what is a Chainlink, what is an ADA, what is XRP, what is Litecoin.

It's harder to grasp the value of it versus if you look at it as a collector. So I think that the inherent value of it also will be, a lot will buy the NFT, some of them have no intention of selling it. So I'll give you an example. There was a pack drop, I think it was the rare All Star collection. So I said, if I will be able to get a Steph Curry, even if it’s expensive, I will never sell it. So I think that's the demographic that you get there also. People always think that those who enter Top Shot are all investors. Not necessarily because it is just like a condo. Not all who buy a condo, will have it rented out, some of them will live there.

So it’s the same with Top Shot. There will be a chunk of people that will buy it because they're really collectors. So it's not income generating for them. The fact that you own it, it’s a different feeling. The argument in NFTs is that it’s just a video. You can watch it on YouTube for free. That’s true, but it’s the same with the NBA cards. I can screenshot that shot by LeBron James, then I’ll print it and copy how it’s laid out. Or if you notice it also, there are those who upload their cards, right? Just use it and edit it on Photoshop, then copy it and print it. However, it does not have the same value as the real thing, the bragging rights that you own it.

So imagine this. I feel that you're into Pokemon cards, Sean.

Sean: When I was young, yes.

Marvin: I don't know anything about Pokemon cards, but the prestige of owning something that is very, very rare, but here’s the difference with Top Shot. In Top Shot, because it’s a blockchain network, people will see who the real owner is. If it’s a card, no one knows where it was stored or who bought it or where it came from. It will be hard to display how rare it is. Unlike in blockchain, everything is seen on what its value is. You can also see all the transactions.

For example, there was an artwork that was, I think, $68 million by Beeple, if I remember properly. Everyone knows that he was the one who bought the artwork. So the prestige to that, I think that's what makes it interesting. Even the Mona Lisa, there are so many fake Mona Lisa paintings that you can buy in the mall. But it does not mean that that has any value. It's more of the rights that you own the real thing.

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Ep.235: The 3 Real Estate Wealth-Building Factors

Thu, 29 Jul 2021 10:00:25 +0000

Sean: What are your methods in creating wealth using real estate?

Sensei: Well, to create wealth, you actually have to buy and hold. If you think you're going to get wealthy fixing and flipping properties, you're not. You could become cash rich and it could be a great business. How do I know that? Because that's how I started. And that's what I do today. I am known for flipping properties by volume.

So for me getting into real estate back in the day, it wasn't about buying and holding. I didn't have the cash to do that. I didn't even know my own home at the time. It was about buying something. Creating value and selling it retail value. And so when you told your audience that you really need to learn and do your due diligence about the business that you're seeking, I couldn't agree with you more. Because I can tell you this as a real estate coach and instructor, most people fail in real estate because they don't study.

And that's a huge issue. You know, they just want deals to fall in their lap where they want someone to provide for them. And I won't do that. So to answer your question, you have to buy and hold real estate for the long term so that you can get the trifecta and the trifecta is cashflow, appreciation in value that asset, and the tax benefits.

And when you can take those three ingredients and intertwine them, that is a true wealth builder. If you remove one of those ingredients, you're not building wealth, you either have a tax deduction or you have something that's possibly growing in equity, or you have cashflow, but you have to have all three.

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Ep.234: Top Investing Tips For Beginners

Wed, 28 Jul 2021 10:02:54 +0000

Sean: We have a question from Myrose. Which one would you recommend for a first time stock investor?

Marvin: I won’t buy any of that. That’s true. People need to understand this, that in the world of investing, you invest in where you are confident already. And when you're asking that question, it also means that you also need to have more research. And if we answer that, they might do, “Oh, Sean and Marvin said this, we should buy this”, not knowing that that may be based on your certain conviction.

Please remember that in the world of investing, when you are starting, it will always be based on your competence. And my suggestion is, if you're looking at all of them, then invest in all of them. Try it all. And then what works for you, you put most of your capital there. But if you're asking me right now, if I'm going to invest in any of them, I won't invest in any of them because I'll buy the individual stocks instead of the ETF. I know nothing about what’s in it. So what I will do, just looking at those names, I would have to research first what’s in it because not knowing its content, it's just like putting a dart. So maybe you, knowing the connected sectors here, but I will also search for what they hold.

Let me give an example. I made a video on TikTok a few days ago about GInvest. GInvest has a global portfolio. So they have a consumer, it’s separated. I will really look for its content. So I saw that it includes Samsung, it includes Apple, it includes Microsoft, and you’ll know that this is okay. It’s not just about knowing the names of the fund, but it's knowing what’s included in the fund. Because knowing what’s in the fund, in my opinion, you still need to study if it’s okay that you want to invest in there.

But if the question is, what is allowed if you are just starting? Try everything, try everything. I started 2018 in Bitcoin but I think I’m very, very, very, very new still. So everything that can be tried, can be done in Cryptocurrency space, I try to do it. So it is fine for me to make mistakes, it’s fine for me to lose some, it’s fine if it will underperform, because my goal is to learn. So if I learn it, and then by the time, 2, 3, 4 years down the line, I get better at it also, that's when I will reap the benefits of it. But if I earn in two months, in three months, that will be a bonus for me. If I earn this week, that’s a bonus for me, but that's not my chief motivation for doing it.

So when you start practicing it and when you start trying it, from there, you will figure out if this is the fund that you should focus on. That’s when the competence also starts to build in. I'll give you a perspective. There’s a lot who jump from no background in investing, they go straight to the cryptocurrency market, which is not wrong. As for me, my background is really a stock market trader and trained in the cryptocurrency market, which is also not wrong. The way I'm analyzing things is I'm using my background in the stock market. And the things I learned like I should not buy the things that I don’t know. That what I should buy should be based on something that at least has fundamentals also.

The chart in the US market, in the Philippine market, and in a Crypto market almost looks the same. So with the difference that there is more volume and volatility in the crypto market, but the same tools that you have MACD, Moving Average, Candlesticks, Support and Resistance, analyzing the trend are pretty much still there, so I still have it with me. And if a Cryptocurrency drops, it's not something that I am scared of. It's not something that rattles me because I've built that experience also through the years. So I think that's one thing that in terms of an edge I've built through the years, because I obtained how I get past the volatility.

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Ep.233: How To Start A Business With Nothing

Tue, 27 Jul 2021 10:07:12 +0000

Sean: We want to hear from you first. Like any other person who ends up being an entrepreneur, what was your start up journey? How did it look like?

Sensei: Oh man, I can really go into depth on this, but I'll hit some key points here. As a kid, I didn't grow up rich. In fact, I didn't even grow up with money.

My grandparents had a lot of money. My parents did not have a lot of money. In fact, I remember as a kid going out with my father on the weekends, after business hours going dumpster diving. If you don't know what that is, we're jumping in the trash cans and pulling out produce and food.

And we would throw it in the back of the truck now to me and my brother. We were young, we were a little, we thought that was the greatest thing in the world. It was so much fun to jump into a trash can and it was like an Easter egg hunt; it was like Christmas and we loved it.

But later on in life, I learned "Oh my god". We really had to eat out of a trash can at one point. And it's not because my dad was lazy or anything. Man, that guy is a hard working dude. But he was a truck driver, in that time he would work and get laid off and get work and laid off. And so it was really, really difficult. And I had a lot of brothers and sisters.

So there was one summer back in 1984, I was in high school. I was watching the 1984 Olympics, which was happening in Los Angeles, California at the time. And. I thought it sucked that I had to stay home and babysit and watch TV.

But what the Olympics did for me is saying, "Hey, you have opportunity out there. You can get whatever you want." Because the majority of those people that I watched on the Olympics came from nothing. They had nothing and they created something and here they are top athletes of the world. And I said, I'm going to do that. That's what I'm going to do.

And so with all my efforts, I got, I was into martial arts and I put my efforts in everything to where I started traveling around the United States in competition, winning championship, after championship, and then started going international to the point where they now have the junior Olympics to qualify for the Olympics.

And I got gold, silver, bronze, gold, and silver. I got five medals. And so with that, I'm now on this journey in athletics, teaching me how to channel my energy and focus in something that's positive versus focusing, which is negative, which I was doing as a kid. And so right out of high school, I took all that positive energy.

I took my focus and said, you know what, I'm not going to be like my dad where he's breaking his back, working. But not able to capitalize on a paycheck because he has to rely on his company, his boss, and all the other people that are higher up, I will build my own boat and I will make sure that my boat sails. If it sinks it's on me and I'll figure out how to get it afloat again. I refuse to work for anybody but me.

And so right out of high school, I opened up my very first martial arts business, which 33 years later next week, we're still in business. And that was the beginning of my journey.

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Ep.232: Stock Trading Basics You Have To Know

Fri, 23 Jul 2021 10:00:16 +0000

Sean: Thank you so much for being on the show. We have a question from Erika. How can I start stock trading in the Philippines? Very basic, but maybe a lot of people still don't know how to do that.

Marvin: It’s very, very simple. You just need a broker. I guess when you enter the stock market you need access, meaning you need a platform that will allow you to buy and sell the shares in the market. So it's as simple as opening a broker which is online. Which of course, when you open a broker, they will ask you for IDs to be able to verify who you are, then the mailing address, also the proof of where you live, and proof of billing. Then after that, they give you an account. When they start to give you an account, that’s already it.

Basically, it's as simple as that. When they give you an account already, you will have a password, then you'll have to fund it. Then as you start funding it already, that's what you can use to start buying stocks. So relatively straightforward as that, what’s needed to be studied, it's not about, in my opinion, not about starting, but it's more about analyzing what stocks fit you, and what stocks are meant for you as well. Because I think that's a bigger thing and a larger question because it’s easy to enter especially for app-based platforms where you can get to buy and sell stocks.

It’s like a game, but since it’s like a game, you have to realize that you need to study what you need to buy. So if you don't know what you're supposed to buy yet, don't get super excited because your time is long. You have enough time to be able to build the skills for it, so not as hard.

Sean: Erika asks a very basic but very profound question. How can I make a lot of money with stock trading?

Marvin: Based on what we talked about earlier that it's still based on the amount of skill that you put in. And then the term, a lot of money, I think that’s a bit subjective. For some people you would see that they are already happy with Php 2,000.00 a day, every day. That’s already okay for them. But there are people that don't get that Php 2,000.00 everyday, but in a year, they get a million pesos. But they're very, very passive also in their investments. So I think it depends also on what's a lot for you. It also depends on how big your capital is. It depends also on the proficiency that you have in it.

But this is what I've realized, that the larger your portfolio is, the more money you have also. You will notice it. For example, Sean, he doesn't care if he makes a thousand pesos, or two thousand pesos, or five thousand pesos, on a daily basis. What matters is, overall, the portfolio grows. Second is, he does not want his portfolio to drop. So what's important for him is the overall growth later on.

Because you have to realize that two thousand, two thousand, four thousand, four thousand earnings on a daily basis are all fine. But once your portfolio reaches as big as Sean with eight digits on his portfolio.

Sean: Fake news, bro. Fake news. Fake news.

Marvin: You just log it out that what’s more important is it grows larger over a stretch period of time. And then, you will notice that as your portfolio grows, it’s more important to preserve it than getting the jackpot. So I think getting those large swings and trades is very, very nice if your portfolio is smaller. But when you are in the Sean Si level already, it's more about storing that value.

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Ep.231: Respect, Inspire, Empower: Core Values For Teams

Thu, 22 Jul 2021 10:00:15 +0000

Sean: I'm wondering what other values does your culture intentionally hold on to? Aside from people over profits, you seem like you have a very strong company culture and it seems. I mean, it's four generations. "Hello, it should be right." But you know, culture is going to be built, whether you are intentional about it or not.

A lot of companies aren't. They're just like, you know, culture happens, just let it happen. Just let the employees run culture, right. Or let the HR run culture. But it has to be a top down thing where the leaders would intentionally shape it for it to be a healthy culture that people would like to work in. I'm wondering, are there other principles or values that are to your business that shape your culture?

Charlie: Our mission statement is pretty easy. It's we make everyday celebrations better for our team members and guests. And we have the word team members in front of guests for that very reason. And we have three core values that drive behavior and those three core values are the words, respect, inspire, and empower.

And again, they're pretty easy to follow, we can get in a deeper conversation around each of those three. And when we're training somebody at ABC and then we're onboarding them, we're going to go deeper. But just the high level for your listeners - respect, you know, respect yourself, respect the team members, respect the business, respect the foundation of the company, respect the guests and the vendors that come in our stores.

You know, my, my five-year-old. What respect means. So it's, it's not like someone can say, well, what does respect mean? We know the difference between right and wrong. It's pretty simple. That's all we intend it to be. We don't intend it to be much deeper than that. Just the difference between right and wrong. Inspire. Inspire people with what you're doing, inspire yourself.

And then lastly empower. We do have a culture of empowerment where we've got our rules, we've got policies. We've got our code of ethics and all of the things like that - that you have to have when you have this many team members, but there's a ton of leeway. We hire people from much bigger corporations all the time that come to us and they just see the look of all on their face after a month or two.

And they're like and they cannot believe how empowering we are and the leeway that we allow our team members to operate with to make decisions. And, and you know, it, it's certainly going to vary from area to area and time of the year and all of those things. But those three core values drive the behavior. And our mission statement really drives all decision-making. That we're going to look after the team member first, before the guests, because if we do that, then we're going to take care of the guests.

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Ep.230: Should You Agree To Work For Free

Wed, 21 Jul 2021 10:00:13 +0000

Sean: From Mitch, what can you say about people who choose to work for free in exchange for testimonials or possible long-term employment?

I would just first assume, Mitch, about this question being a service being provided to the client, maybe you're a freelancer, or you’re maybe social media marketing as a service. So I'll answer it from that perspective. And I think that if you want to work for free in exchange for the testimonial, that would entirely depend on how well you can provide for yourself and/or your family, if you're a family person, or if you have responsibilities in paying some of the stuff at home. I would say if the testimonial comes from a very big personality or a very big company, worth a shot. But if it's just going to come from some unknown person or not well-known person, I don't think that's a good trade.

So it would depend on who will give you the testimonial. Possible long-term employment, I would say also worth a shot if the company is a well-known company, with a culture that you really want to get into, with a pay that is good for you, and with you looking at staying long-term with that company, I would say it is worth a shot. Otherwise, it's going to be a no. So if the person or the company you're going to be doing it for free is not so well-known, I'd say it's not worth it.

Also, if you don't think that you're going to be part of the board or you're going to be part of the higher up positions, why would you want to stay there long-term? So you have to first look at your end goal. What is your end goal? Before you give anything for free, you have to check it out first because you might end up always having to do that. And no freelancer or business would want to have the reputation that, oh, this guy, oh, this girl or this business, they give stuff away for free. I don't think anyone would want to have that reputation because then it’s your loss, you're not going to make money. Right? So that's what I think about it.

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Ep.229: How To Properly Handle A Bad Hire

Tue, 20 Jul 2021 10:02:47 +0000

Sean: I'm going to stem from what you were saying earlier, when you mentioned you trained people to already do the work for you. A lot of people miss this out, especially startup entrepreneurs when we're juggling a lot of things. And we're so phased with the stuff that we have to learn and the stuff that we have to do, and a lot of entrepreneurs want to do it themselves because they have no idea how to train and delegate properly.

A lot of people try, but find out too soon that they'd rather do it themselves because the people they delegated it to kind of burn down the job. What are some of the secrets or strategies or tactics that you have when you want to turn over some of the things that you do on a daily basis to someone else?

What are some of those principles?

Charlie: I think there's two. So first, you need to know how to do it. So before I started teaching someone how to do the fulfillment on my side business of selling supplements, I did it and I did it for months and I did all of the jobs that were associated with it. So then I can teach the right person.

And then that's the second thing I would tell the entrepreneur. Yes, you want to try to find the right person and the right personality fit who can do the job, but really whoever you hire is only going to be as good as you can train them. I would say that, just do it. You're going to make a mistake.

You're not going to hire the right person and that's fine. You start over and you do it again. But the more times you do it, the easier it becomes. I've had three or four assistants working for me. And the one I have now is is unbelievable. She's fantastic. But I learned that through the first couple that I hired and realizing that they were all great.

It was me that was the problem. And I wasn't a good trainer or I wasn't giving them the right information or I wasn't spending the time with them. So before you can truly reap the benefits of outsourcing your life. Really you, you need to either do it yourself and figure out how to do it, and then you need to train the right person.

And then I say, right person, but just do it, you know. As long as you look to hire someone that has really the same moral principles as you, they understand the difference between right and wrong, 90% of the time they're going to be just fine. And there are that small fraction of people that, oh, you just, you hired the wrong person, you made a mistake, they took the farm from you. That's going to happen. And if you live your life in fear of that happening, then you're never going to get to the place where I am right now. Which is in a pretty good spot where it outsourced a lot of things and I can get a lot of things done because it's not me doing that.

Yes. I have the knowledge to do everything that I have outsource people to do. But if all that fell by the wayside and I would have to pick up the pieces, and that is something that you need to think about and hedge against. I already understand, I know how to do everything. It's just not going to get done as quickly.

And that's totally fine, you know, because we are the - we're in charge. So if things did fall and you have to pick up all the pieces yourself, great. Do it, put it all back together, wake up tomorrow, do it again, and understand that if you keep going through that process, you're going to be fine in the end.

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Ep.228: Things To Put In Your Business Contract

Fri, 16 Jul 2021 10:03:41 +0000

Sean: Next question would be, what should be the important details included on your client contracts that are often overlooked by most companies?

All right. In SEO Hacker, we have to make sure that the payment terms are there and what the penalties are if the clients pay late. What would be the goal of the contract? Of course, first page rankings. One of the most important things as well now, during the pandemic, we added the no piracy clause, because we have found out that some of our past clients are trying to pirate people from our team. I thank God for those people who turned down those ridiculous offers by the way, ridiculous amounts of money, but they turned it down.

It's about how you treat people. It's about the culture. The culture will keep your business from breaking down because you get to keep people who are like you, who like to work with you, who love your company culture, because you were intentional enough to build it that way. Also you have to put in the breakdown of your services, the acknowledgement. What’s that called? Notary. The notary. The notary is important because if it isn’t notarized, it’s not binding with the law and you can use that for litigation. So those are some of the important things that you have to put in your contract.

JM: Just make sure that you both have your signature on it.

Sean: That’s right. Yeah. A contract is useless without a signature. And there may be some people who are wondering, why do we need a contract if we know each other and you know, we trust each other? I just want you to know that not having a contract will make things a lot messier someday when there's a breach of your verbal agreement or there's a breach of your supposed agreement. It makes it a lot messier and sometimes would break the relationship. So do what you need to have a contract that's good and binding and both of you agree with, and that is to protect your relationship. Humans cannot operate just on trust value now. Sadly. If we could, there would be no need for contracts. But not everyone has the integrity of Christ.

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Ep.227: The Entrepreneur's Guide To Personal Growth

Thu, 15 Jul 2021 10:02:19 +0000

Sean: What does a day look like for you with your personal growth plan?

Charlie: You schedule your priorities and then you schedule around them. And my priorities are to take care of myself physically. So I am in the gym almost every day. I think that - that's a cheat code for any entrepreneur out there. Take care of yourself, get strong and get in really good shape. And you'll be able to reap the rewards of that. And sure, you're going to look good. You're gonna feel good, but the rewards that come with or rather to the brain and your thought process, when you are working out your body physically, I think there's a cheat code. I'm also sleeping eight or nine hours a night. I'm not sacrificing that. I've done the waking up at four in the morning for three years of my life every day.

And I think it's a tool. I don't think that there's a - no, I'm not going to shout from the mountaintops that I'm right. And you need to do it this way, especially after some of the things I've already said on the podcast, right. That'd be a little bit hypocritical, but I just, I prioritize sleep. I prioritize gym time. I do CrossFit. So that's, that's my prescription and I'll say, but I'm not. I just do anything - lift weights, do orange theory, hire a trainer, whatever.

I also try to be home at a reasonable time. I got three young kids. I want to see my wife and kids every day. So if that means I'm only working, you know, physically working for 6, 7, 8 hours a day, then that means I need to find more time to work and maybe be more productive on a Sunday during nap time or a Saturday, because I want to be home on Thursday night with my kids.

And secondly, I think that we should always be looking to learn. Reading books, listening to podcasts, those are part of my daily routine, you know. Learning from the older generation, you know. Just having time to ask my dad a question because he's 67, he's been there, done that. I want to ask him what his thoughts are.

Going to read a book written by Tim Ferriss, where he has interviewed 400 of the smartest people on the planet and gives it to you in form of a book here, read this here's the Chico's the life, you know, just invest in yourself. And that's what my day looks like almost every day.

If I can't work out, I'm going to walk. I'm going to be active. I'm going to get my 10,000 steps. I'm going to. I'm going to spend time with my wife and kids, and I'm going to invest in myself with education. So then you might be asking, well, when do you have time to work? What are you doing? When are you running HR? When are you running the warehouse?

Which start internal distribution. Like when do I have time to do all that? And actually the answer is that I have trained and developed a number of people who are doing a lot of those jobs with me. So it's not all me and I think that's the secret, you know, I have an assistant that takes care of my calendar.

I invest in that. I'm not trying to do everything myself. I ask for a lot of help from people. And then when they ask for my help, I give it to them. And I know, I know that's a lot, but, and that really doesn't leave a lot of time for other things. So yeah, I don't watch a whole lot of TV. I don't go out to dinner and to parties every night.

I don't do things like that because at some point you can only turn on a number of things. You can't turn everything on, you can't be all things to all people. So those are my priorities. I first prioritize myself. If I don't invest in myself, I'm not going to be any good to my wife and kids. So once I invest in myself, then I invest time with them, and then I invest time with education and then I do some work and then I train my team and that's, that's really all I have time for because then I need to go to sleep.

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Ep.226: Two Ways To Build Company Culture

Wed, 14 Jul 2021 10:01:17 +0000

Sean: Next question, how do you build and foster the right company culture? Alright, here we are on the hard part.

JM: I think it really starts on the company's mission and vision, and the important values of the company as well. So I think the foundation itself is very crucial in order for you to really have that map. Right? Because if you don’t have a roadmap about the company's culture and even values, then you won't be able to lead your people and build from the foundation that you already have.

Sean: Company culture, it's usually a very elusive topic. You hear a lot of people talking about culture and company culture. It's something that you feel, you smell, kind of, when you enter a place. You just know they are different, what's different about them, the culture, but you can't really say, what that is.

And how to build a culture is two ways. Number one, just let it happen. Culture will happen, whether you are intentional about it or not. And oftentimes the result of that first way is, it is a culture that you would not like. There's toxicity, bureaucracy, red tape, politics, you name it. The second way of building culture is you build it intentionally. When you try to form culture intentionally, how that looks like is, you put processes in place. Culture can be defined as how we do things. That's how it can be defined. How we do things is our culture. It usually starts through processes.

How SEO Hacker, for example, has built the culture is, we make sure that everyone knows the core values, everyone knows the vision, and everyone knows the mission. And what I mean by “knows” is not just memorizing them, but knowing them on a deep level - why we have them, why it's important for your work, what the vision has to do with your day-to-day activities. We define that. We take the time to define these things where we cannot put it as an ROI in our balance sheet that, “Oh, we defined it that’s why we have an ROI.”

That's not the case because when you do these things and you know, the world calls it soft skills or soft things in a business, there's no direct return on investment, such as when making a sale or such as when running an ad and checking how many views you got, how many clicks you got, and how many add to carts you got. It's not measurable in numbers. But if you're not intentional about that culture, it will make your company a place that you wouldn't want to work in sometime in the future.

So I think that the cost is great about not being intentional. And the benefits are huge when you're intentional, because you attract talent and people who are just the kinds of people you want in your team. And one of the things that you could also do is, make sure that you are getting them at a rate that is fair, because there's a lot of piracy in the market. Sometimes other companies would just pirate some of your people. That's tough. That's a tough game to play. Now, we don't want to play in that game. And what we do, we just build a culture where people like us would really want to work there. That way we don't need to compete in the salary market because no amount of salary will pay for how people feel when they're in my team.

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Ep.225: How To Effectively Do Business With Family

Tue, 13 Jul 2021 10:01:47 +0000

Sean: How did you grow into this position? And this is a family business. I'm wondering, as someone who grew into the family business, what did it look like for you to be where you are right now? What did the journey look like for you?

Charlie: Yeah. It's the phrase that comes to mind is that, it's both a blessing and it's a curse. And you know, it's because when somebody asks me, I'm 34 years old, they're asking me, how long have you been in the business?

I've been actively working in the business for about 12 years, but I might answer 34 because I have been in this business since the day I was born. I have memories of going to the office with my dad when I was my kid's age, I've got a seven, five-year-old, and a one and a half year old. I remember going to the office with them.

I worked in our warehouse in high school and in college, in the summers. So it's, I've just grown up and there's almost been an expectation. So to go work in it and also I've wanted to, I mean, I look at our executive team, which my dad is a part of. And I, you know, you grew up idolizing these people, for a great reason too. So I say that it's the blessing and the curse because being a family member, you're being held to a higher standard.

And I hold myself to a much higher standard too. However, that can be too much. And I would say that that's been helpful to me, but also it's been a great teacher. I've been running the HR department. We call it team member services for about four years now. And if I didn't have the team around me, I would not be doing a good job right now.

And if I wasn't given the training over the 12 years that I've been in the company I would not be sitting here talking to you because I have made huge mistakes. A lot of the mistakes, some mistakes that cost the business a lot of money, because of my borderline arrogance, instead of confidence, and trying to do things myself, as opposed to asking for help.

And like, those are massive lessons that I don't know if I would have learned that, had I not been given the opportunity to fail, honestly. So I mean, that's the blessing of it. And you know, I think that when I was younger, I would have said that it's more a curse to work for the family side because you just, you know, maybe I should've been a doctor, maybe I should've been an attorney. Maybe I should have done other things.

But now, as I was rolling it through a lot of these lessons and made a lot of mistakes and been able to make those mistakes and been supported by brothers in law, and older cousins, and my father and my aunt and my uncle. I really, I look at them with just sheer admiration that they let me go through this gauntlet and learn from it because now I have just a deep appreciation that I think working for a family business, it's the best thing in the world.

Because you're, you're your own boss? The family is the boss. So it's just been this process of thinking it was more cursed. And now see that it's a total blessing. It's kind of a shame that there's not more family businesses in the world that are as big as we are, because most of them, when you get to our size to sell out. Because it's, it's very difficult, you have to swallow your pride and you have to put the foundation of the company and the priorities of the company before you're grown.

I made that mistake and, you know, fortunately I worked for the family business that let me make that mistake. Because had I not been working for the family business, it probably would have ended a little differently. And I'm sure you can fill in the blanks of what I'm going to there. Right.

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Ep.224: Managing Cashflow as a Startup Entrepreneur

Fri, 09 Jul 2021 10:00:10 +0000

Sean: Next question from LJ, how can a start up entrepreneur manage his or her cash flow?

Cash flow is all about awareness. If you're aware that you're making more than you're spending, you have a positive cash flow. If you're aware that you're spending more than what you're making, you have a negative cash flow and we call that bleeding out. A business is likened to the human body. The managers or leaders, the C level executives, CEO, COO CFO, we call them the head. They are the heads of the company. The arms and legs are usually, these are the grassroots, team players. The heart would be the sales people. The mind would be the R&D or research and development. They're the brains.

Why do we call the salespeople the heart? Because it's the one that pumps blood. Blood is cash flow. Whenever sales people make a sale, they inject positive cash flow in the business. And that's why we say if the cash flow is negative, meaning expenses are going to be greater than revenue, we say that the business is bleeding out. That's the term we use. And then we write it in the ledger with a red ballpen to, I don't know, make it look like blood or whatever. Right? So that's the analogy that we have for a business. You have to stop the bleeding because if it goes on, then what happens? It would die.

The most important thing is having awareness. Are you positive or negative this month? If you're negative, how can you turn that to become positive? And I think the most important thing about managing a business is making sure you have positive cash flow month on month.

JM: It's important that you really see it. So I think with someone who's just starting it, have an Excel sheet about everything. Right? The coming in and out of expenses. And you were saying awareness. So you won't be able to be aware of things unless you write them down or you record them.

Sean: That is a very good answer. As simple as an Excel sheet, track it. Up to today, I actually use an Excel sheet. So that is one of the best answers about managing cash flow. Just use an Excel sheet, that works.

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Ep.223: Life Lessons: Manifesting Your Personal Purpose In Work

Thu, 08 Jul 2021 10:00:17 +0000

Sean: We have founders who think of their purpose statements as an afterthought. Sometimes they think that, oh, I don't really need that. This is something that it's hard to qualify for. In terms of ROI, a lot of founders who are pragmatic, as you say about their balance sheet would be there. They might be tuning in right now.

Okay. You know, purpose statement, how's that going to translate to the bottom line? How can I feed my people, my employees, my family, with a purpose statement? What do you say to these kinds of people? Cool.

Minter: So if you'll allow me to have a nice story, the bottom line is that, a lot of these softer elements, there's no hard return on investment. I talk a lot about empathy. Show me how to measure empathy. Show me how to measure ethics or purpose. So there's a. A gangster in Chicago who was called Al Capone, rather a nefarious, a gangster, and his lawyer was extremely good and was able to negotiate when the court case and the attempt to put components jail to only be charged for five of his cases against many other indictments and Capone was put in jail for 10 years.

Then, this lawyer at one point woke up and said, do I want to be known? For the guy that saved this gangster, that murdered people, what am I leaving as a reputation for my son? And so essentially what he did is he turned and became a snitch on Al Capone and participated in helping put him behind - get him behind bars.

He was only put in jail for a certain number of years. The day before Capone came out of jail, the lawyer was moaned down in a gangster style murder in Chicago on the street. The following day after his release Capone, then went over to the lawyer's wife and took her as his girlfriend and wife suffice it to say that he was pretty unhappy with this lawyer.

When the lawyer was killed, they found on his body and his breast pocket, a piece of paper and a piece of paper, basically. I want to make sure that I was known for being someone who had integrity, because the only thing you can leave behind is a good reputation. So he was killed with his wife. He had just had a son and that son became a fighter pilot for the Navy.

And this guy was out on a mission. On his flying over the Pacific and with just a captain and a wing mate, and they found an entire flotilla of Japanese bombers headed to the largest American fleet in the Pacific. So what do they do? They said, well, gosh, we're only three. We won't get back in time to protect them.

And they decided to go and attack this enormous flotilla of fighter pilots and bombers. With these three planes, the one plane survived that happened to be the sun. And what they did is they fired everything they could. And, and then at the end he had no more bullets left and he just started ramming other airplanes with his plane using it as a suicidal mission.

I mean, ended up shooting down several bombers. Handful of fighter planes. And they thought that they were so crazy that the, the entire Japanese squadron flew back. He lands his plane on the aircraft carrier. He's saluted. His name is called O'Hare. And if you've ever flown to Chicago airport, you will know that it's also called O'Hare airport.

So the point is that when you create a good reputation, and create a proper legacy, you can do important things and make people do more meaningful lives. Are you doing something meaningful? What is it that you want to leave as a legacy in your life? And, when you tie into that, my gosh, it's powerful.

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Ep.222: Starting A Logistics Business: Things To Consider

Wed, 07 Jul 2021 10:00:14 +0000

Sean: We have MJ and her question is, I heard logistics businesses are not advisable in our country because of the traffic. Would it be advisable to engage in this business during this pandemic?

JM: You know what? I have a friend who is recently actually thinking about starting a logistic business.

Sean: Really?

JM: Yeah. So I'm not really sure if it's advisable to engage through this business. But do you think, Sean, this is another question, from this question. Okay? Maybe to just also support the question from MJ. Right now, since a lot of people are also doing online shopping and stuff like that, is it also like one of the factors that people can think about when starting any logistic business? Because right now it’s all online. Everything is online.

Sean: Yeah. I think that there are a lot of startups already today that have gone into the logistics industry. But a lot of them are in Metro Manila. So in terms of the provincial areas, I think there's still a huge opportunity to start logistics businesses there. It's tough to compete with the giants here. Especially, because we all know that Grab is a monopoly here. Right? That’s going to be tough. Those are the things, those are the factors playing in my mind as an entrepreneur questioning myself if ever I'm going to go and start a logistics company. Those are the things that I would be looking at.

And the competition in the logistics now would be the technology. Would you have the funding needed to start the technology and make it a cutting edge or create new technology that would be able to beat whatever Grab or Lalamove or all of these other logistics companies own already? I don't think the competition would be the manpower or the vehicle. That's no longer the case. You can already acquire manpower or vehicles at a very reasonable price. It's the technology where the battle is in.

So even with stemming from MJ’s question about the traffic, the traffic I think is not much of a concern now, because there’s less traffic now. Yeah. But you know, it's really the technology that we have to check.

JM: The important thing is about technology. If you can offer something new or something more updated and at the same time where So what you mentioned, Sean, you think it's better also if you'll be in the provincial areas instead here in Metro Manila.

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Ep.220: Choosing Your First Business: Franchise Or Startup

Fri, 02 Jul 2021 10:02:41 +0000

Sean: This is a very interesting question. This next one. And Erika asks, should my first business be a franchise?

JM: It really entails a lot there for you to decide if your first business should be a franchise. You really need to study also if it's something that's going to benefit other people in terms of having it as a franchise. I'm not sure, Sean, because for me, I think there are a lot of elements that you need to research and study about it if your first business should be a franchise.

Sean: For me, my opinion here is it would depend on your capital. If you have the capital to start a franchise and you want to learn the systems behind that franchise, I don't think you have any downside to that. The franchise says, do what they do and how they do it because they already kind of studied the system, the economy, the location, where you're going to be putting it up. They already have their hiring process, their logistics, making sure that the food and supply arrives in time, that it will not get easily spoiled or expire.

So, if you want to learn how the franchises do it, maybe in hopes of starting your own business someday, I don't think there's a downside if you have the capital to pony up to buy a franchise. But if you don't, then you would have to start your own. That's really it. Also, I think there's an upside in starting your own business before you get into a franchise. And that is, knowing now what kind of franchise you want to be in, because you have more opinions about what kind of business you want to be in.

I've known some entrepreneurs who started businesses which didn’t actually fail, it’s getting profits. But they found out, they weren't passionate about it. And then they realize what aspects of the business they weren't passionate about. For example, legal. They don't like doing that. Accounting, they don't like doing that. Sometimes it is hard to hear that you don't want to do accounting and you’re a businessman, because that's your profit and loss statement. But not all people are passionate about accounting. I would say, I'm not passionate about accounting.

My wife does our finances really well, and she knows the ins and outs. She's really good at it, so I let her do it. Looking at the financial sheet is not something that I like doing. I would rather close more deals, innovate about more products or services we can offer to the client, and spend more time with the clients we have. So again, it depends on if you would like to do that. You would find that out if you start your own business and then you would be able to choose a franchise better. So either way, works. It depends on where you are right now as an entrepreneur in life.

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Ep.219: How to Connect People to Your Purpose

Thu, 01 Jul 2021 10:00:12 +0000

Sean: How do you plan on communicating that purpose statement to the rest of the world?

Minter: So the key point for me is having spent the time to figure out what your purpose is, until you've actually done a deep level of analysis and thought through what your personal purpose is.

It will come out a little bit wonky when you try to say, this is what I believe. Cause you're lightweight. You haven't really thought through and it will end up feeling a little bit, you know, eye-rolly, you know." Right? Whatever." You don't want that. So the key thought is to have a depth to your thinking through how, why this purpose is your real purpose.

Not just a nice to have, not just some charity. I want to give money to just because, oh yeah, I like it. But going go, going at a deeper level then afterwards. Like you were saying, you know, you need to do the finances. You need to do the HR. You need to do. I mean, all this other stuff, don't put the purpose in front and sacrifice the rest.

Cause you've got to have a great product and service without that you won't exist. So you need to have that. Just like you also will need to have a brand. So at some level, the, I tend to want to say, you will find it when you are ready for it, to the extent that you are ready to do the work and you're ready to carve out the time.

Maybe on your weekend, a couple of hours before your kids get up and write down on a piece of paper. What is my north? What are my three key values? How are those going to be exhibitable, demonstrable on a day to day basis those values? And I look at the south, which has stopped. What are the things that are stopping me from getting to my north and the limiting beliefs that I have? And then I think about the action plan. So I write about this in my new book. It's a whole process and it takes time. And until you've done that, the chances are it'll come off a little bit mild and meek when you're trying to express it to the rest of your team.

Afterwards, what if you've got it and you really feel strongly about it. And then this is my business. That's going to help me get to this north. I'd rather show it in different ways. You need to act it rather than just speaking about it all the time, because it's much better to have other people say what you do rather than just say what you want. Catch me. So in this thing, you know, you need to model the behavior, you need to be showing.

And other people say, "oh God, he really knows what he's talking." Then they will share the love afterwards, tactically speaking, storytelling regularly, going through the reason why I came to this purpose is this. And, you know, I mean, I can do the exact same thing for you, Sean, about my purpose. So I can tell you the exact path that I went through and I do it regularly in a written - in my book and I hammer it out.

And if I were with my team. Of course, I wouldn't do it if it's the same team week after week, but systematically within with recruitments, come out with other portions of your life, that link in, because it's not necessarily just one story, you might have multiple versions of it, and you can share that. And sharing that shows your personality, who you are, not just like hardcore executive, get the numbers in bringing your vulnerability into it. And then people are going to connect into that in your team. And then they're slowly but surely won't do it overnight, slowly, but surely they hate now, Sean, you know, the other week you told me about your story. Can I tell you my story and then you have to be able to switch off and say, "yes, I'm ready to hear your story."

You know, so you have to park this, you know, 25 minute call you have with the banker about to come up and all that kind of stuff to be able to listen in to whoever comes to tell you about their story.

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Ep.218: Franchising 101: What You Should Know

Wed, 30 Jun 2021 10:00:22 +0000

Sean: First question would be from Erika. And she asks, what are the pros and cons of investing in a franchise?

First, if you're going to invest in a franchise, you're going to need money upfront. So that is a con, because if you're going to be starting up on your own, you don't need to give upfront money, which might be a big amount, depending on what brand you want to franchise. If it's already a big well-known franchise chain, of course, you're going to need to pony up more cash upfront. The big pro of buying a franchise is you already have the system, you already have the brand name. All you got to do is apply everything and it's quite proven to work. So your risk of losing a business or having your business failing is a lot lower. The risk is a lot lower. That is the big pro.

Another con is there are restrictions, of course. It's not your own brand and it's not your own business. It's a franchise, so you can't do pretty much anything or everything you want to do in it. You have to be agreeable to be under the authority of the brand. That for me is a con, but it depends on the person. Some people will find it a pro because they're just following the parameters or the guidelines. Some people will see it as a con. I personally see it as a con because I am the kind of person who I'm excited to set the direction and pace for the business. And yeah, I think those are the major pros and cons for me. I'm not going to make it long. What do you think, JM?

JM: I think I can just share based on experience. I haven't had experience with franchising yet, but right now I am currently helping my brother with their startup business. So thinking about starting a business as well, I think with franchising one of the pros is that you'll be able to already skip the most crucial thing and that is, planning everything from scratch. So I think that's one of the pros when it comes to franchise. But the rest, you already mentioned with the cons. And if you're someone who is really into the creative side as well, you get some kind of fulfillment as well when it comes to starting your business from scratch. So as you mentioned earlier, also, it's very fulfilling for you knowing the direction where you want to go. Right? And I think you mentioned it very well with the pros and cons of franchise.

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Ep.217: Purpose: The Importance Of "Why" In Business

Tue, 29 Jun 2021 10:00:42 +0000

Sean: The topic that is super interesting to me, which you mentioned earlier pre-show, is about purpose in marketing and purpose in business.

Now, a lot of the hype in the startup scene today is about profits is about getting investors, is about pitching to VCs. And angel grounds almost no one talks about purpose. Almost no one talks about the 'big why.' I want to know why do you think it's not talked about so much and how would people get in touch with that within themselves?

Minter: The reality is purpose can’t be put before profitability. It has to be put with profitability. And the risk or the fear that people have if I move away from profitability into this other purpose, my profitability will fall through the floor. And so generally, pragmatically speaking, it's important to get the numbers in.

You've got to be profitable. If you're not profitable, I don't care what purpose you have. You serve no purpose because you will not continue to exist. So there's permission allowed not to think of necessarily only about purpose. I certainly talk about avoiding the tyranny of purpose. On the other hand, a business without purpose has a lot of other risks.

And one of those is burnout. Just succeeding for the sake of succeeding. So you can get your two houses, 2.4 kids. And the title that makes you look important, doesn't actually provide you with intrinsic energy. These are external objects that people look at. So the key point, the real reason why you want to dig in on purpose is to figure out why you exist and how you're going to make the world a better place.

And when I say the world, the world can be your house, your street, your town doesn't have to be huge. You know, Mother Teresa-like, it can just be more than you. I want to say your house. I mean, obviously it's the, the wider network of your household. How will the world be worse off if you don't exist?

That is the question you need to answer when you're running your company.

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Ep.216: How To Establish Yourself As A Writer

Fri, 25 Jun 2021 10:00:15 +0000

Sean: Can you share your creative process from ideation to execution so we can learn from it?

Creative process. A lot of the content I make now, the creative stuff is the responsibility of my team. So what I do is answer your questions. Not a lot of creativity there, but I draw from my wealth of experience as I'm sure JM does as well. We draw from our wealth of experience, not a lot of creativity anymore. The creative process would be from my team when they edit it, when they take out all of the stupid stuff I say, or mistakes that I have here. And yeah, but when I used to write, it would usually be an outline first.

And then the execution part, I make sure to promote. The promotion part is, it should take as much time for you to promote as you writing it. A lot of people think that if they write and hit the publish button, that’s already fine. Like people would just read because it's a great piece of content. No, that's not true.

If you don't promote it, no one's going to read that stuff, however great it is. So you have to be promoting that piece of content that you wrote. Even if, you know, you wrote it for free, you're giving it away for free, you still have to do the work and promote it. That's life. And that's because we live in the information age where we are, our brains are drinking from a fire hose. It's just so much stuff and we're overloaded with so much content.

So with that in mind, you have to be smart about how you're going to work around that. And promote your stuff to people who really would want to read it, like in Facebook groups or in a discord community, which we have right now, we have, you know, I have great people tuned in to discord. You guys are tuned in, you guys are the ones who really want to, you know, learn from me, from the stuff that I'm answering here. So promotion is super duper important.

The ideation, the outline, that's the easy stuff for me. When you have an idea, that's easy. And that's why a lot of entrepreneurs as well, they put so much premium on the idea that, “I have an idea, there should be an NDA right away. I should trademark it right away. I should incorporate it right away.” Actually doing that super stupid, because it's just an idea. Ideas are cheap. To be honest, ideas are cheap. A lot of people thought about Facebook before Facebook happened, before Mark Zuckerberg made it real. And that entire process is called zero to one.

Peter Thiel's book. You can read that, Zero to One, a very good book, very good read. He said, before the creation is zero. It's nothing. And then when it was created, it became one. That's it. From zero to one, that's the creation process, that's the most important process of all. When it's an idea, it’s zero. Ideas are cheap. So the idea is easy. You write the outline, you put meat in the skeleton, in the bones, and then you promote it like your life’s dependent on it. That's the entire process for me.

JM: So from the idea itself, I will really take time to pray for it and think about it if it's something that God would want me to pursue. And then after praying about it, I would also research about it and learn more about the idea if it's something really doable or workable. And then from there, just like what Sean mentioned as well, execute. It will be nice if you have a team of your own, just like Sean as well. But if you don't have a team yet, then you can do your step by step as well when it comes to your execution. So for me, I think those three steps, like really think things through when it comes to your idea and then research and then execute whatever things that are important that are essential for you to execute.

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Ep.215: Keeping Your Ego in Check as A Leader

Thu, 24 Jun 2021 10:00:08 +0000

Sean: Now, I want to talk a little bit about your book "IGI." How did you come about that idea? How did you come upon the idea of inviting God in and tackling your ego? What was the turning point or the aha moment for that? Can you tell us about that story?

Steve: Actually it was a mentor workshop and it had a scorecard for, it was called the four B's and I've since adjusted it and adapted it. And now call it the four B's, but it was having a daily scorecard. But the four B's that I use is that you have your body, your being, your bonds and your business. I needed to have a daily scorecard that was simply scoring myself on my body, my being, and my bonds, and my business.

So when I finally realized, okay, I've got to get that in check. Then, you know, I started being much more aware of it. And I realized that was my ego was clearly damaged and being overweight and being overcompensating a lot of ways. The being is your connection with whatever you call higher source; mother nature, universe, God Yahweh, Buddha, Mohammed.

So for me, this body, being, bonds, and business for all of us helps me track and measure it, my asshole factor, my ego factor. Am I showing up in the world? And if I'm not, am I going to let another day go by that I don't do something about it? Am I going to let another day go that I'm not treating my wife with respect?

Am I going to let another day go by that I eat unhealthy? Am I going to let it? And if the answer is, yes, well then I'm going to do another day. If not, what am I going to do about it? So this awareness of accountability led me to an understanding more about my ego and I continued to read and pray and meditate.

I still was climbing the ladder, but I could drink anybody under the table. And alcohol started becoming a very big presence in my life and it worked. I still worked every day. I still had success outside, but it was starting to chip away at my soul and it was starting to control my mind and my thinking.

And I was starting out to be reliant upon it. I started really diminishing my family and my wife almost left me and I had a daughter at the time who was about 13. Yeah. I must've been making promises for quite some time about not drinking or not drinking as much or whatever. Cause there was always those promises and I came home from work one night and my daughter had taken every alcohol bottle in the house.

Poured it in the sink put in a big Wicker basket on the middle of our kitchen counter. At the time, there was something called a yellow pages, which is like a phone book that you would open up because this was, you know, 18 years ago. And it had a big circle around alcoholics anonymous. And there was a note that just said, you need help.

And it was from my daughter and I was like, oh my God. I was like, I was just, I felt horrible for her. I felt embarrassed. I felt shame. The next I woke up and I literally had this epiphany of my life is going to deteriorate and go down the toilet really quickly. Cause I've lost control even though on the surface, I look like I'm carrying it all.

And I haven't had a drink in 18 years. And that helped me to start connecting higher to spirituality and to making the shift and the change that my ego was no longer serving me at a high level and that my ego needed to be put in check.

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Ep.214: Value Of Storytelling In The Digital Market

Wed, 23 Jun 2021 10:00:17 +0000

Sean: Do you think that rise of user generated content makes the job market in the creative industry more competitive? Do we all need to create content, blogs, YouTube videos to take advantage of this?

Let's just say UGC, User Generated Content. UGC is usually posted on other blogs and other websites that is the thought leader for that type of content. It could be a form, it could be a blog, it could be different other platforms that host those kinds of content. So I'd say maybe indirectly. Because if someone has a lot of content posted on several different websites and uses it as a reference or a case study, then that person would be able to compete better in the job market.

So I'd say if you can create more content that way such as, you know, like write ups, blogs or YouTube videos, definitely do it. Hundred percent. Because like, content that's done well and promoted well sticks to the internet. And it's always going to be there and you're always going to have views and people will get to know you, and that's always a good thing.

And then the follow up question is, how can anyone maximize this so that those who are just starting know how to enter this the right way?

I’d say, just do it like a hundred percent. Just go ahead and do it. When you have an idea, when you have a certain niche you want to enter, like, for me, it was SEO, just start researching, start reading, start writing. You can't write if you don't read. You have to always be reading and learning about what you want to write about. So read a lot, experiment, then write about it. And then make sure you tell it in a way that it's a storytelling fashion, because people like reading stories. They don't like reading textbooks. Because sometimes we write like a textbook, that's because we studied and graduated in an educational system full of textbooks, so make sure you write it in a way where you're telling a story.

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Ep.213: Finding the Right Mentors and Guidance in Business

Tue, 22 Jun 2021 10:01:39 +0000

Sean: How did you figure out that what you were supposed to do and what you were called to do, is what you are doing now? And that's teaching others, inspiring other people, writing books, consulting, coaching, right, et cetera.

Steve: I have met many, many wealthy people and many, many rich people and many people that are focused on even moderate wealth. And the materialism is again, one of those things where I said about my company, I was building a certain point.

Is this all there is? I thought it was going to be feel better. And so what happens is we then want the next car, or the red car, or the bigger car. And that's because we all have this hole in our soul. It's part of our human condition. And as human beings, we all have this hole in our soul that we're trying to fill, with not feeling fulfilled enough.

And so we feel that marketing advertising society, the way we fill that hole is more and more and more and more. And so that more and more and more is where we usually have our parents who have given us a trajectory of what's possible, if they believe in us have not, or what we see others doing. So what I had to know is that I always had to have mentors - since I didn't graduate college.

I knew that I had to, if I didn't have generalized knowledge, I knew that I had to have specific knowledge. So I always sought out guides, mentors, advisors, and I was lucky enough that I found out early on that successful people also have egos like I had an ego, they just seem to deserve their ego more because they had the status.

But I found that it's amazing how many successful people are willing to share their journey to share their path if you ask them, you know? And so I started realizing how much people are willing to share. And I got access to a lot of mentors along the way. And then I ended up hiring mentors when I was 26 or 27 is when I hired my first coach.

And I've had a business coach or a life coach every year for 30 years. I've never not had a business coach or a life coach. And that person helped me do kind of like what we're talking about right now every week. You know, the first part is create the plan. What is it you want in your life, in your family and your relationships and your spirituality and your finances? How you serve the community.

So I had to map all that out and tell this other person, these are the things I want. And that person that helped me keep accountable to staying on track to make those things happen. And it's a big, you know, that's a daunting thing to pay somebody to kick your ass. And that's kinda like what I realized it's like when you're in football or, you know, a coach is a pat on the back person, and it's also a kick you in the ass and also show you're made of more than you think you are.

And so for me, having a business coach helped me. See more of what you're asking about. How did I know that? Because I knew was being called to something more. I didn't know what it is and I didn't know how to get there myself. So I had to have guides, mentors, and then from having guides and mentors and then tons of reading and tons of learning and trial and error, one thing just led to another.

And when you realize, "Oh, I can do this. Oh God, maybe I can do that on a bigger scale. Oh God, I can do this." So it just led to one foot in front of the other. And then that increased more of my confidence and more of my faith and power of that.

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Ep.212: Word Of Mouth: The Best Marketing Strategy

Fri, 18 Jun 2021 10:01:43 +0000

Sean: What are essential marketing strategies for a small business?

A lot of people think that marketing, actually that's, you know, we don't need that so much as long as we have inventory and we have salespeople, that’s already fine. But one of the most important things actually is marketing. Because when you have something good going for you, marketing will be the bringer of momentum. And you need momentum because momentum makes you look better than you really are. And if you're a small business, you need to look better than you really are.

But I would say the essential marketing would be word of mouth strategies because it's free. It's the best form of marketing. It's the most authentic form of marketing because people will share who you are and your story and your product and service with other people only if they really believe in it and only if they really have a positive experience with it. So not a lot of people think about that, “I need to have a word of mouth strategy.”

Like one of the best restaurants that I find does this. Not that's in a strange place, meaning they're not super popular, but they're also not, you know, they don't have like super few brands. One of the restaurants that I love doing this is Yabu. Because when I went to Yabu and had to wait for like 45 minutes for my food and I didn't complain. Like I didn't complain because I'm used to waiting. I don't mind waiting unless I have a meeting or I’m in a rush. But during that time, I was just winding down, meetings were done. This was a long time ago. And I waited 45 minutes for my food. I was with my wife, Apple, and she was also very patient. We didn't complain at all.

And what they did out of the blue is just tell us, “So sorry, your food is served late. We're so sorry and you can have this and it's free.” And I'm like, I didn't even tell you that it's taking too long. I didn't even follow up on the order. They just knew that it took a while or I don't know, maybe the waiter forgot about us and then he got embarrassed about it, I don't know. I really don't know what happened, but what I do know is I didn't say a word to them. And I told them, “No, I want to pay for it. Cause like, if one of you guys are going to pay for it, I'd feel bad.” So I even said that I want to pay for the food because I don't mind waiting, but they insisted for me not to pay for it and said, “None of us here are going to pay for it. It's in the goodwill of the company.” Which is amazing because they empowered their people to be able to make decisions like that. And I’m talking about it right now in the podcast. Right?

That's word of mouth marketing. So I think that is an essential strategy. It doesn't take a lot, but not a lot of people think about it because it's nothing sexy. It's not sexy at all to have a word of mouth marketing strategy. It's sexier if you have a viral FB campaign or viral this, whatever. Right? It's sexier to have that. It's more in. It's more hip. But if I'm going to choose, it's always going to be word of mouth.

JM: Ask yourself, what do I have right now that won't take you to spend money because you're still starting? So what is that one thing that you can do that won’t take too much financial effort, right? And it's really word of mouth. So it's really important that you give value to what you do. It's so important to focus first on what you can give to the people around you or the market that you want to reach. It will stick to your memory and you have nothing to do, but to share that experience because you were able to really find value in how they serve you. So be unforgettable and people will just, that’s free marketing. Right? People will just share about you.

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Ep. 211: How to Use Your Fear as Fuel for Growth

Thu, 17 Jun 2021 10:00:37 +0000

Sean: How do I look at fear in the face and turn it into fuel and overcome?

Steve: Well, my answer to that is they're already doing it anyway. By them not being happy. They're already in fear. When you're not happy when you're unfulfilled.

Here's how I look at it. Here is where we think we should be in life. Like we all have this vision of whatever it would be. Let's say it's status. It's a job. It's a relationship. It's a where you live, it's money. It's relationship with God, whatever we have this vision about where we think we - I should be there, like you see someone that "I could do that job, or I should have that house" or whatever it might be like, we have this vision about what could be possible, right.

And then we know everything's possible in life, but then we're here. Like we're our reality is in the present every day I wake up, I have to pay these bills, I have a wife I don't love, my kids don't like me, whatever it might be. We're we're here and in between the space of where we envision our life to be. And here all in between that is that the Delta and that's where stress and fear live. What we have to realize is we have the ability to rise the tide. So as we squeeze fare out and turn it into fuel that on a basis of doing that, that you can create and make change.

If you've not used to doing that, then I would say, stop in the mirror right now and realize. Okay. I am already breaking through fear. Because what's happening is each day that I get up and I'm not happy, that is a form of fear, unhappiness and unfulfillment is a version of fear. And you're allowing that fear to now be converted into what you do and go out into a job in which you don't like, go out into an industry and that you don't like, go back and go back into a marriage that you're not happy in and not choose to do something about it.

What happens is when you choose to take action, fear, diminishes really quickly. Because once you get into action, as Napoleon Hill says in the book, "The thinking grow rich" is a book that Napoleon Hill in the United States wrote in the thirties, 1930s. And it's probably the greatest manual for the foundation of all self-development programs and positive thinking programs and business plans and life plans that have come after that.

But you know, one of his simple quotes is, you know, success is the progressive realization of a worthy goal. And Paulo Coelho and the alchemist's book says once your mind is made up the universe conspires toward your success, so if you have a blueprint and a plan and you have a vision and you start taking some actions, boom, by getting into action, it really helps reduce the fear.

So it's a matter of taking that vision of where we thought we should be. Mapping it out, writing out a plan, writing out a strategy, what would it look like? And knowing that what you can do in three years is pretty amazing. And it's always more than we think we can do. And that we always overestimate what we can do in a year, but start little. Start with, "Hey, I want to start getting out of my job, then start putting out resumes."

And then from there, that action starts helping you start chipping away at fear and eventually a dam breaks and it just floods it down and it will turn into a reservoir of power for a short amount of time. And then it turns into fear again. So it's like these, these chunks that you just have to go, Oh, that's part of the process.

Like I need that. Like, what I have realized is I have to have the fear to make it to the next place and I can't say that I enjoy fear, but I can tell you that I have made friends with fear.

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Ep.210: The Entrepreneur's Guide To Work-Life Balance

Wed, 16 Jun 2021 10:00:40 +0000

Sean: Tonight, we have a special guest, Miss JM, and I am very excited to answer your questions with her. Let me just put her on screen right now. There you go. Hi JM. How's your week, JM?

JM: It's been hectic, but fun as well. Learning a lot of new stuff. What about you, Sean?

Sean: Actually, this week was a pretty good week to start for me because we went to Batangas. Very refreshing vacation for me. For some reason I've been working like 12 to 16 hours for the past two months. And, oh man, it was taking a toll on me. I was grumpier and it was not good. It was not good. Like I was feeding my health going down. And I was on my way to get the flu. It was really bad.

So that getaway did me a lot of good in the sense that I got to recharge, my body clock became normal. And yeah, it's time with family, which I really took for granted. Like I had a lot of time with my wife and my kids during that vacation. Although I still did a little bit of work, but I was consciously trying to avoid it. Yeah. So it was a very good vacation for me.

JM: Thanks for sharing that.

Sean: We need it. For some reason, this pandemic has taken off a lot of balance. I don't know if it's just me, but I feel like a lot of people feel that way. I saw some prominent speakers in other countries are, it's very timely, right? Because I'm also doing, I'm also running a project right now for a webinar. And the webinar is entitled, Grow and Balance Your Life.

And then suddenly I see all of these speakers in other countries, also talking about balancing during the pandemic. So I feel like it might be a concern for a lot of people right now. Balancing. I don't know. How about you? What do you think about that?

JM: Definitely. I think during this pandemic, that's very important because most of us were working from home. So it's really hard to have the right boundaries when it comes to work, family, and even having your own self-care. It's been really challenging for most people. So like you, Sean, I think I'm also in a season wherein I'm being reminded about the work life balance. And besides working, I also have to finish my studies and my graduation requirements.

So that's taking a toll as well, like when it comes to my sleep. So it's important, you know, to all your followers and to your community, to be reminded about that. Especially nowadays that we really need to take time to be recharged. And to really, have that time, to really put in order the things that we need to prioritize. And have the right boundaries when it comes to your life and to your work as well.

Sean: A hundred percent agree. You know, like there's a lot of time I find myself while working, I just like to switch between channels, waiting for someone to give me a problem to solve, which is super unhealthy by the way. Because that means I’m just completely attached and plugged in, my brain and my eyes are plugged in all the time. Even if I could take a break, I'm still not doing it. I'm just waiting for more work and, you know, to solve more problems. So that's something that I'm trying and at least I'm more aware of it. I'm more conscious of it. The first thing is awareness. If you're not aware you can't solve it. So that is super-duper important for me.

JM: Actually, Sean, I have a check in on my journal as well. So I really see that I have categories there for spiritual, mental, emotional, financial, and then work as well. So if that will help some people who are listening right now, jot it down. And then make it a point to also check in every month where you are in this time and season and where you can also improve in the next days to come.

Sean: That’s really good. And then one of the tools that is also free out there for you guys to use is the Wheel of Life by Zig Ziglar.

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Ep.209: Leaving The Comfort Zone To Be A Leader

Tue, 15 Jun 2021 10:00:28 +0000

Sean: Do a lot of people today have the same syndrome - imposter syndrome? What prompted you to throw all that out and start your own thing?

Steve: I actually ended up being originally by force. That was not something I chose and I'll just share that minute. And then the other was by choice. So two different major paths that I had in my life that were majored for deputies and I call them brick upside the head moments. And we've all had those in life, or you just get a brick upside the head from life and you're like, "Oh shit, I wasn't expecting that to happen."

And then you either adjust and you pick up your pieces and you move forward and you create something out of it, or you crumble and you really get diminished. After I was fired, I then went out in 2009 and said, I'm going to start my own real estate company. But it was not the plan two months before, right? It was like, brick upside the head, get fired, go be in a - you know, get hired by somebody else and do this again, or finally do it for myself. So I'm like, okay, let me pick up the pieces, sell everything that I own.

Get rid of the boat, get rid of the extra houses, get rid of the toys, get rid of all the stuff. And at the time it was hard to do that because the market was depleting. So I had to just absorb what I could. And I went out and started a real estate company in February of 2009. And with a year. We had, I had recruited 500 people from Prudential and other companies that I had, you know, six or seven real estate offices.

And we were, we were off to the races in a very downmarket. So that change came because of force. Forced someone else's upon me to make positive change. When I left that five years ago and started out from the advisors, which is what I do now, that was because of a calling. That was because God and a higher power that I call God and the universe had been pulling me to do something beyond what I was doing.

And I call that purpose driven leadership and, I call that spiritual intelligence, and I call that following my instinct and my gut and my own sole purpose. And it was getting out of the ownership role of running just a real estate company as it existed and challenging myself to get in a really uncomfortable place and go do stuff that I didn't exactly know how to do, but I was going to figure out. And that I was going to call on other resources and intellect to repurpose what I knew to help others in a new way.

And thus, that's when I started out from the advisers. Because I said, if I can help run these companies and businesses in real estate, I have to realize business is business, people are people, sales are sales - we all want the same things.

And the human condition of purpose-driven leadership, which is similar to what you're involved in. I realized that was a universal message and not specific to one industry. And that's why within my business, I wanted to consult, coach, speak, and advise other businesses beside just real estate and to knock on wood five years later, I've been able to do that and, and learn tremendous amount from others and give, have given a lot to others.

So it was. It was scary. It was a scary, challenging time to let go of something that I built. Step out into the unknown and take a risk and a challenge into a pond that I had not hadn't been swimming in before.

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Ep.208: When Is The Best Time To Freelance?

Fri, 11 Jun 2021 10:00:18 +0000

What are the pros and cons of working as a creative employee in a digital agency vs. working as a freelancer (VA for a coach or social media manager)? What do you think are the motivations of those who choose one over the other? Asking from a point of view of a career shifter who had been an employee in a BPO for more than 10 years.

Fitz: Well, I would like to answer this question in the sense that, is it better to be an employee or to be a freelancer? And I believe that it really depends on your preference. Find the option where you will have the most self-fulfillment, where you feel that you can grow better as a person. When it comes to being an employee, of course, one of the advantages of being an employee is you have an access to a network because you have your officemates, you have your bosses, you have your clients, et cetera. And you also have the opportunity to learn. It really depends on the ad agency, but of course your company will usually provide training. Your company will usually send you out to events, conventions, conferences, where there is an opportunity to learn a lot.

When you are working as a freelancer, you are more self-directed. So if you're the type of person who wants to be independent, when it comes to directing your career, then it would be, that's an advantage of being a freelancer. And of course, being a freelancer is the first step towards becoming a solopreneur and then being an entrepreneur. I've met a lot of freelancers who after working for a couple of years, they eventually put up their own agency. So they're now managing their own set or roster of freelancers and they are running the business.

If I will choose, I would tell them to work as an employee first in a digital ad agency, because it's a great experience to see how an agency works. And then if you feel that you want to put up your own agency or you want to become a freelancer, then that's the time that you go towards that path. There's really some value in working as an employee. I myself remember there are a lot of lessons that I've learned that I still apply today that I learned when I was still working as an engineer in an office. So those are really valuable things that you can pick if ever you go to becoming a business owner.

Sean: Completely agree with Fitz that you have to first get as much as you can and learn as much as you can before starting out on your own. Because starting out on your own is not as easy as it looks and sounds, especially with the glorified startup scene that we have all over the world right now, that, “No. Follow your heart, your passion. Go do your own thing.” It's not as easy as it looks. And I know a lot of people who have been burned and they lost interest or they're now fearful or afraid to do it again because they jumped before the ship was there to catch them. And so they hit the mud and it’s difficult that way.

So get as much as you can and choose your leaders. Go to a company where the leadership is really good. Because whatever it is that you plan to start up someday if you know leadership well, if you're able to practice it well, I believe that increases your chances of success by a thousand fold. Those are some of the pieces of advice that I'm going to give you. It's not a matter of pros and cons. It's difficult to just say here are the pros, here are the cons. There's a lot of going on in between that you have to also consider.

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Ep.207: How To Monetize A Podcast

Thu, 10 Jun 2021 10:00:16 +0000

Sean: How is that matching with the advertiser? How is that going to happen? Is there a choice for them to choose who the advertisers are? How is the payout going to be?

Jaime: Individual podcasters or like yourself become sort of able to put advertising into the new technology that's being built right now? So I think the landscape is completely different. I kinda liken it to games. So in the past, people always thought that only the bigger games get, you know, brand sponsorship and get lots and lots of money, but almost every game has a solution to monetize.

Even if you create a very simple game and all you do is just basically serve a couple of ads. That's actually advertising dollars that's going into your pocket. And actually helps with the gains of monetization. So I do think podcasts, we'll go down this route where potentially, and every single podcaster, or we'll have the option to turn on and off monetization option. And it's just a matter of time.

The way match cost works is very simple. So if you go to the website, you have an onboarding process. And so if you have a podcast or all you need to do is just and it's free. Create an account with Match Cast. First of all, you need to actually submit your RSS link.

Or if in the event you actually type in your name, search for it and then create an account with a Match Cast, go to a verification process. Now I need to explain why the verification process, being on a platform, means that you might only see all your podcasts, but on the brand's side, they will actually see your podcasting feature when they search for podcasts.

So they would search our platform for over 1.5 million podcasts. They might be looking specifically at you, you know, for example, business in the Philippines and entrepreneurship. And when that shows up, all the podcasts are in that category. Like in this case, Sean, if you are with us, your podcasts actually get featured right on top.

And they will actually look at that and then you'll be saying, okay, I like this. Once they open it up, they can see your schedule, they will know. They can listen to some of the podcasts and you say, "Hey, you know, I like Sean's show. So I'm interested." They let us know. And we actually reach out to you for a native sponsorship.

But what we're also planning is for the future. When you are with us, all on that podcast, it could activate automatic programmatic sponsorship. So what then you do is basically tell us that, look, I want to have sponsors within my show. I'm going to create ad breakers and you go in and put ads into those podcasts for me.

And we will just do that with the ad campaign style that we have. So by actually adding yourself to our platform, you get discovered by all the brands that are using our platform to search, identify podcasts that are relevant for their brand. And they wanna kinda sponsor, or actually be able to buy spots directly into the podcast.

And that's what Matt has really viewed as an intermediary of this advertising. More altruistically. I think that our goal is to actually make, you know, the necessity or rather the ability to become a full-time podcast or reality, perhaps in South East Asia, which I think, you know, that's already happening in markets like US and China, but we haven't seen that happening in Southeast Asia.

And we think we can play a part in that. Just allowing people to have an alternative lifestyle beyond just, you know doing, but working on something that they are really excited about. Like creating a podcast that reaches to the homes of every single ear of every single listener that they have and makes a living out of that.

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Ep.206: Could Cryptocurrencies Replace The Physical Currencies?

Mon, 06 Sep 2021 01:17:16 +0000

do you think crypto or digital currencies will replace the physical ones that we have right now?

Fitz: For me, I don't think it will be replaced, but I believe that crypto and digital currencies will be part of the mainstream way that we do commerce in the future. And in fact, this is what the people who are hodling. That's their term, HODL, hodling cryptos. They believe that cryptos and digital currencies will replace the physical currencies. And if you can read through the Reddit threads that discuss this, then they actually make good points. But personally, I believe that it won't replace the physical currencies, but it will become part of our commerce. So that's my answer to this.

Sean: Patrick, it's so interesting that you use the word physical currency. You know, if you read the book Elon Musk, which is a biography of the guy, Elon Musk. He mentioned there that the founding of PayPal actually came from a one big idea. And that idea is money is low bandwidth. What that implies is, how many times a day do you actually hold the physical paper money? Not a lot, especially nowadays during the pandemic. How many times a day do you hold that versus the transactions you make on Grab, on Lazada that are completely digital?

So currency is a lot less physical now. It's mostly digital. It's mostly bits and bytes. And money's low bandwidth. PayPal was founded years and years ago and was sold to eBay years and years ago. And that's the start of the digital currency, but it's now being transformed into something that would be called the cryptocurrency. So digital currency has been around for quite some time already, but the cryptocurrency which uses the block chain technology, that's pretty much a new one.

And if you're asking, will it replace the physical currencies? Personally, I believe that there's a high chance that it would, but someday we don't know when that someday is, if it's near or far away, we just don't know. But there are a lot of regulations that have to come in between before we finally embrace that as an official currency.

With that, I'm going to go ahead and follow up with his question. What is your take on Bitcoin?

Fitz: I'm one of those people who believe that it will continue to go up as more people get interested in cryptocurrencies. Of course, there's always a chance that Bitcoin will be the first cryptocurrency that will be widely accepted as a form of payment. But if you want to make money out of Bitcoin right now, the best way is to still trade it. I don't really believe that it's a good long-term investment, but it is a good short term trade.

And one warning that I give people is that try to avoid those cryptocurrency or Bitcoin investment mining opportunities, because a lot of them, 99% of them are scams. At this point in time, it's really hard to mine Bitcoin, you will need a lot of resources already. So some website asks you to invest or crowdfund people's money to be able to mine Bitcoin. Most probably those are scams. So be very careful.

So if you really want to make money from Bitcoin, trade it, learn technical analysis, learn charting. Go to threads where they discuss cryptocurrencies, because that will really help you understand the market movements of Bitcoin. And you can make money from the price movements of the cryptocurrency. So, yeah, that's my take on Bitcoin.

Sean: I couldn't agree more. Same. I think it's good for trading. I also trade. I buy and sell and I use technical analysis. Who else taught me? I went into Marvin Germo's Stock Smarts. That's where I learned it all. Really, really good workshop. So do yourself a favor if you want to trade Bitcoin and any form of other stocks, enroll, I don't know when he'll have it again, but definitely enroll in his Stock Smarts workshop.

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Ep.205: The Most Effective Way to Evaluate Employees

Tue, 08 Jun 2021 10:00:16 +0000

Sean: When you say that you evaluate them regularly, how often do you evaluate them and how does it look? Is there a Google sheet, a piece of paper that you go through a set of questions that you go through? How does it look?

Jaime: So we don't value it like that. We do it on a daily basis.

So if you're a developer, you will have tasks every morning. No changes every day, 9:00 AM my time. We always get onto a call. That call will be anywhere from 10 minutes to 20 minutes, an ideation of what will be completed today. Task-driven and then at the end of the day what's been done and then has gone on like this for 18 months.

And we're actually outperforming a lot of the metrics that I've seen, even as a CMO in the past, like literally tasks were being cleared out. So we do that on a regular basis. It gives you an idea of how many, once you actually have that, you kind of know what is difficult when someone is not delivering on par to what they could have done.

You go into a conversation, like what was the problem at the end of the day? Like, why didn't this get completed? Why didn't it get completed? Was it because it was just a more difficult task and then you also have monthly planning, which then kind of, okay. Do you sell all the things that we want to do within this month?

You know, we don't need to map it out, but because it is a roadmap that's often mapped out in the one month ahead, then we will know how much time to dedicate on it. And then with every one of my team, I do my two weekly. Two weeks, I would do one sort of session with them, which is one-to-one. And then at the end of the month, and they're the ones who want just to kind of get, you know, not just a job site, but just talk about their aspirations and their life situation.

Because you have to remember, they have, they're probably, you know, going through marriage, having their first child or, you know, going through something in their life that's other than themselves being at work.

So those are the times that you talk about, you know, how things are going, you know, your mom or parents are not feeling well. Have they gotten better? You know, have situations in that home changed? Are they you know, do they see that changing in the next couple of months? So you kind of use that as sensors along the way, and you always know where your team is at at all times.

And, but again, like I said, you know, that's probably doable when you're a much smaller company like us, but when you get to a bigger company, that is something that you have to process.

Sean: [00:05:29] That's leadership. That is something that I think a lot of startup founders miss. They're like, I hired you, you have to be mature. I'm paying you, it's not my job to babysit you. So go to whatever it is, I'm paying you for, right.

It, and they don't meet, they don't talk. It's - a lot of people miss that. I have to admit, I miss that out a lot of years as CEO and I've been doing this a decade now. So that is something that is super important.

I hope you guys listening in here did not miss that, spend time with your team. Do one-on-one. Jamie does it 10 minutes, 15 minutes a day at the start of the day at the end of the day, that is perfect. There might be people listening in who are thinking of starting their own podcasts. And I'm interested in knowing how it works.

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Ep.204: Best Financial Habits To Build

Fri, 04 Jun 2021 10:00:11 +0000

What do you think are the small and easy steps an employer could do to be on the right path of becoming financially fit?

Fitz: One of my favorite quotes comes from James Clear, he says that, “We do not rise to the level of our goals, but we fall to the level of our habits or our routine.” Which means if you want to be financially fit, it's not really about focusing on what we want to achieve, but looking at how we live our life every day, so that we can make those small changes and we can start our way towards the goal that we want to achieve.

One of the simplest advice that I tell people if they want to learn how to save is to set aside one peso every day. So why one peso? Because saving one peso is effortless. You don't need willpower to save one peso. However, if you do it every day, just have a piggy bank at home and you put one peso everyday there, it will eventually become a habit. So according to studies, it takes around 66 days to form a habit, an average. So by two or three months, it's now something that you do automatically, putting one peso on your piggy bank every day.

Now the secret here is that if you can afford to put a larger amount on your piggy bank, then go ahead, do that. You can put in twenty pesos on some days, you can put in a hundred pesos, and you can put in two pesos. Whatever amount you put there, as long as you put something there. So the minimum amount is one peso, which is something effortless and doesn't really affect much of our budget. Right? But by learning that habit, you will realize that slowly you are becoming better at saving money. And before you know it, you will realize there's already a large amount inside your piggy bank.

So being financially fit is the same. You look at different aspects of your personal finance, particularly your spending habits, your saving habits, your budgeting habits, your goal setting. So there are a lot of areas in personal finance that you have to look at and then set small doable habits that will help you improve through the years. And before you know it, by just improving 1% every day, you'll find yourself 30% better after a year. So that's what James Clear says in his book, Atomic Habits.

Sean: And I love that book as well. A really, really good read. I highly recommend it. I remember one of the stories that he mentioned there would be when you work out, even if you work out like 30 minutes a day, you don't usually see the results in a month, not even in two months, not even in three months. Sometimes you see the results after six months. But by then it has compounded and you have built the habit and now it's easy for you to do, a lot easier for you to do. And then you see the results and it skyrockets. And people will think that, “Oh, overnight change. What's your secret? What's your, you know, new diet you got into?”

It's not about a secret. It's not about something tactical that you are able to use. It's about the discipline that you have been doing in compounding it over time. And you use the word financially fit because it actually looks pretty much like that. You know, if you've ever tried it, the results don't show after a quarter, it shows after six months onwards. And then people start to ask you, “What did you do? What did you do? What did you do to get there?” And they think that you did it in three months or less, but it's a lot of hard work.

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Ep.203: How To Outsmart Your Business Competition

Thu, 03 Jun 2021 10:02:26 +0000

Sean: What else were you able to do to make sure that you come out on top of the competition that you have in your industry?

Jaime: I think the best advice I've ever gotten - and I can't remember what I had it from was, "keep your competitors close, but don't emulate them" because what that ended up, you're just going, you know, copying what they're doing and then you're not really finding your own niche. Sometimes it's easy to copy them very quickly because it helps give you sort of.

A good platform to run off, off, and basically set your structure. But then later on you realize that customers don't really want what your competitors are already offering. And you end up having to sort of, you know, manipulate the way you look at your platform and decide, you know, is that the same route that you want to go with?

So with competitors, that's what we've done is actually kept them close. You know, we all that our platform, we look at their offering, but we actually found that one really changes was when we actually really head down and figure out what we needed. We look at the things that we use most often for ourselves and for our brands.

We look at the tools that we are focusing on and we ended up building our own data platform. We ended up looking at Asia. We feel very strongly because my entire team is based in Asia. I'm bilingual, trilingual. I speak, not just Mandarin. I told Nelly I can actually understand all kinds of Chinese dialect, you know, and we actually look at the data and there was a lot of problem.

They didn't have very good Asia database. They didn't have a good landscape of what Asia podcasting scene looked like. Even though the tribe isn't here, but this is what we know better than anyone else. Then when we look at the landscape of the sea of, you know, podcast company based out in US, none of them really understand Asia like us, that became our big differentiator.

We could be doing the same thing, but we understand Asia a lot more. And we sort of become sort of a default voice and now brands are looking at us to say, Hey, how does podcasting scene in Indonesia look like, how does podcasting scene in Philippians look like? And that has become our advantage. So it's not immediate, but I would say, you know, very much focused on what your core strength is.

Sometimes it's not the most popular choice, like in the case, sticking out in Asia, focusing on working in Asia. But that has also become an a one teacher of ours, because a lot of these company are not having a very close relationship with podcasts or in Asia, we keep a very close relationship with a podcast or an agent we know what's happening and we know all the different companies that's happening in Asia. That actually has become sort of our advantage.

We became the default, I would say, expert in market. And I think sometimes you kind of have to do the unpopular things in order to make that thing differentiate from every other of your competitors.

Sean: Fantastic. And, and I learned this from Seth Godin that you have to be the best otherwise people will, they'll mistake you for everyone else.

Like people know the number one soft drinks brand is Coca-Cola, but the number two. Sometimes they say Sprite. They say whatever, but it's actually Pepsi. You asked them who the number three is. They don't know. I don't know. Right. So it doesn't pay it to be number two or number three, people will mistake you and confuse you with everyone else.

Then it's not going to be worth it because you're also spending a lot, maybe even more than the number one brand is, but you're just not getting it. So. Completely agreed. Differentiate yourself to be something that is so unique and you can be the number one, the best. You don't need to be a monopoly. You just need to be the best known brand.

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Ep.202: The Best Approach to Handling Your Finances

Wed, 02 Jun 2021 10:01:57 +0000

Why do Filipinos have a hard time saving and budgeting?

Fitz: This is related to my podcast. My podcast is entitled, The 80 Percent, which is inspired by what Dave Ramsey said. He says that financial success is 80% behavior and 20% head knowledge. A lot of Filipinos, they just focus on the 20%. They know that it's important to save. They know that it's important to track their expenses, to spend less than what they're earning, and it's important to create a budget. But they failed to study the 80%, which is really developing a daily habit that will help you achieve your goals.

A lot of Filipinos have a hard time saving and budgeting because they focus too much on the goal of having savings. They focus too much on creating a budget. But they don't really give time to ask themselves, why do I want to do this? Because having a good why or knowing or reminding yourself the reason why you need to take care of your finances is a good motivation. A great motivation into having the patience and the persistence into building your money management skills.

One reason also why Filipinos fail is because they don't save for a goal. So again, having a goal is very helpful when you're trying to manage your finances. A lot of people, they just know that I need to save money. But you have to ask yourself, why do you need to save money? One of the studies that have shown is that when you're walking in a mall and you see a sale, so you will be tempted to say, “Oh, I will buy new shoes. There’s a sale.” But you also have to remind yourself that you need to save money. So between a shoe, a new shoe, and a vague concept of saving money, for sure, buying those shoes will win because it's a concrete thing and our mind is set to go for that instant gratification.

But if you set a concrete goal for yourself, like you want to save money because you want to buy an iPhone, for example. Again, nothing wrong with setting those types of goals. Now, when you're walking through the mall and you see a sale that, oh, there’s a shoe sale, but you also know that you're trying to save for a new phone, for an iPhone. You just have to ask yourself, which is more important for you, saving money so that you can buy that iPhone or buying those new shoes?

At the end of the day, there's no right or wrong answer here. What I always emphasize is you have to be aware of the motivations that you have. And if you believe that it's more important for you to buy those shoes, then you have to accept the fact that you won't be able to buy that iPhone that you want. So it's all about being aware of our decisions, creating systems and processes in how we live our life so that we can build that 80% behavior, that 80% mindset that we need to achieve financial success.

So I think that's what's really missing among Filipinos. We just tell ourselves that it's important to do this and that, but we don't spend that much time into studying the why, the reason why we want to do that. And the how, how do we achieve those goals? So that's my answer to that question.

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Ep.201: Finding Opportunities In Podcasting

Tue, 01 Jun 2021 10:01:45 +0000

What was that light bulb moment that told you, I can actually make a business out of Match Casts?

Jaime: The timing was really important. It was January, 2019. I was starting to look into this market and I had to find a new idea in which I wanted to do a startup around.

And then by March, I was already kind of hooked onto Himalaya. So Himalaya is kind of considered the super app of China. In the Western world they don't have something similar to the Himalaya. Himalaya is kind of like your, it's a combination of Audible, a combination of Spotify, a combination of Good Reads if you have, and then the combination of Patrol One in there.

I've never heard of anyone in my sort of surrounding going say, Hey, I want to become a full-time podcaster, there's a lot of people saying, Hey, maybe I'll start out with social media and be a social media influence, but I'm going to be a podcaster.

So I didn't quite understand it. I was very lucky. So a good friend of mine was actually doing a program for Himalaya and he was actually doing it really, really well. He had already a hundred thousand subscribers into his earlier show and Himalayan was following him for subsequent shows, which he will launch onto Himalaya.

And I actually got firsthand experience of how that growth was and it lit a bulb in me was that, you know, in all my career, as a marketer, I've actually never really considered audio advertising. To be something that would threaten, I would say maybe programmatic or traditional media. I never quite thought of podcasting being sort of something like that or, you know, audio advertising becoming sort of a stronger growth.

But as I looked into the market, I did a lot of research. I saw that, you know, markets in the US, for example, started growing, you know, audio listenership as there are more and more smart speakers at home. People’s lifestyle and habits change like you were telling me earlier, you feel like it's a waste of time just listening to music.

You're not learning anything but predominantly what a lot of people in the US are doing now is they're also learning something by listening to podcasts.

So I saw that that was something that was changing. And as I look into the research, it kind of cements what I was thinking. And guess what, you know, in 2020, I think we've had the most exciting growth of podcasting. Literally 1 billion was spent by Spotify to buy up a ton of different companies. You know, recently we just got into this sort of landscaping podcast.

We called it Podscape. That was done by the US and Match Casts made it to one, but there are at least these, like, I would say good, 250 companies on that whole landscape. So it's grown. It's really, really grown. So, you know, whether, you know, what I did at that time was just right. Led me down this direction. It did let me down with direction.

I saw that there was an opportunity, but others saw it as well. So I wasn't the only person. And what was unique was then, you know, our competition started coming. So this is where we're faced with looking at how to differentiate ourselves from the landscape of people who also saw the opportunity and started going in there.

And I mean, to your audience, you know, if you find an opportunity, just act on it very quickly, I guess that's the best thing. If you can. And then as competition rises, differentiate yourself from them. I think those are most important and that's something that we're still learning and still doing at Match Casts.

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Ep.200: Don't Make These Mistakes In Financial Planning

Fri, 28 May 2021 10:02:07 +0000

What are the common mistakes when it comes to financial planning?

Fitz: Well, a lot of people, when they think about financial planning, they immediately go to investing. How do I grow my money? So that's a common mistake because when it comes to financial planning, you really need to first define your financial goals. A lot of people believe that the goal for their money is to grow it. I believe that your goal for your money is to be able to afford the dreams that you have for your family, for yourself, the things that you want to do with your life. So that's really the use of money.

And when it comes to financial planning, you really need to have that goal first before you are able to come up with a strategy, with a plan on how you will be able to achieve those goals. It’s like going to a particular place. You cannot reach a destination if you don't define where you want to go. When people ask me what's the best investment, it's just like asking me what's the best vehicle to take. But I have to know where do you want to go? If you're just planning to go to the sari-sari store around the corner, I will not tell you to take your car. You can just walk.

So financial planning is like that. You have to define where you want to go so that you will have the right vehicle that will bring you to that destination. And that's the common mistake that I observed when it comes to financial planning. Everyone's just so focused on growing their money. But they don't ask why they want to grow their money. What is it for? So that's the most common mistake that I observe.

Sean: I think one of the most common mistakes that I know is, they're planning to buy the next iPhone.

Fitz: Well, for me, there’s nothing wrong with that as long as it is within your budget. So I think that's a common misconception when it comes to financial planning. We Filipinos have that mindset that it's wrong to go to Starbucks and have expensive coffee, it's wrong to buy luxuries or gadgets for you. But as a financial planner, my goal is for you to be able to afford both the things that you need and the things that you want. Of course, the priority is to first have the things that you need, but there's nothing wrong with buying the things that you want as long as you don't compromise your finances and don't waste your money on things that are not necessary for your life.

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Ep.199: How to Prevent Employee Burnout

Thu, 27 May 2021 02:00:30 +0000

Sean: What do we do when someone in our team who is working remotely at home says that, and you mentioned this a couple of times earlier that he or she is, is burning out or has burned up, how do we solve or solve that or help the person or the individual?

Bret: The problem with burnouts is it doesn't tell you it's happening both to the person and to the manager. So burnout is something that is happening in every single company. In yours Sean, in everybody's. And it can take longer in some cases it's shorter in some cases, but there's no warning sign until I'm burnt out.

And actually when I'm burnt out, then I'm frazzled. And I don't want to work in your organization. I don't want to talk to your people. I just want my own space. I'm depressed. I don't know what to do with my life. There's a whole lot of issues around this. And actually what as a leader, what leaders have to do is get ahead of burnout. And the remote companies that do this well, train their leadership teams on how to have conversations about their own issues. So if I was in a leadership team now, and I was the you part of my team, I would honestly tell you, Sean, that I've got as you know, because we've chatted about this. I've got a one-year-old and a three-year-old and I'm really struggling to get six hours of work done during daytime hours.

You know, it's really hard. I've got, you know, I've just moved house. I was really struggling to get the work done. And by doing that, I demonstrate my vulnerability to you. I show you that I'm struggling. I'm human, you're human. I'm not Superman. And I say to you, you know, for the next couple of weeks, I am going to actually be working 9,10, 11, or 12 o'clock at night.

I'm not going to be messaging you. I'm not going to be emailing you at that time, but I'm, I don't want you to do this, but I have to make up for that for some of the time being lost. I'm getting it in different ways. I'm getting an experience with my children that I would never have gotten to five years working from an office.

So I'm getting something on the one hand, but I, you know, I'm telling you this and I'm explaining to you, I do not want you to - I want you to decompress. I want you to take time off. I want you to stop working at five o'clock or six o'clock or whatever time suits you and find something else to do.

But really as a leader, I'm first of all, demonstrating my vulnerability. As a company I need to bring in coaches and bring in therapists, that if you want to have a chat with a therapist, it's completely confidential. You can book this therapist. They're available for you. You know, you can spend as much time as you need with them. And if you need to talk, nobody will know it's completely confidential.

So companies are doing different things around this, to make sure that the leadership team is vulnerable, demonstrating their vulnerability. And there are systems in place in the company if you do have issues. If there are concerns, if you are feeling stress, and if you are feeling pressure that you can overcome this.

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Ep.198: How To Use Your Business For Social Change

Wed, 26 May 2021 02:00:19 +0000

So Patrick asks, are there things that you did during the pandemic that you integrated it in your business, paid off really well, and you are going to adapt them even after the pandemic ends?

JC: One of the things is to keep the main thing, the main thing. To focus, really focus, really do hyper focus because we really used to do that. We had a lot of opportunities to be canteen concessionaires. And we’re canteen concessionaires for like JG Summit, Nestle, Shell, and Caltex. We were the ones in the CALABARZON area to handle them. We focused on catering. But now what I really learned is to be ultra-hyper focused. That’s what is needed. Like, for example, our sales people, they really focused on the key accounts that really worked. The ones that they know, they attacked it from there.

As for me, I had to focus on what aspect of the business was the most important. At that time it’s sales. It’s really sales. So I was working with them day in, day out and I would be with them. And we cast a wider net, a much wider net. If before we were accredited with 200 menus, I think during the pandemic it was 400 menus. It was like that, it doubled down. If before, these are the key accounts that you’ve reached, you had twenty good accounts, I want you to have a hundred good accounts. Because if these people that you’ve reached and there’s a smaller chance of booking, you need a bigger amount of people coming in to convert more leads.

We really expanded the network. We really focused on, for me, what I did is to really focus on where I’m needed. It’s like, I’ll focus on my strengths which is sales and that’s where I fought. Then we stuck to our core. We didn’t deviate from our core. We stayed there. If you focus and you just give everything you have to that part of the business to where you are known, that really is the main thing that allowed us to thrive during the pandemic.

So I know it's a small thing, focus. I mean, remember who you are. I mean, people forget that. Sometimes they think it's just a little thing, they’d be like, you should expand to this, expand to that, expand to this. But people don’t know you yet. It takes so much time. It took us 25 years to be able to have this type of network. It's going to take us so many years if we're going to focus on food to-go, for example, Juan Carlo to-go. Yes, it helped us. It gave our people jobs. But that’s not what's going to bring back our business. It's catering.

So we focused on how we can add value to our clients. Okay, so let’s do this. In order to reach the total order value that we need, the contract price, let's offer it, let's add more value. Let's show even more beautiful plated dishes. Let's show them unique safety protocols so their family and friends will feel safe. That life is still worth celebrating. So we focused and we hit that. And that’s what really worked.

Sean: And bro, I just want to add to that. This is exactly why I tell people who ask me, Sean, how do you become more competitive in price? I keep telling people don't be more competitive in price by downsizing your price points. Add more value so that you can keep your price point or even upgrade it. Don't fight the losing game of becoming the cheaper supplier, because that is a vicious cycle.

Everyone's playing that game. And sooner and later, the quality will suffer. Where are you going to get the profits? You're going to just turn the output into crappier and crappier stuff, you know, service. And the whole industry suffers. When that happens, people will stop getting your industry. They're going to stop just wanting your industry. And you're just going to run out of business.

So add more value instead of making your packages cheaper. I completely agree with that.

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Ep.197: The Progression Of Remote Work

Tue, 25 May 2021 02:00:49 +0000

Sean: I have a question about what you just said, because if leading is more like coaching and facilitating , and scheduling one-on-ones, and doing it and asking them how they're doing, and that takes time.

What about the legwork? How would a leader manage the legwork that he or she has? Plus doing those one-on-ones which you mentioned before that it would just happen in the water cooler. It would just happen because your proximity is zero when you're in the office.

Bret: So remote companies generally work radically differently too, even the way most companies are working now in this forced remote environment. Remote companies do not use synchronous communication for the most part, they use asynchronous communication.

So they don't expect an immediate response, which means I don't need to be present. I don't need to be available because I can respond whenever I like. And what remote leaders do very well is they agree with the individual. They agree with the project, they agree with the outcome and, they agree what needs to happen for that to happen.

And they say, "please go and do it. If you have an issue, come and talk to me." And what the best remote companies do is they break it actually down into tasks. They look at the tasks and go, have you done this task before? As an individual, to what extent have you completed a task like this before? Because if you haven't actually completed this at a task level, you're going to have to learn to do it at a task level, which means I'm going to either have to train you. I'm going to have to show you how to get done the way I want it to get done.

So leaders, they break it down to tasks. They understand where the person may not be that good at completing the project. They build the training for it. And they actually, that is part of their role. It's part of the grunt work, but they weirdly enough end up having more time because they don't have to micromanage. They don't have to do what was done. They don't, you know, if you're working asynchronously, it means you don't have meetings. You know, most well-run remote companies, avoid meetings at all costs because meetings take time to set up.

They take many hours and they are often ineffective. But if we have to do a meeting, then we make it highly effective. Actually leadership, in most cases in a remote environment, can actually be easier. And it can be easy to find time to do the work you do, because you're not in these meetings that most companies that have been forced to go into remote are. If you look at a company like Base Camp, the leaders of that company have three meetings a week maximum short meetings as well.

The business just runs itself. There's a system in the business that doesn't require oversight. It doesn't require too much micromanagement because we're hiring the people who can get on with the job. We analyze where they may need help. We then get in and help them at those stages and things progress very quickly.

But it's moving, it's moving from synchronous communication to asynchronous communication, which is actually a hard thing to do because we're designed for synchronicity.

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Ep.196: How to Build and Manage a Sales Team Effectively

Fri, 21 May 2021 02:01:22 +0000

Sean: A sales team like that, bro. How did you build a sales team like that? Because it’s hard. Honestly, one of the teams that are most difficult to build is the sales team. It’s one of the, if not the most difficult. But how did you do it, to have a passionate sales team, caring about their targets? Because look, if they don't bring home the bacon, nobody eats anything. Right? Even the owners don't eat anything. So how do you build the sales team like that?

JC: We spent like a million pesos to train our sales people. The first thing that they did before they did any of the technical, high impact selling skills they need before they did all of those things. The number one thing they did is they aligned the hearts of our people. No matter how good your presentation is, no matter how good your product knowledge deck is, if these people are not aligned with what you want to do, it won't work.

And for me, the number one thing is, the salespeople, they're really the best team in the entire company. So nothing that we did was, don’t make them reach their own target. We focused on their personal target for their dreams and their personal lives. So we have this dream board and I did it because at that time I was so stressed. I was so stressed out from work. I wanted to quit. I wanted to quit. I said, I don’t want this anymore, it only brings so much headache.

And then I made this dream board because it's something that motivates me and pushes me to wake up and remember, this is the reason why I need to go to work. So there's a photo of my dream house, traveling with my parents. Because they've given me so much travel all over the world, I want to pay them back. I planned to bring them to Palawan, but the pandemic happened. But I’ll continue that. So there are photos all over of my dream car, my investments.

We made it numerical. Like, okay, what's the first thing that you're going to focus on? And then after that, for example they said, I want to buy a car. How much is it per month? Do you know? He didn’t know how much his dream was. Okay, inquire. Their homework by the next time we meet, on the second day of training, it already has a peso value. And then, they already know per month, how much sales they need to reach to have a commission and then pay for his expenses and put it there.

So our people are, it's so fun to ask them. If I say, how are you? They know that I am not just asking how they are doing but I’m also asking how their dreams are, if they were able to achieve it. So a quarter from now, from the first day of training, I do the training personally, myself. And then after, I’ll ask them how they are. They're going to tell me, sir, during the pandemic, I was able to buy a new Vios. It really feels good.

You know, it feels good. It can boost morale. Everybody is so motivated. Everybody is so proud of each other's achievements and I really have to hand it to my team. Because my sales managers are so motivated to reach their dreams. They're so motivated to allow other people to reach their dreams. It’s fun. I really have to hand it to my people.

Of course, they're driven for their family. They’re driven for the people around them that they have their dreams for. But I think if I would choose one answer out of the many things that they do, it’s that they're very driven. They have a very clear sense of why. Why do they need to sell? Now we're still expanding. I have sales training next week of four new sales people. We're expanding to 35 now and we're going to become a 40 sales team.

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Ep.195: Teaching New Hires About Company Culture

Thu, 20 May 2021 02:00:11 +0000

Sean: How do you suggest that we are able to teach or to share our culture with this new hire? How can this new hire be immersed with our team's culture? Are there steps, softwares, et cetera that we can use and utilize?

Brett: The first thing that has to happen is you have to define your culture because you can't teach it. If it's not defined. Osmosis isn't going to happen anymore. So without osmosis, we are lost. But if you define your culture, then you've got to document it.

And so one of the things that remote companies do very, very well, the successful ones is documentation. And it's documentation to a whole new level to what we used to and what we typically would expect, even in a co-located environment. Let's assume you documented your culture.

The best onboarding programs do not aim for productivity. Productivity is an outcome of aiming for removing anxiety, developing trust and building relationships with that new person. Relationships build trust, trust build success, trust builds the ability to work effectively. You need to help the new joiner understand the invisible currents.

The way we do things around here of the culture. And typically remote companies use a buddy system for that. You need to allow the new joiner to demonstrate their strengths quickly, not start work, demonstrate their strengths. So you need to understand what their strengths are so that they can demonstrate it to you and to them.

And then you need to create an environment of psychological safety, where the new joiner can be themselves and feel they can bring themselves to your work environment. Then you will get productivity. You have to remember that the onboarding experience serves as the first experience of your culture post interview.

The whole point around doing this and documenting this is to overcome the loss of osmosis. If a new joiner joins the sales team and the sales team has seven people. If you don't document this and you don't demonstrate it effectively during the onboarding, that new joiner now has to call each one of your sales team and say, "how do you work?"

As a new joiner, your colleagues will say to you, hi, if you want to know about how to work with engineering, look at this link. If you want to work on how to work with marketing, look at this link. If you want to understand our values, look at this link" and actually you will go and look at that page and then you will get drawn to other pages.

It's very beautiful, it's actually poetry in documentation structure. It's beautiful the way you can get lost in the document. And so there is, the problem with office environments is the human being was actually the bottleneck. The bottleneck was my ability to get time to learn from you.

Now at GitLab, there's no bottleneck. I can read and learn as much as I like. Obviously I'm not, you know, there are probably, I don't know, maybe four, 300 pages on the team, so you can go and learn. The whole team has documented it. So you can go and learn about who they are, where they work, what they like, where they live. You know, they, their jobs, what they do.

And you can see the links that are important to them. You can go and you can go and understand how the dev ops works. You can go and see how - you can learn everything about the company. It's an absolute, you know, it's a serious competitive advantage. It is there.

It's open. You can learn anything about that company? I do. I read it all the time. I just go and read the, get that manual for fun.

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Ep.194: Navigating The New Normal In The Catering Industry in the Philippines

Wed, 19 May 2021 02:00:17 +0000

Sean: So we discussed how your people are maintaining safe distance. You mentioned some of those safety protocols. Now a follow up question is from Pam, what are your strategies for adapting your business to the new normal? So you discussed the protocols. How about pivoting? You mentioned the Juan Carlo to-go. You mentioned the selling of the unused perishable goods earlier. What else did you do to pivot your business?

JC: We tried a lot of things. Some things failed. Some things worked out. We looked at the strengths of the company. We looked at the core things that we have. We have a linen department. My linen staff said, Sir, we will produce face masks and so on. And then my purchasing department said, we have a list of all the suppliers, supply chain management. We can get the best rates and we can sell and compete. It worked for a short time, because SM was still close. So us, even in Batangas area, we are the one delivering the groceries that time. Here, the face masks, when there are still no good face mask cloth, we sewed it right away even if it’s simple just so my people have work to do. It’s not really for the business. It’s not in line honestly with the branding of Juan Carlo but we did it just to keep our people busy.

But you know, what I learned, Sean, It's really about sticking to your core. It's really about focusing on, zoning in on what you do best. And that's how we were able to help our people and help our business grow and go back and even thrive during the pandemic. Because we realize that life is still worth celebrating. That's our campaign, that's our motto. That's what we were always thinking in our heads that we still want to have intimate gatherings. Like your dream wedding shouldn’t end. The dream wedding you've always been planning for two years does not have to be postponed or canceled, even those intimate occasions at home, with Juan Carlo to-go.

What we did was we innovated our food. We hired a new chef de cuisine. And we invested a lot of money in him. But we were not scared, we chose to double down and we’ve been really courageous. And we really focused on innovating our plated menu. Because right now it’s all intimate. And buffet is not really that in now. People want plated. And the brides and grooms and the people who want to have their parties, it’s like these are the few select people in your life that you're going to invite. So that means they want to go all in with the budget for these people. They wanted the food.

When you pay for plated service, yes, it's about the fact that they're being served like Kings and Queens. But what they pay for is really the artistry; how beautiful those plates look. The passion of the chef. His art translating it into a plate. What we did, we innovated, we had photo shoots of all these new plated menu and we had so many celebrity intimate gatherings during the pandemic - Idol Raffy Tulfo, Jane De Leon, it was her birthday, the one who was casted as Darna, AC Bonifacio. I’m missing some and we have upcoming celebrity intimate events.

There were a lot. I was shocked, bro. We really stuck to our guns and focused on high-end intimate events. It’s still the same. That's our core business. It's about how life is still worth celebrating in big events. I mean, not big in terms of, I mean high-end events. So that's what. I learned. You may try other things and so, but at the end of the day, you will still go back to your core. And that’s when your customers, they already know you for that, you don't need to go somewhere far.

Sean: I agree a hundred percent. Good to Great by Jim Collins also mentioned that. Right? Stimulate progress, but stick to your core.

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Ep.193: How Can You Measure Culture In Your Company?

Tue, 18 May 2021 02:56:13 +0000

Sean: Is there any other roadblock why we see so many companies being lazy?

Brett: The main reason CEOs and leaders don't do this properly is because they don't know how. The majority of leaders want to build a strong, functional culture. They don't want a weak, dysfunctional culture you know. But it's, "we are busy". You know, "we're fighting fires, we're hiring more people, we're scaling the business, somebody left, we got to hire somebody new," et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. And that's hard enough as it is. Now here comes Brett Putter and says "you're being lazy" and you go, "who the hell do you think you are Brett Putter?"

"You know, I'm not being lazy. I'm working. 24 hours a day, seven days a week, you know, go away in a different language." And actually it's because leaders just don't know how to do it. So there are, there are basically five types of - if I believe the leadership archetypes that I've defined, the first one is the culture agnostic CEO doesn't care, not interested just going to run their business through the force of nature that they are.

And I think that working in an office based environment is a little bit more micromanagement, little bit more controlling, but micromanagement in a remote environment is completely destructive. Burnout, mentally health issues are coming down the line if you are a micromanager and you don't adapt. So there's the culture agnostic CEO.

The second type of CEO is the tick box CEO. They define their values and the mission and they, you know, they define this - their vision and do that, tick the box and forget about it. Nothing changes.

Then there is the toe in the water CEO, and that CEO defines their values, their missions, and their vision. And tries to do some things, tries to embed it, tries to reward and recognize against it, but doesn't know what to do next, all that fails. And it feels they understand how important culture is, but they just don't know what to do next.

The fourth type of CEO is the culture aware CEO. They understand it. They've been lucky enough to work with another company that really has demonstrated to them how important it is. They learn from that, or they have this natural instinct around it and they define their culture. They do a decent job of embedding their culture, but they always want to do more.

The fifth type is a new type that's happened because of the pandemic, which is what I call the lazy in inverted commas CEO, who's now realizing, "Oh, my word, what do I do now? Because my culture is degrading. I realize that I should have done more. Too bad. Now I have to do something about it. What do I do?" And they are still slightly stuck in living the culture of the past and they are trying to replicate a lot of the culture of the boss. And it's not landing. So those are the five types and it's a little bit unfair of me to call a CEO 'lazy,' but they were lazy when it comes to really working on the one sustainable competitive advantage that they have complete control over.

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Ep.192: How To Support Your Team Through Crisis

Fri, 14 May 2021 02:00:24 +0000

Sean: So from Erika, one of the, actually a really good question. As a business owner, how have you taken care of your people since the pandemic?

JC: I just want to share this realization. Because well when the pandemic started, there's a lot, there's a lot of things. It started with of course, we gave them food, food packs for our people. We gave cash out of pocket as well, aside from the fact that even if there are no events. There were hundreds of events that instantly postponed and canceled during the pandemic.

We began with like, we had inventory in our stockroom worth 4 to 5 million of perishable goods that were going to rot away, which I can’t charge to my clients because I also feel for them. I also understand that this is something that they didn't want. So we did everything to try to sell off the goods, all of that. And then what happened was, the main thing that we did was to try to give them job opportunities.

When we started doing the grocery business, the selling of the groceries, people wanted to order it cooked. So we went back to our core, Juan Carlo to-go because the core of our business is we have this new tagline for the pandemic, this campaign “Life is still worth celebrating”. Because we still want to be with our clients that even during these challenging times, away from the big venues and the bright lights to a more intimate occasion, we can still deliver the Juan Carlo experience through Juan Carlo to-go.

So that's the first thing that we did. We focused on our core strength, because that's really how we're going to help our people by giving them jobs, by giving them something to do. We really try to look back over our clients that are affected by the pandemic and we focused on them. And then aside from that, of course we gave money during the time when there was really a lockdown completely. I think that was a month that we didn’t completely operate. So during that month we gave cash. We also gave food to them.

So the thing that we're focusing now on is health. Health is the number one. It's the major concern right now for our people. So the different things we did, number one, we have pre-ordered vaccines for them. So we plan as an organization to place orders for all of our employees. Of course they have their right if they want to take the vaccine, but we are also educating them about the benefits of the vaccine. Hopefully they all get it. Because number one, we've seen, and we've proven that the economy bounces back, but we need to have me, my parents, the leadership and all of our team, we need to be vaccinated. We need to be protected to be ready when the economy bounces back. When the restrictions are loosen, we will be ready.

We also do point to point shuttle service for our people to keep them safe. Do testing for them when we have events. And then everything, we do all the different types of sanitation in the office. The disinfectants that are for commercial grade. We use Sanivir disinfectants, we use UV lights, everything. Because we’re scared. We honestly live in our commissary as well so we really try to make sure they're safe. And our key people, even with not much duties, to be honest, I still let them go to work. We let them clean our new warehouse, anything.

Right now we're doing training. Training in innovation. Earlier, I just came from that, we innovated, I think 30 dishes today, different courses. And I was with my team. My sales team was tasting the food. The kitchen team went to work today because they cooked the new innovative food. So we really need them when we come back when it bounces back. And safety is so important because they risk their lives every day when they deliver orders, when they come to work. So we want to reward them as well.

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Ep.191: Beyond Job Descriptions: How To Hire Leaders

Thu, 13 May 2021 02:00:40 +0000

Sean: I wonder how many organizations you coach that make hiring mistakes and what do you do to improve that?

Jeff: You look at a couple of problems. One is job descriptions. Most jobs descriptions I look at, there's no one that meets that criteria. They just aren't made the job descriptions are there the purple unicorn with pink stripes.

But if people, if you're going out and look and people say, well, I want the best, well, have you gotten clear on what the best is? Forget about the job description because the job description is typically telling you what the job they need to do in some of the skills they need.

But it doesn't get to the heart of the person, the soul of the person, the essence of the person, the leader in the person, because people don't go and hire leaders. I'm saying, why not? And here's the problem. They'll say, well, we don't want to have not everybody can be a leader and I say, you're wrong. You can have too many managers, but you can never have too many leaders.

And I'll repeat that. That is so important. You can have too many managers, but you can never have too many leaders. So I'm looking to hire leaders. I'm looking for people who can make things happen. I'm looking for people who can empower everyone else who is going to make the organization better, not someone who does a job well.

So I think we tend to interview and hire based upon job descriptions versus people descriptions. Like who's this person. We tend to make, you know, Jim Collins said this is good to great, you know, he said you should hire slow and fire fast, big fan of that. We tend to hire quickly. We tend to hire and try to hire what we think will be high performers, never thinking about, well, what does our organization look like if we have a bunch of high-performers that sounds good.

Doesn't it? It sounds like, well, don't we want to have a bunch of high-performers. Depends. How do they perform it? Why do they perform? Are they high performers? Because all they care about is themselves and they're going to do whatever it takes to perform for themselves and to look good. Are they going to trample on the people around them?

Are they going to help make the people around them better? If they're the best sales person on the planet, will they make everyone better? I've had salespeople say, that's not my job. Why do they say that? Because the employer never made it clear. That is their job. You know, if I'm hiring someone, I'm going to hire everybody and say, one of the things I expect of you is I expect that you will make this organization better and you will make everyone around you better.

And if at the end of the year, you are killing it but this organization is not better than the people around you are not better. That's a failure. You will have failed. I don't think we get clear on what we really want and we don't get clear on what the organization really needs. So we go out and hire what we perceive to be high performers.

And the other thing I'll tell you about this, about what we make mistakes in hiring is we take too few risks in hiring. Most of the time we hire the safest pick, the person who seems like they connect the dots. They check all the boxes, but most leaders don't check boxes. Leaders don't fit in boxes.

You know, leaders are a pain, leaders ask questions, leaders challenge the status quo, but we hire, we make safe hires. And I'm a big fan of, I'm not saying make crazy risks, but sometimes we've got to say, who's the person I love to say this. If I've got a couple of candidates, which of these candidates is most likely to be running this place in 10 years or five years, why aren't we hiring the future leaders instead of the person who's going to, you know, do this task tomorrow. So focus on leadership and heart. That's what matters.

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Ep.190: Tactics For Successful Business Negotiations for Filipino Entrepreneurs

Wed, 12 May 2021 02:00:12 +0000

From Mich, what is your best negotiation success story? I guess maybe one of the toughest clients you've ever closed that you thought maybe you weren't going to be able to close it, but you did. Can you suggest any negotiation techniques that have worked for and on you?

JC: Actually my dad and my sales group are the one directly handling sales. I don't do direct sales. But the one that I've done, maybe my biggest success story was closing an exclusive partnership for different venues. We are their exclusive caterer. Because the business model of Juan Carlo is we are accrediting, not everybody can be an accredited partner to our venues. So if we are four in a venue, that's a 25% chance that we will be picked. But what we did was, by leveraging the name, by leveraging the brand of Juan Carlo, the unique selling proposition of our food. Time tested our design and our service in food, are all award winning. We leverage on those to have our exclusive partner.

So during those negotiations, actually, I just got an extension. I just got an extension now because of everything that we've done for them. Maybe when I'm dealing with clients, the number one thing that I do, I communicate the things that we have that nobody can really offer. Those are things that are really going to set you apart. Nobody can say that they have 25 years of experience and we can help them. We have a go-to marketing strategy for the wedding industry to help them get clients in their venue. Nobody can say that your food is award-winning against the top caterers and hotels. All of those things and they can just say their design is nice but is it award winning? Is your service award winning?

There are always descriptions but these are social proof that you are giving to your clients. That when you give it to them, they have nothing more to say. And that’s it. The way that I delivered that and then I just do a summary close usually. I recap all of the things that we offer, the celebrity clients. All our clients for the past 25 years we've catered. We can cater zero to ten thousand guests. So I usually do a summary close.

And then before I give this to the client, before I give the contract, I just give the contract. So I said, can we move forward with all of this after the presentation? I answered all of their questions. It's too technical to tell you in detail the questions that we have. But basically that’s it. You make sure you present the things that nobody else has. You do a summary close. And the timing of how I did that was, you would already know. You can just tell.

There are sales techniques that go by the book like you can do a trial close and all of that. But sometimes, with experience, you can just tell when they're already excited or eager. Their body language. And I just give them the contract and then that’s it. I didn't even say much. That’s it. Then they read it and then they sign it right away.

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Ep.189: How You Can Build A Self-Accountable Team

Tue, 11 May 2021 04:00:11 +0000

Sean: Authenticity, accountability, and acceleration. What do these mean? And why is it so important to you?

Jeff: I'm going to go in reverse order. I'm going to start with accountability. Accountability is, I believe a largely misunderstood concept. Everybody wants more of it, but they're not getting it because they're looking at, I'll just use the word wrong. Because I constantly hear people in their company saying, I wish I just need to hold my people accountable.

Everybody wants to hold their people accountable. They tell managers, you got to hold your people accountable. And I'm saying, no, actually that's wrong because if you're holding people accountable, you're doing their job for them. What you need is to create a culture of what I call self-accountability and what I've learned over the last 10 or 12 years is that everybody thinks they're incredibly accountable.

And most of us are not accountable at all. That we're horrible at it, but we think because it feels good. So I'll say I'm really accountable. And we keep, we have in our finger pointing at other people, you need to be more accountable and you know that same. We all know it. If I point my finger at you, there's three fingers pointing back at me.

And that's more true about accountability than anything I've ever seen. Because I go into organizations and I'll, I remember vividly the first time this happened. It was years ago. I'm talking to this team of leaders. I mean, I got 15 people in the room and I'm talking about accountability and most people are listening, but I'm watching the CEO and he's like rolling his eyes and almost scoffing.

And at one point he stops me because, "well, you know, this is good stuff, but I got to tell you, our organization is really great at accountability already." Now, if you tell me that, I know you're not. Because no one tells you you're great at something, unless you're not. We brag on the things we're not, frankly. That's what I've learned about leaders.

Leaders need to understand, they have blind spots, they have gaps, and that's what the work is about. And they can't, you can't work on your blind spots alone. It is impossible to work on your blind spots alone because we have a false sense of ourselves. You have to have outside help. Now, maybe that's a coach. I think that's one of the great jobs of a coach. That's what I do as a coach. I help leaders identify their blind spots and help them understand why they have them.

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Ep.188: Should You Begin Investing In Chinese Businesses?

Fri, 07 May 2021 02:00:12 +0000

Sean: Alright. We see that China is really growing, becoming a superpower. What are your thoughts on investing in China? Do you have China companies in your portfolios as well?

Marvin: I have none. But if I know how to speak Mandarin, I will study how to speak Mandarin. Almost all of the investors I follow, they are saying the same things, China, China, China, China, China, China, China, China. Of course, the US won't be out but China’s taking over, I think so. And also, they are very aggressive. I don’t know, they are like the Western, very upfront, very direct. I have to pay first, they are like that. Then they are also like, let’s close this deal, sign it, then pay the next day. In the Philippines, you talk about the payment last so you still have to collect it from them. While with China, you really have to pay right away.

Am I right JC? You’re nodding because they are really like that. And then most of them studied in Europe so they brought the culture of the Chinese with them and they learned a lot from Western ideologies. I don’t have Chinese investments right now, but I think it’s the future. But also, for example, my investments in the US, they have exposures in China. People have to understand that, for example, you invested in Tesla, and it has a Gigafactory in China. You invest in Apple, their biggest manufacturing also is in China. So even if it’s in the US that you invested in, somehow, it has exposure in China.

The interesting thing is, I forgot to tell you, China before was the largest factory in the world. Now, they're not just the largest factory in the world, they are also the largest marketplace. That’s why the NBA lost a big amount from their revenue because of a comment against China. They also lost a lot of money because China is one of the largest marketplaces in the world already. That’s why many people are mad at LeBron James because he gave a lot of comments about US freedom but freedom in Hong Kong. Things like that. But they don’t want to spoil their relationship with China. That’s how big the revenue that the companies get from China or at least other businesses.

Sean: So there was a player who commented about China?

Marvin: General Manager.

JC: General Manager.

Marvin: Actually it’s not even China. He just commented, “We stand with Hong Kong”, something like that. That was his only comment but all the games were canceled.

JC: And then the NBA, I think it was the commissioner, supported freedom of speech but did not directly state that he was against China. And then it’s too much. They didn’t allow all the TV shows, not just the pre-season games, they didn't allow the games to be telecasted in China, which is a huge amount of money.

Marvin: Yes, that’s how big it was. They lost a lot. So that’s how the big brands are scared of China. That’s how big China is. China is a threat for them.

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Ep.187: A Key Trait For Successful Entrepreneurs

Thu, 06 May 2021 02:00:12 +0000

Sean: So I wonder when you told your wife that, Hey, you know what, I think this is what I want to do. How did you figure that out? How did you know that “I want to take the consulting and coaching and speaker road instead”?

Jeff: I told my partners, I told everybody at the firm, we didn't tell the clients yet, but I told them, look, I'm leaving. That's a done deal. And what I did was I just started talking to people. I did not have a new plan. I didn't have a, Hey, this is what I'm going to do. I'm going to do this business. And I met a woman named Jill.

I think we just met through networking. We've sat down over lunch. And I remember that lunch there being very emotional for me because she represented a coaching franchise and she started telling me about this. And I thought, well, wait a minute, there's a franchise for coaches. Like it's in a box. Right.

That was a problem. It's a business in a box. I don't have to create all this. I don't have to execute processes and systems. I don't have to create forms. There's the business. All I have to do is coach. And all I have to do is help people grow their business. I know how to grow a business. I just grew a business from scratch.

I just did this and I know how to lead. I mean, I went, I know all this stuff. I'm just going to go help everybody else. And I remember sitting at lunch saying, this is it. Oh my God, this feels so good. This is, I love helping people. And that was a big draw for me because one of the things that really was hard for me in practicing law is I didn't feel like it was helping people.

So I decided to do that. I buy the franchise, do the training. And three years later, I'm out of business. I had failed and I had failed for the first time, really in my life, I'd never failed at anything. I mean, I failed little ways, but I never really failed. I, you know, I was an athlete, played college baseball at a pretty high level.

I did, you know, did well in school, did well in law school and became a part. Did all. I was a winner and that business, we were out of business in three years. Probably one of the biggest lessons in all of that is that yes, we learn from our failures, but only when we take responsibility for our role in those failures. If we don't do that, we don't learn anything.

It took me five years to admit is the business failed because of me. The business failed because I was arrogant. The business failed because I had one successful business. And I figured all I needed to do was just, you know, get some business cards, go out and network and say, here I am, I'm here to save your business.

I didn't do the work, I didn't put in the systems. I didn't put in the sales and marketing systems. I, you know, I went out of the network like crazy, but I didn't really sell because I expected the phone to ring. Why? Because I'm Jeff Nischwitz, I'm a successful lawyer and entrepreneurial lawyer. I mean, I'm the man. And as it, many of us, if any of us have gone through that, we know that doesn't work.

And I remember in about September of 2009, that's why I'm clear on the five years. I stood up in front of an audience of entrepreneurs, and for the first time said the business failed because of me. The business failed because I was arrogant and I didn't do the work. And you know, one of the things we talk about leaders is the importance of being humble.

And a friend of mine, John, a couple of years ago said, Jeff, you really strike me as a very humble man. And he said, I've found that people are humble because they grew up that way. Or they were humbled. I said, no, I'm the second one. I got humbled because I got smacked down, I got smacked down by my own choices.

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Ep.186: Finding Things That Work For You This Pandemic

Wed, 05 May 2021 02:00:20 +0000

Sean: What are your top investments during the pandemic?

Marvin: Your top investments, pandemic, no pandemic, good economy, bad economy, should always be the same. That should not change because your skill set for it should be the same. good economy or bad economy. So what works for you when things are good should also be the ones that will work for you when things are bad. Because that’s where you’re used to.

Sean: It was great, right? The one Marvin said, which is, same. What you're investing in, your top investments, pre-pandemic should be the same during the pandemic.

Marvin: Yes. Because it didn’t change, I’m still into stocks. It’s just that, your style, JC is right, it’s about pivoting.

Are you familiar with Josiah Go? I think he's one of the best marketing minds in the country. He said the same, if you lose everything, you also start with what you’re great at. Because it doesn't make sense to start something from zero, whereas, with the one you’re doing right now, the only thing that’s gone is the money. But your experience and skills are still there, unless your business is disrupted by the technology. Like if your business is an answering machine, something like that. Totally you have to really pivot off of that. That’s it. That’s my answer to it. I hope it was something.

JC: To add to what Marv said about pivoting, because the question was about your investment during the pandemic and how do you adjust. Somehow, I’m thinking that’s the mindset. We tried to pivot our business in different aspects based on the different strengths that we had. Like what Marvin said, you focus on your strengths.

And then we realized that we have to pivot but still within the core of your strengths. So we tried to assess, and it's still the same. We didn't change our market.

So it’s still about pivoting to your strengths and if you’re going to invest in something, it should still be something that you know. It’s not about you, starting from scratch just because facemask is a trend that you’re going to invest in there. It doesn’t work that way.

So I still looked at the strength of our main core competency, which is food and all of that. And we focused there. So you’re not just going to invest because it’s the trend. That’s also what I learned during this pandemic.

Marvin: I was talking to Bo Sachez, I asked what his biggest mistake was in business. It’s also like that. He started businesses that he didn’t like and he was not good at. So he had failed businesses before. He opened up a fishball business, food cart business then he realized that it was not something he likes to do. So you will ultimately go back to what you like doing the most. I think that’s how, it will always go back to what you like doing, what you’re good at, and what makes you also happy.

But it’s true that you can also do things that do not make you happy, but in the second year, third year, and you’re still not happy, then why are you still doing it? Right? For me, I’d rather earn less, doing something that I like, than earn more, doing something that I don’t like.

JC: Also in times of, during a pandemic, you know, what type of investments will you deviate to or pivot? For me, that's something that you are known for. So at the end of the day, it was not hard for us to penetrate corporate accounts because we know them. It's just a different product. So if it's about investing in the pandemic and things, it’s like, you stick to your core if you're a business owner, and then you just try to see what are the different, new opportunities there. Because, definitely, there's another way to look at things. There's another market who will need your product. And there's something that you can offer that nobody else has.

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Ep.185: Leaving An Empire To Pursue Your Dream

Tue, 04 May 2021 02:00:24 +0000

Sean: What happened in between? Tell us about those 17 years and then tell us about the 19 years.

Jeff: You're right. You used the word aspiring, you know, people aspire to be a lawyer and that's absolutely what it was for me.

I guess ultimately one of the problems, if I re or unpacked my life is I had a reason to become a lawyer, but it wasn't a very good one. But the main reason I did it is, you know, when you're that age, you're like, what am I going to do with my life?

I had no idea. And my mom who has since passed, but my mom used to say, you know, Jeff, you should be a lawyer because you love to argue and you're really good at it. I think back on that and say, well, if that's true, then all teenagers should probably be lawyers because most teenagers like to argue, maybe I was good at it, but that was so real as a motivator. Because probably five years into practicing law my mom sent me a letter and said, "I really hope you like what you're doing, because I know that me saying that had an impact on you deciding to be a lawyer."

I mean I nailed it. I had a high paying job, was married, you know, all that, you know, house, kids. And, but that's what I started to ask the question like, what's next? Because I achieved my goal. And so I needed a minimum, a new goal and I looked around the very big firm. And I said, what I concluded I wanted was I wanted to be in leadership.

I really felt called to leadership. I just did. I felt like I had unique perspectives. But I took a look at them, they were run by a committee with a managing partner and I looked at who was on that committee. And I said, I'll never get in that room because I realized that the firm leadership saw me as unusual.

Let's call it odd and not in a personal way, but professionally, they used to say, I asked too many questions and I would say, isn't that the idea? And they say, no, it's actually not, you're pain. Because you know, and here's, what's really interesting. I don't know where this came from. I suspect it came from my dad who was an entrepreneur.

One thing that sticks out of that time was in leadership or the leadership perspective, people at the firm regularly said to me, why do you spend so much time with the staff? I ended up marrying a legal secretary at the firm. And I said, well, because they're great people. And I realized that they saw themselves as different from the staff.

And they saw themselves as in many ways, better than the staff when I didn't. And so early in my career, I was a guy that treated everybody with dignity and respect, which I think is frankly, the heart of leadership. And so as a result, I said, well, if they're not going to let me in the room, I'll go create my own room.

And I left and started my own firm. And. Did that for seven years on my own, 10 years at a big firm, seven years on my own building an awesome firm, we had a great team, great people. I was very committed to building that from like a business versus a firm. And we built this amazing firm and it was rocking.

And then I was running the firm and I was bringing in clients just like you said, and I was doing the work building the team. I was doing it all. And I had a life to make it, I mean, I had achieved Nirvana for lawyers. Cause I had a life. Most lawyers work too hard. This is the life you just go. I nailed it.

Except when I had nailed it, I started to think about what I was doing and realized I didn't actually like practicing law. I loved the business, but I didn't love practicing law. And it was a challenging decision, but it wasn't a hard decision because I knew that I couldn't do something I didn't love.

And I quit. I walked away from all of it.

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Ep.184: How To Decide if a Company is Worth Investing In?

Fri, 30 Apr 2021 02:00:16 +0000

Sean: For those who are listening in right now and maybe they're thinking, oh, there are also people who came to me and asked me to invest in their private or startups, what’s your advice? What are the first things you look at, first red flags that you check out before you even move on in the conversation?

Marvin: I realized that you're investing in the person more. Unlike in stocks, in the stock market, there are ISO certifications, a lot of lawyers, and a lot of accountants. But when you invest in startups, there’s none of those. So it’s all in the skills and integrity of the person handling the business. There are also a lot of holes in there so it’s not just about the concept. It can be a food cart but if the entrepreneur is really good, that’s what you’re paying for, his or her ingenuity and also the risk factor which can be lost.

People always see the stock market as risky but the investments in business can be riskier because your money can go down to zero. In the stock market, your money will not even go down to zero. Especially when you buy the big ones that have dividends, your money will not be lost. So it's just that the exposure of people here in the Philippines are more in savings accounts and real estate. And then when they get introduced to the stock market, they’d be like, oh, this is risky. I guess it’s still a young concept at least in our country. We’re not mature yet compared to other countries.

JC: For me, the first thing is, because it’s true, you’re really investing in the person. So the first thing I look at is, how would I add value? And how would this person add value if I join or partner with them? Because it's always, for me, our synergy should be one plus one equals three. So I look at first, definitely, is this person going to be an entrepreneur? Can he do it? Does he have the proof of concept? Has he already led businesses now that have already grown? Has he shown that he can manage people?

So it’s like, it depends on your situation. What are your strengths as a company? And then if you're going to invest in somebody, what value will you be able to add? And then, so aside from the person, aside from the value that they can add based on their strengths or the other businesses that they own, definitely the financials. At the end of the day, it's about the return on investment. So you have to see what's the business model, how are you going to earn money, how are you going to get your money back, how long will it take. So at the end of the day, it's really about ROI.

So when you already see that the financial doesn't make sense, but also you need to double check because a lot of startups have really bad accounting processes. I mean, usually if it’s a startup, their accounting is not yet polished. So I allow my people to check the accounting information. Even me, I also have a background in business school so I study the numbers. You just have to question them about the details regarding their FS, income statement, and everything. Somehow, you will know it. So you really have to do your research. You have to ask about the business model, who are their clients, how much sales do they do per month, per day, per contract. Then somehow you will be able to break it down, you will be able to catch if the FS is right. And I would recommend joining startups with proof of concept. For me, like, it’s very risky for me if there’s no proof of concept that they have done something. And it's just an idea.

Marvin: Sometimes, for me, I look at their PowerPoint or sometimes the companies that are not making money yet, sometimes it’s like that. Or the idea is really interesting, but there’s no operations yet. There’s something like that.

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Ep.183: Best Advice for Entrepreneurs: How to Keep Moving Forward

Thu, 29 Apr 2021 02:00:16 +0000

Sean: I've read your bio and you mentioned that there was a time in your life when you lost everything and nearly your life. I'm not going to ask you for the details, but I want to talk about hitting rock bottom. How you got back up? Can you tell us about that?

David: To those who are listening, I own my L's, I've made massive mistakes. I mean, I'm really screwed up.

Mine was based around alcohol and drugs. I got massive success, for those out there that hype themselves up and go hyperactive after a deal and gone out and celebrated. And going back to work the next day and I've done it again and I'm going to celebrate, I've just done that for a few years to an excess, but because things were going well, I thought it wasn't a problem.

So I ended up losing everything. I had a breakdown, lost everything to the extent I ended up sleeping in my car. And the reason I'm saying this is I want to give people context. If you ever have it, if you wake, if you'll pull in your house and nothing's all, and you don't know any difference, it was still horrible, but it's different because you don't know different.

It goes from a fact of habit, everything, and you screw it up. You make the mistakes. It's hard to come out of that because you just hit yourself with a stick. To go from eating in the top restaurants, driving the cars, having the road trips and all the holidays to sleeping in a car and literally not able to afford to buy a sandwich.

Like that bad and I wanted it done, but it also gets to the stage where you can't, but you have to get through that day. It's horrible. It's painful. You have to become accountable to yourself. You have to realize everyone messes up, everyone makes mistakes.

You're in hell, don't stop. Hell isn't the place to stop in. Hell is not the place to retire in. Like it's a crap town, it's a little village on the way to your success. And the only way it becomes your permanent location is if you stop. Now it doesn't matter how you get out there. If you got a car, you drive out of hell, if you got a plane you fly out of hell.

If you can walk with your legs - you walk out of hell, if your legs don't work - you crawl out hell. What you don't do is stay there and burn in heat and die. It's just not it. Now you might not believe in yourself or someone might not think they deserve it and you might not. Which is hard but it's true, but it doesn't matter what, right? If you're in Hell, it doesn't matter whether you deserve it or not, it doesn't matter.

It doesn't matter whether you could achieve your day or not. You just gotta do it next week. You just gotta get through today. You just got to get in the next hour though. You just have to manage a minute, and everyone can manage a minute to do one thing if you improve 1% a day, right? Take your life right now.

If you improve your life 1% today, that's manageable. If you do that again tomorrow and again the day after, in a year's time you have twice what you have today and that might not be a lot. But a year after that you'll have another hundred percent. But there are actually 200% that you would've gone up and it will keep growing like that.

I think for too many people out there, they let themselves off too easy and they beat themselves up far too easy. And I think this is the big difference for a lot of people. If we're gonna be on a stage where we're going to get every single one out of this world. Imagine, do everything we have to do to get it.

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Ep.182: The Best Investment Options for Recent Graduates

Wed, 28 Apr 2021 02:00:16 +0000

What are the top five investments for new graduates or fresh grads to invest in and to start to accumulate?

Marvin: If I’m a fresh grad, I’d still do stocks and I'd still go into business. That’s it. I don't know if I'll do bonds if I’m a fresh grad. I don't know if I'll do it. Anything that has maybe a high degree of risk, I will try it earlier on. So I think that's how I will look at it. Anything that they understand that will give them larger upsides since they are still young, I think that would be better for them. So I suggest that they study. Look for investments that make sense for them, and then what they understand, what they think they can grow with, and then what they think will work for them. That's what they should focus on.

But for me, I always tell them, start businesses as early as they can. And then when the businesses start making money, put them on the stock market. And then when the stocks make money, buy preferred shares, buy REITs, buy bonds, or later on, they can also buy real estate. So any of those.

JC: Like Marvin said, what makes sense for you? Honestly, it depends per person of what opportunities you see, what is allowed for you. My situation is different from Marvin. My situation is different from my cousin. So It depends. You just have to honestly compare the different investments. A lot of the challenges with young people that I see, they keep talking about it. They don't actually put in the time and try, oh, how much is it going to cost me to buy a single family home? How much is it going to cost me to, how do I compute the tax for that? How do I find out the HOA - homeowners association- fees? All of that. If you don't put in the time to actually try to even check if it makes sense, then you're never going to start. But for me, based on my background, I’d really go with business.

Marvin: Business is really amazing. If I didn’t do stocks, I’d really do business because that's one of the best ways to do it. Businesses will add money to you while with stocks, it helps you multiply it. Here’s the difference between business and stock. With business, when you go home, you also take home the headache, especially if it’s a person you’re having problems with. But in stocks, there is none. When the market is close, there is nothing you can do with it. But if you are a business operator, for example when you collect money from your clients but they don’t pay you, you bring that with you and sometimes there’s even a feeling of resentment to it. Things like that. You bounced a check, or an employee steals from you, or how do you increase sales also, or you have other competitors.

So there's so many factors that you can’t control. Unlike when you go into the stock market, after trading hours, that’s it, you're done. You’re done. So I think that's the difference. And I think it’s nice that when you’re still young, you start early for you to know what will work for you and why it also works for you. So that’s it. That's just my take on it, I guess.

That's the difference of being an employee and a business person. It’s true that you get to do what you want. But the flip side to that is, you also don't get to do what you want. There are also cons in the stock market. The cons in the stock market is you don't control it. In business, you can control it. Right? You can control it.

The misconception of other people is you invest to retire. That's not true. You invest to do what you like, if what you like makes money for you also. We've been brainwashed that if you’re an employee or retired, you should start your business. People think that being in a business is the end and all. There’s more riding in your shoulders. I’ve worked harder, longer, when I was no longer an employee compared to when I was still an employee. It’s more stressful.

JC: It really depends on you, again, on what pushes you, on what motivates you, if this is something you like. So Marvin’s advice is right. Do what really works for you.

Ep.181: How To Effectively Sell Your Product or Service

Tue, 27 Apr 2021 02:00:14 +0000

Sean: How do you negotiate?

David: So I think a lot of things depend on products. I value my product. Now I do offers. It's a marketing technique. I don't lie about that. That's true.

I value every person that wants to start with me. But I have a pipeline that is thick enough, so I don't need the business. If you are worried about whether you should take the business or lower your price, because your pipeline isn't thick enough, you don't have enough people out there that want to work with you. So it's not a price problem. It's a prospect problem.

So if your pipeline is fat, you can have follow-up systems where you don't need to worry about that, or you go into it and you practice out that. And this is what I do to a lot of people.

If you will go in for the price and they're freaking out, mostly because they don't see the value or they're just being a chance. So you need to re-identify just because it looks like a cat doesn't mean it's a cat in sales. You look at a normal cat in real life. It's a cat. But because it looks like a prospect doesn't mean they are.

So it's having these strategies. So when people talk about value, we have to go through - we identify with, 'is this prospect actually a prospect that we can close in the current state where they need and what we can deliver on?' If all of these boxes are checked and I am just sitting on this bed because they don't even know you well enough, they don't like you enough, or they don't trust you or something else is going on, they haven't done it.

So the best thing to do is go through a series and steps, which you can go through to isolate each objection. And imagine that you're, you're trying to herd sheep down a corridor with loads of balls. You're ahead of the sheep. And you literally shut one door. If you shut that door, it stops in going through it. So one door in a sale will be interesting. Okay. Listen, before we go any further, what I want to do is I've gone down this road before and it's turned out actually, this wasn't a good fit.

You also need to put a little note In your head, change our question, change our pre-call to make sure this happens never again. Or if it does have a third, then you just handle that. So that means you need to deal , get them in on the call with you whatever it is.

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Ep.180: Brand Storytelling And Why It Matters

Fri, 23 Apr 2021 02:00:16 +0000

We have a business question from Richard. He says, Hi. I started doing pasabuy kind of business by reselling products from overseas. Such as IKEA small items and kids' stuff. It's been a month since I'm doing this. And there's, it seems like there's no one who would like to buy from me. Any advice if you think this business is wrong? I'm an introvert. And somehow I'm asking people to buy my stuff. And it's really hard. It's really hard for me to ask people, to buy my stuff.

Jayson: Well, if you're shy about it, then you might need a best kept secret. With what we're doing it's the same. For example, with me as a speaker, I coach some financial advisors in insurance, real estate. We have to get ourselves out there, including our business. You know, the saying, it's not what you know, it's who you know. But in this social media age, it's not just what you know, it's who you know. But it's who knows what you are doing or who knows what you know.

The best way right now, is really, really, social media. How you can study those Facebook ads and to have a good business, a good line of products. And there are many doing that now. It's getting kind of saturated. But you have to attach a narrative on the product, there has to be a story.

In other words, for example, let's go back to speaking. There are a lot of speakers. Why would they get Jayson though? There are a lot of speakers. Why would I get Sean Si? But people would get us because of the narrative or our personal narrative that resonates with them. There's this one website's name, significantobjects.com. Then, the items are ordinary items.

Let's say a plastic banana. So a significant object that is a plastic banana, the price would be a few cents, but they were able to sell it at $78. So in a sense, the price isn't at 50 pesos yet but he was able to sell it for about 4,000 pesos.

And they have a lot of items that are like that. It's just because of a narrative. It's like the brand Supreme. If you think about it, it's just a t-shirt. But if you place its branding there, boom. That's it. The price is a lot, or the well-known brands. So finding a way to create that narrative, because people don't buy your products. People buy you before they buy the product, or they buy any opportunity.

So you have to find a way to do that. And then as for being an introvert, it's fine because it's in social media. You just have to message them. That's the safety of the introverts. Believe it or not, I'm an introvert. So you don't really have to talk to people. Hey, how are you? But you can just message them. Even though you're an introvert, it's more convenient doing that. You start with your warm market, message them, show them the products and make a narrative. Why is this better than other pasabuys? Something like that. Then put a cat emoji like the begging eyes then that could increase your sales.

Sean: Storytelling is very important. How you tell the story about your product, what it does, the benefits, how you bought it, how difficult it is to get it.

When you're the one telling the story, the story follows you. And that is one way to differentiate yourself and to make your product more interesting.

Jayson: You know, Sean, I teach that in my speaking program. I'm sure you've heard of this though. Your storytelling would be elevating it into a story selling. Yeah. So you're doing story selling and sometimes you don't even need to sell anymore. You sell without selling, using the power of stories.

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Ep.179: The Best Tips and Advice for Aspiring Salespeople

Thu, 22 Apr 2021 02:00:12 +0000

Sean: What are some of the best tactics, not strategies, but tactics that you carry with you in closing deals?

David: So first off it goes into mindset. You gotta go in there with "this is a sales process." Even if you're making your mate for a coffee, you either meet him for a coffee you're meeting actually as a sales professional. And if you're a sales professional, you need to have the focus mentality. Yes, you should smile. Yes, you should be happy, but you need to be a doctor of stuff.

Try going walk-in to your doctor's and he's got his music, and he says "Yes! What's in bruv? nice to see you - blah blah blah." You don't care if it was your - mate if you're going to see your doctor, you're going for a reason. You want the professional and your doctor will ask probing questions. Your doctor isn't there to make you happy. He's there to help. And we have a lot of salespeople out there we have to start with, you know, our mindsets right?

We've gone with knowing what we want out of that. Everyone's clear. Pre-qualification is everything, absolutely everything. And the reason I say about the friendship thing before, I would jump on a strategy call with someone unless I know what the call's about. And a lot of people don't like that.

I'll ask a series of questions to pre-qualify, one to make sure I can help. Two, to make sure I want to work with you. And three, to make sure that you're confident and I'm going to sign up for the phone call.

So having this pre-qualification is a friendly, informative chat. It doesn't have to be serious. You want to have a direct question? Well, what do you want to know or what you've been working on? What are you doing at the moment? How are you selling them? What's the main struggles you've got? What are big goals you want to achieve in the next year but you haven't, or what are you currently turning over? Imagine I keep my fingers now I'm in the room with you right now. And you've got me for a day for free. What would you set me to work on to help you get more deals, whether it'd be an action, or things like that, what would it matter, right?

If you won't answer those questions, you're after just some free tips and I don't blame you, fair play for the hustle. Fair play for the hustle, but you're trying to go back, there's something that would do that. Contact coaches, try to get a little bit of this, like phoning a chef up, trying to get a recipe of each one, and now you've got a cookbook.

With that, it stops a lot of that. So then you have a stage where I know that you're committed. I know you're open to it. This is before the strategy goal.

So we have to have a structure for what we do, having your pre-qualification. I think that was about eight questions I've given you, then changed those questions up. And once you've got your questions, break it down into a clear order, but it's a smooth transition because no one wants to be felt like they are - no one wants to feel like they're completing a survey.

It gives us a clear idea of where we are. So pre-qualification is so vital because you want to know what is a viable prospect. Two, you want to know the facts that you need to get help from us. And three, it also takes you down the path you've taken out a lot of the potential objections later.

It's all structured, no more pushing sales. It's just direct. Knowing what to say and when.

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Ep.178: The Difference Between A Leader And A Manager

Wed, 21 Apr 2021 02:00:20 +0000

What are your thoughts on getting further studies like an MBA or master's degree? Do you think it's still important for an entrepreneur?

Jayson: As long as you're doing it for the right reasons. Because there are a lot of people who take MBA for the wrong reasons.

They think that it will add more credibility for them. But if you're doing it to really learn and to upgrade, enhance yourself, yeah, there's nothing wrong with it. You can pursue it. The challenge with MBA, it's better if you have an entrepreneurial background. In my opinion, you're supposed to have an entrepreneurial background because MBA teaches you how to be a good manager.

So if you start with an MBA, and you don't have a business, you become a good manager. But if you're an entrepreneur, then you get an MBA. Now you have a business and then now you've become a better manager or you have an idea how to scale your business. Then it would be around two sides of a coin that you will fill.

Have you known someone who's very good with managing? But if you ask them to start a business, it's. They can't do it. They won't be able to do it. And then you meet an entrepreneur who doesn't have any capital. no managerial background, no knowledge on management and those stuff. But after a week, they suddenly have a business. They find a way around it. So the street smarts and book smarts. And also the competency. This is from the E-Myth. E-Myth mastery. I forgot the title.

He shared there, the three qualities of an entrepreneur. So he mentioned the entrepreneur, the manager, and the technician. So the technicians are those who do the dirty work. You do the labor, hands-on. Manager is the one who creates the system. The entrepreneur is the one who has the vision, who sees the future and find ways to get there. There are entrepreneurs who are very good with those qualities, being an entrepreneur. Then the majority of them are technicians, but they're not managerial.

There are those as well who are managerial, but no vision when it comes to business. So those factors are what we need to weigh. To be honest, MBA is good, but there are millions of people who have an MBA degree so if you're just looking at it to add credibility. Yeah.

The reason why it's better if you already have your own business or you're more entrepreneurial, one of my relatives who owns a huge business, I talk to that particular relative when we have family occasions, okay. Always a wonderful question, always about business and then after he took an MBA he knew how to manage his business better.

So creating the systems and it also allowed him to establish contacts. So for him, it worked out because his motives, the objective is to find ways to build or create a system, especially when it comes to numbers, it helped him. So there are, there are pros and cons about that.

Maybe an example would be driving a car. For me, this is my opinion, it's like driving a car.

For example you took a driving class, then that's okay.

But if you took a driving class without a car, you forget what you learned. And then you will tell people how to run their business without really understanding how they've set up the business. There are a lot of consultants like that.

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Ep.177: The “No Excuses” Guide to Growing Your Business

Tue, 20 Apr 2021 02:00:24 +0000

Sean: How did it look like going from where you were? How did you become the sales person that you were?

David: If you realize that it comes to the stage where a lot of people get high on their own supply. And in their mind, they heightened themselves up to being the greatest, or they get the bad case sort of the excuses or exercises where they just don't progress.

I moved into sales and I wasn't great. I was okay. I was confident or enough for what I am getting, I was doing the work and I was looking around and I decided to door to door selling, I looked at other people in there, maybe hitting 5's or they were hitting 2's. And I'd be like "why?" I'm doing the work. I'm doing the effort. I'm smiling, and this and that - so there's something else.

Now this is the point and this is the fork in the road, that so many people get to and it goes wrong. Because there's two sides of it. One side, they become blinkered to the problem. And they be like "it will be alright" and eventually all that happens is their expectation of becoming a five - an ideal person goes down so two is actually all right, they justify it.

They find the excuses. They find the reasons and that screws them up for life. They stop pushing everyday. They start just getting used to being in the middle of the road everyday. Some days if they do fall they’d be like "yeah I nearly caught the top prize", or they look down at the people below them and go, "well, at least I'm not as bad as them." We've all heard these excuses. I wasn't like that.

I was at the stage of where I'd been trained for the last four years, the patron side, but I'm good. I can be good and I can be better. But to become better, I had to either act better, I've got to do better. I had to stop giving myself the outs, I had stopped giving myself easy victories. Because in sales, the one thing we're good at is selling ourselves, you go into a sales room of low performers. I'll tell you what, there's a lot of explanations as to why no one's performing. Their leads aren't right. This is a right, the industry, the economy, my phone, I've got the wrong suit or my ties are the wrong color, they don't like my personality, blah, blah, blah. There's always things that come out.

I need to commit to this. I need to craft myself and I've become a really good student. And I learned, like we said, earlier - podcast. I think that if you go back over the last eight years, the longest I haven't done a podcast or listened to a podcast or done something would be two weeks.

Now that's the longest in probably 8 years? That's because I'm honest to myself. A lot of people say "oh no, I do it everyday. I don't do it everyday because sometimes I am too busy." But typically if you take a month - 30 days , I'll do it 25 hours out of 30 days, typically it is a podcast. Somedays there'll be two or three podcasts and sometimes, I wasn't going to do one. You become a student of the game and all these things change.

And if you keep, if you keep fighting, if you keep getting in the ring, if you keep getting punch, there's two things that's going to happen. You could end up covered in bruises or you're gonna learn to move better. And so that was really what happened. So over time I became better and I made myself better. I become a student of the game and that delivers results.

So I found teachers, I've found students, I've found mentors that could lead me to where I wanted to go.

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Ep.176: A Guide to Effective Public Speaking in the Philippines

Fri, 16 Apr 2021 02:00:10 +0000

How are you confident in speaking in front of other people? How are you not awkward?

Jayson: You have to do your homework and you have to know your audience. So before you speak, before I speak, I study my audience, who my audience would be. I think that's one of my strengths as a speaker. I can speak to different groups. From top-level to public, from students to CEOs, entrepreneurs, and it's learning how to speak their language.

So in other words, for example, I will talk about, let's say leadership. So, let's say in the corporate businesses, leadership, you need to have your own vernacular. You need to have your own language. So that's corporate talk. But when I'm talking to, let's say middle managers. Oh, you have to believe in yourself. If you want to be a leader. Say, if you don't believe in yourself, other people won't believe in you.

Then, when I talk to students, talk about leadership. How could I relate this to them? Saying, who are you friends with? The brainy ones? Or the delinquents?

So it's like, how can you deliver the same language to different kinds of people, the same language, and share it effectively. And, the number one quality of a good speaker is really about passion. And I'm not talking about rara emotional type of passion. What I'm talking about is the passion for their topic, knowing it inside out.

And this is a study that they conducted and they found out that among the 500 plus top Ted speakers, the most popular, that's the number one quality. It's really passion. So the passion is very important, right? You care about your topic. You love your topic because speaking in a way, it's a transfer of emotions. But what's more important is getting your audience to care about what you're talking about.

And it takes time to do that. It takes a lot of preparation to do that, but once you get it, that is why what's important is to know the topic you will be choosing. You're passionate about it. But also find how you can be different, how your topic can be unique from others.

If you weren't a good speaker initially, and you considered it to be a weakness. Why did you still try to hone it? Did John Maxwell not mention that we should hone our strengths instead of our weaknesses?

Jayson: Speaking, isn't really a weakness for me, but, you know, to be honest, speaking, technically it is a skill. It's a technical skill. You can learn it even though you're not a great speaker. And there are many who aren't great speakers, but they're doing it out of necessity. And that's what happened to me. It was out of necessity because, because I needed to do it since we are part of a direct selling company I had to present, well, I have to speak well.

And I learned it. Having that passion, you become passionate about things that you are good at, or you're good in. So when I was getting better and better at speaking, then I started liking it. I started loving it, but generally I wouldn't call it a weakness. It's more of a talent that I haven't discovered yet.

And it took people to help me discover that. Because we tend to do things that we don't like to do in the first place, but we have to do it, right? So I am at that line. I'm also a strengths coach, by the way. StrengthsFinder. I'm a certified strengths coach. So I know that we should be focusing on our strengths, but that's not part of the strengths of what John Maxwell was talking about.

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Ep.175: How To Make Customers Fall In Love With Your Business With Bruno Cignacco

Thu, 15 Apr 2021 02:00:15 +0000

Bruno: A win-lose doesn't mean only win-lose with this customer. So you will, first of all, this customer is losing. You’re winning. But you will lose this customer and you will lose potential customers that could have come if this customer was satisfied. If the customer was satisfied, they could have brought to your company additional customers. So you're not only losing this customer while you're losing other potential customers. So remember that every customer has a network. And when you satisfy a customer, these customers are more prone to recommend your company to the network.

The opposite happens when you have them satisfied. I always use a very interesting quote from Tom Peters that he always observed the famous management guru and said that, "always under promise and over deliver" under promise and over deliver this means be humble with your approach. Try to show your products in a humble way, we're not boasting about this.

But then try to surprise in a positive way, try to exceed their expectation because satisfying their needs is basic, this is the default stage should be. But exceeding that expectation means going beyond their expectation. I always tell my clients a very simple example, here I'm based in London now for many years.

Little gestures make a lot of difference. Because you are generous when you're focusing on them, bcause you are serving them, you are not selling. You are serving them. You're making them feel comfortable about the purchasing experience.

Because customers want to feel comfortable, not only when they get the product. Even before buying the product, during the buying process and after buying the product, we call this touch point. During the buying process, customers should be comfortable with asking questions, when checking the condition, when asking about usage of the product, or risk involved with the product.

All these questions should be clarified and also before buying the product, the customer also has enough information to make a very well-informed decision. So after buying the product, customers should be also open to ask for a clarification on how to use the product, or a clarification of how to return the product or get a refund.

So companies should bring about positive, emotional experience all over the process. Satisfaction of needs has an emotional basis. So when you satisfy customer needs, this means that they feel well about your product, your service, and your company. So it means that they tend to love your product, tend to love your company, and they're more prone to recommend your company.

Instead, when customers feel dissatisfied, they experience negative emotion. They will feel angry. They will feel resentful, and it is all negative feelings and these will drive customers to look for other products, to be revengeful, to leave negative reviews, online, negative word of mouth.

And this is very bad for the company and also its pushing away all the potential customers that might have come in the future.

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Ep.174: The Best Advice For Entrepreneurs From Jayson Lo

Wed, 14 Apr 2021 02:00:17 +0000

Is there a best leadership personality or what for you is the best leadership personality?

Jayson: Okay, great question. Leadership is mostly about styles and there's no one style that is better than the other style, but it depends on the situation and the context. And the best leaders are those who can be more flexible.

Because he, who is the most flexible, has the most influence. And leadership is about influence. That's why if you know how to be flexible, it would definitely help you as a leader. So that's my answer to that.

How do you start your day so you can stay focused on your goals?

Jayson: There's a process when you start the day two good books out there is the Miracle Morning. And then another one by Mel Robbins, the Five Second Rule. So when you start your day, to be honest, the way we start our mornings it will actually dictate what your whole day would be.

So, if you don't start your day right first thing in the morning, then you won't be able to maximize your whole day. But start your day right? That's it, it's a domino effect. When you wake up in the morning, you could do this. Use the five second rule, like a rocket ship and she has a Ted Talk, Mel Robbins. It's been viewed by like millions, millions of times.

And this lady is not just an ordinary speaker. Her speaking business now has reached more than a billion dollars and when she had this speech on Ted Talk, 18 minutes of TedTalk, she briefly talked about the five second rule for like 20 seconds. But that's what people remembered the most. And she mentioned it in the 17th, 18th minute mark. So when she talked about it, she suddenly had an idea for a book about it. The idea was very simple. 5, 4, 3, 2, 1, take off.

She was broke and they didn't know what to do. 40 plus years old, then she saw a rocket ship launched that day. Five, four, three, two, one. Our brain, we are all attracted to patterns and then we tend to follow those, follow a pattern. So, when she saw her pattern she began to think, the next day I will use this. When I opened my eyes, five, four, three, two, one.

Then no matter what happens, even if I don't feel like doing it, I will stand up and start my day. As for me, I start my day as much as possible reading the word. I read the Bible every day. I think I got this idea from a themed playlist, the 20-20-20. Wherein the 20 minutes, spiritual. 20 minutes, you read the book, more of mental. Then the remaining 20 minutes, physical exercise.

So that's one way also. But the most important is to start a pattern and as much as possible don't break the chain. See, Jerry Seinfeld was interviewed. He was interviewed, but this is from in The One Thing book. Well, the author, he shared this story. Jerry was still in the circuit, and was one of the most popular, most successful comedians.

He was earning a million dollars per episode of his Jerry Seinfeld show before he decided to retire. That's how he earned his money. Then someone asked, what is your secret? How do you never break the chain? What's that?

On his calendar, he puts an X mark there. X Mark. That X mark every day. That serves as his way of knowing if he wrote a joke on that day. So every day he would write a joke and he never breaks that chain. Those X marks he put on his calendar. Because if you break that chain once, then it's okay. But if it's twice, three times, then it becomes a habit. And then before you know it, the chain has been broken.

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Ep.173: How To Achieve A Win-Win Business Negotiation With Bruno Cignacco

Tue, 13 Apr 2021 02:00:23 +0000

Sean: What makes negotiation so difficult? Because a lot of people shy away from it. They would rather not do it, then have to negotiate. What makes it easier for you?

Bruno: There are two aspects of negotiation. So first of is the personal aspect of this negotiation process.

So this means the relationship. This is probably the most important aspect of the negotiation process. So the personalized negotiation, then you have what we call the substantive aspect of negotiation. This means price, quantity, quality. Things that its condition should be negotiated, and this could be - if you are negotiating with an employee; it will be salary, time for working, and so on.

In the negotiation process, the only type of agreement that counts is win-win agreement. This means that both parties are benefiting from this agreement. When you have win-win agreements, you are more prone to the available long-term relationship. Because when both parties are satisfied, the relationship might not be only for this agreement, but also might be going on for other agreements.

Now, the biggest mistake in negotiation is not identifying the needs of others. Because you cannot satisfy each other's needs in a mutual way, if we don't know the needs of each other. So a very important question is; what is this party trying to achieve? What are their main needs? What are their main interests? And also we can express our interest too, to see if there is a common ground.

Companies and individuals should always keep that in mind to preserve the relationship. The relationship is the most important aspect. So I always like to quote a very famous author in negotiation, who observed that you have to be - hard with the problems, and soft with people. Hard with problems, soft with people. I like this approach. This is a book that was written a long time ago, and the author observes that you can get a bit emotional during negotiation that you can say things that are offensive to others.

You can get a bit aggressive during the negotiation process. You won't be compassionate, you won't be empathetic, and this is not good for the relationship and also not good for the transaction, and the negotiation, and the potential agreement. So this means that emotions should be unnoticed during the negotiation process.

Try to look for these interests that are related to the other party, and try to look for ways to connect, not only from the business perspective, but on an emotional level. Why this person or why this company is trying to get these interests, what things are important for them, what is relevant for them. But also try to use terminology like "we", "our agreement", "our goal". Not terminologies that show individualism, such as "I", "or my interests". We can always say "our agreement", "our potential agreement", "our sharing of this information", but also try to always to look for other ways to satisfy the other party's interest.

The only way for this to succeed from the long term perspective is, an agreement to be win-win and is mutually profitable. I'm not sure, in some cases you look for creative ways to approach the negotiation process. I will also say that it is important to understand the other person's view even if it could be conflicting with ours. Because what makes negotiation interesting is that we have different views on the transaction and decent reach in the relationship.

We have to focus both on the substantive aspect of business, this mean price, quality, quantity, and so on other conditions. And personal aspects of business, their fears, their expectations, they're interests, and their desires. So what they really want? What is meaningful to them?

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Ep.172: How To Start Your Financial Journey The Right Way With Jayson Lo

Fri, 09 Apr 2021 02:00:58 +0000

How did you start your financial journey?

Jayson: Like most entrepreneurs, I started very excited and you know, a lot of upstarts start out that way, begin that way.

You're very excited, full of ideas. And I was a ready fire aim guy, and it worked to a certain extent. But when you reach a certain level wherein it's more risky, let's say the size of your company's bigger, then you have to be more careful. SoI started with very small businesses from selling gift items. There was no internet back then.

And what we did, we would go to houses of our friends who are quite rich and they don't have time to go to the mall, when it's Christmas. So, what we did was a house-to-house bazaar, we would go to their house, to their places and bring like 50 to a hundred different, different items.

So that's our sample and then when they see those stuff they like, they'd be like "Okay, I'll get these. Give me five off of that, ten of that, plenty of this. And then that week, same week, we would deliver the items to them. And then from there, because the most important part is we talk about investing, we talk about passive income, but the most important would be earned income.

I saw a post, I think yesterday, asking what's the difference between working hard and working smart.

It's impossible to work smart if you don't work hard. So in working hard, you'll get to find ways to work smart. Same thing with money, you start small and then you start earning bigger. But when you start earning bigger, you have to find ways to put it back into the business. So that was one of my first businesses. And it helped me in terms of managing finances. Even though it was small at the time, dealing with people, dealing with partners. I was 20 years old when I started that business.

Sean: The next question, Jason is, how did it feel to reach your first million?

Jayson: It was both exhilarating. And I couldn't understand question before. One of my mentors would always tell me, you should know how much is enough.

You should know how much is enough. Because it's never going to be enough. It's never going to be enough. But when I reached my first million. For me ever since I knew that it's going to happen. I remember I bought my first car when I was twenty-two years old and I bought it in cash. Didn't borrow money.

When I was already driving the car, I saw my reasons of earning, of buying a car. I realized that it wasn't right. Because I was trying to prove myself to others like, "See? You said I can't make it but I can”. And eventually I'm reminded of LeBron James, when he was in Miami, when he was in Miami, he was the most hated athlete in any sport.

And then he was playing out of rage because he was trying to prove himself. They were being ridiculed because they formed a super team and he left Cleveland. So it's what somehow happened to me. And then he realized in the middle of his tenure there, of his stay there, that he wasn't enjoying the game anymore. It's like life was being sucked out of him.

And then he changed his mindset and then started playing with the right motives and intentions. And then that's the time when they started winning championships.

I think that's what also happened to me, I stopped caring about what other people think. And I know that's a day-to-day thing. Day by day, like it's the challenge to everyone and it serves like a barometer for you. And that's the time when I enjoyed making money, when I stopped getting about what other people's opinions are.

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Ep.171: The Most Important Resource In Business With Bruno Cignacco

Thu, 08 Apr 2021 02:00:11 +0000

Sean: What are the first few things you check into and you try to change when shifting an organization to become more compassionate?

Bruno: First of all, we'll have to identify their needs because we cannot develop a long-term relationship without knowing if their needs are satisfied. Some entrepreneurs tend to focus only on economic needs, which are very important, good salary, like bonuses, a holiday - paid holiday.

This is good, but it's not enough. This will be the basic starting point, but there are other needs that are important, as you mentioned, gratitude, gratefulness. When you appreciate people, you are not only being thankful, but the communion over precision is increasing the value - when something appreciates, it increases the value.

Some CEOs believe that it's only about economic aspects, but the employees want to feel that they are contributing in a meaningful way. And they're making a very big contribution to a meaningful purpose. So when you recognize this employee in a very clear and explicit way, employees are more likely to go the extra mile. Because everyone wants to feel loved, from the wider perspective or the humanist perspective, it means being respected, cared, acknowledged, and appreciated.

So I asked them also, what are different ways that employees can contribute to one another in a generous way. We're not talking about only material things that are important, in some cases we're talking about non-material things. For example, employees can give their ear, when another employee has a problem. Or employees can give support, training or mentor other employees and coach other employees.

This is important because when people are working in a much more collective way, you develop camaraderie, you develop loyalty, commitment, and companionship, which is very important because all employees are interdependent. And what we mentioned about Steven Covey in the beginning, employees are interdependent.

Most processes include the contribution from different teams, marketing team, a finance team, production team, and administrative team. So we need to work it all together and also help one another. So I will see that there is a cooperation that is fostered in this company. And if not, I will inquire even a few tips, how to be more generous, a very important question that CEOs and employees should ask themselves.

"How can I be more generous? Without expecting, without wanting anything in return. How can I help these individuals by my side, working around me so that I can contribute to them in a positive way." Also, you can give advice. You can give some tips. You can also, in some cases in companies - stakeholders can be receiving some contact information or very important tips.

But in some cases companies also give material things, they give an employee a gift, or they give a bonus or they give customers for example - free samples. Giving is always important because again, according to the law of reciprocity, when you give, you create an imbalance. You are giving something without expecting anything in return.

And the other person gets indebted with you and they tend to respond in a positive way, they tend to give back. When you give your best to a customer, for example, you give the best advice you offer the best product for them. You give the best recommendation. These customers feel delighted, and they will tend to not only to come back, but they will feel compelled to give back.

All these emotional aspects, preferences, expectations, dreams are so important for the individual, and for the company itself.

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Ep.170: How To Measure Business Success

Wed, 07 Apr 2021 02:00:14 +0000

How do you track your progress?

In growing the business, there are a lot of ways to track your milestones. It could be your monthly recurring revenue. So that's definitely one of the things that I track, how much revenue do we have every month coming in. Since we're a service business and our contracts are at least a year and we're paid every month by our clients, so if our monthly recurring revenue is growing, that is one of the best ways to measure if we're growing as a company.

Another way to measure if you're growing as a company or a business, is your people. Are you growing in the number of people you have in your team? So it used to be just one person working in SEO Hacker. That's me. And then, I would hire freelancers during that time. Because I couldn't afford an office, I couldn't afford full-time people, I couldn't afford utilities during that time, so I don't hire freelance people. I would do the work a hundred percent and then it became too heavy for me. I couldn't do all the work anymore because the client base was growing. You know, it was being blessed. It was growing. I suddenly decided maybe it's time to get my first office. My first office, it wasn't big. It was actually super smaller. The rent is P10,000 a month for that space, but it was good cozy office. You know, I still remember it and I was able to hire my first people because of that office.

We operated there for a while. We grew as a team. I had to rent out my next office, which is a bigger office. Actually it’s one house. It's a residential house and that's where we worked for a time again. And then we grew and grew again. Kept on hiring people because the work became more, we're getting more clients, more inquiries, and we had to move to another residential office, which is bigger. This is way bigger.

And it took a number of years where, when we stayed there and then finally we move to where we are now. The third floor of the building that we're renting out along Aguirre in BF Parañaque. But yeah, we moved there 2017. So it was actually seven years of work before we were able to get through our first commercial office in a building. Everything that we were renting out was residential.

Humble beginnings, because I didn't have venture capital. My parents didn't back me up. They didn't give me money to start the business or grow it. So it was all, “Oh, we made profits then we invest, made profits, reinvest, made profits, reinvest, save, save, save”. And we're able to finally renovate and rent out the commercial office. And then, we rented out the second floor as well. So we’re renting out two floors of the office. That's because we've grown to 50 people and that's a lot of people already.

It's beyond my wildest dreams. I thought I would have like 10 people, 12 people, and I'd be happy with that. And I was happy with that. It's just that we have a lot more work that's given to us by God, you know, and we have to do it. So we have to get more people. So definitely a growing team, that's another way to track progress. There are more ways to track it, like your voice or market share, but that's tougher to track. It's easier for you to track if your monthly recurring revenue is growing, or your annual recurring revenue is growing and if your team is growing. Those are two things that you can use to track your progress.

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Ep.169: Learning About Compassionate Business With Bruno Cignacco

Tue, 06 Apr 2021 02:00:08 +0000

Sean: I want to know, why do you say your mission is to help companies, not just become very profitable? Which is already great, but also become compassionate with their stakeholders.

And the implicit here is I'm wondering, you're talking to directors, you're talking to C level executives and you tell them, you have to be compassionate. I can see some push back there. Maybe they're wondering like, how is this it's going to affect our bottom line? How is this going to be affecting our branding? I'm sure that you have faced these pushbacks. How do you deal with them?

Bruno: Very true. I have faced a lot of resistance from CEOs, from directors, from managers, and they told me what matters in business is profit. What we are talking about is compassion - compassion sounds a bit soft. We have to achieve objectives that are quantifiable, that can be measured up, can be counted. For example, profit, market share, sales. And I told them that the quantitative aspects of business are important. What can be measured? What can be counted? But a very famous thinker has said - "not everything that counts can be counted and not everything that can be counted count".

So we have to understand that there are qualitative aspects of business. What cannot be measured? For example, compassion, empathy, support, care, and generosity. And I told these leaders that business is about human beings. You cannot succeed without human beings. I'm paraphrasing a very famous thinker - "No company is an Island."

No company can succeed on its own. Companies - taking into account the famous management guru, Stephen Covey - "companies are interdependent". They depend on suppliers. They depend on employees. They depend on community members. They depend on the customer. So when a company treats all the stakeholders, individuals, and groups with interest in our organization in a compassionate way - according to a very famous social psychology principle, the law of reciprocity. When you treat others in a compassionate way, they tend to support you in return. Instead when you treat them in a very non-compassionate way, they tend to withdraw. They tend not to cooperate. They tend to choose other companies. Employees will try to look for other job opportunities. Customers will look for other companies.

Some CEOs understand because there is a new generation of CEOs, obviously much younger CEOs that are much more open minded. And they understand that when you care for people, when you treat people in a very compassionate way, you generate what I call and observe - an approach of emotional intelligence.

You are being, not only recognizing your own emotion and expressing them overtly, but you are being compassionate. You're being caring with others. And others tend to act in return - in the same way, in a reciprocal way. So this is very important because the building block of any business is the human being.

I always tell my clients that we have to ask ourselves very important questions. Is this business decision benefiting all stakeholders that are related directly or indirectly to our company? If not, we have to rethink this decision because it's not compassionate.

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Ep.168: Why You Should Not Have Too Many Leaders

Wed, 31 Mar 2021 02:00:16 +0000

Question from Gab. Hi Sean, I'm a young entrepreneur who put up a marketing startup where I have six other co-founding members. Wow. That's a lot of co-founding members. What do you think are the advantages and disadvantages of being seven partners in a service industry business? Do you think it's going to be profitable in the long run?

Well, Gab, congratulations. Usually when you start entrepreneurship young, that's a good thing because you have a lot less to lose. You can take a lot more risks. That's a good thing about it.

You have six other co-founding members, in my opinion, that's a lot. When someone wants to start a new venture with me, what I usually say is, I would either be a silent partner where they can ask for my advice, but my decision is, it doesn't matter if I decide something or not. So only a slight silent partner. Either I’m a silent partner where I can just give advice or I'm the majority. Anything in between, I don't want to do that because I really don't like having conflict with other people who are invested monetarily or industrially in the business.

So I'm either of two extremes, personally, that’s how I do it. Either I'm the majority owner where I make the decisions, or I'm a silent partner where you guys make the decisions, but if you want for my advice, I would give it. Why do I do it that way? Because it's hard when you have a lot of heads making decisions. If there are a lot of heads, we can no longer call that a human. That’s called a monster.

Applying that in business where you have a lot of heads butting against each other, when you have disagreements in decision-making, you're already fighting against each other internally, and then, there are competitors out there who also wants to kill your business or get more of your business, you're fighting fires inside and outside, that's not healthy for a startup. I think if you guys are seven partners, that's tough. That's what I can say. It’s going to be tough. When you're starting out, it would be fun. It would be fun because there’s many of you. You will help each other, there’s many of you, and that could be fun.

But long term, problems are going to crop up. You have to systematize things. You have to scale it up. You may have to have other rounds of funding in there. It's going to be tough. That's what I can say. You have a lot of decisions to be made, and every time you have decisions, you have to wait for your co-founder’s votes. I think it's just tough doing it that way. Unless you have your departments to run. Each of you already has your departments you decide on who gets a veto vote.

Like for example, the president, if you appoint, one gets a veto vote where his vote is always the one followed because he's the most invested in the company and he's the most knowledgeable. He makes really good decisions or she makes really good decisions. Or you just trust her a lot, then you give her the veto vote. So whatever the decision he or she makes, that’s it. Then I think that would work better. If you don't have anything like that and you'll always have to wait for everyone to vote, it's going to slow your startup down.

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Ep.167: Creative Thinking for Entrepreneurs

Thu, 01 Apr 2021 02:00:59 +0000

Sean: I noticed you mentioned that from the first thinking you just said point A to point B, what am I going to eat? And that's thinking, creative thinking, you positioned problems along the way. And that's how we came upon the analogy for your creative thinking.

I want to know, since we have leaders and entrepreneurs and managers tuning in. How can they use creative thinking in their day-to-day work in their day to day teams? How would that help them? Is there a process? So we talk about things that are kind of like in the clouds, like creative thinking is a word in the cloud, culture is a word in the cloud.

A lot of people don't understand that, but. Culture is really simple. We simplify it by the way you do things, meaning your processes, how you hire, how you fire. I promote that culture. What your core values are? How well do you implement that? Do you make perks out of it? Do you make it real in your company? Do you penalize from that? That makes culture. So it's not a word in the cloud that is actually very simple to understand; it's your processes, but with creative thinking, even for me, there's no concrete thing yet about it. Can you pull it down from the cloud for us? Is there a way or a process to do creative thinking?

Fredrick: I personally define creative thinking in two major ways. And so I talk about crazy ideas and you know, these are the big innovation, the car, the Zoom is you know, at one point it was a crazy idea. This is at one point where this wasn't a thing, you know, crazy, crazy ideas are, you know, those ideas that are very revolutionary and really change the world.

So, because there's been a Zoom, it has now made it easier for people to move, for people to communicate. So that's the one type of creative thinking, really big, bold, radical idea. And then the other type of creative thinking are defined as problem solving based creative thinking. So like my early examples of the $4 and 66 cents.

That will be known problem solving based creativity. We have to address an immediate problem or an immediate concern. You have very limited funds, but you have to get from point A to point B, I'm going to take the bus, you know, half of the way you're going to walk part of the way. Are you, you know, what are we going to do?

So those are the two major types of creative thinking that I would define in a concrete way.

Sean: And how can leaders, managers, entrepreneurs use that in their day to day team activities or work and output?

Fredrick: [00:02:30] I would say, you know, this time that we're living in pandemic, chaos that has caused, I think, you know, especially now is really that time for all of us to really think about like, okay, how are we going to get through these challenges?

How are we going to create ideas that can really help people along? Like I said, Zoom is becoming very popular during this time. And so this was a crazy idea that is really helping, you know, a lot of us, you know, in the world, you can use your creativity to solve immediate problems. So with, you know if you're short on resources or if your staff is indifferent location, they can really come together because of the restrictions.How are you going to solve that problem and get them working together and to get them working like a well-oiled machine?

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Ep.166: The Smart Way To Grow Your Money

Wed, 31 Mar 2021 02:00:15 +0000

From Cedric Choa question is, at what age did you start investing?

I don't really remember exactly what age. But I assume it's after I was able to make enough money that I had a little excess. I remember my first investment was not big if we’re talking about the stock market. It's really not big. It's like P5,000, something like that. I think it was when I was 22 or 23 years old. It wasn't big because I didn't know how to invest yet during that time.

Investing is, it's a learning journey. You don't invest just because you have excess funds. And you don't invest in just about anything. And you especially don't invest just because you heard that this stock’s going up, this stock is hot or this is what's hot right now. You know, cryptocurrency Bitcoin is going up right now. You don't invest just because the trend is going up, you invest because you know what can happen to it or what is going to happen to it. You know the history. You know the value of that particular stock or investment. Also, you don't invest when someone says that a certain investment is guaranteed because when they say it's guaranteed, it's almost guaranteed to be a scam.

Nothing is guaranteed. Right? Because if it was, then the one asking for the investment would be the one investing in it, right? Why would they ask for investors if it's guaranteed? Then, they should be the ones who will invest. There are rules to investments. It doesn't matter at what age you're going to be investing. What matters is that you learn. You learn the investments. That is what's important.

Can you share with us your strategy in doing stocks? Are you a long-term investor?

Yes, I'm a long-term investor. I usually invest long-term and that's because I can't really trade. I can't look at the stocks every day and make decisions and analysis every day, as because I have a lot of concerns also in business.

Yeah, so sometimes clients would just have problems. My team would have problems and I have to be there to help them solve those problems. It's five, ten minutes if your brain is hardwired in doing that everyday, and you're used to doing it every day, but I'm just not used to doing it every day.

I'm not sure where to find what I need to see, the charts, the graphs, the data. Long-term investment works for me, or copy trading works for me right now. So I'm doing a lot of copy trading right now. There are investors in the world who are a lot better in trading and investing than I am. And I would rather just copy whatever it is that they're doing real time.

Can you share some investments and how you managed them?

I've invested in PSEi. So I have my Philippine stocks. I'm invested in Jollibee, SM. I’m invested in MPI as well. A couple of other stocks, I don't remember which ones I don't check it often. Again, I invest long term. I don't check every day. And then I'm invested in eToro. So I copy trade. So there are people in eToro that's going to be recommended to you, I'm sure. I copy trade them. So they're the ones trading. I don't know what they're trading really. I'm not a hundred percent always looking at it, but I've made good profit out of it.

I don't manage my investments, really. Private investments, I do have also investment in sugar. I have a friend in Bacolod who was generous enough to allow me to invest in some of his farms. So I invested there. He didn't need my investment, actually. I don't know why he allowed me to invest. He didn't need my investment. That's one of the best investments I've ever made because his farms are making good revenue, good produce and output every year. So definitely one of the best investments. I love private investments. That's because not a lot of people can invest in them and you get to know who the person you're investing in.

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Ep.165: Turning Rejections to Opportunity

Tue, 30 Mar 2021 02:00:23 +0000

Sean: So Fredrick, this is the most interesting question that we usually touch base on during the beginning of the show. And that is. What is your startup journey?

I mean, you started out this thing called the creativity school and you started your own publishing company. How did that happen? Where did you get the idea? Where did you get the inspiration funding, whatever it is that moved you from point A to point B? We want to know the story behind it.

Fredrick: Well, I would say it was really born out of struggle.

Well firstly, my publishing when I wrote my first book, I tried to find an agent. I was rejected 44 times. So I couldn't find an agent. I was getting rejected, left, right, and center. So that's when I decided to take matters into my own hands and self-publish. And so that was the beginning of Kyomya publishing and decided to really just take control and publish my own work.

And as far as, you know, becoming an entrepreneur about July last year, I had just finished a work situation and it wasn't satisfactory to me. So I didn't really, you know, my prospects weren't really looking so good, you know, finding another job and it was really difficult. So I just decided to start what I was doing and just go for it.

So that is the background to what I'm doing now.

Sean: Tell us about the creativity school. How did you get the idea of starting that out? I understand that you got rejected by publishers and there are a certain number of people I know in my network who. Pretty much went through the same struggle. I mean, if you're an author for the first time, you don't have a name for yourself.

No one knows you. No one knows your stuff. It is a struggle. I understand Kyomya publishing was born out of that struggle. But how about The Creativity School? What's the story behind that?

Fredrick: Well, The Creativity School, it was less of like a lightning bolt kind of moment. It was really just kind of, it took a while to kind of take shape.

When I first started, it looked very different from what it looks like now actually, I really just wanted to create a platform where learning was more exploratory and learning was more interactive. So it wasn't just like me giving instruction to whoever is on the platform. I really wanted the platform to be an exploration of different topics, you know, self-mastery, money, things like that. So that's really the idea behind the creativity school. And that's the reason I created the creativity school is to explore all these different topics.

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Ep 164: Two Types of Marketing Filipino Entrepreneurs Should Know

Fri, 26 Mar 2021 02:00:50 +0000

What are the differences between SEO and advertising?

Well, SEO is inbound and advertising is outbound. What that means is, SEO is there are people who are already searching and they come to you. So it's inbound because you're not looking for them. You're not distracting them. You're not getting into their faces.They're just coming to you because they're looking for whatever it is you have. And that's why Google ranks your website high in their search engine results page. So we call that inbound marketing. And that is, in my opinion, one of the best ways to market is, to just serve people who are already looking to be served. Sell to people who already want to buy. So inbound marketing is in my opinion, the best form of marketing. And the best platform to do that nowadays is through Google or search.

With advertising, there is a place for advertising that Google cannot get into. And that is if you're selling something that's novel. So if it's completely new, the market is not familiar with it. They don't know what it is, then you do have to advertise. You have to tell them what the product is about. There is no way for them to search for that because it is something new in the market. So that is the time when I say advertising has to happen. And you can do Facebook ads, Instagram ads, it's really up to you.

Which is better than the other? Well, in terms of return on investment, inbound marketing has much better returns because they're already ready to buy, they're already ready to hire you for your services. But in terms of, does advertising also have its uses that inbound marketing cannot reach? Yes. Because again, if whatever it is you're selling has not been introduced in the market, that well, then no one's searching for that. Then you do have to advertise.

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Ep.163: How to Build and Develop a Strong Vision for Your Team

Thu, 25 Mar 2021 02:00:25 +0000

Sean: How do you craft or help to craft the vision for a team? How does the process look like? What would you say about having to guide them as a business mentor or a coach in crafting the vision? Is it necessary to have a vision, a coach or a mentor for a business person to be able to craft an effective vision?

Jeff: What I would definitely say the vision itself is very necessary, but at the same time, what would it be if I could tell you that your vision should fit on two pieces of paper? It should only answer eight questions.

So it's first one is what is your core value? So we've kind of already talked about that before I'm feeling okay. Values of integrity, continuous improvement, simplicity. Things like that. What makes up who you are kind of a thing from a core value standpoint? Second question is, what is your core focus?

From our business standpoint, we don't have the resources to be the sun with that much energy. We've got to focus on a limited amount of resources to say, okay, exactly, what is our purpose, our cause, our passion? What are we trying to do from a business standpoint and exactly what's the niche? What's the singular kind of focus that we're going after? And like we were talking earlier, anytime we're evaluating something new, a new product line, a new market we need to go back and look.

Okay, does that fit our purpose? Does that fit our niche? Do we want to maybe venture out and widen that or whatever? But still most likely if it's not fitting that niche, that core purpose who we are, then it's not a good fit for us right now.

So again, keeping that laser focus of our core focus right there as a business, then we look at saying, okay, what's your 10 year target and ten's really kind of number, but it's still it's, it's the big goal out there to say, okay, this is what we're trying to reach 10, 15, whatever the year is, it's still out there on the horizon. It's still kind of fuzzy. It's very high level. It's not a detailed plan or anything.

We've got from a vision standpoint, like I said, what's the core focus? What's the core values? What's the ten-year target and the target market? So that really starts building out your vision there.

And then the second page of it, the flip side here is where we say traction. Okay. Where do we need to be? What are our revenues, actual real numbers need to look like? What do our profits need to look like? What are key measurables in terms of number of clients, number of sales, number of products, markets, whatever the case may be?

So having those specific goals laid out really from the idea, again, like I was saying with traction, we've got to get everybody working on the same page that we know. Again, this is my goal. This is my objective for this year. And then we're going to actually bring it back one more time, as in to say, okay, what's our 90 day plan because really 90 days is what we want to look at.

If nothing else happens, this quarter. If I get these things done, it's a successful quarter 90 days from now. We're going to sit there. Okay. Re-evaluate. Did anything need to roll forward? What happened? Do we need to make adjustments? Plan out the next 90 days, what are the goals for the next 90 days?

And just sit there and iterate, iterate, repeat. And then the last one is really a long-term issues list kind of thing, just a running, almost bucket list to say, Hey, what issues are we facing? What issues do we need to deal with? And just have those again, the idea is that, okay, they're on a list.

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Ep.162: How to Build Trust with your Clients

Wed, 24 Mar 2021 02:00:28 +0000

Since you started your business at a very young age, how did you make your clients trust you? Does age discrimination still exist?

I think so. When I was younger, I think that when they ask for my age and I do say that I'm in my twenties, that it does affect their decision. I do believe that. But then again, SEO is a very blue ocean before. Not a lot of people knew what it was and those who wanted to do it during that time, early 2010, those people were forward-thinking. They were early in the market, early adopters. So they were ready to try out someone who's in his twenties.

So I think that it was there, the age discrimination or the lack of trust because you're young. But I also think that they were willing enough because they know that it's the younger generation that's really tech savvy. And it's the younger generation that's really going to be knowing what SEO is and how to do it.

How I made them trust me is, whenever they have questions, I'll make sure to answer them with integrity and honesty. You just look them in the eye and say what the answer is and how you get to that level is, you study a lot. You experiment a lot. I was extremely obsessed with ranking and SEO. And I studied the ins and outs actually from way back when, up until today. And whatever it is that I learned then, I think that a lot of them you can't learn deeply now because there's a lot of stuff now that they will tell you, but the foundational truths are not being pronounced.

So there are a lot of things that I know that are valuable and they saw that and they felt that, and then they saw the results as well. And I was able to partner with the biggest brands here in the country and produce results for them as well. So that kind of snowballed into other clients trusting me, even if I was in my early twenties during the, I'm 32. So I just turned, I just turned 30 a couple of years ago. So I think that the portfolio did me a lot of good. So you have to build that portfolio.

How can a hobbyist increase his or her credibility to their potential clients?

If you have a portfolio. I think that is the best way. You have to have a portfolio of past projects that you've done. It has to be impressive. Of course, big brands or good brands would help a lot. And case studies. How you helped them and took them from point A to point B.

So with SEO Hacker, our case studies are usually, this is where client A was. They were making like 200 sessions a month. And when we came in, they're now making 200,000 sessions a month. And that's huge and they're making millions out of that when they were making zero before. So that kind of case study and how I wrote it and how I had it designed is a big deal. And we close deals that way. So that should help you out. Especially Sarah, I know that you are very good with graphics and video. I'm a hundred percent sure you can do a portfolio.

If you're finding it difficult, then get in touch with me. That is why we have the discord channel. I can help you out. Just let me know if you want to check out our portfolio as well, that could be a template for you, and you could do an easy one. No problem.

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Ep.161: Improving Business Process Management With Jeff Chastain

Tue, 23 Mar 2021 02:00:16 +0000

Sean: The question is, should I ticket the stuff I need done? Cause I'm an urgency junkie. Usually when I need it done, I need it done. So I just go through, I go straight to the project managers and I Slack them, just takes my process engineer off.

So what do you think about that?

Jeff: Yeah, it's a problem. No, it's, it's really the idea of process. And this is really one of the keys because there's a sweet spot basically for defining processes. That we can definitely go zero process is obviously bad kind of a thing, but at the same time, we can go all the way to the other end of the spectrum and sit here and effectively kind of micromanage detail out every single little, Hey, click this button and fill out this form, then do this, this, this, this kind of a thing there.

And one, it adds a lot of overhead that obviously people and visionaries, et cetera, kind of gets frustrated with. The other part is it takes out a lot of creativity. So there's like a happy medium in there. And what we look at is, really refer to it as an 80-20 kind of rule that basically there are 20% of the steps in any given process that are going to get you 80% of the value.

That's the challenge for a lot of those entrepreneurs because they have their way of doing things. So therefore everybody needs to do it my way, like that's what kills the creativity. And hopefully you're bringing in from your team right there, that what you really need to look at and say, okay, what are, again, that top 20%, what's those key steps that if we do A, B, C, and D, I don't really care how you get from A to B, as long as we've got A and B done. Then we're good kind of a thing.

And it's, it's trying to draw that balance and it really differs on every company, on every different process, kind of a thing. So it's always an evolutionary kind of process working through those, but it really, you got to hit that sweet spot because when you start documenting the six inch thick SLP manual for, okay, this is how we open a ticket or fix a bug kind of a thing.

Nobody's going to read the thing in the first place, but surely they're not going to follow it. And they're going to be frustrated trying to follow it. And you're going to kill really all your productivity because, I'm spending 90% of my time following this process and documenting all the forms rather than actually doing any work, kind of a thing.

So to answer your question yes its a problem, when we go around process, go around staff, et cetera, kind of a thing, but at the same time, That potentially points to another issue of saying, okay, maybe our processes are a little too rigid. Maybe our processes are a little too detailed at that point. Could we bring this up to a higher level? Give our team some of that creativity, some of that and that latitude back because honestly, hopefully they're smart people.

They may bring ideas to us to say, Hey, we could actually do this slightly different and be a lot more productive and be a lot faster and we get better results, whatever. But if we've got them so tied down, so rigid to say, okay, you have to do all these little mining steps, then they lose that creativity and that flexibility they're really, it. Honestly, they lose a lot of the enjoyment out of the job at that point.

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Ep.160: How to Do Business with Family

Fri, 19 Mar 2021 02:01:23 +0000

Question from Jazz. They say, family business will ruin your family. What is your say on this?

I think it depends on how you run the family business. Because early on, we were farmers and hunters. A lot of businesses before were family businesses and they had more time as a family. And we could see families now, there's divorced, left and right, and that's because the husband and the wife are working different jobs. And sometimes, there's affairs going on and they grow separately, their separate ways.

And you know, I think working in a family business is a blessing. We see people doing farming. The father is a farmer. The mother takes care of the house or grows some of the crops and the kids also help. I think it's a privilege and a blessing to work in a family business, but you have to do it right.

Just like any other company, you have to do things right. If you do things wrong, then the company will crumble and fall down and be torn apart. And I think that as a family, you have more chances of getting up. Rather than if you're starting a company with friends, there's more chances of you not getting up, not having the grit to rebuild the business, especially if it's a startup company.

So I think that having a family business is actually really good, but that assumes that your family dynamic is also good. Of course, you're not going to decide to start a business with family if your family dynamics is screwed up. So that is the implicit understanding there.

How do you do business with people who are unbelievers?

I do business with them. I don't make them partners. I don't do joint ventures with them because I wouldn't do that with unbelievers. It’s hard to be yoked with them. You know, the Bible, that's what it says, do not be yoked with unbelievers. And what that means is if you're partners with them, meaning you're 50-50 with them, or a hundred percent effort from you and a hundred percent effort from them, together, you're walking hand in hand, going hand in hand, and I think that is not good.

So I don't have any joint ventures or partnerships with unbelievers. In fact, most of my businesses, I don't have any partners. Yeah. I don't have any partners or I'm always the majority owner. I don't have a business where I'm a minority stake, unless I'm a silent partner. I don't like being a minority. So I'd rather be silent than minority. You do business usually to avoid headaches. And you do business with other people also, it has to be clear to you who's the industrial partner, who's the funder, vice versa.

If you're the industrial partner, then the funders has to be clear who's in charge. There has to be only one head. If there are many heads, that's not going to work. A person with many heads, that's a monster, right? So you cannot have many heads leading a single company or organization.

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Ep.159: Business Problem Solving 101 With Jeff Chastain

Thu, 18 Mar 2021 02:00:12 +0000

Sean: What does it take for an entrepreneur to say that's impossible, I'm stuck in the mud.?What do you do, Jeff? What do you say during those times?

Jeff: Oh, it's the difference really is every company from a business perspective, everybody's going to constantly be hitting ceilings as they grow on the business side.

And the reality is simply and a lot of times, it's just a matter. Honestly, I'm pointing this out to say, okay, the, the skill set, the structure of the company at 5 to 10 people for that level of business is completely different than what you need at say, 50 employees kind of a thing there with three or four different markets instead of one market, kind of a thing as you start to grow that business.

As long as we get processes and procedures, even your culture, things like that, and documented and figure out such that you've got everybody on board with that, then you can step back and trust that, okay, we can grow to the next level. Because we have our systems, we have our foundation in place. And so therefore going from sales person, one, two, now two, three, and four is really not that big a deal.

It actually is a true scale at that point, because we have documented sales processes. We have documented target market. We have documented differentiators and a guarantee that makes us different than our competitors. And all four of those salespeople are using the same language, the same - everything that we're talking about in our business and working together.

So what's the true scale, rather than saying, Hey throw you to the sharks out here and go, come up with your own verbiage. And all of a sudden we've got marketing, pushing out one message sale and doing something else and operations kind of throwing their hands up and saying, what the heck did you sell this time?

If we've got this all documented and put together, then everything just keeps working as we grow, as we keep scaling there, it really takes a lot of that pressure off of the leadership team as they grow. And it's a transition and it can definitely can be difficult for some people, but it's, it's one that, okay.

Once you kind of start seeing that picture as to one realizing, okay, this is the goal that we're working towards for our company as a whole, but still the fact that I can see that, okay, we are making progress to that and I've gotten visibility. I've got clarity into my company, says, Hey, we can make this work.

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Ep 158: The Five Best Investments For Entrepreneurs

Wed, 17 Mar 2021 02:00:10 +0000

What are your top five investments?

Top five investments? Well, I mentioned the agriculture investment. That for me, in my opinion, is one of the best investments that me and my wife has made. It's a private investment with a friend, so it's not available to the public, unfortunately, but it's a really good investment, really good returns. And the person I invested in is a good friend. A person of integrity and a brilliant person. Also, he's the fifth generation running the agri business. So he really knows the ins and outs.

I mentioned also last time that investing in your spirit is a very big deal for me. So when I say that I invest in my spirit, that means I read God's word every day. I meditate on it. I talk with him every day, that's prayer. I journal. And these are things that are very, very important for me, much more than money. Since you only mentioned investments, not financial investments, one investment that I would say is actually the top one investment is, investing in my spirit.

I also invest in my relationships. So I guess that's going to be top two or top three, somewhere there. Network is very important. I'm a businessman. First and foremost, in terms of making money, generating revenue, I'm a businessman. I'm not an investor like Marvin Germo. But I do have investments, financial investments because it is tough to just put your money in the bank and watch inflation eat it up. So I do have financial investments. It's just that, I invest in my network more. So I get to know people. I go to mixers. I go to events. I get to know new people, meet new people. Right now, it’s a little bit tougher because we're just at home, but it's not impossible. I still meet new people. People still get referred to me and it's all good.

Another investment that I make in terms of financial investment, I invest in a copy trading platform. If you want to know more about that, maybe you can just DM me. I’ll send you the link, show you even the people that I'm copying. These people I'm copying, the gains are upwards of 20%, 60% per annum. So that's actually a very, very good vehicle if you want to grow your revenue or make your money work for you passively. That is something that I could share with you. Just send me a PM or DM, Facebook, YouTube, whatever. Or actually in Discord, you can send me a DM there and I'll let you know about who I’m copying and about the copy trading platform as well. And I could help you out if you're going to have difficulties in signing up because some people do, I can expedite that one for you.

The last investment I would say is an investment in your health. We all know how expensive our body is. Our body’s super duper expensive because when you get sick, the hospital charges you in the six to seven digits in a matter of a few weeks, so that is a big deal. If you don't invest in your health, your health could grumble down or you could get wind of whatever virus is out there. Maybe it's not COVID, maybe it's something else. We don't know, only God knows. But I would say that it is going to wreak havoc on your finances, so invest in your health and your physical health as early as now.

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Ep.157: How To Write A Vision Statement For Your Business With Jeff Chastain

Tue, 16 Mar 2021 02:00:32 +0000

Sean: What are some of the biggest problems that entrepreneurs face after the startup stage?

Jeff: You really got to focus on getting that customer in the door, but once you start hitting that growth phase and saying, Hey, okay, This is simply more than I can handle with my two or three people around me. We've got to go and grow this and scale this that's where, and really on up as long as you've got still got that entrepreneurial kind of mindset of saying, "Hey, I want more, I want to grow this company. There's more possibilities here than what we're currently capable of."

That's where EOS really sits is that sweet spot. So from a struggle standpoint, a lot of times it really kind of varies based upon what that entrepreneur wants out of business. So I'll have people ask me all the time, it's like, well, what's your profitability measurements that you get out of EOS?

It really doesn't necessarily go that way because one entrepreneur may want more profitability and they might say, "Hey. We used to be at 30, 40% margins. We've added on new staff. We should have scaled up. And now we're only at 10% margins. What happened?" And that's, that's a lot of times that, okay, we don't have the systems, we don't have the training, et cetera.

We don't have the efficiencies anymore that we used to have. At the same time they may be looking at, it may simply be that, "Hey, I want I'm the visionary type entrepreneur. I'm tired of fighting fires. I'm tired of dealing with issues in the business. I want to go play golf on Fridays and go back and have those conversations. Those big conversations with my friends or the people out on the golf course. I didn't want that time back, that enjoyment back. Because I'm spending too much time right now doing stuff I don't like basically."

And it kind of takes the fun out of what, of the business. And that's really what I've seen a lot of times. Cause you have the early stage kind of failures where obviously the product has been launched, but then you've also got a whole another stage, usually about five to seven years before you start saying. Those businesses fallout as well, and a lot of times that's really the, the entrepreneur, the visionary type said, okay, I was having fun down here where we were at four or five, 10, whatever people, early stage kind of a thing.

Now that this has turned into a 20, 30 person company, this is business. This is work. I want to go back to playing in my area here, or whether it's technology or medical or take your pick, whatever your little focus is that this is your enjoyment play area. And now you're having to handle staffing.

You're having to handle finances. You're having to handle marketing and sales and you don't know necessarily how do I, how do I get back to having fun? How do I structure this business? So it's really a sense of frustration, almost more than anything. It's okay. I don't, I don't know what to do. It's, it's stuck here on the business that in many ways, like I said, it used to be fun.

We used to be lightweight. We used to be agile. We could adjust real quick. Now it takes six months for anything reasonable to happen. And even then it's questionable kind of a thing there. And it's just, everything's stuck in the mud. Nothing's moving forward anyway. So it's a lot of times it's just pure frustration with the business and where they are.

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Ep.156: SEO Tips to Improve Organic Traffic

Fri, 12 Mar 2021 02:00:14 +0000

What are the top techniques for SEO? How to drive organic traffic?

All right. I always say SEO is a discipline. There's no magic to SEO. If Google sees that you are improving your search engine optimization for your blog or your website every single day, then you're going to get better and better rankings. But if you're not improving it, then you're going to remain stale or you're going to drop in the rankings depending on your competition and your industry.

Top techniques. It's hard to say that it's a technique, it's more of a discipline. So I would say top disciplines would be freshness. You have to keep writing copy. You have to keep publishing copy. It has to be in healthy frequency, maybe once a week, maybe twice a week, whatever it is for you or your industry, it should be in good frequency. And you should always ping Google whenever you have something new, so that they come back to your website and crawl your website again.

Links that you build from other websites to your site, how you build yours, I'm not sure, but one fantastic way is to contribute to other websites that would accept guests posts, especially if you're an authority in your niche. For example, I'm an authority in terms of SEO. It's easy for me to get guest posts on other websites. That's because they want me on their site. They want my content there and I get links from the in content links.

Other things that you should watch out for whenever there are algorithm changes or core fixes that they're doing. So next year, they're going to hit the core web vitals algorithm and that has a lot to do with site speed. They broke down site speed in terms of the first interaction of the user, the biggest images or static files that would load and how long it loads. They broke it down to kind of like micro pieces. And if you pay attention to the web core vitals algorithm, there's a lot of work right there. So you have to pay attention to the technical part of SEO on your website as well.

Now, doing these three disciplines, the links, which is marketing, citations, and then the copywriting and then the technical. Doing these three things and fixing these three things every day, that's what gets you up in the rankings. That's what me and my team does for all our clients every single day.

If you ask me, what are the ranking factors? There are over 200 publicly known ranking factors in Google. Do we use every one of them? No. We only take the weightiest ones. Are there factors that are not known to the public? Yes. And how you find it out is through experimentation. We have done experimentations year after year after year. SEO Hacker’s already 10 years old and we only apply an all ethical approach to SEO. Anything that's grey, anything that's black or unethical, we never do that because our clients are also big brands, nakakahiya kapag napenalize sila. So we only do white hat, ethical SEO for them.

And again, it's a discipline. There's no tactic or technique to it. It's just an everyday thing that you have to keep on building and building and building.

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Ep.155: What it Takes to be a Great Leader

Thu, 11 Mar 2021 02:00:14 +0000

Sean: What are the other character traits that you think should be they're in a leader or a CEO, founder, an entrepreneur, what are the best character traits for them to have?

Jason: I think being humble, right? Because the challenge is when you're not humble, your ego takes over and that becomes a problem for everyone. Right? I think it's the ability to be vulnerable and tell people you don't have it all figured out and be okay with that. Right?

Because that, again is something that is rare that people don't really understand how to do. I think that another part of it is, and especially in these days, it's resilience, right? And it's being resilient in our organization by being able to face setbacks and failures and get yourself and other people back on their feet again and do it in a positive way because that's one of the traits. I think the other thing is looking at empathy, right?

I also think it's really being able to see the positive aspects in a storm and sharing it with people to keep people going forward. Especially in when things are in a challenging place. Not to lie to them, but to be transparent, but you don't have to be negative in that sense.

I think the other part is just listening, right? Listening and asking people and really just spending time doing that in an organization. Because a lot of times it's like super hard. Like I've had an example of that is. I did some leaders that always say, why have an open door?

Like anyone could come in and tell me something, whether it's a virtual open door or a real one. And then I asked them the question, well, how many people are calling you up to actually take you up on that offer? And then you hear silence, right? So what I'll have people do is start to actually virtually walk around or really walk around and start to ask people questions and get to know them and do different stuff.

And I'll have them do a simple exercise, like. Do it for 15 or 20 minutes, three times a week for a month. And tell me what starts to happen. And then what they tell me after a month it's Oh my gosh. People are starting to give me more feedback. I'm hearing more information. They're happier. They're smiling.

They're more excited. And then I say, yeah, because you're more engaged and you're showing people that you care. And you're showing people that you listen and think about the impact that'll happen. If you do this for an entire year in your organization and how many people you can touch, no matter how big the company is, right.

It doesn't only matter. It gets around. You're doing this. So, again, that thing doesn't matter whether they're a five people or 50,000 people, right? All of these things are the things, a lot of people overlook, they're thinking, Oh, you gotta be super smart. You gotta be a genius. You have to do all these things.

It actually really isn't that they showed I've shown tons of data, where they put all star teams of like super smart people together, like doctors or any other type of people versus people that were A players and B players. But the and B players got along really well. They almost always outperformed those people that were all stars.

I mean, the research data shows this and countless numbers of studies I've seen. Right. So you don't have to be the smartest people in the room. It's how you work with other people. And it's the characteristics. A lot of times that you may not think would be at the top actually are the ones that matter the most and the ones that you think there are often, aren't the ones that will really create the company and the business that you actually want to build.

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Ep.154: How To Create Leverage For Your Business

Wed, 10 Mar 2021 02:00:10 +0000

Do you employ leverage?

Oh, it's a finance question. When you're asking about leverage, so there's a lot of ways to look at it. There's the negotiation way. So do I use leverage when I negotiate in business? Or you can look at it from a finance standpoint, which is, do I use that or options or futures, or do I have any leverage from the brokerage platform that I'm using, meaning, I kind of borrow from them and then I paid double afterwards? So double the win, but also double the loss.

In terms of finance, I don't employ leverage because I'm not really that amazing as a trader. I think I suck as a trader to be honest, and I'm not that good as an investor. Marvin Germo is a brilliant trader and investor, and I learned a lot from him. But in terms of practice, you need to practice. If you don't practice anything that even a master could teach you, you're not going to really learn it, you're not going to experience it and it's not going to stick. So I guess in my case, I haven't practiced that well. I haven't had a lot of opportunities to use everything that I've learned from Marvin. So I don't employ leverage because it's too risky for me. I think I'm just going to lose money.

In terms of negotiation, do I employ leverage? Yes, definitely. We have negotiation points and we have leverage points that we always use. I always say, during negotiation, you have to gather data about your negotiation partner. Take note. I say, negotiation partner, not your opponent, or you're not trying to fight it out or slug it out. When you're in the negotiating table, you're a businessman. Kaya nga ang tawag sa Tagalog sa mga business people ay negosyante.

When you negotiate, you are trying to get to a win-win solution. If it's going to be a win-lose, I say better, no deal. Huwag na lang tayo magdeal kung win-lose lang. So it has to be a win-win situation. And I do employ leverage that way, either relationship leverage. I have done something for this person before, or I know the owner, that's a big deal. Especially here in the Philippines where network is critical. Referrals, it's very, very important.

What is the next big thing for e-commerce? Do you think after the pandemic, people will return to malls or e-commerce will change this behavior of Filipinos?

I think e-commerce is getting bigger and bigger. That's what I think. I don't think it's going to stop, even if we're back to normal, after the pandemic blows over. I think that we have already gotten into that lifestyle. It's no longer a habit. A habit forms in 31 days. So it's already a lifestyle because it's already 10 months. That's a lot more than 31 days that we've been buying e-commerce. That we've been having groceries delivered to our door steps. That we've been paying via bank transfer, Gcash, GrabPay, or credit card. So I think people are used to buying online.

If we're going to the mall, I don't think that we're going to buy a lot there anymore. That's what I think. I think malls have to be a lot more competitive in terms of their price point versus e-commerce because a lot of choices are available now in the e-commerce platforms. And a lot of people are also getting more stuff here from China, which improves selection and price.

So if ever that people are going to buy stuff from the mall, it should be something that is really not in the e-commerce platforms or it shouldn't be something that's super expensive in the e-commerce platforms. That's what I think. But in terms of, are people still going to be buying through the e-commerce platforms? Definitely. I don't think it's going to slow down. I think it's going to be maintained or it's going to curve up. That's my opinion.

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Ep.153: How to Develop Your Leadership Skills Through Challenges and Crises

Tue, 09 Mar 2021 02:00:23 +0000

Sean: What do you think are the things that keep leaders and entrepreneurs from being their best self? What is keeping them from being successful?

Jason: I would say that the first thing is self; lack of self-awareness because the problem tends to be is the more successful you are, the less people will tell you the truth and that you will listen to them.

And that a lot of times your blind spots that your not aware of are the things that end up causing you the most problems. And pretty much I've found that universal typically historical patterns that stem back from things that we've done as a child or learned. Right. And that's how we play it forward.

The problem now is when you're leading people, if you don't listen to them and value them and hear them, they start to reject and avoid you and dislike you. And that causes a lot of problems. Well, when you give people negative feedback, they tend to not like that in a recoil because it's a function in your brain about how we see the world. So when you show people a pattern, they're much more receptive to it because then they know that it's neither good, nor bad.

It's something that they've done because they learned it from something else that has just happened over time. And so a lot of that is really helping people understand their own beliefs, values, framework for seeing the world and showing them places that it's really getting in their own way, because.

Like I said before, the other problem is cause of that is the people around them. Like if you're the CEO of a company who's sitting down to tell you that you're making a mistake and why, right. I mean, the only time you may be doing that is a board may be doing that, but that's in a really conflict driven way.

They're not usually giving you feedback in a positive way to be helpful. They're giving you negative thing, right? And the people that you're managing, aren't going to most likely, I mean, rarely come to your office and try to give you feedback and do that because they're worried about like losing their job or like some repercussions in their career.

So there's not a lot of people that are telling you the truth and sharing with you information and feedback. And that really is the first place where people don't really do that. I would say the other thing that happens is that people don't invest in learning management and leadership skills, right?

I would say the third thing is really people don't understand the value of teamwork and that it's a, it is a company strategy to get people to work together.

And do it in a way that's effective because all of the conflict and not getting along creates disruption, slows down processes, people miss deadlines right? And all these other things start to happen across like I think its teaching people and learning ourselves. How do you do great teamwork and how do you keep people, you know, collaborating?

So I tell everyone like, that's how you can create and scale businesses way faster, way quicker with way less people and way more competitive. It's about the team. And how do you get them to work and get the best out of them?

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Ep.152: Good Debt vs Bad Debt: What is the Difference?

Fri, 05 Mar 2021 02:00:17 +0000

When do you consider that it is a good debt? How do you manage it?

It is a good debt, if you are going to use the debt for assets, money-making assets. So one of the investments that we have is in the agriculture business. And there is a certain loan that we call crop loan. When you have a crop loan from the government, you have a certain amount of interest, sometimes it's 6% and you pay it in two years time. So meaning, per two years ang 6% mo. Meaning, per year, strictly speaking, 3% ka lang. But you have to pay it with the principal and interest, of course, after two years.

So if you're able to pay it, it's like you only had 3% interest. And that for me is fantastic if you're going to use your capital, ang hindi mo inutang na capital, meaning, ang cash-on-hand na capital mo, elsewhere. You're going to use it to buy another business, start another business, or buy real estate and rent it out. And then use the bank's money, meaning, your loan to finance your other business or your agriculture business, that for me is a good kind of debt.

Or for example, same with real estate, if you're going to loan from the bank and the interest is much smaller than the amount of money or revenue that you're going to get from the rent. For example, if you're going to rent out the property, then it makes sense to loan it from the bank. That way, you lessen your risk because you're not risking your own capital, if it's all you have, or if it's a very big amount of what you have, cash on hand, then better to borrow from the bank. That is my opinion. That is a good kind of debt.

A bad kind of debt is if you're going to use the debt for a liability. Luho, kotse, or house that you don't need, house that you're not going to live in and you just want it for rest. That for me in my opinion is a bad kind of debt. So anything that is not an asset, not a money making asset, and you take out a loaner or debt for that, I think that's a bad kind of debt and you should get out of it as quickly as possible.

What is your strategy on getting out of bad debt?

First and foremost, don't do it. Personally, I haven't gotten into bad debt. I make sure that if I'm going to loan from the bank for a, strictly speaking, not an asset, like for example, a vehicle that I want to purchase, I make sure that I have cash on hand to pay it and hindi ako madedehado when I pay it cash. Meaning, I have excess cash and I could pay it outright, but I'd rather loan from the bank because it's good relationship with my bank manager and also, it helps with my credit. So that is strictly speaking, not a bad debt. But I did take a loan, so that is debt for something that's not a money-making asset.

Getting out of bad debt, strategies, you have to negotiate with a debtor. You have to negotiate from the people or the bank that you ask money from. You have to have a debt payment plan or debt free payment plan, if you fail to pay the debt for the first time. But definitely you have to get out the debt as quickly as possible. There is no other way.

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Ep.151: Company Culture and The Leader's Common Road Block To Growth

Thu, 04 Mar 2021 02:00:23 +0000

Sean: What did you notice about their company culture that made them win? Or those that made them lose and not succeed.

Jason: I think the difference was, and it's funny, I was talking to one of my business partner in another business of mine about this today. And I think the differences is that a lot of people were focused on success and ego and money.

And that's hard to build long-term success because there are people that feel left out and there's a lot of ups and downs. And what I found in the other businesses, they were looking more fulfillment and a higher purpose. Like we're serving other people and we're helping them. We're on a noble mission.

This is bigger than the company itself or the money that we're making. And it's about the people and the relationships that you're building here. And so success was a piece of it, but it wasn't the sole mission. And they think that they understood that that was the requirement to get people enrolled in things like that, because you're not going to get someone to work 60, 70, 80 hours.

And operate at peak performance and give them their all, if you don't feel like you're doing something important and you're making an impact, that's outside of the dollars being generated. And they think that that was really the secret sauce in what they were able to do, that other people fail to see.

And they actually really believed it overall, where there was a lot of other people that did it because they wanted to be CEO of a company and make a lot of money. And they wanted to ensure themselves that they made a lot of money, but they don't really care if anyone else did. So they, people saw that.

And I think that ended up having short-term success. And then a lot of those businesses ended up failing. And I think the other part of it was, - Netflix is a great example, is they invested a lot in their people. They understood that creating an atmosphere of re - belonging connection inside of the company and really creating and focusing on the people was the core part of what they had to do.

To sustain the business for a long time. And I felt like a lot of other people give it lip service didn't really believe in it or didn't invest in it. And the people were actually not even second, but they were like last. And I think what ended up happening is that you'll see a lot of businesses didn't do well because people figured that out.

Right. And then they just job hop and they just left and you have a lot of turnover and there's environments. And then people really aren't working their best because they know. That they're essentially just being used. Right. And no one allows to be a part of all of that. So I think that those were the main, like larger concepts that I saw people do it, and I don't think it really plays itself out any differently now.

And I don't really think it matters the scale of your business, whether it's a five person business or it's a 50,000 people business. I think all those things stay true today and probably even more so. Especially being in the environment that we're currently in and what looks like to be what we're going to be facing probably for the next couple of years.

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Ep.150: Should Businesses in the Philippines Go Digital?

Wed, 03 Mar 2021 02:00:16 +0000

How do you envision the digital roadmap in the Philippines? What do you think of small and big companies that lack digital presence?

I think that a lot of companies right now are looking to go digital when they have the funds. Because right now a lot of them don't have the funds for it, or are not prepared to fund their digital because it's not really cheap. It's not cheap to build a website, do the SEO right. It could be cheap, but if you do it cheap, you might have to do it again. Cause you did it cheap the first time, you get penalized, you have a lot of wrong things, pangit ang coding, pangit ang design, ang branding mo nasira. So you have all of these wrong things that can go on when you do it cheap.

So companies who are smart will do it right the first time and get the best providers that they can find. I think that that's going to be the roadmap for the Philippines, that kung kaya na ng mga companies, they have funds for it, the economy is recovering or is getting better, I think that they're going to go digital, a lot of them. Because we know, we know that the traffic is bad. Even way before the pandemic, we know the traffic is bad and it's getting worse. And how that gets solved is, don't waste your life on traffic, just order from e-commerce. And a lot of people right now are used to ordering e-commerce, are used to ordering their groceries online where it's normal for us. We do our meetings online. Zoom na lang. So we're used to this now, even post pandemic, we're still going to be used to a lot of these things. And so going digital is one of the best things that a company can do. One of the wisest things that companies can do.

Small and big companies that lacks digital presence, I think that they're missing out a lot. They're leaving money on the table. Sayang. Sayang yung kikitain mo sana if you don't go digital, because honestly what's the first thing you pick up in the morning. I don't think it is your coffee mug. I don't think it's your toothbrush. I don't think people brush their teeth first thing in the morning. I think people check their smartphone, whether sabihin nila, “hindi Sean, tinurn off ko lang yung alarm.” Sure, but you probably check also some notifications there, whether it's Facebook or email, whatever. Right?

So if the first thing you pick up is your smartphone and the last thing you put down is also your smartphone, what does that tell you about the world today? What does that tell you about human behavior? What does that tell you about your business not being on digital? That's something very important that you have to think about.

I watched this documentary on Netflix, The Social Dilemma, and one of the venture capitalists there says, “it's no longer a question of whether you pick up your phone or not. The question is whether you do it before you pee or while you're peeing in the morning.” So I find that funny, but it's the truth, right?

Ep.149: Starting a Business: How This Silicon Valley Employee Built a Business in 6 Months

Tue, 02 Mar 2021 02:00:14 +0000

Sean: From going into Silicon Valley and maybe you realize some things while you're there. I want to know how that led to you deciding, okay, I'm going to be a coach and I'm going to be an executive coach, and this is what I'm going to be doing.

Jason: Yeah. I think it was over time. I realized the channel and it was. Is that it was really hard to find a culture and a team that I both loved and was successful. And that was really hard to do that. And so I went to some startups and they weren't that successful. And then one of them went public and did well, but it was a challenge because I had a work remotely and it just felt pretty distant in the organization overall.

And then I ended up going to HP because I thought, well, I'd never worked inside of a super large company like that before. And I thought, well, that might be interesting. And then I found it was a lot of politics. And a lot of the other challenges that were really hard to ultimately manage. And I was like, I'm not, I didn't really enjoy it.

And so I started to think to myself, like, okay, I love working with people and I love helping them. And I'm really good at that part of my job. Why, why couldn't I do this on my own? Right. And so I decided to look at it in terms of like, well, where would I start? And I was really good on the relationship side.

So I actually started something that I don't really do now, which is just helping people build relationships and like their social lives. I just thought, well, I have a full-time job. Why don't I throw out a way to build relationships and help people? And if I could do that and I could sell that. I then know I can move and do it in a business setting.

And then I would just sort of iterate it and then go all in. So I found someone else who had a business, who I had met and I was like, well, if I develop all this stuff and give it to you, right. You'll use our network and everything else. And we'll just split everything 50-50. And I thought, well, that's great.

Cause then my startup costs are zero. Right. And I could see how this could play out and that's what I did. And then I tried that and the person really didn't want to go in the direction I wanted to. And then I started to network with people, that were successful business people. And it was like, well, why don't I try this out?

And get some people that were really high level and that were having some really big problems and see in six months how much I could help them and move the needle for them. And that would be the judge for myself. If like, this is something I want to do. And they went exceptionally well. And then I thought to myself, okay, well, why wouldn't I want to try doing this full-time.?

And so it just started to evolve from there.

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