How To Make Informed Decisions With Pate G. Smith
Posted by John Livesay in podcast | 0 comments
Just because you have covering footage for your insurance policy doesn’t mean you have the right coverage. You need to sit down and look over the terms of the policy to make informed decisions. John Livesay’s guest in this episode is Pate G. Smith, Vice President of Marketing and Attorney at McClenny, Moseley & Associates. Pate advises you to get an attorney to help you understand the policy. They can also help you make a cost-benefit analysis of the different types of coverage available. Tune in to make better, informed decisions!
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Listen to the podcast here
How To Make Informed Decisions With Pate G. Smith
My guest is Pate Smith. We’ll talk about the importance of networking, getting over your fear of asking for what you want and not taking rejection personally, and how important that marketing be everywhere. Finally, it’s crucial that when you make a decision, it’s an informed one. Enjoy the episode.
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My guest is Pate Smith, who was born and raised in Ozark, Alabama, a place where hometown values and relationships are at the heart of the community. He’s thrived on building relationships and helping others his entire life. He feels those connections give him a purpose within himself. After he graduated high school, he finished his secondary education by graduating from the University of Alabama with a Political Science degree. He felt going to law school was a natural path to better understanding business and gave him a chance to help others. Now, he has his degree from the Birmingham School of Law. During his last year, he had a realization that he could help people through professional development coaching. He started Positive Change USA, his travel speaking at various events, coaching businesses and professionals alike. Pate, welcome to the show.
Informed Decisions: You can sell yourself through communication and connectivity with individuals.
Thanks, John. How are you doing?
I’m good. I gave a little tip of the iceberg there of your background but give us a little flavor, tell your story wherever you want, the a-ha moment in law school or even earlier. It’s your choice where you want to start.
I grew up in Southeast Alabama. It’s a rural area. Ozark, Alabama to be exact, 90 miles or so, maybe 70 miles above Panama City of Florida. That’s how people know the area. I knew that networking was important. My parents always made me attend events, do speaking engagements, do public speaking and connect with others. I don’t think that connected on the professional and personal development side until maybe I was in college or late high school. I got into, at that point in time, various professional, personal and relationship development literature, whether you’re trying to date somebody or make a sale, connect with an individual on the opposing side. You’ll be able to sell yourself through communication and connectivity with individuals and by providing a consumable narrative based on facts and truths. That’s what I do. I ran a professional development company for a little while that was fun. I miss it at times. I have grown a public adjusting firm and now, I’m here on the law side and I enjoy that.
Was it your parents that taught you the importance of connecting and networking, or how did you realize that was a skill that you wanted to develop separately from the hard skills of law?
[bctt tweet=”You never lose when you give your best effort.” username=”John_Livesay”]
I can remember when I was in probably third grade and there was an opportunity to sell candy to raise money for the school. I don’t know what we were raising money for. My parents were like, “This is great.” They would drive me around and have me go up and knock on people’s doors that we knew. I wasn’t cold knocking but knocking on people’s doors that I knew and go in. I had to introduce myself, explain what we’re doing and sell them the candy. I can remember after it was all said and done, I was talking to my friends and I was like, “It was hard talking to those people,” and they’re like, “I didn’t do that.” I was like, “What did you do?” They’re like, “Mom and dad called people and did it for them.” My parents made me go through those exercises. I was like, “Mom and Dad, why did everybody else’s parents call it for them?” and they’re like, “No, you’ve got to do that.”
When I was growing up, I can remember in sixth grade, I had this thing called The Sock Hop, which was a dance where you would go. I was like, “I’ll go with somebody at The Sock Hop.” I can remember mom and dad were like, “You’ve got to ask them.” I was like, “What do you mean?” I had this realization early on where they would constantly force me or encourage me to do this self-selling or approaches. I think that was huge for my development because, at that point in time, I wasn’t good at pitching. I was like, “I’m Pate. Do you want to buy some candy?” The fact that I broke that emotional barrier, went through the process, and learned early on that it’s not about yeses and noes because you can never make a person purchase.
You can never make a person come to your side. You can present in the best manner and the outcomes are there. You’re either going to have positive outcomes or outcomes where you learn, but you’re never losing when you’re giving your best in that effort. I was from a very rural small area and to be able to date people was hard. I didn’t want to date people in that area. I had to expound wider. To be able to do that, early on read a lot of male personal development forums and business networking, etc., because that is what was available to an 8th, 9th or 10th grader. It was huge for me. I’ve learned how to meet people, network with people, become their friends, and found fun value in relationships. That was a huge epiphany for me, whether it’s professional development, speaking here at the firm, connecting with other law firms, with commercial property owners or contractors, these are great skills that I’ve learned, some purposefully and some I’ve learned naturally through experience. That’s me in a nutshell.
It sounds like you learned how to not be afraid of asking for what you want. After that, it became, “How do I let go of any fear of rejection?” Is that correct?
Informed Decisions: We are invested in our client’s success.
Yes. I don’t believe that noes are bad. When I was a professional development coach, I would tell my clients like, “Don’t concentrate on yeses. Yeses come. I want to see you to fifteen noes in a day.” If you’re going out and trying to meet people or find somebody that you want to go on a date with, what’s your volume looking like on people that you’re interacting with? If your volume is low, your success is going to be low. There are opportunities where you meet somebody, hit it off one and they’re not great. In this day and age, I think you have to be incredibly high in person-to-person interaction if you want to be purposeful and dictate your outcomes.
You brought up a topic that’s near and dear to my heart, which is this concept of comparing dating with selling. I got interviewed by Fortune and Inc. Magazine around the topic of, “Are you stuck at the friendzone at work?” We all know what the friend zone feels like in the dating world, where we like somebody more than they like us. I think in sales and business development, marketing, where someone’s interested but they never get out of that, “Send me info,” and then it’s crickets. Almost everyone I’ve ever talked to says, “I’ve been in the friend zone at work. I didn’t know that was what it was.” Where I’m like, “I’m interested but I’m not going out with you. I’m not buying.” Maybe they click on something and get to download something but they never take the next step to close the sale or buy from you after the presentation is done. Let’s talk about what that looks like in the world of law firms. You’re in charge of the marketing for your firms. Tell us a little bit about what makes your firm unique, and what is it that compels clients to want to hire you and your firm?
[bctt tweet=”It is not about a yes or no when you sell.” username=”John_Livesay”]
We only do insurance claim dispute resolution for policyholders. We strictly work on the plaintiff’s side. I think we’re 22-something attorneys now. We’re working in a considerable number of states. We’re known for working large commercial insurance claim losses. That’s our day-to-day but what makes us special is the people we have here. Everybody is very invested here in the firm and our client’s success. That makes a difference because it’s not 9:00 to 5:00. If it’s a person’s business, their home or something in experiences, a catastrophe, a hurricane, a hailstorm, a tornado, a fire, vandalism, whatever, they’re not getting adequate indemnification or maybe it’s a complex loss that needs management from us from the beginning. I have a connection to that because I have a home. I want my home to be my place of sanctity. I like coming to work. I like having a structure around me that supports me in that work. For us, it’s very positive.
Let’s paint a scenario. For those of us who live in Texas, in February 2021, there was a freak snowstorm, electricity and water was out. Pipes burst. In those kinds of scenarios, do people depend on their insurance company to help them get repairs done?
We did many of those losses.
I’d love to hear a story without giving any names away of a situation where an insurance company was saying to a homeowner, “Sorry, that’s an act of God. It doesn’t count or your deductible is not met yet.” Anything that you would give an example of where they need your firm’s expertise?
We typically see insurance claims underpaid significantly when they come to us or they’re very complex. A great example is in Hurricane Laura and Charles, a religious structure that the community got around. We represented that structure from the beginning. We dealt with the carriers, engineers, their attempts at underpayment saying, “No, asbestos-lined material is okay to repair,” and there’s a daycare there. That’s semi-concerning. Numerous hotels in that. You mentioned the pipe burst and the winter storm that happened in Texas. We had a lot of commercial structures that were completely flooded that we’re handling. Some of those we see were underpaid massively. Maybe they were offered $15,000 or $20,000.
The indemnification model may be upwards of $500,000 or more. We have some that had 7 and 8-figure indemnification models here at the firm. Anytime you see a number and you’re like, “I’m not sure if that’s going to represent the full restoration,” shoot me a call. We don’t charge any time for consults, “This is good. This is bad. Consider this, talk to these people.” Our goal is to be there when you need us or the management of an intense commercial claim. Those are examples of when hail on metal buildings or flat roof buildings are almost always underpaid. That’s something that we do a considerable amount of. It can sometimes be tens of millions of dollars in difference.
A lot of people think of insurance as something they need to do. They may be shopping around a little bit, I’ll gamble maybe, not get the most coverage I need, forget about it, and then something happens. Since you’re in charge of marketing for the firm, how do you get the message out to people to know how to find you? Is it an SEO kind of thing? How do most people find you?
Informed Decisions: Our goal is to be there for you when you need us.
I believe marketing should be done land, air and the sea is what I always say. If you can do it, you probably should do it. I speak constantly. I’m here on this show, so hopefully, that does the marketing. I do as many speaking engagements a year as I can with my family. I can remember one time where I was sitting on my bed, I prayed and said, “God, I want to be able to do 30 speaking engagements in a year where people ask me to come in.” That is now a haunting thing because I get asked constantly to do podcasts. There are conventions I’ll go and sometimes speak 2 and 3 times a day. The most I’ve ever done is 5 panels or 5 breakout sessions in a day. It can be exhausting.
What’s the most common question you get asked when you’re on a panel?
That’s tough. It’s probably how is the best way they can initiate a claim, set it up at the beginning for success? It’s the one that I get the most that are across the board and all industries. That’s a good one. It’s issue-specific.
That brings up a point that someone should engage or could engage your firm before they have a claim to make sure that they’re doing everything properly so they won’t be running into problems of not getting the money they need?
We can have a conversation before an issue ever happens and make sure you have the right coverage. The biggest heartbreak in the world is someone calling me and saying like, “We’re owed this money.” They send the information over. We get that policy and because of the specific terms and the policy, they’re not able to get coverage because they haven’t been paying for it. The policy dictates the outcome of the claim. Is it even possible? If it is possible, then we’re there to assist.
That’s where a lot of people don’t even think they go, “I only go to the doctor if I’m sick. I only go to the lawyer if I needed to make a claim,” but you’re like, “You should go to the doctor for a physical, stay in shape and eat healthily so you don’t find yourself sick.” You’re saying the same thing is true legally. Check with a law firm like yours to ensure the policy you’re buying is getting you what you need and don’t take the word of the person selling you the policy. Is that accurate?
[bctt tweet=”Marketing should be everywhere.” username=”John_Livesay”]
Correct. Just because you have coverage doesn’t mean you have the right coverage. Do you have exclusions in there? Do you have endorsements that limit the ability for coverages to kick in? If you want to keep those endorsements, that’s fine but you need to know what they mean. I don’t care what decision you make. I want you to make an informed decision.
It’s because you’re not selling insurance, you don’t have any skin in that game so people can trust that your advice is in their best interest. You’re giving them the information that lets them make an informed decision according to their risk ratio and whatever else is going on. It’s an unknown problem that can be fixed or much like the analogy of health. You may not go to an orthopedic surgeon until you’ve broken a bone or something but imagine if an orthopedic surgeon was giving a talk on, “Here’s how to be involved with contact sports so you don’t get injured.” How valuable that information might be? Is that another analogy?
Yes. Particularly, with commercial structures if you have a property manager on it, property managers do great at managing. If a large-scale catastrophe happens and let’s say you have fifteen structures within an area and you’re fifteen appear okay but they haven’t had a forensic look, they haven’t had their coverages looked at and had someone go in, make a determination, and discuss with you, a lot of times, your property managers are going to say, “This building isn’t leaking. It’s fine.” Maybe it is fine but let’s go a step further and find that information, get that data and have you make a cost-benefit analysis of, “We want to do this. We don’t want to do this,” and make an informed decision.
Let’s talk about what happened in Florida with that complex. From a storytelling standpoint, which is where I live, in reading those stories of hearing a noise that sounded like an explosion, you open up your door, look down the hallway, and there’s no hallway, you realize how close you came to death? All those warning signs were there that something needed to be done, water leaking, this and that. Obviously, it was made for them. They had everybody had to get out because they took the whole building down. I think that news should be like an anomaly. That’s a rare thing that happens. I’m guessing in your line of work, you say, “John, this goes on more than most people know. It doesn’t make the headlines.”
I know one of the engineers that are working on that. I spent some time with them in Fort Lauderdale. He was telling them stuff that they were going through with that. I believe I know one of the attorneys that are working on the wall side of that as well. That’s a very interesting loss, and I’m interested to see how that’s going to play out.
Does your homeowner’s insurance for your condo cover, you bring in a hotel until you find a place to live? There are so many thoughts.
That would depend on the policy.
Informed Decisions: Every time you renew the policy, sit down and look over the terms.
It’s like if you’ve damaged your car, do you opt-in to get the rental car coverage while your car is being repaired? That’s a box you check off and pay a few bucks more. It’s that same thing. I think why I was so fascinated to talk to you is the pandemic has not happened in over 100 years since 1912. People and I included as a speaker like you, we’d be like, “What do you mean I have to plan for a time I can’t give a talk in person?” That’s not even in my frame of reference. I never had that as a contingency plan of, “Live events will be canceled. There’ll be no conferences in Vegas,” or whatever. The same thing is true with what you’re doing here with, “Your condo building might collapse.” I’ve never heard of it. I’ve never seen it.
Here’s the better question. What could have been prevented to prevent that condo from collapsing? What had happened through the lifespan of that structure, water, treated, allowed micro-fractures and then settling, etc.? That’s a better question. Some of this could have been prevented had adequate data been given there. Maybe adequate data was given and bad decisions were made. As an owner, if they weren’t given adequate data, that’s a tragic scenario.
What about all the fires that are happening not just in California but in other places on the West Coast and this perfect storm of things? You own a business and it’s not your home you’re worried about and that structure, do you get involved with advising business and property owners who maybe haven’t looked at their insurance coverage lately and you say, “We need to check up on your coverage just like you go for a checkup with the doctor?”
Yes. I encourage people every time they renew their policy to sit down, look over the terms of that policy and get an attorney to spend time looking, negotiating, and doing a cost-benefit analysis of what type of coverages are there. Let’s say you have warehouses or storage facilities that are metal. “I’ve got full coverage. Coverage is adequate for my commercial lender.” “Question though, sir, do you have a cosmetic endorsement in there?” “A cosmetic endorsement, that sounds fine. I’m not worried about cosmetic damage. However, though, if my building gets scratched, hail minorly dense my building?” What if hail majorly dents your building? What if hail has the potential of decreasing the lifespan of the structure and causing rust over time?
Are the terms in that cosmetic endorsement in a manner, which it’s not going to let you recover, and then you have a structure that’s going to rest out in a portion in somewhere between 5 to 15 years, depending upon where you are in the country? If the answer is yes, that’s something we need to do a cost-benefit analysis of, maybe it’s $8,000 more a year to have a large warehouse insured adequately. You say, “I’m good with the $700 more a month. Let’s go ahead and do that. Let’s get the right coverage. Maybe we have to talk to a different broker.” I’m not sure but this is something that we do. All of this is free of charge. No cost up until the point where we have to negotiate the insurance claim for you. We do this pro bono because we want people to have the right coverage.
What you’re doing from a marketing standpoint is creating incredible brand awareness and value so that people see you as someone who cares and not coming in at the last minute when money is involved?
Correct. One of my favorite sayings, and I wish I could say I came up with it but I can’t, “We don’t like to shake hands over the rubble.” It changed my mindset.
[bctt tweet=”Always make an informed decision. ” username=”John_Livesay”]
Pate, thank you on behalf of so many people who you’ve helped and will help. If people want to reach out to you, I know they can find you on LinkedIn and Instagram. Would you share the details and that special middle initial that everybody has to remember to find you?
For Instagram, it’s @PateGSmith. If you add me, I like to send everybody that adds me a, “Thanks for adding me,” and I try to get to know you. That’s sometimes a daunting task but don’t think it’s weird. It’s me messaging every single person on there because I’m proud that people message me. It’s the same on LinkedIn. Find me on there, Pate G Smith for McClenny, Moseley and Associates and say, “I heard you on John’s show. I do this.” Even if you’re not in my industry, I want to be able to connect with you. I love networking. I’m across the country constantly. If you ever want to hop on a call and maybe it’s something that’s an idea and kicks around some stuff, say, “I’m stuck somewhere,” I’m here. I love connecting with people and sharing values. Reach out. I appreciate you having me on, John. This is a powerful show.
Thank you. It’s been an honor to have someone of your caliber and kindness on. Thanks so much, Pate.
Thanks, John. Everybody, have a great week.
Important Links
- https://www.MMA-PLLC.com/who-we-are/pate-smith/
- Positive Change USA
- @PateGSmith – Instagram
- Pate G Smith – LinkedIn
- Better Selling Through Storytelling Method Online Course
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The Right Hustle With Rajesh Setty
Posted by John Livesay in podcast | 0 comments
Many people say you won’t get far without hustle. In truth, it’s not just hustle that will take you far; it has to be the right hustle. John Livesay is joined by author and entrepreneur, Rajesh Setty as they discuss what the right hustle means and how you can achieve it. Rajesh talks about his early forays into writing and the rejections, and ultimately, the first book he sold. He also discusses connecting with people, generosity, and the art of learning.
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Listen to the podcast here
The Right Hustle With Rajesh Setty
Our guest is Rajesh Setty who talks about his course, The Right Hustle. The big question is, do I care about what you care about? It is the genesis of every relationship he has. Finally, he says, “What is your GQ?” Find out what GQ stands for. Enjoy the episode.
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Our guest is Rajesh Setty who is Silicon Valley’s secret spark plug from startups to scaleups. He loves to bring meaningful ideas to life via startups like Audvisor.com and MentorCloud.com. His books include Six Foot World and Smart, but Stuck. He also has a course called The Right Hustle. Welcome to the show.
I’m super excited. Thank you for having me.
You’re one of those people that pulls people in. Your magnetism, kindness and creativity are all so inspiring, and people want to be around your energy. I’m curious to know a little bit about your own story of origin. You can take us back to childhood or when you were in school. How did you discover this passion for bringing ideas to life, not just generically but doing it with love?
It was not by design, for sure. By the time I was four, I had started reading all sorts of books. Anything that went past me, I would read it in multiple languages. In India, many people grew up with many languages. I love reading. By the time I was about nine, I had read about 700 books. Most of them were useless books, according to my mom, because they were thrillers, fantasy, adventure, spy thrillers and murder mysteries. You name it, I would read it.
The Right Hustle: Everybody talks about hustle and get things done. Whenever the word is used, the connotation is you have to network to get something. That’s the wrong hustle.
When I read that many books, most of them were fiction, I used to think, “I know what happens in this book.” I know this is what will happen, but most of the time, something else would happen, and I would get frustrated with myself, not with the author, saying, “How can I not guess what it is?” After some time, I thought, “My forecasting powers were good. Authors were making a mistake, and they should have done it this way.” I then got frustrated with them. I said, “The only solution is I should write my book because I can make the characters do whatever I want and the story to develop however I want it to develop.”
I went on a journey for over eight months. I never wrote a poem. I never wrote a short story. I wrote a novel, which was more than 200 pages. My parents thought something was wrong with me. My parents thought I copied it from somewhere else. For me, I thought, “How many people would write a book when somebody is nine years old? I’ll send it to a publisher. I’ll get a red carpet welcome and my books will be in the bookstores, and I will be a celebrity.” That was what I was thinking. Nothing remotely close happened.
The moment I picked up the phone and called the publisher in my baby voice, the first thing is they click the phone back thinking somebody is doing a prank or somebody is playing games. I would call them back again. At that time, there was no internet and in our home, there was no phone. I had to go to a grocery store nearby where there’s a public payphone booth that I had to put money in, and then I had to dial. I keep dialing again and I said, “Please don’t hang up. I’m an author.” Until I say, “Never call me again or I’ll call the police,” or something, I’d keep trying. Long story short, I was rejected 160 times over 3.5 years.
That’s a lot of rejection. Why did you not take it personally?
[bctt tweet=”What is your GQ – Generosity Quotient?” username=”John_Livesay”]
Earlier, I would think they’re making a mistake. They’re wrong. I would think that I’m not getting the right person. I was experimenting with myself. After some time, I realized something is not right. I reframed it thinking, “Everybody gets rejected maybe 200 to 300 times. I’m still not there. Let me finish my rejection quota so that I will get to the right one quickly.” I used to keep on reframing to my convenience. That’s what I used to do.
Whatever story we tell ourselves that keeps us going is the key. Whether it’s overcoming a physical challenge in sports or an illness, our dream is going to happen sooner than later.
I still remember the time when I got a book deal. I was physically meeting a publisher and I gave them the manuscript. By that time, I had built a network of my own because when I get rejected, I reach out to other people, “How do you do it?” You build relationships and I got a referral to this publisher. I went and they said, “This is interesting. Let me take a look.” He turned on the side and then he started reading it. I was a thirteen-year-old kid so I don’t know whether to stay or to leave because he didn’t ask me to leave. I was standing there for about two hours. He forgot that I was there. He finished reading the book, he turned around and said, “You’re still here.” I said, “Yes, I’m here because you didn’t tell me to leave.” He said, “I’m sorry. I’m going to take this. It’s a good book. How much do you want?” That is one question I was not prepared for. I had no idea what to say. With great thought and a lot of stupidity, I said, “I need ₹100.” ₹100 is $1.50, so you can imagine what I asked for. He said, “Are you sure?” I said, “Yes. That is what I want for this book.” He picked up the money, gave it to me and said, “We have a deal.” That was a game-changing moment for me.
That’s a great story and an example of hustle. That leads to my next question, which is you have a course called The Right Hustle, which is this fine art of moving the needle and that it is an art form. It’s not just push, push, push. I love that you talk about choreographing actions, which to me implies that there’s some preparation and thought that goes in before you jump in.
The Right Hustle: We have more tools than ever before on this planet that will make you get closer in the spirit and in the mind.
My thinking is that everybody talks about hustle and get things done. Whenever the word is used, the connotation is you have to network to get something. I think that’s the wrong hustle. The right hustle is to network to give something. You don’t have to get all the time because there’s a universal accounting system that will take care of the checks and balances and all the accounting system. Your goal is to give something meaningful. When you reach out to someone, and you connect with someone, make sure that you give a gift rather than trying to get something from them. How do you do it? That’s the whole thing about the right hustle. What will give you the platform, power, strength, skills and abilities so that you are always giving?
One of your many books is called Six Foot World. How did you come up with the title?
This is probably the first book that got published about the pandemic. As soon as the pandemic was onset, within three months, I wrote and published the book about what might happen. I’m usually often wrong but never in doubt kind of person. I said, “I might be wrong but there is something wrong that is happening here.” People will be caught off guard. I had a friend who is a publisher who took a chance on me. The reason I wrote Six Foot World is when the pandemic was onset, people say, “You need to maintain a 6-foot distance.” I said, “This thing will continue for a very long time.” Several of my friends said, “This is nonsense because it will end in three months, and then this book will be irrelevant quickly.” I said, “I don’t think so.” They said, “Why do you think this is?” I said, “I’m not a doctor and I’m not a futurist, but I studied linguistic philosophy for 7.5 years. When the phenomenon experience is described wrong, everything about it will be wrong or the assessments will be wrong.”
Why do I say it? If you think about it, every big disaster that we have had, the society came back as if nothing happened after a few years post the disaster. That happens on 9/11. Post 9/11, things didn’t come back to normalcy. They underwent a permanent change. The security systems got bolstered, pilots would lock themselves up in the cabin. There is red, blue and all of those kinds of signals. Everything changed. Why? It’s because there is a switch in the internal world that said, “Who knows? One among us may be a terrorist.” Once that switch is internal, the change externally will be semi-permanent.
[bctt tweet=”Be timeless, relevant, actionable, curated and knowledgeable.” username=”John_Livesay”]
Even the concept of social distancing as opposed to physical distancing, I thought once you start flipping that switch that people should be afraid to be connected or be near each other socially as opposed to just stay 6 feet apart. If we’re socially distancing, then it becomes a whole other level of psychological distress. My favorite analogy is one of the worst things they can do to prisoners is put them in solitary confinement.
The post-traumatic stress that people have been experiencing by social distancing, in other words, feeling so isolated from friends and family and meeting new people, once that is switched, it’s going to take a while to heal and recover from that. In this 6-foot world that we’re living in, even after everything might go back to some fewer restrictions in terms of distancing, mask and big events, what do you think is one of the biggest things that people can do? I love the image you have of the kitten is unprepared and the lion is prepared.
If you think about it, we have never met. We both are talking but we never felt that we’ve never met, isn’t it?
Right.
The Right Hustle: The easiest thing to do, whether you’re connected physically or not, is to ask only one question. Do I genuinely care about what they care about?
I’m sure we have many friends like that that you never met, but you always feel connected to them. I always think like this. We have to learn to live in a world however physically disconnected we are, but in the spirit and the mind, we should be fully connected. I’ve worked with several people in my life. One of them is my illustrator, Ming, in Malaysia. I’ve been working with him for around twenty years, but I met him only after sixteen years of working with him. I never felt that I was disconnected because it has to be in the spirit. The easiest thing to do, whether you’re connected physically or not, is to ask only one question. Do I genuinely care about what they care about?
Are the values aligned?
Once you do that, then the physical distance is distilled because we have tools like Zoom and all those things. We have more tools than ever before on this planet that will make you get closer in the spirit and in the mind.
Since you’re all about promoting new ideas, it creates new needs for new projects. For example, when I was speaking to the Olympus Medical sales team, I went from a live event to a virtual event, they said, “Can you also add in some training on how to look and sound good on Zoom calls?” That was never a need before. How do we sell on-camera versus being in person? All those little tips suddenly create another need. If one goes away, another one comes up.
[bctt tweet=”When you reach out to someone, make sure that you give a gift rather than trying to get something from them.” username=”John_Livesay”]
If we think about it, there are only two things. People have concerns or when they are taking care of their concerns, they have breakdowns along the way. That’s what my philosophy teacher taught me. The concerns and the breakdowns while they’re taking care of those concerns are never going to go away as a concept. As soon as you make a change, then the concerns are not going to go away. New concerns will get formed.
Speaking of new concepts, let’s talk about Audvisor, brilliant in three minutes. How did you come to get involved with this startup?
Let’s look at the trend. The trend is people are going to think that they have less and less time. They don’t have less time. I can guarantee you that. They will think they have less and less time. Why? It’s because they’re always connected with people who will want to sell them advertisement or sell them stuff and all those things, but they don’t know that. They always think they’re always connected and it’s a privilege, but it’s a privilege for people who will sell them something. In the process, their time is getting lost and then it becomes this, “I don’t have much time to study. I don’t have much time to grow. I’m always doing something.”
Globalization is not helping, which is you can follow the sun. This means when you sleep, somebody else is working. When they are asleep, you are working and you can do the handoff. In reality, both of them are awake all the time, saying they’re in coordination and all those things. My thinking is with these many changes, the need to learn and grow has never been less. It has to be more and more, but if they have less time, how do they get to learn from some of the world-class experts or top experts? If the only method is to digest your entire book, it’s not possible because you don’t have the time. What if I get the world’s best experts, more than 100 of them, and give their best advice in three minutes or less with zero fluff?
Six Foot World: How to Reimagine the Future in Disruptive Times
It’s laser-focused. Let’s give an example. I recognize so many of these experts who have been guests on my show, everyone from Sam Horn, Dorie Clark to David Meerman Scott, a lot of many smart speakers, thought leaders and authors that people can say, “I don’t have time to read their whole book but I would love to get the essence of it.” It is so powerful. This concept of TRACK is a wonderful acronym. Can you walk us through what that stands for?
It stands for Timely, Relevant, Actionable, Curated Knowledge. It has to be timely and relevant, which means if it has to be relevant for a long time, then the experts or authors that we work with should give timeless advice. That means it should stand the test of time. It has to be actionable and it has to be curated knowledge. Our goal is to deliver the highest wisdom per minute. People say that we want you to spend a lot of time with our app. I said, “No. Don’t spend a lot of time with our app. You can spend 15 minutes per week or even a month. It’s good enough for you.” Why? It’s because we have abstracted the best wisdom in the least possible time, deliver it on the audio, which means that you’ll be eyes-free and hands-free. Just press the button and you can listen to it. There is no excuse for not doing it. What will you say? “I don’t have fifteen minutes a week?” No. You just start to have the discipline.
One of the things I love about Audvisor is that you say, “We perfectly curated a playlist just for you.” I talk to people all the time about the need to think of their brains as a playlist with stories. You don’t have 1 or 2 stories that you tell over and over again. You have multiple stories like a playlist, but in this case, instead of a song, it’s a story that’s relevant to the person you’re speaking to. That requires a lot of practice, curation and being able to have access at a very fast amount of time, “I need to tell this person this story at this moment for them to see themselves in it.” The same thing is true if you start training your brain to absorb a short amount of information, then you can give a quote from someone or something you learned that’s keeping your own knowledge relevant, timely and actionable. People think, “How do you have time to read all these books?” It’s almost the old premise that leaders are readers or readers are leaders, however you like to say that. Now, this is a way to stay cutting edge without exhausting your energy and time.
If you think about it, what is the biggest blind spot that everybody knows but it’s very difficult to do anything about it? It is what you don’t know that you don’t know? You don’t know what to do about it because you don’t know that you don’t know.
[bctt tweet=”Everything that’s there is red, blue, and all of the signals. Everything changed.” username=”John_Livesay”]
You’re in the dark. It’s like when I needed to learn how to make special effects on my virtual presentations. Before that, I didn’t even know that Ecamm existed so I didn’t know what I didn’t know. How am I going to make a Zoom call to 300 or more people engaging, and I didn’t know what I didn’t know? Once I became aware that that was a potential tool, then I had to make the decision, “Am I willing to invest the time and money in it because of my own passion for doing something cutting edge and giving my audiences the best possible experience to keep them engaged?” There’s a whole premise of getting people up from unconscious and competent to “I’m aware that this exists,” to “When do I take action on this? Do I wait until everyone’s using it? Is this a requirement? Do I want to be the kind of person that gives something to people while it’s still new because the wow factor is incredible, and then that’s what makes people remember you and refer you?”
It was one more step deeper. If you think about it, if somebody watches you in action, unless they talk to you in person or in a coaching conversation or sometimes read your book. Let’s say they’re brought you in to help with a big sale. They say to you, “Whatever you want to take inside. We have a $2 million deal. Can you come and help us?” You took that assignment, and then you deliver the best possible pitch. If they don’t know that the underlying theme was how to construct a story with exposition, conflict resolution route. If they don’t know this, they will just conclude, “John is so awesome and he tells amazing stories.” If they say, “Now that you saw him in action, can you please repeat it?” They can’t because they don’t know the ingredients that pertain to what made you awesome. Unless they work with you, read your book or something, it’s not automatically by watching. Nothing happens because that’s only the tip of the iceberg.
I’ve helped an architecture firm, Gensler, win a billion-dollar airport renovation in Pittsburgh. The criteria there was, “We’re going to hire the firm we like the most because you’re all qualified to do the work.” They were like a deer in headlights because they’re used to pitching their designs and hoping that’s enough to win the business, “Likability? Where do we even start?” In addition to helping them tell case stories instead of just presenting before and after pictures of other airports, I worked with them on the team slide to craft a story of origin from each person that made them likable, memorable and gave a sense of their own. It’s one thing to say, “I’m somebody who doesn’t give up.” It’s another to show it a story.
All of those little techniques are something that people can learn and work on. If we start at, “We don’t even know we need to tell stories,” to “Now we know the basics of a story but we still need to be at the blackbelt level of it.” If we’re the only ones telling a story and our competition isn’t, odds are we’re going to win. In this case, they did. If other people start telling stories, then you’re like, “That’s the table stakes. That’s the minimum. Now I have to be a master storyteller to tug at heartstrings.” It’s an ongoing process and your solution Audvisor is certainly another way for people to stay one step ahead of what other people are thinking and doing.
Smart, But Stuck
This is the art of learning as well as a discovery platform. A discovery of what you think you should know, but you didn’t know that you should. For example, if you talk to somebody, let’s say the person on the Wolf of Wallstreet, Jordan Belfort. He will talk about straight-line selling. Maybe that’s useful but if you didn’t even know that such a thing existed that you could use that tool somewhere, you’d have no idea. Maybe it’s about frame control. How do you control the frame? If you didn’t know there was a concept of something called a frame, how will you do it? I created a term called hunger engineering, which means way before you sell something, you have to create the hunger for them to want it. If you never think of it, then you have no clue. They are not tools. First of all, you should know the concept exists, which means somebody has to describe it and put words to it.
I want to talk about your talk, Know Your GQ. I was like, “IQ, EQ and GQ is a fashion magazine.” You have a new definition here of what GQ is. Give us a little hint of what that means so we incentivize to go watch your talk on that.
I gave this talk years ago called Practical Generosity Quotient. I always talk about generosity because that’s a complete advantage that anybody can have with simple changes to their mindset, skillset and the way they do their relationship building. The practical generosity quotient is very simple. It’s the ratio of the capacity you added to the capacity that was needed by someone to make a meaningful thing gets done. For example, somebody wants to write a book. We know the capacity that is needed was 100. Somebody comes to return sixteen books and said, “Can you help me here?” I said, “No problem.” When you want to write a book, you pick a topic, go to Amazon and search on the topic. See the books that come out and look at the top three ones. Read them and you’ll get inspired.”
Be as advised. The capacity you added was 1 out of the 100 that was needed. I can do this very same thing differently. Somebody comes to me. I know what is required for a publisher. It’s like a proposal. I have the best proposal template that anybody can have. I select it and do the proposal. I’ve given talks about writing a book. I’ve written a book about how to write a book fast. I have a video course material and a book called Writing Zero. I give them all of those and say, “Why don’t you take a month or something, read it and then we’ll have a discussion over breakfast or Zoom. I’ll help you come through the content. I’ll create a mind map for you.” Now the capacity I added was way more than 50 out of 100. Imagine if everybody did this to the other person by the PGQ. How much capacity are they’re adding to the capacity that was needed to get a meaningful project or meaningful action done? It will be a different way we look at the world.
It is indeed a wonderful new way to look at the world. Your startup or many that you’re involved with Audvisor, one of your many books, the Six Foot World, one of your many courses, The Right Hustle, and now the generosity quotient. Thank you so much for sharing all of this wisdom with us. If people want to follow you on social media or find out more about the book and the course, where should we go?
My website, RajeshSetty.com.
Thank you so much. It’s been a thrill and an honor to get to spend time with you.
Thank you so much, John.
Important Links
- Rajesh Setty
- The Right Hustle
- Audvisor.com
- MentorCloud.com
- Six Foot World
- Smart, but Stuck
- Sam Horn – Previous Episode
- Dorie Clark – Previous Episode
- David Meerman Scott – Previous Episode
- Know Your GQ
- Practical Generosity Quotient
- Writing Zero
- Better Selling Through Storytelling Method Online Course
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The Lucky Titan With Josh Tapp
Posted by John Livesay in podcast | 0 comments
Many entrepreneurs are successful enough to get to a million dollars in revenue, but struggle to figure out how to scale past that. Tapping into his personal experience in building strategic partnerships with industry titans, Josh Tapp, host of The Lucky Titan podcast, teaches people proven methods for entrepreneurs to scale without having to spend a lot of money on advertising. It’s all about leveraging the right kind of relationships with the right kind of people through joint ventures. Learn how exactly you can do this as he talks to John Livesay in this episode. Plus, listen to John as he helps Josh improve his elevator pitch so you can learn how to improve yours, too!
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Listen to the podcast here
The Lucky Titan With Josh Tapp
Do you know how certain entrepreneurs are successful enough and they get to $1 million in revenue, but they struggle to figure out how to scale past that? Our guest, Josh Tapp at The Lucky Titan podcast, shares his proven method to get entrepreneurs to scale without having to spend a lot of money on advertising or getting frustrated reaching out to people that can’t help them. Find out how he does this. Learn how I helped him with his own elevator pitch so that you can learn how to improve yours too. Enjoy the episode.
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Our guest is Josh Tapp, who’s the Founder of The Lucky Titan podcast. Josh has helped over 500 entrepreneurs scale their business through joint venture partnerships. Josh, welcome to the show.
Thank you. It’s going to be fun to be here.
Tell me a little bit about your own story of origin. How did you decide you want to even launch a podcast? You can go back to childhood or wherever you want to start your own journey of being an entrepreneur.
My story goes clear back to childhood. What it comes down to for me is I grew up in a family of a long line of entrepreneurs. My dad had a construction company and he started multiple different companies. We experienced the entrepreneurial cycle but growing up, I knew what I wanted to do. In our house, it wasn’t preached to go to college and get a good job. It was preached to start something, be a creator, and college could be a great vehicle for you to get there. For me, I didn’t even think about college until high school, but I remember my first entrepreneurial venture and how great it was.
My dad owned a construction company. I worked for him and he paid me money, and I hated the manual labor. If you want a great way to scare your kids out of having a job, be a contractor. Make them work construction. What it came down to for me was, “I can make money other ways.” I’m probably 8 or 9 years old and I decided to get a bunch of my stuff out of my room. I pulled it to the end of my parent’s street, which we lived in a rural community. There were maybe 25 cars passing every hour. I put up a sign and it was a big white poster, but I wrote on it in pencil and said, “Stuff for sale.”
Not exactly a niche to an eight years old.
I did not understand marketing one bit, but it was a cool lesson for me. I sat there for about three hours and nobody was stopping like, “What is this kid doing?” I didn’t have money for lemonade so I’m like, “I’ll just sell my crap.” One of my dad’s friends stopped and he bought this little polished rock from me, one of your treasures as an 8 or 9-year-old kid. He paid me $0.25. Most people will be like, “It sucks. $0.25 in three hours?” I was elated. I made money doing nothing and it totally sparked that entrepreneurial fire. From there, it went on to starting landscaping companies and moving on to virtual space digital marketing or what have you.
It led me to where I am. I love speaking with people. I love audio and video interviews, and getting to know high-quality people. For me, I found the people I resonate a lot with are entrepreneurs. That’s where the podcast came from. It was being able to meet people like John Livesay and all these people who are untouchable in the market. Being able to bring him into your world for an hour and to be able to interview him was amazing for me, and being able to “pick your brain” for an hour. That’s the kind of stuff for me that drove me towards podcasting in general and entrepreneurship as well.
[bctt tweet=”Luck is putting yourself into a situation where you have opportunities to win.” username=”John_Livesay”]
What made you name your podcast The Lucky Titan?
That one was an intentional play on words. Before this, we had a marketing agency doing Facebook ads for people and I was constantly struggling to get my own clients for that. The problem was I hadn’t built an audience yet. I didn’t have a following of people. I was just reaching out in my town saying, “I’ll do Facebook ads for you.” We could do good for them because they were a local business but generating leads for myself was difficult. I was in that constant wave of not being able to make money. During this time, I ended up hiring a coach, and that coach walked me through. He said, “You need to brand yourself.” He’s under the belief that you shouldn’t brand your name, but you should create a memorable brand. I know there’s a lot of back and forth on that. Both worked great. He’s like, “Start with creating a brand that’s memorable.”
My partner and I would play around with a lot of different names and imagery. We’re like, “Let’s base the podcast off of the people we want to interview. What’s something that would entice them and make them want to come on and give them something to identify with?” It ended up becoming The Lucky Titan because we were going with The Lucky Entrepreneur, but we’d get in trouble. Entrepreneur Magazine will sue you if you have entrepreneur in your title. Word to the wise, if anybody has entrepreneur in their title, make sure you’re prepped for a lawsuit. They have the trademark on the word entrepreneur, the copyright or whatever you have to have. I’m not versed in that stuff. My brother-in-law is a lawyer and he’s like, “Do not do that. Don’t put entrepreneur in there.” That was a good word to the wise. This is not legal advice. I’m going to disclaim that.
For us, we ended up being like, “We want to interview these industry titans and these amazing people who accomplish something great.” That’s where the title came from. We’re trying to get people that when they come on, we put the cape on them and making them feel like the Superman for the day or the Wonder Woman for the day. Our whole brand has stemmed around helping people feel that way and join the ranks of Titan is our whole game plan with the brand.
What about the concept of luck? That’s fascinating to me because a lot of people say, “Luck is where opportunity and preparation meet.” What is your definition of luck?
That was answered better by one of our first guests, Elaine Keltz. I don’t know if you’re familiar with Elaine, but she’s a successful lady. She’s like, “I don’t believe in luck.” People are waiting for the door to open for them. She’s like, “I found a hallway with a lot of doors and started kicking them down.” That’s my definition of luck. It’s putting yourself into a situation where you have opportunities to win. People call me The Lucky Titan and I’m lucky to be there. I’m happy to be there with people. That’s what it’s stemmed out of.
Let’s talk about who you help and what problems you solve. The old elevator pitch that I love to work with people on. What is your current elevator pitch? How are you telling people the answer to that?
This is a good one. John is going to pick this apart for me and he’s going to be mad at me because I haven’t done this well. John, I’m sorry. Our elevator pitch is that we help people to build joint venture partnerships and scale an audience of 1,000 raving fans. Our entire purpose with that is helping people to understand that they don’t have to go it alone. For me, as an entrepreneur, that’s where I was in my previous company. I was trying to do everything by myself and to grow. When we started this company, we decided we’re not going to run ads. We’re not going to run anything other than joint venture deals. We’re going to find successful people and partner our brand with theirs. We built our whole company around that and built our products around helping other people do that.
The Lucky Titan: Don’t brand your name. Create a memorable brand.
Let’s give an example. I know you work with online course creators. I have a course and we’re going to be doing a masterclass together. How do you help online course creators create joint ventures?
That one is a good example because course creators if you’re atypical, “I need to build a funnel with fifteen different steps. I need to have a bunch of Facebook ads and all this different stuff.” What it comes down to when you want to launch a course or a book or anything like that, it helps to have an email list of people. It also helps to have a group of people that you know you could reach out to and say, “Can I come on your show to launch this new thing? Can I come to your Facebook group to launch this new thing?” They’re coming to us and saying, “I want to launch this course.” My goal isn’t to nickel and dime them and charge them $1,000 to say, “Let’s get you on a podcast for $1,000.” A lot of people do that. For me, that should just be a given. That’s good networking, connecting people with high-level people.
The way we were able to grow quickly was because of a few strategic people who were great givers. They connected us with some amazing people and it grew from there. What we typically do is we put them in a room with anywhere from 5 to 10 other entrepreneurs who are non-competing entrepreneurs who have the same ideal customer. John, we both market to a lot of virtual entrepreneurs. Our products are non-competing, but they’re compatible. I’m not great at sales and John is good at the elevator pitches and helping people to build course and everything, and lock in their sales process. What it’s come down to for our company is we want to find people like John to partner with not just ourselves, but the other people in this room.
We try to facilitate that relationship for people so that they can build these partnerships while they’re in the room with one another and they can leave having some joint venture deal set up. One of our favorite ones is getting these long-term partnerships where it’s saying, “Next time I launch something, would you be alright if I come on your show and give an interview?” The problem I see a lot of times when people are trying to launch something is they’re trying to cash in relationships that they haven’t built yet. For example, you’ll join MatchMaker.fm or something to get on podcasts. “I watched this new product. I need 25 people to have me on their shows.” That’s the wrong way to go about it. The right way to go about it is to have these relationships built where you’ve got 100 people who’ve committed to having you on their show at some point. When you go to do a launch, you do 100 interviews in 30 days and you launch your product. That’s the fastest way to scale and grow joint ventures in my opinion.
You’ve got multiple podcasts airing all at the same timeframes is what you’re saying.
Right. I can give you a good example of this. If you’re familiar with Rachel Hollis, she wrote the book, Girl, Wash Your Face. It was the second bestselling book in the world in 2019. She was only beat out by Michelle Obama. That puts it in perspective. Rachel Hollis is one of those people where she had some influence. She was interviewed and this was something that solidified our theory in my opinion. She didn’t spend a single dime on ads, didn’t have a publisher or anything. All she did was she went and she had 180 of the top female influencers interview her on their podcasts, TV shows or whatever they had. She knocked it out in about 90 days right before the launch. She sold something like twenty million copies of her books, something crazy. That is the value of that.
How long did you have to work with her to get that all queued up?
No, she wasn’t a client of ours. That’s just a good example of that. A client of ours, one of the ones that we’ve seen that was cool. They ended up partnering in the travel sector. The vacation sector and the travel sector is being hurt because nobody can travel. This company was saying, “We’ve got to go back to the books and do something or we’re going to have to close our doors.” What we did is we partnered with them, two people who are travel influencers like the Instagram influencers who have big followings. We partnered with Volkswagen and a subsidiary company of Expedia.
[bctt tweet=”Sell through people, not to people.” username=”John_Livesay”]
Combined, we all had a list of about five million people with our reach. We were trying to grow our list and sell something out. We did a giveaway. We said, “All of us email our lists.” From that, we said, “There’s a free vacation giveaway. Come to this page.” Anybody who opted in, all five of us got their emails and it was legal. We had all the GDPR compliance and everything in place but the coolest thing happened with that. It took us a grand total of maybe twelve hours to get this whole thing put together and we got 50,000 emails off of it, each of us did. If you have any perspective of this like with Facebook ads, that would cost you anywhere from $50,000 to $150,000 to generate that through almost any other means. It cost us all a grand total of $400 each.
How do you find clients, Josh?
For me, honestly, I practice what I preach. My entire goal is to not ever have to spend Facebook ads for my own company. That might slow us down but for us, it hasn’t seemed to slow us down. We’ve been focusing 100% on building out these partnerships. I’m always going on podcasts and generating these relationships and bringing people onto mine or onto summits, building goodwill with people because one day, when I need to launch something and they’ve already committed to having me on their show, I can hop on and launch something. That has been the best way for us to generate clients. Our higher ticket masterminds, which is our core business, we typically get those all through referrals of these people that we know have a good following of people. Our lower ticket products and everything like that come through email joint ventures and our higher ticket products come directly through peer-to-peer referral.
You have some funnel. Can you walk people through what that funnel is and the timeframe? You have a relationship with someone and you invite them on your podcast. How do you figure out who you want to have on your podcast? Is that your potential ideal client?
I believe that podcast is not about the listeners overall. That is one piece of the puzzle. You do need to pay attention to who your ideal listener is, but you need to tailor your podcast or your show or what have you to make it the best possible platform for the people that you want to work with. For The Lucky Titan, our ideal customer is somebody who has made $1 million a year and plateaued. They’ve gotten stuck and they know, “I’ve gotten here by being a rainmaker. I’m good at sales and I’m good at closing deals, but I need systems and I need partners in place in order to scale.” That’s where we come in.
Our podcast, The Lucky Titan, what we do is we interview people about how they got to $1 million and how they were able to scale and grow. It opens up a sales opportunity for us every time. One of the things, and you might have even told me this, the sell-through people, not to people. I love that concept. What we do, and I didn’t realize I was doing it, was we bring them on. Instead of saying, “I want you to join my mastermind. Here’s the cost,” and it became this big sales pitch, I’m like, “We’re building this thing. We’re looking for people in this category. Who’s that one person that you know who would be a perfect fit for this that you could connect me with?”
I have to back up a little bit. I want to share the strategy with your people because this will be beneficial to them. I handpick these people from the start. I listen to podcasts all the time, almost all day while I’m working. If I’m not on a call, I’m listening to a podcast because I like to find the people who are the best in the industry. I’m listening to podcasts like Entrepreneurs On Fire and Marketing Secrets. I find these people who interview super high-level people. Mixergy, they bring on these high-level entrepreneurs and interview them. What we do is I look at their guests and handpick them, and then I outreach to all of them. This is something I do myself. I don’t outsource a lot of this because I want to make sure that they know I’m reaching out to them personally and it’s not some bots or paying somebody in the Philippines to build that relationship.
You’re taking a ticket, something they said on the podcast, and be specific about. I resonated with what you said to John Dumas on Entrepreneurs On Fire.
The Lucky Titan: You need to tailor your podcast to make it the best possible platform for the people whom you want to work with.
“The title of your podcast was about this. I loved exactly what you said in that episode on EOFire. Would you come on mine and share the same thing? I’ll promote you and XYZ.” Just to give you an idea when we outreach that way, we get about a 98% positive response rate and about 80% of them come to join our show.
It’s personalized. If you hear them on the other show and you think they look successful, they probably have $1 million in revenue, they might be a good fit. You compliment them and they say yes to be on your show. It’s a compliment, baby step, “Do you want to be on my show?” You build a relationship when they’re your guests. From there, you follow up and ask them if they might know somebody who might want to be in a mastermind.
There will be steps in there. I want to caveat too. If you do this correctly, if you do an hour-long interview and you only record for twenty minutes, that gives you 40 minutes of your time to get to know them. I spent about 10 to 15 minutes becoming friends with them. I will record for about twenty minutes. That gives us air from 15 to 20 minutes to ask this question. It’s the question I asked every single person. “How can I help you to expand your business today?” They’ll usually say, “I lost the podcast. This, that or the other.” The beautiful thing about that question is it’s almost like an open-ended question.
The human answer that you should be saying to that question is, “How can I help you?” They always ask that question back to you. I’ve not had somebody say that to me. Instead of saying, “How about you buy my stuff? I’m opening up this huge sales opportunity.” I’ll typically say to them, “This is the product we’re launching. This is the audience that we’re promoting to. Who’s one person that you know who fits that deal that maybe you could connect me with?” I’m like, “That’s the one thing you could do for me. I don’t need you to do a bunch of promotions for me or anything like this. I just need you to connect with one person.”
Just to give you an idea, John, typically what our numbers look like from this because I am not your typical salesman. I’ve never been trained in it. What I found is I’m good at the inviting side like, “Maybe it would be a good fit for you. Do you want to come to join us?” We’ll have about 10% to 20% of the people that I interview end up buying our products and the rest of them will typically refer me to at least one other person. That’s where the sales opportunities get opened up. You asked for timeframe. I’m listening to podcasts anyways. It takes me about fifteen minutes of research on the person to get maybe five people on my show. It’s an hour interview with each of them. I’m building content and getting all this great content from it but it also opens up all these sales opportunities. We end up closing typically, for ten people will close about 1 to 2 people who come on our show.
Do you have one mastermind or juggling a lot of masterminds?
We juggle quite a few masterminds because I like to put people with the right people. If you’ve ever been in a mastermind before, I personally pay for five different masterminds at any given time. I like to jump through them to do my research. I want to know what other people are doing and what’s working. The best ones that I’ve seen are not just entrepreneurs. It’s entrepreneurs who have generated a certain amount of revenue. For example, if you’ve generated $1 million in revenue, you failed dozens of times, so you know how to overcome problems. When you put them in a room together like that, everybody can solve anybody’s problem. On top of that, we put them in a room where they have the same ideal customer. I’m not going to put somebody who’s in the travel sector with somebody who’s promoting a course unless it’s in the travel sector because it doesn’t make sense for them to be in the room. They’re going to learn from each other but that partnership can’t happen.
We get what I call the networking effect, where it’s like the BNI groups where you go to the Chamber of Commerce and people are throwing their business cards around. Maybe we could work together someday. That’s not a great way to network. The best way to network is to give them a purpose, hand them partnerships, and give them the actual thing that they should be doing so there’s no question in their mind. They’re like, “We’re both in the room together so we can get on each other’s podcast. That’s why we’re in this room.” That then eliminates this awkward barrier. That’s the process in a large nutshell.
[bctt tweet=”Come in with a purpose, leave with a partnership. #TheLuckyTitan” username=”John_Livesay”]
What’s your secret sauce to your masterclasses that people who may have been in other masterclasses say, “I don’t need that,” or “That didn’t work for me?” What is it that makes yours unique besides it being customized, which is important?
The thing that people come to us for and that they beg for, and they’re like, “This is what I love most about yours,” it’s because I’m not selling me. I’m not that cool. I’m a young guy and I’m inexperienced, but I know a lot of cool people. They know that I’m going to get the right people in the right room and that they’re pre-vetted. I would say our secret sauce is we give them an actual reason to be there and a purpose for their networking instead of a woo-woo happy session. Those are great and they’re good for motivation, but they die quickly. Our secret sauce is helping people come in with a purpose and they leave with a partnership.
Now, I have enough information to give you a new elevator pitch.
Let’s do it.
A lot of entrepreneurs who have struggled to get that first $1 million in revenue feel maybe a little burnt out, but they’re happy they’ve made that much progress. Now, they don’t know how to scale. What we do at Lucky Titan is we create a place to let them find partners that help them scale with a proven system, which doesn’t require a lot of money or work on the entrepreneur’s part. When that happens, they are able to get their purpose out through partnerships in a way that doesn’t tap into their energy or their bank account.
You think you’ve done this a few times, John?
That’s the gist of it in a short, concise, compelling way, which is what everybody wants in a good elevator pitch. I took some of that pain point because we all know, the better you describe the pain of somebody, the more you have their solution. They’re proud of it but they’re exhausted. If you don’t tap into their bank account or their energy resources, and you can get them to scale, that’s where people are going to want to be intrigued to know more. The whole purpose of this is to get people to say, “How does that work? Tell me more,” and then you could go into a case story or of a case study of somebody that you’ve helped.
One of the things that came to my mind as you were talking about that was one of the biggest pain points for our audience is they all love masterminds. They love connecting but I don’t have time. I only have one hour a month allotted to masterminds. For us, that’s why we’re like, “It’s an hour-long mastermind.” There you go. It’s bringing it down to where it simplifies it. Thank you for that. I appreciate that.
The Lucky Titan: Lock in your platform and make sure you commit to it.
It’s like, “Give us an hour a month and we’ll give you 10% growth in six months or something.” It all depends on what the objection is, but you have to have multiple stories ready to go. There are three kinds of personalities. There’s the numbers person so you would have a numbers case story, “We had somebody just like you. They were accountant,” or “They were productivity experts.” Somebody else who’s feeling more like, “I’m awkward. I feel uncomfortable. I don’t like being pushy. I don’t like selling myself.” You’re like, “This is the perfect mastermind for you because you don’t have to sell yourself.” You get your own objections, “How do you know so many people, you’re only 26?” You have a story ready to go like that. “I understand. In fact, some of our best clients felt the same way.”
You’re like, “I’m listening to podcasts. I’m doing all the things you don’t have time to do such as listen to podcasts to find the right people for you. Think of me as a curator. It doesn’t matter how old you are. I have the time and the energy to curate the right people based on who you need, then I’m saving you tons of time. We all know your time is worth a lot of money.” They then go, “I need that.” You can even say, “Do you know how a virtual assistant can make you five times more productive and you get to do the things you love? A mastermind with the right people in it is a virtual assistant on steroids.” They then go, “Right. Got it. Yeah. Okay.” That’s the gist of it. Any last quote or thought you want to leave us with?
The last thing I want to leave everybody with is to think about the platform. What’s the platform that you stand on? I feel like the thing that made the biggest difference in our company is when I finally stopped trying to be everything and just highlight the other things that people want to share about, and building a podcast for me was the easiest way for me to do that. It allowed me to meet some of the most amazing people and networks and continues to do that for us. I’d say lock in your platform and make sure you commit to it.
You’ve gone full circle from being a little eight-year-old boy saying stuff to sell through realizing now the importance of having a niche. Thanks, Josh. It’s great having you.
I appreciate it. Thanks, John.
Important Links
- The Lucky Titan
- Elaine Keltz – Past episode on The Lucky Titan podcast
- MatchMaker.fm
- Girl, Wash Your Face
- Entrepreneurs On Fire
- Marketing Secrets
- Mixergy
- Better Selling Through Storytelling Method Online Course
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