1089: 20 Years of Entrepreneurial Lessons on Marketing & Systems: Pro Tips to Develop and Scale Up Sustainable Business with CEO of Online Marketing Muscle Dean Mercado

Robert Plank 0:04 Hey and welcome back to the podcast. Dean Mercado is here from online marketing muscle.com. Now Dean is the founder and CEO of online marketing muscle, he's the number one best selling author of the mind stretch 49 Inspiring insights for business breakthroughs. Dean is a well respected small business coach and author. He's a speaker with expertise and helping small business owners raise their game and leveling up their level up their business. So Dean excited and glad to be speaking with you.

Dean Mercado 0:36 All, Robert, this is excellent. I'm glad to be here with you as well.

Robert Plank 0:39 So my understanding of you is you have been around the block, you've been beaten up a few times you got the cuts in the scrapes to prove it. So what do we need to know from you? What after? What is it all led to? How can it be worth it? What are the insights lessons you glean from just all the all the tears and the trials and tribulations?

Dean Mercado 1:00 Wow, that's a huge loaded question. But I'll do my best to try and give you a little insight there into my world on this side. Now you're absolutely right, I've been through a lot of a lot. I started out in corporate America spent about a dozen years there work with some of the best companies on the planet, learning some of the greatest technologies and things to do to grow businesses and divisions shifted over into the entrepreneurial world formally. And just was one of those things where I was like, you know, if I could just make a little bit of what I was making these guys over here, I'd be happy because I was starting to get clearer and clearer on what it is I was looking for in my life. And I knew jumping on planes flying all around the world consulting in these big companies, wasn't it. And it got it was sexy in the beginning, but it got tiresome, real quick. You know, one too many planes I'm like, you know, if I ever want to start a family, or if I want to just kick back and relax, live, but I couldn't in that lifestyle. So I started doing some soul searching. And I checked in with myself a lot and and came out with you know, one of the main things I'm looking for is that freedom, the freedom to be where I want to be do what I want to do how I want to do it without playing by somebody else's rules, and my defining the ultimate entrepreneur yet. When you you just kind of want to write your own script and do your own thing. And, and, and that all sounded great, too. But here I was in corporate America, making a nice, comfortable six figure salary. And then I went from six figures to zero as an entrepreneur. And that's where the pain began. Because I didn't know what I didn't know. And it kicked my you know, what, all over the place. And this went on for a while because my ego was so far in the way that oh, I'm smart, I should be able to figure this out. No one knows better than me, I got a master's degree, I got this. I did this for this corporation here. And I was working on a multimillion dollar project there and all the run garbage, right? It matters nothing. When it comes down to running your own show. And doing what it takes to be an entrepreneur, you learn about a different level of pain, you learn about a different level of grit. But I'm not trying to scare anybody here, the flip side of that, which was what I was looking for, and what I was hoping for, is the fantastic joy of freedom, the fantastic love of being able to find that love you're looking for, to be able to find what it is you're you're chasing after you just didn't know how to put your finger on it. And it took me a little while to get to get past my own self. Right, and then to find my way towards starting to move in the right direction. So very early on in this entrepreneur entrepreneurial journey, I figured out that hey, look, maybe I'm finding my calling. If I could help just a couple of other good people, a couple of good entrepreneurs, not go through this much pain, then you know what, that's good for me. I just need to make a certain number that I can live comfortably and do what I want to do and live the life I want to live in. And out came the coaching side of the business. So you know, it's been an incredible journey. But it all started with understanding what I wanted, what I truly wanted, and then getting out of my own way long enough to even give it a possibility of happening. And then getting help getting help you gotta you know, it's when you're when you're coming from that space of ego and you're like, I'll do it all myself and I'll throw it over my shoulder and I'll just drag it to the finish line because that's what I was used to. in corporate America was used to Okay, we got to get this done called Dean and he's the super guy, let them go and then go do it. Okay, great. But you know what? then the next time that problem came up who they have to call again, me had to do it again. And I had to do it again. And I had to do it again. And after a while, it sounds like it's nice to be needed. But not like that. Not when it's not healthy. Right. So I learned a lot by learning what not to do. You know, but I also know that I can reflect back on some of those bigger business experiences, I've learned really well how to translate what the big businesses are doing well, that if small businesses would just do a little bit of that, they would be doing a lot better. And that's where my latest craze, which is my Cloney owner, methodology had come from, that came from 20 years of coaching other people through a lot of pain, and figuring out what works, what doesn't work, what has to happen. In other words, stop fooling ourselves get real, you know, I am from New York. But I've recently moved down to South Carolina, in the states here. So I'm still a recovering New Yorker. So if you hear a little New York come out in me, you'll understand why we tend to speak fast. And we're a little aggressive and all of that kind of stuff. You

Robert Plank 6:14 like to say, I'm walking here, I'm being an entrepreneur.

Dean Mercado 6:17 Exactly right. But the bottom line is big heart. And I realized that early on, and I had to figure out how to leverage that properly. In a business that made sense. And that's why I've done so much coaching over the years. And right now, I'm just on a hell bent mission to get out in front of as many entrepreneurs as I can, the number I threw on it was a million eyeballs this year, to just help just help give them if I could give everybody one insight that can change the trajectory of where they're going to a more positive direction, did my job, I did what I'm here for, right. And those that are meant to do business with me will find a way, you know, so you'll learn a lot over a long period of time. So with all my marketing muscle, we just passed our we're in our 20th year. So for an online marketing, muscle type business, that's an eternity. I was one of the first in the online marketing space. I got laughed at. In the beginning. Why would you start an internet marketing type company? We thought you were smart guy? What's wrong with you? Why would you limit yourself that internet thing? It's just a fad? It's gonna go away. So in the beginning days, you can imagine, Robert, it's like, you have to educate people why they even needed a website in the first place. That's where we started. Right. Now 20 years later, to things have changed a lot. An awful lot. Oh, yeah. That kind of give a little bit of insight into just a slight

Robert Plank 7:55 bit. Yeah, like the the world has changed so much, like seven or eight times over and you yourself have evolved in your own ways. And I guess it for your saying it comes down to what is freedom worth for you. And for some people, you know, if you're perfectly okay, like making someone else rich and having that, that job security for what it is until you you don't feel like delivering on this latest project. And then you get fired for that. But it's like, well, what's your plan? And maybe your plan is to quit your nine to five tomorrow? Or you have a you say, Well, I'm gonna make this money and do this. But it's like, what is your freedom going to take? What will be the price that you will pay? And then it seemed like there's like a loader and a half lessons or so built into your kind of evolutionary story there, right? Like, Well, okay, so you want to be an entrepreneur have your company, but what are you building towards? What's your goal? How are you going to get there? How will you simplify? Because if you don't simplify it, then you'll get stuck in that mode of saying, I'm just a genius, I can make a million dollars. Well wait, like, what are you going to sell? How are you going to make money? Where's your traffic going to come from? How are you going to convert them? You make this plan? And then that you're saying then that leads to what kind of team will I build? Right? It can't just be me doing it. That was the whole problem with the nine to five if you're just building yourself another glorified job. And then you're saying, to figure all that out? Who will coach me who will help me who will help me think these things through because inevitably, you get stuck or limited in your own thinking, or you don't see something obvious or you get tired or something else needs to change and all these other sorts of things navigate and so what really stood out to me and you kind of catching us up with your journey here is you mentioned this idea that the some of these big companies are doing things very well that the smaller ones don't and so that was really interesting. So what are they doing? Well, that we're just missing out on?

Dean Mercado 9:50 Great question. And I just want to come back to a point that you just tied in there, the brilliant, brilliant point of what's it worth here. And that's what every entrepot Nora really needs to think about what is this worth to you because it is going to be an investment. No matter what you think, you know, there's always something you don't know. And hearing you reiterate that back in that way, Robert was like, Ooh, yeah. Yeah. A little bit enlightening, as well. It's like, Oh, my goodness, yeah, there's a lot to know and a lot to do. And hence why I mentioned I got my rear end kicked so badly in the beginning, especially. So one of the biggest things coming out of corporate America and stepping into small business, sometimes we take for granted structure, we take for granted systems. Right? The one of the biggest things that I saw that was very different on in big corporate America to the little guy, the little guy has it all in here. And they can't stop long enough to get it out of here. So someone else can help them. Right? Because it's stuck here. And then there's that other side of it. Well, yeah, it's stuck here. But even if I do get it out, I really don't want to give up and relinquish control of anything, I need to do it myself. If it's gonna get them, right, I got to do it myself. Right. And big business is very different. You know, I worked for some great corporations. One of them was a company, a big consulting house called EDS, electronic data systems. And we were about 140 150,000 employees strong. And I learned some of the best project management that you could ever learn, which is a tremendous skill for any entrepreneur. But the Systemising and systematizing of a business and all its core functions and core systems. Incredible. Incredible. So I took a lot of that. And I brought that forward. And then I worked with, you know, I did work with other corporations, too, that had phenomenal. So I got a lot of ISO 9000 stuff coming forward, just all the the level of thinking that we don't stop long enough as a small business owner to actually do. We think that, if it's to be it has to be me, right? And then we think that, oh, I'll just wing it. I'll just do it. As opposed to trying to create that more consistent result, trying to build a business that does not need you to exist. Oh, that one's things a little bit. I'm sure there's an entrepreneur, too, that's hearing this right now that that might hurt. But it's the reality. And that hurt me to trust me it hurt. But it was a big reality check, I had to come to terms with that. As long as I'm the only one who knows how to do it, then I'm the only one who's going to be doing it. And as I get older, and I'm not getting any younger. Now, you know, as I get older, I realized much more clearly, that if I truly want the freedom that I was seeking in the beginning, that that idea of freedom has to evolve to with me with how I do things I have to evolve, because freedom. It's not easy. You have to work for it. It's hard work. And it's constant work. And when you're all alone doing this, you know, it may seem like Yeah, well, I got freedom because I can I can go to work today or I don't have to go to work today. That's all fun and great. But you know what, then you start owning homes, then you start having other bills come into the picture. And if you're crazy enough, like I was you lived in New York for over 55 years. If that was you, you know, then you really should understand what I'm saying here because it's like, hey, at some point, something's got to give. And if you want to create a business that you can retire on, you know, and I'm the first one to say it, build your business as if you're going to sell it. You always should be building your business as if you're going to sell it. No, you don't have to sell it. I'm not telling you, you need to sell it, build it as if you were going to or if it's easier and feels better to you build it like you're gonna franchise it. If that feels better to you. When you do that you create something that's duplicatable, that's replicable, right, something that can stand on its own, something that's worth talking about. Right. And that's, that's where our colonial machine has come from. It's come from a lot of that pain, a lot of that learning, trying to bring several of those ideas forward. Especially when it came to the main message of colonialism, which is leverage. It's about getting leverage on yourself, on your business, on your team on anything that you can get leverage on. Right, as long as it's legit, as long as you're not hurting anybody. Right? Let's not go there. You know, we're not trying to do anybody any wrong in this world. You got to realize that the bottom line is you have to find leverage somehow some way. So how do we get leverage we got all these new techniques. nobody's coming in AI is coming in, wake up, folks. AI is bigger to the business world than the internet was. Back in the day, the internet was a game changer. This AI thing is even more severe. So, if we're not evolving, you know, when we say it in the book, the mind stretch, we say you got to evolve to actualization. In other words, you've got to keep evolving yourself, and you're gonna keep becoming who you need to become. But that never ends until you die. You'll keep evolving, right? If indeed, you truly want what you say you want, if it's things like growth, and scaling and freedom, right? Whether that's financial freedom, or time freedom, whatever it is, right? We have to do what we need to do in order to grow. Yes, we want to look into these big businesses and say, What are they doing right? Now, keep in mind, they do a lot wrong, too. And that you should be looking at as well of what they do wrong, they waste a ton of money. They tend to throw money at problems to fix problems. A lot of times, that's the case, I can't tell you how many companies I stepped into consulting wise and big corporate America that that's exactly what they were doing. Even the companies I was working for were doing it. Right, oh, throw another three bodies at it as if that's going to solve it. Right? Because it's the same mentality. Right, it was a Benjamin Franklin and said, You can't solve a problem with the same mind that created it. Right. Something along those lines, I think it was Benjamin Franklin. Yeah. And that's what we're dealing with, when we come out of corporate America. And we try and create that entrepreneurial dream. And it is about a dream, but it's your dream, stop trying to create someone else's dream. Or stop listening to those other people who are trying to tell you what you're supposed to be, and what your business is supposed to look like, nobody's business is wrong, unless they believe in their heart that they're wrong. Right, if if you want a one person operation, and you just want to make, you know, $20,000 a year more power to you, if that's all you need. And that's and that gives you the freedom to do what you want. Fantastic. You know, on the flip side of that, if it's 20 million a year, and you want a team of 50, great, more power to you, right? Understanding that those are very different animals with very different spots. And the bottom line is, you've got to know how to navigate, you want to be a $20 million a year company, you've got to behave like a $20 million company, you've got to do the things $20 million a year companies do. So if you're still stuck in the things you were doing when you were one or two person operation, and you're wondering, why can I grow this thing? Well, here we go. We start out with as we type in the Cloney. Owner there, it starts by looking at your mindset. What do you believe? What's your belief system? If you believe you can create a $20 million business and you actually understand, right how to do that you've done your research, you've done your studying, you're probably going to be well on your way. However, if you're listening to this guy over here, it was broke, who was telling everybody they need a $20 million a year business? Right? But they're not running a $20 million, your business? You know, what can I say about that? You know, and I tell my clients all the time, I speak all over the place anywhere I can speak. I tell my clients all the time, many times they're in the audience, be careful who you listen to be very careful. There's a lot of people that read one book, and all of a sudden they're an expert. At least they think they are right. Now. I know, Robert, you've been in a lot of conversations with a lot of entrepreneurs. I was seeing a number. Is that over? 1000?

Robert Plank 18:49 Oh, yeah, I believe you're maybe 1089 or so. Oh,

Dean Mercado 18:52 my goodness. So I think that kind of qualifies you as knowing something about business, being in that much dialogue around building business. Yeah, you're gonna learn a few things. And as Tony Robbins says, repetition is the mother of learning. Right? And I'm throwing quotes at you because I know you like quotes. So yeah, who doesn't? Yeah, absolutely. The the challenge I would give people is don't just hear that quote. I said, stop for a second, write it down. And think about it. I always say ponder it, ponder that, quote, how does it apply to you? How can you apply it? Right? What does that look like? Right? So if repetition is the mother of all learning, yeah, getting on and listening to your podcast and listen to every one of those episodes, I think people would learn quite a bit. You know, I have a master's degree. I didn't learn as much in my master's degree. I'm sure I heard I just listened to one of your last episodes. There was more in that than then many classes combined. And a master's agree. So the good thing about the podcast is they cut to the chase. Yeah. I mean, you hear it from the source, you know, people who are doing this stuff, people are living this stuff. And not just an academic, you know, so I've been on both sides. I know what the academic looks like, I spent the last 35 years unlearning a lot of the things I learned in school, because they don't really apply. Right, right.

Robert Plank 20:26 It's a great foundation, isn't it? But as far as like the cutting edge the chasing that AI especially, I mean, find a, a university class, sort of, there's a great universities, but maybe there's like one class on AI, could you get a whole degree on AI? Probably not. And even if he did, it would be out of date very quickly. But like, and you know, speaking of quotes, or something from Napoleon Hill that said something like, the biggest killer of dreams is listening to your friends and family or something like that. And there's so many people attend to that. Because you know, mom and dad and best friend from high school, they're all great, wonderful people, and they're also just looking out for you. But if you're taking business advice from someone like that, that's, I mean, there's no again, nothing wrong with the person but the wrong source for the information. And so you're giving us so many ideas to think about, and especially this idea of being so busy, your time so compacted, running the business that you feel you don't have the time to do this sort of delayed gratification of systematizing, figuring out your SOPs, delegating, figuring out the leadership skills, just becoming this more evolved better business person. And as you said, following in the footsteps of these $20 million companies, if that's what you want to be. So you're saying, figure out what we want, figure out what the goal is that milestone and then have a plan for getting there because you won't just fall into a $20 million, your business, you need to take some steps figure out some skills evolve, get some help. And so we're in our last few minutes of our conversation here. I feel like you mentioned a packing into a podcast episode. That's you, right? You packed in like two or three episodes worth in here. So in our last few minutes, since we're almost out of time, I want to make sure that we kind of put the put the sales pitch in here, right of the mind stretch book of the clone the owner system. So if someone says, Man, I feel like I have to listen to Dean's episode like three or four times, and they're excited at the end, and they say, I need those next steps, the call to action Dean's help. What's the next step? What's the call to action? What's the website? How does someone find out more about you? If they're already impressed and just want to drink from more of the firehose? Sure.

Dean Mercado 22:36 I've been on this thing called the internet for a long time. If you Google me, you will find me everywhere. And that's not bragging. That's not boasting, that just is right. Because I've been I've been around for a long time. You know, Dean mercado.com, is my gateway to a lot of the things that I do my book is on my books on Amazon, you can grab it there. Online Marketing muscle.com Is my agency where we get a lot into like the coney owner stuff. So if you're looking to take your business and you're looking to leap, instead of just incremental crawling, that's the Cloney owner methodology. So the online marketing muscle, there's an e book that's there for free. It's an e book at this moment, granted, before I yank the ebook down and replace it with something different, the ebook is very worthy of giving you a taste of that. methodology. So on my marketing, muscle.com de mercado.com, on social I play mostly probably on LinkedIn. But yeah, come I'm sociable guy, I'm approachable. Come talk to me. You know, I don't believe in hard selling. That's just not my way. I'm always of the mindset that if any of us are ever meant to do business together, we will. We'll all just know it. What I mean, so, so yeah, come connect with me hook, hook up with me on LinkedIn, let's, you know,

Robert Plank 23:57 let's play. Let's play well, this is thoughtful and inspiring. I mean, you're, you're a thought leader here, right? You're saying, well, here's what I have to say. I've seen things. I'm generous with what I teach. If you're the right fit for me, great. If not, we'll still be friends. And you just learn these things. And we could all use some extra help in getting out of our own way, right and letting the ego not take over and all those other things. And so the place to get that extra help is online marketing muscle.com And then on LinkedIn, which all of us serious business people we love being there because there's so much cool stuff to do. That's Dean Mercado, that's last name MERCAD. Oh, and I'm worried about going like five or 10 minutes over time, but let me ask you just as we wrap this up, wind this down. Do you have one final idea for us one final quote or less than cuz we like to do the podcast and clip it up into pieces, but it's also good just to have ending with a bang instead of a whimper. So soundbite wise, what do you have as far as A final powerful quote or lesson?

Dean Mercado 25:04 Well, I'm stepping into 2024 hard in a specific direction. And that is with strong marketing, very strong marketing. I'm urging everybody that I get my hands on this year to raise their game in a significant way when it comes to marketing, because great marketing paves the way to easier sales. And there's so much clutter out there on the internet, it's getting harder and harder for you to cut through. And you're gonna have to find a way this year to start cutting through. Because what else what's going to happen is you won't be found. And that's the sad part, you'll end up being the best kept secret. If you're not already, you're going to have to learn how to ramp up the marketing step up your marketing game. That is my best message for you. And 2024. It's the fewer better marketing though, not the clutter crap, right. It's not the spray and pray stuff we're talking about. It's the fewer better marketing pieces that you could put out. If you're going to do a podcast to a great frickin podcast. If you're going to do some LinkedIn posts, do great LinkedIn posts, don't do 4000 of them, you're better off with four great ones, right? And then figure it out from there. But less is more, if you're doing them great, but go hard at marketing this year. Hope very nice.

Robert Plank 26:23 Let's do a quality instead of quantity and take this seriously. And if you need help, which you know you do, then add Dean Mercado on LinkedIn and go to online marketing muscle.com. So that way, you can apply some of what Dean's talking about of the systematizing and the strategy and not just flying by the seat of your pants because then you'll get flying by the seat of your pants results actually be smart and focused and precise this year in 2024. And beyond the Mercado online marketing muscle.com Best Selling Author of the mind stretch, super wonderful and exciting speaking with your friend.

Dean Mercado 26:59 Oh, this was very cool, Robert, I much appreciate it. Thank you.

Robert Plank 27:05 We wish you had a podcast just like this one. Do you wish you did more with your podcast like getting more traffic, being active on social media getting more guests better guests or you being a guest on another podcast? Or maybe you just want your podcast to stay the same but you don't want the time commitment you currently put into your podcast and any or all of that sounds great to you go right now to d f y podcast.com/free to claim your 12 podcast boosters