1 00:00:00,300 --> 00:00:04,080 Robert Plank: Marketer of the day. Episode 749, outsource, 2 00:00:04,140 --> 00:00:08,220 delegate, manage, embrace change and build a business that runs 3 00:00:08,220 --> 00:00:09,840 itself with Robert plank. 4 00:00:13,920 --> 00:00:17,280 Unknown: Hey everybody, what is going on? I know it sounds like 5 00:00:17,280 --> 00:00:19,980 a different voice, but you're listening to the Robert plank 6 00:00:19,980 --> 00:00:25,400 show, and I am the Special guest host, Lance thomashiro, and I 7 00:00:25,400 --> 00:00:29,900 always enjoy being here, but today more important than ever 8 00:00:29,900 --> 00:00:33,500 is I have a guest that you're absolutely going to love. He's 9 00:00:33,500 --> 00:00:38,360 going to share with us some thoughts about hiring employees, 10 00:00:38,480 --> 00:00:42,340 how you can get to actually doing it and overcoming, you 11 00:00:42,340 --> 00:00:47,200 know what is scary about hiring employees, and more importantly, 12 00:00:47,320 --> 00:00:51,280 why you should do it and how you can make them effective for your 13 00:00:51,280 --> 00:00:54,880 business, no matter how big or small that you are. So help me 14 00:00:54,880 --> 00:00:59,080 welcome Mr. Robert plank and Robert, it's good to have you on 15 00:00:59,080 --> 00:00:59,920 the show today. 16 00:01:00,400 --> 00:01:03,240 Robert Plank: Glad to be on my own show. I would love it if 17 00:01:03,240 --> 00:01:06,420 more people did this. It would be so cool to, like, cycle in 18 00:01:06,480 --> 00:01:09,660 the same four or five people and have people on my show and ask 19 00:01:09,660 --> 00:01:11,760 me questions. But I'll take what I can get. 20 00:01:11,940 --> 00:01:15,600 Unknown: I mean, better Better late than never, better few than 21 00:01:15,600 --> 00:01:20,240 not than too many, right? So Robert, the first thing that I 22 00:01:20,240 --> 00:01:23,720 sort of wanted to talk to you about was, you know, this whole 23 00:01:23,720 --> 00:01:28,940 idea of hiring employees. Some people will say outsourcing. 24 00:01:28,940 --> 00:01:35,900 Some people talk about sites like fiverr.com and I know that 25 00:01:35,900 --> 00:01:39,920 for you because I watched sort of the transition of this. I 26 00:01:39,920 --> 00:01:43,720 mean, it was, it was a hard move for you to make, to sort of 27 00:01:43,720 --> 00:01:48,880 embracing having employees. And so I think to start off, I'd 28 00:01:48,880 --> 00:01:54,820 like for you to sort of discuss sort of the whole evolution for 29 00:01:54,820 --> 00:02:00,300 you from getting to I don't need employees to, oh my gosh. How 30 00:02:00,300 --> 00:02:02,940 did I ever survive without them? Well, 31 00:02:03,000 --> 00:02:06,840 Robert Plank: like you, I heard this same advice so many times 32 00:02:06,840 --> 00:02:09,840 for years, and kept ignoring it, and I kept hearing it in 33 00:02:09,840 --> 00:02:14,280 different pieces and worded to me in different ways. And the 34 00:02:14,280 --> 00:02:17,460 earliest time I heard about this was there was a guy named Joel, 35 00:02:17,460 --> 00:02:20,840 Christopher, and his niche was outsourcing. His niche was, 36 00:02:20,900 --> 00:02:23,840 whatever your business is, I'll build your team. They'll run 37 00:02:23,840 --> 00:02:28,580 your business for you. And I had the same objections as everyone 38 00:02:28,580 --> 00:02:32,780 else, which was, I can't afford it, or if I can't afford it, I 39 00:02:32,780 --> 00:02:37,280 don't want all the money that's coming in to go back out, or I 40 00:02:37,280 --> 00:02:40,540 don't want to replace what I'm doing with suddenly managing all 41 00:02:40,540 --> 00:02:43,780 these people. And this one thing he said blew my mind, which was, 42 00:02:44,140 --> 00:02:47,620 hire someone to do a task and hire more people to do more 43 00:02:47,620 --> 00:02:52,000 tasks, and if that becomes too crazy, then hire a person to 44 00:02:52,000 --> 00:02:55,420 manage those other people. And that's a simple idea, but that 45 00:02:55,420 --> 00:02:57,820 blew my mind a little bit, because I thought, okay, like, 46 00:02:57,820 --> 00:03:01,140 let's say that if something blows up and you have this crazy 47 00:03:01,140 --> 00:03:04,860 business with 2030 employees or more. It's not like you have to 48 00:03:04,980 --> 00:03:09,720 email 20 or 30 people a day. You might have one person managing 49 00:03:09,720 --> 00:03:12,900 all those people, and you can build it as you go, and it can 50 00:03:12,900 --> 00:03:16,380 become dynamic. And I think the thing that finally pushed me 51 00:03:16,380 --> 00:03:19,680 over the edge to fast forward closer to present day was this 52 00:03:19,680 --> 00:03:24,560 idea that if the person you're hiring makes more money than 53 00:03:24,560 --> 00:03:28,700 you're paying them, then that's the only goal. And I think that 54 00:03:28,700 --> 00:03:32,720 a lot of people, when they present this idea of outsourcing 55 00:03:32,720 --> 00:03:36,980 or employees, they look at it as what percentage of my business 56 00:03:37,040 --> 00:03:41,980 am I going to spend on other people? And then you end up with 57 00:03:41,980 --> 00:03:46,660 this idea in your head of making them 100 grands a year, but then 58 00:03:46,660 --> 00:03:49,660 only keeping $10,000 for yourself. It's more scarcity 59 00:03:49,660 --> 00:03:53,860 thinking. And I've heard you talk about this a different 60 00:03:53,860 --> 00:03:56,860 times, where you say, as long as they're breaking even, that's 61 00:03:56,860 --> 00:03:59,260 the most important thing, because then it's just free 62 00:03:59,260 --> 00:04:03,660 money. It's money that you you got it happened on its own or 63 00:04:03,660 --> 00:04:07,020 happened with minimal effort, and then you can cash flow that 64 00:04:07,080 --> 00:04:09,480 you can recycle that back into your business. And I think 65 00:04:09,480 --> 00:04:13,860 that's what, what pushed it over the edge, for me, was have the 66 00:04:13,860 --> 00:04:17,580 employee make money. Don't just get someone to help you be more 67 00:04:17,580 --> 00:04:20,660 organized, and that can be a part of it, but hire someone 68 00:04:20,720 --> 00:04:22,220 that makes you money, 69 00:04:22,940 --> 00:04:25,940 Unknown: yeah, and, I mean, I think that that is like a big 70 00:04:25,940 --> 00:04:29,900 concept. And there was something else that mentioned, that you 71 00:04:29,900 --> 00:04:32,900 mentioned in there that really stood out to me, and that was 72 00:04:33,320 --> 00:04:36,980 you sort of talked about this idea of scaling like you started 73 00:04:36,980 --> 00:04:41,500 by saying, like, well, you can hire a person to do XYZ, but 74 00:04:41,500 --> 00:04:45,640 what we all hear in our head is, I have to manage 30 people or 20 75 00:04:45,640 --> 00:04:50,080 people. And I think that you know the whole idea of, why 76 00:04:50,080 --> 00:04:53,320 don't you just start with one person, and then you said, like, 77 00:04:53,620 --> 00:04:58,840 get them cash flow, even, right? Basically, is, is the first 78 00:04:58,840 --> 00:05:03,480 goal. And. And what, what I thought was really interesting 79 00:05:03,540 --> 00:05:07,020 about that is the whole idea of starting small, but then not 80 00:05:07,020 --> 00:05:11,220 giving them tasks like right away that are like, check my 81 00:05:11,220 --> 00:05:16,380 email, do my calendar, let me know that I have a meeting, 82 00:05:16,380 --> 00:05:20,360 which I think, like a lot of people, get stuck in this idea 83 00:05:20,360 --> 00:05:26,360 of, I mean, the only place that really my, my model of what a 84 00:05:26,900 --> 00:05:31,880 virtual assistant or employee or outsourcer was is like what I 85 00:05:31,880 --> 00:05:37,280 saw CEOs have, right, like the the executive assistant, the 86 00:05:37,280 --> 00:05:40,280 person that sits in front of their office and sort of 87 00:05:40,280 --> 00:05:43,000 schedules appointments and does all that. And that's always what 88 00:05:43,000 --> 00:05:46,840 I thought, in my mind was like, well, that they'll check my 89 00:05:46,840 --> 00:05:51,280 email, they'll do this. None of which are actually, they're all 90 00:05:51,280 --> 00:05:53,800 helpful, right? They like decrease the amount of time I 91 00:05:53,800 --> 00:05:59,860 have to do things. But none are earning money directly, right? 92 00:05:59,860 --> 00:06:03,060 And I think that's the one thing that you mentioned, is get them 93 00:06:03,960 --> 00:06:09,240 sort of earning their own keep directly before you start having 94 00:06:09,240 --> 00:06:12,420 them do indirect tasks that make your life easier. 95 00:06:13,260 --> 00:06:15,900 Robert Plank: I agree, and I think your audio got a little 96 00:06:15,900 --> 00:06:17,880 bit quiet. I don't know if there's something for you to 97 00:06:17,940 --> 00:06:20,720 like, boost up a little bit there, but, but yeah, I agree 98 00:06:20,720 --> 00:06:25,580 completely that we we have either like, these huge ideas 99 00:06:25,580 --> 00:06:29,840 for what the employees can do, and so many times we don't have 100 00:06:29,840 --> 00:06:32,480 that clear picture, and then it leads to self sabotage, because 101 00:06:32,480 --> 00:06:35,360 we say, Well, I I want them to just handle my email. I hate 102 00:06:35,360 --> 00:06:38,240 dealing with an email. They should just open up that inbox 103 00:06:38,240 --> 00:06:41,500 and they should go answer all these, and it's exactly the way 104 00:06:41,500 --> 00:06:45,100 that I would answer all these messages. And there's no clear 105 00:06:45,100 --> 00:06:49,480 plan, and a better way is to ease them into it, and a better 106 00:06:49,480 --> 00:06:54,220 way is to and kind of another mind blowing moment was we have 107 00:06:54,220 --> 00:06:57,880 a friend, John Jonas, who said, have them take something off 108 00:06:57,880 --> 00:07:01,140 your plate, and and so many things that you mentioned there 109 00:07:01,140 --> 00:07:06,120 are now done automatically, right, done by technology, 110 00:07:06,240 --> 00:07:09,780 reminding you of an appointment, pop something up. That's Google 111 00:07:09,780 --> 00:07:12,540 Calendar. We don't need people for things like that, but there 112 00:07:12,540 --> 00:07:17,400 are things that require some amount of manual work, like 113 00:07:18,480 --> 00:07:24,200 sending thank you cards to your customers, or sending personal 114 00:07:24,200 --> 00:07:27,440 messages to people who you want to be on podcasts for. And 115 00:07:27,440 --> 00:07:30,200 that's one task that I'm going to be setting up later today, is 116 00:07:30,380 --> 00:07:33,260 I want to appear on a few podcasts. And I'm going to say, 117 00:07:33,320 --> 00:07:38,900 Can you find me about 12 or 15 podcasts for me to just to 118 00:07:38,900 --> 00:07:43,360 contact, for me to be a guest, and can you look up the name of 119 00:07:43,360 --> 00:07:47,080 the podcast, the website, address the host, and maybe 120 00:07:47,200 --> 00:07:50,440 listen for five minutes on one of the recent episodes. So I 121 00:07:50,440 --> 00:07:53,740 have something unique to remark on. You can't really do that 122 00:07:53,740 --> 00:07:57,520 with software, and that's something that I've always 123 00:07:57,520 --> 00:08:01,380 wanted to do, but is time intensive, but then I don't mind 124 00:08:01,380 --> 00:08:04,620 paying for that, because it frees up time to do the more 125 00:08:04,620 --> 00:08:05,700 important things. 126 00:08:06,120 --> 00:08:10,680 Unknown: So one thing I want to do is, and then I've got another 127 00:08:10,680 --> 00:08:17,940 sort of area I want to go into. Can you talk practically like? 128 00:08:18,060 --> 00:08:21,440 So the whole idea of like being on a podcast like, again, to me, 129 00:08:21,440 --> 00:08:25,460 that almost feels like indirect money, right? Like that's 130 00:08:25,460 --> 00:08:28,760 something that you can now do and something that you wanted to 131 00:08:28,760 --> 00:08:32,540 do, but you can do it because you've got an employee that is 132 00:08:32,540 --> 00:08:39,260 now self sustaining. So from a practical like, if I'm 133 00:08:39,260 --> 00:08:42,520 listening, if I'm reading this book or listening to this 134 00:08:42,520 --> 00:08:48,100 podcast, like, what is something that that? And I'm going, like, 135 00:08:48,100 --> 00:08:50,920 well, that's great for you. You've got products, you've got 136 00:08:50,920 --> 00:08:55,480 tasks, you've got things that that somebody can do for you. 137 00:08:55,720 --> 00:08:59,860 But I'm just starting. I don't I don't know what I want to sell. 138 00:08:59,920 --> 00:09:02,460 I don't know how I have a business. I just know I want to 139 00:09:02,460 --> 00:09:08,520 start something like, How can I justify spending money on an 140 00:09:08,520 --> 00:09:11,880 employee, and how can I get a return? Well, 141 00:09:11,880 --> 00:09:13,620 Robert Plank: the the quick and easy, there's, there's two 142 00:09:13,620 --> 00:09:15,720 answers on that. There's the quick and easy and there's the 143 00:09:15,720 --> 00:09:19,140 more long term, when the quick and easy answer is, decide on 144 00:09:19,260 --> 00:09:22,520 your budget, how much you want to spend up front and decide on 145 00:09:22,520 --> 00:09:25,400 your time frame and how long you want to make this work. But then 146 00:09:25,400 --> 00:09:29,840 the longer answer is, first of all, the thing that was most 147 00:09:29,840 --> 00:09:32,660 helpful for me as far as getting my head around this whole having 148 00:09:32,660 --> 00:09:37,460 a business thing versus a hobby, is this idea of lists, traffic 149 00:09:37,460 --> 00:09:40,960 and offers, unless you are thinking in terms of these three 150 00:09:40,960 --> 00:09:44,320 buckets list, traffic and offers, then you do not have a 151 00:09:44,320 --> 00:09:47,080 real business. And I was explaining this concept to 152 00:09:47,080 --> 00:09:50,980 someone a couple of years ago in terms of, well, say you say you 153 00:09:50,980 --> 00:09:53,440 have a career, right? Like setting aside the business idea 154 00:09:53,440 --> 00:09:56,560 for now, say you have a career and you want to get a higher 155 00:09:56,560 --> 00:10:00,240 paying job. What do you do? Well, you go and register. On a 156 00:10:00,240 --> 00:10:03,840 site called LinkedIn, you upload your resume, but then there's 157 00:10:03,840 --> 00:10:07,080 all these little tasks that they say you should do, right? You 158 00:10:07,080 --> 00:10:11,700 should go and add friends to on LinkedIn. You should send 159 00:10:11,700 --> 00:10:14,640 messages, you should post articles. And the thing that 160 00:10:14,640 --> 00:10:18,840 that accomplishes is getting traffic from LinkedIn. Right? 161 00:10:18,840 --> 00:10:21,740 LinkedIn says if someone else logs into the platform, they 162 00:10:21,740 --> 00:10:24,200 say, hey, this person posted this article. If you're a 163 00:10:24,200 --> 00:10:28,760 recruiter or an employer, check out their profile. And that part 164 00:10:28,760 --> 00:10:32,720 of that is the traffic, and that's why it's worth the hassle 165 00:10:32,840 --> 00:10:36,200 of going on some of these platforms, like, say, eBay or 166 00:10:36,200 --> 00:10:40,720 Amazon or Fiverr, because these are these huge platforms that 167 00:10:40,720 --> 00:10:44,320 have traffic, where you you jump through their hoops, and you do 168 00:10:44,320 --> 00:10:46,900 the things that they want you to do. So that way you get traffic. 169 00:10:47,200 --> 00:10:50,080 But then what is that traffic leading to? Well, that traffic 170 00:10:50,080 --> 00:10:53,620 is leading to some kind of an offer. And if you're on LinkedIn 171 00:10:53,620 --> 00:10:58,120 trying to get hired, the offer is that you get a new 172 00:10:58,120 --> 00:11:02,520 employment, a new job. But then just those two things on their 173 00:11:02,520 --> 00:11:06,060 own, just traffic and just an offer, you're leaving things up 174 00:11:06,060 --> 00:11:08,580 to chance, right? There's a lot of waiting involved, and that's 175 00:11:08,700 --> 00:11:12,300 what so many people go wrong, is they make a website, they wait 176 00:11:12,300 --> 00:11:15,300 for Google to send traffic and and the thing that makes both of 177 00:11:15,300 --> 00:11:18,720 those things work is your list. Now, your list. Sometimes people 178 00:11:18,720 --> 00:11:22,100 think in terms of an email list or their friends list, but so 179 00:11:22,100 --> 00:11:26,660 many times the list is going through the legwork of 180 00:11:26,660 --> 00:11:31,940 contacting people one at a time or doing some kind of Time, time 181 00:11:31,940 --> 00:11:37,280 involved task. And so say you're on LinkedIn, then you might go 182 00:11:37,280 --> 00:11:42,100 and message 10 people per day who have job openings or apply 183 00:11:42,280 --> 00:11:46,180 for 10 different job openings on this platform, and that is your 184 00:11:46,180 --> 00:11:48,820 list. And maybe there are people that respond to you, that you 185 00:11:48,820 --> 00:11:52,900 begin conversing with, and that's your list of maybe 10 or 186 00:11:52,960 --> 00:11:57,880 20 people that you you contact. And I think that's an easy way 187 00:11:57,880 --> 00:12:01,440 to jump into this idea, because anyone can understand this. But 188 00:12:01,500 --> 00:12:06,000 if you are building a business, and especially if you were 189 00:12:06,000 --> 00:12:10,080 intending to have someone run it for you, run all of it, or run 190 00:12:10,080 --> 00:12:13,740 some of it, these same three ideas apply because now let's 191 00:12:13,740 --> 00:12:17,220 say that. Now let's say your name's Lance Thomas, and it's 10 192 00:12:17,220 --> 00:12:20,300 years ago, and your daughter wanted to know about selling 193 00:12:20,300 --> 00:12:24,440 physical items on Amazon, Amazon e commerce, right? Well, instead 194 00:12:24,440 --> 00:12:29,060 of just setting up a website saying, buy these camping fire 195 00:12:29,060 --> 00:12:32,900 starter sticks and hope someone finds it, you set up on Amazon. 196 00:12:32,900 --> 00:12:37,100 Why? Because Amazon has traffic. Amazon has people searching and 197 00:12:37,100 --> 00:12:42,700 looking for these things to buy, but then you need to sell 198 00:12:42,700 --> 00:12:46,060 something on Amazon, and that is your offer. And then you might, 199 00:12:46,060 --> 00:12:50,140 over time, get one offer working and but then later on, say, 200 00:12:50,140 --> 00:12:53,740 Well, I'm selling these, these fire starter sticks. Maybe I'll 201 00:12:53,740 --> 00:12:57,460 sell a compass, maybe I'll sell para lighting cord. And then 202 00:12:57,520 --> 00:13:00,600 now, once you have something that's making any amount of 203 00:13:00,600 --> 00:13:04,500 money, even $1 even one sale, then you can look at which of 204 00:13:04,500 --> 00:13:08,760 these three buckets am I lacking in, and what can I increase? So 205 00:13:08,760 --> 00:13:11,820 maybe you create a product line of five different camping 206 00:13:11,820 --> 00:13:16,800 products, and hope to catch some of that traffic. Maybe to work 207 00:13:16,800 --> 00:13:20,480 on your traffic, you bid on more keywords on Amazon. So if 208 00:13:20,480 --> 00:13:24,380 someone is searching for camping, compass or or like, I 209 00:13:24,380 --> 00:13:28,940 don't know, fire blanket, things like that, then now people come 210 00:13:28,940 --> 00:13:32,360 and find your offers. Maybe you send outside traffic, maybe you 211 00:13:32,420 --> 00:13:35,660 post on YouTube, you post on Twitter, you post on Facebook. 212 00:13:35,720 --> 00:13:39,320 And then over time, you have this customer list of people who 213 00:13:39,440 --> 00:13:42,520 bought something from you one time, and then buy from you 214 00:13:42,580 --> 00:13:46,240 again and again, and then maybe you even find people who leave 215 00:13:46,240 --> 00:13:49,240 reviews on other products. And that's more of the list that 216 00:13:49,240 --> 00:13:53,080 you're building. But to to get your head wrapped around 217 00:13:53,860 --> 00:13:58,360 practical terms hiring someone to do something, you need to 218 00:13:58,360 --> 00:14:02,760 have all three of those pieces and and that kind of throws out 219 00:14:02,940 --> 00:14:07,800 a lot of the bad ideas that you might have as far as, what can I 220 00:14:07,800 --> 00:14:11,460 have someone do that does not lead to any money? And things 221 00:14:11,460 --> 00:14:17,760 like creating putting out books, like books on Amazon Kindle, or 222 00:14:17,760 --> 00:14:22,040 putting out Amazon e commerce products, those are examples of 223 00:14:22,040 --> 00:14:24,380 things are like an Etsy store. Those are examples of things 224 00:14:24,380 --> 00:14:28,100 where there's something to buy, right? There's an offer, there's 225 00:14:28,100 --> 00:14:31,520 traffic, where it's on some kind of a platform, where there's all 226 00:14:31,520 --> 00:14:34,160 kinds of people who are looking to buy something. And then 227 00:14:34,160 --> 00:14:37,640 there's an ability to build a list, which, again, does not 228 00:14:37,640 --> 00:14:41,440 necessarily mean email list, friends list that can be part of 229 00:14:41,440 --> 00:14:45,460 it. But there's also things that can be done every day to go out 230 00:14:45,460 --> 00:14:50,500 there and get new people coming in, or get existing people to 231 00:14:50,500 --> 00:14:51,160 come back. 232 00:14:52,120 --> 00:14:56,680 Unknown: So I mean, I like this idea, and you sort of mentioned 233 00:14:56,680 --> 00:14:59,920 this, but I like this idea of like setting up an Amazon. 234 00:15:00,000 --> 00:15:05,340 Store, or setting up an Etsy store or a Shopify store, 235 00:15:05,340 --> 00:15:10,200 whatever. But one thing that really caught my attention was 236 00:15:10,200 --> 00:15:15,180 you said, if you hire somebody to run the business for you, 237 00:15:15,420 --> 00:15:21,680 right, or you have this employee that basically can run it 238 00:15:21,680 --> 00:15:26,240 autonomously without you. What the first thing that came to my 239 00:15:26,240 --> 00:15:31,040 head was, well, if I hire somebody that makes and builds 240 00:15:31,040 --> 00:15:37,100 me an Etsy store or Amazon e commerce Store, and they handle 241 00:15:37,100 --> 00:15:42,040 the orders, and they they manage to shop and add new products and 242 00:15:42,040 --> 00:15:49,360 all this stuff. Why would they not just do it themselves? Like, 243 00:15:49,540 --> 00:15:51,880 do you know what I'm saying? Like, if they know that you're 244 00:15:51,880 --> 00:15:59,920 making $10 on everything that you sell and they're seeing that 245 00:15:59,920 --> 00:16:03,720 you make, let's just use round numbers, $2,000 a month, but 246 00:16:03,720 --> 00:16:10,740 you're only paying them $1,000 a month to do all that. Like, why 247 00:16:10,740 --> 00:16:16,560 would somebody continue to do that for you and not just leave 248 00:16:16,560 --> 00:16:17,940 you and do it themselves? 249 00:16:18,540 --> 00:16:22,280 Robert Plank: They could the I think the reason why our 250 00:16:22,280 --> 00:16:25,640 employees are sticking with us is for the consistent paycheck. 251 00:16:25,700 --> 00:16:29,660 They do not want to deal with the stress that we deal with, 252 00:16:29,660 --> 00:16:34,400 the hassle, the uncertainty and and we all know that every few 253 00:16:34,400 --> 00:16:37,580 years, the rules completely change. There'll be a Google 254 00:16:37,580 --> 00:16:40,540 slap, there'll be some other Facebook thing happening. There 255 00:16:40,540 --> 00:16:46,000 will be some new I don't know. Amazon will make doing business 256 00:16:46,000 --> 00:16:50,080 legal in some states, there is so much uncertainty, and they 257 00:16:50,080 --> 00:16:53,200 think that if you find the right type of person, there are so 258 00:16:53,200 --> 00:16:56,920 many people out there that just want to clock in, do their 259 00:16:56,920 --> 00:17:00,900 hours, get the steady paycheck, and they don't want to deal with 260 00:17:00,900 --> 00:17:04,980 all the extra things that we do with because there's a lot of 261 00:17:04,980 --> 00:17:07,980 hats that we have to figure out, right? We have to figure out how 262 00:17:07,980 --> 00:17:12,180 to be email marketers and copywriters, and we there's the 263 00:17:12,180 --> 00:17:15,480 tech support aspect of things, and there's, there's so many 264 00:17:15,480 --> 00:17:18,900 extra things, so much extra baggage, and and there. And 265 00:17:18,900 --> 00:17:23,360 there's so many times when you and I will have will assign a 266 00:17:23,360 --> 00:17:26,600 task for someone to do, and they just they don't like doing it, 267 00:17:26,660 --> 00:17:29,840 or they're not good at it. And in our case, we have to 268 00:17:29,840 --> 00:17:32,480 sometimes figure it out, right, or we have to go and hire some 269 00:17:32,480 --> 00:17:37,040 other person to have the the writer, or have the video 270 00:17:37,040 --> 00:17:42,940 creator. And so there is some some freedom in this employee 271 00:17:43,000 --> 00:17:47,380 that only does the things that they want to do and they like to 272 00:17:47,380 --> 00:17:49,900 do, and they don't have to stress about where the next 273 00:17:49,900 --> 00:17:53,020 paycheck is coming from. And it's for sure, not for everyone, 274 00:17:53,140 --> 00:17:57,460 but I think that we found the right people to do things for 275 00:17:57,460 --> 00:17:58,000 us. 276 00:17:58,480 --> 00:18:01,500 Unknown: And, you know, I sort of, you know, as you were 277 00:18:01,500 --> 00:18:06,300 talking about that I was thinking of like just real, real 278 00:18:06,300 --> 00:18:10,620 world, right? Stuff. And it's like, if you're a mechanic that 279 00:18:10,620 --> 00:18:14,580 knows how to do an oil change, I mean, the same argument would 280 00:18:14,580 --> 00:18:19,080 apply to, why do you work at Jiffy Lube? Right? Like you 281 00:18:19,080 --> 00:18:22,880 don't need to work at Jiffy Lube, you could make twice as 282 00:18:22,880 --> 00:18:27,620 much money keep all of the profit working for yourself. And 283 00:18:27,620 --> 00:18:31,700 what I was thinking is, but you may not have all of the 284 00:18:31,700 --> 00:18:36,740 equipment. You don't have all of the certain all of that applies 285 00:18:36,740 --> 00:18:41,500 online, right? Like maybe they don't own by the time they go 286 00:18:41,500 --> 00:18:46,180 buy their own Adobe Photoshop and get their own hosting 287 00:18:46,180 --> 00:18:51,400 account and and do, like, all of the little tools that that 288 00:18:51,400 --> 00:18:54,640 business owners have to have it, like you said, it just becomes a 289 00:18:54,640 --> 00:18:58,900 hassle. I'd rather have a steady paycheck and let the owner 290 00:18:58,900 --> 00:19:04,020 absorb all of those costs. So I think, like, you know, if you 291 00:19:04,020 --> 00:19:08,700 really step back and look at it, well, every I mean that that 292 00:19:08,700 --> 00:19:14,400 sort of argument applies to every task job business in the 293 00:19:14,400 --> 00:19:18,900 world. And so I think like, as far as this is one of those 294 00:19:18,900 --> 00:19:23,600 places where, as a aspiring or already successful business 295 00:19:23,600 --> 00:19:27,260 owner, you need to remove like you need to think a level 296 00:19:27,260 --> 00:19:31,880 higher, right? You need to become that CEO. And you need to 297 00:19:31,880 --> 00:19:38,240 really start thinking about, well, could they Yes, but so 298 00:19:38,300 --> 00:19:43,660 could they in any other business as well. And the question is, 299 00:19:43,780 --> 00:19:46,360 can you find the right people? Are you willing to put in the 300 00:19:46,360 --> 00:19:51,700 time to find the right people and and understand that? Yeah, 301 00:19:51,700 --> 00:19:55,000 they might go do that. But that happens every day in the real 302 00:19:55,000 --> 00:19:58,300 world, the real world too, right? 303 00:19:58,300 --> 00:19:59,920 Robert Plank: You could be flipping burgers that make. 304 00:20:00,000 --> 00:20:02,940 McDonald's and say, I want to go out and start my own McDonald's? 305 00:20:03,120 --> 00:20:07,560 Yes, you could, but why would you and there are, there have 306 00:20:07,560 --> 00:20:11,220 been ways where you and I can have our cake and eat it too, 307 00:20:11,220 --> 00:20:14,760 because we we've landed clients sometimes, right? We've landed 308 00:20:14,760 --> 00:20:20,300 monthly clients where we get to live vicariously and work on a 309 00:20:20,300 --> 00:20:23,180 bigger business, work on someone's business that is 310 00:20:23,180 --> 00:20:27,920 making a few million dollars a year, that has 6000 monthly 311 00:20:27,920 --> 00:20:32,300 customers. And so we there's always a bigger fish, right? And 312 00:20:32,300 --> 00:20:36,200 there's always some amount of money that makes it worthwhile. 313 00:20:36,200 --> 00:20:40,540 And and this is a lot of fun for us, because we we use our 314 00:20:40,540 --> 00:20:45,880 marketing, our salesmanship, to land a monthly client, and then 315 00:20:45,880 --> 00:20:49,240 they come to us with a problem, and we break it down, and then 316 00:20:49,240 --> 00:20:55,060 some of the busy work we assign to those hourly employees that 317 00:20:55,060 --> 00:20:58,180 we have, but some of the strategy, the big picture 318 00:20:58,180 --> 00:21:01,140 thinking, or some of the things that We just haven't figured out 319 00:21:01,140 --> 00:21:06,120 how to outsource yet. We add in our own work to I don't know 320 00:21:06,120 --> 00:21:08,760 what the better term is, but we put in our own hours, we use our 321 00:21:08,760 --> 00:21:12,360 own skills and combine it together. So it also does not 322 00:21:12,360 --> 00:21:16,380 have to be one or the other, right? You can, you can create 323 00:21:16,380 --> 00:21:20,360 your own products and your own websites, but there's also some 324 00:21:20,360 --> 00:21:26,360 degree of fun in making someone else's book, in creating someone 325 00:21:26,360 --> 00:21:30,320 else's podcast, and how you've done things like have like 326 00:21:30,320 --> 00:21:34,580 policing trademarks for clients. So it doesn't necessarily have 327 00:21:34,580 --> 00:21:38,420 to be either you only work for someone else or you as a 328 00:21:38,420 --> 00:21:40,900 business owner, right? You don't have to only work for someone 329 00:21:40,900 --> 00:21:44,620 else, or only create your own, you know, your own products and 330 00:21:44,620 --> 00:21:47,320 your own websites. And we talk to people all the time who are 331 00:21:47,320 --> 00:21:51,040 agency owners, and they just, all they have are clients. All 332 00:21:51,040 --> 00:21:53,860 they have are clients, and then they just figure out what to 333 00:21:53,860 --> 00:21:56,920 delegate, and then what they have not figured out how to 334 00:21:56,920 --> 00:21:58,660 delegate yet. And I 335 00:21:58,660 --> 00:22:00,720 Unknown: like that sort of, I mean, I think that that's 336 00:22:00,720 --> 00:22:05,220 important is a lot of times when people are attempting to start a 337 00:22:05,220 --> 00:22:10,620 business, they only think of B to C type businesses, right? 338 00:22:10,620 --> 00:22:14,400 Like business to consumer. I have to sell a product, I have 339 00:22:14,400 --> 00:22:19,680 to sell a service. I have to create something and then find 340 00:22:19,680 --> 00:22:24,440 people that want to buy it. And what we've really done, and a 341 00:22:24,440 --> 00:22:29,960 lot of people see on the back end, is we turn our clients into 342 00:22:30,080 --> 00:22:36,440 B to B, or business to business clients through somebody buys a 343 00:22:36,440 --> 00:22:40,480 course on how to make a book. They don't really want to go 344 00:22:40,480 --> 00:22:44,620 through it themselves, so then we actually make the book for 345 00:22:44,620 --> 00:22:51,880 them, right? Or somebody wants to create an, you know, any 346 00:22:51,880 --> 00:22:54,460 other type of thing. And I think that that's what you mentioned. 347 00:22:54,460 --> 00:23:01,020 I think mindset wise, for anybody listening or reading 348 00:23:01,020 --> 00:23:07,620 this is that they that they actually start thinking in both 349 00:23:07,620 --> 00:23:12,060 terms business to business and business to consumer. Because 350 00:23:12,720 --> 00:23:16,800 the truth is, like the business to business type stuff are 351 00:23:16,800 --> 00:23:23,480 better clients, and it's easier to sort of play middleman, I 352 00:23:23,480 --> 00:23:27,740 guess, for lack of a better, a better term, where they don't 353 00:23:27,740 --> 00:23:31,100 want to do something, you find those people that don't want to 354 00:23:31,100 --> 00:23:36,140 do it, and then you hire somebody to do it for you, and 355 00:23:36,140 --> 00:23:41,560 then take the cut In the middle and manage, manage in between 356 00:23:42,160 --> 00:23:42,400 and 357 00:23:42,400 --> 00:23:45,220 Robert Plank: when, when you're explaining that the what's going 358 00:23:45,220 --> 00:23:51,580 through my head is tweaking the offer and tweaking the list in 359 00:23:51,580 --> 00:23:56,740 traffic. I mean, they're like when I began attending offline 360 00:23:56,740 --> 00:24:00,100 events, when I began going to conferences, I noticed that 361 00:24:00,220 --> 00:24:05,160 there were some people that were super chatty, super talkative 362 00:24:05,220 --> 00:24:08,160 about their future. Ideas about I want to make the next YouTube. 363 00:24:08,160 --> 00:24:10,860 I want to make an app and sell it to the masses. And then 364 00:24:10,860 --> 00:24:14,160 sometimes I would find myself sitting next to a really quiet 365 00:24:14,160 --> 00:24:18,060 person who would be in a weird niche that you never would have 366 00:24:18,060 --> 00:24:21,440 heard of, and was just make making so much money, just 367 00:24:21,440 --> 00:24:25,040 quietly and sometimes, like I have, sometimes I have these 368 00:24:25,040 --> 00:24:29,120 podcast guests. I have one guy who his niche is, he makes 369 00:24:29,120 --> 00:24:32,900 websites for industrial companies and construction 370 00:24:32,900 --> 00:24:36,020 companies. So if some company makes just this right type of 371 00:24:36,020 --> 00:24:39,500 bolts, he'll make a website for them, and it's the ugliest 372 00:24:39,500 --> 00:24:43,720 website, but and the average person would not even like no 373 00:24:43,720 --> 00:24:47,080 understand anything on the website, but if someone was 374 00:24:47,140 --> 00:24:50,980 making a huge office building, they would be looking for this 375 00:24:50,980 --> 00:24:55,240 specific bolts for this specific purpose. And there's all this 376 00:24:55,240 --> 00:24:58,000 money to be made in this I know this other guy who his only 377 00:24:58,000 --> 00:25:02,640 niche is that he lives in. Hollywood or something, and he 378 00:25:02,940 --> 00:25:08,100 contact talks to has been actors and film directors and people 379 00:25:08,100 --> 00:25:11,820 who have a lot of money but want to leave a legacy, and it's just 380 00:25:11,820 --> 00:25:15,180 this really quiet niche. And you, I mean, he definitely does 381 00:25:15,180 --> 00:25:19,740 not appeal to the masses, but he makes a lot of money doing this, 382 00:25:19,740 --> 00:25:23,060 and so sometimes we have to figure out, well, let me play 383 00:25:23,060 --> 00:25:26,540 around with whatever that that offer is. And at the moment, 384 00:25:26,540 --> 00:25:30,140 we're experimenting. We mentioned Fiverr, right? We're 385 00:25:30,140 --> 00:25:34,340 experimenting with getting, landing some Fiverr clients and 386 00:25:34,340 --> 00:25:38,120 some off Fiverr clients. We landed a few on people who want 387 00:25:38,120 --> 00:25:41,980 their podcast notes made, people who want their podcasts edited. 388 00:25:42,100 --> 00:25:44,980 And sometimes we try out different kinds of offers and 389 00:25:44,980 --> 00:25:49,120 say, is this, have any demands? Are people buying this? Can we 390 00:25:49,120 --> 00:25:54,400 make enough money with a short amount of time or a tiny bit of 391 00:25:54,400 --> 00:26:00,240 work? Is this sustainable? Do we enjoy doing it? Is it is this 392 00:26:00,240 --> 00:26:04,200 task, or is this offer too much hassle based on what we're 393 00:26:04,200 --> 00:26:08,520 getting paid? And then sometimes we shift over and focus on the 394 00:26:08,520 --> 00:26:13,320 traffic, right? Maybe we get traffic from other freelancing 395 00:26:13,320 --> 00:26:17,580 sites. Remember, we post on social media or YouTube, and it 396 00:26:17,580 --> 00:26:20,340 even makes me think of, you know, there's been times when, 397 00:26:20,400 --> 00:26:23,780 you know, we've had, sometimes had consistent traffic sources, 398 00:26:23,780 --> 00:26:27,080 right? We kept on attending specific offline events, and 399 00:26:27,080 --> 00:26:30,440 we'd get a steady flow of customers there. We used to post 400 00:26:30,440 --> 00:26:33,560 on specific online message boards and get steady flow of 401 00:26:33,560 --> 00:26:37,760 customers there. But then the traffic was only so much, and 402 00:26:37,760 --> 00:26:40,780 then we would go and dial up the the juice on the on the offer 403 00:26:40,780 --> 00:26:43,720 bucket, and start putting out more and more products. But then 404 00:26:43,780 --> 00:26:47,440 we got tired of that, and then switched over more to the list 405 00:26:47,440 --> 00:26:51,280 building. So if, if you're listening to this, or you're 406 00:26:51,280 --> 00:26:55,840 reading this, and you're stuck and you're not sure how to get 407 00:26:55,840 --> 00:26:59,200 to the money part, then one of those three things is lacking, 408 00:26:59,200 --> 00:27:02,400 and it might be that you need to run some experiments and try 409 00:27:02,400 --> 00:27:05,880 selling some of these things and put out the web page and create 410 00:27:05,880 --> 00:27:10,800 the offer and contact that short list of 50 or 100 people. And it 411 00:27:10,800 --> 00:27:15,180 might be a matter of contacting more people than you you thought 412 00:27:15,480 --> 00:27:19,140 you might have to your offer might need tweaking. But I think 413 00:27:19,140 --> 00:27:23,000 if you think of, does the Do I need a bigger list? Do I need 414 00:27:23,000 --> 00:27:26,960 more traffic? Do I need more offers or better or different 415 00:27:26,960 --> 00:27:31,100 offers then? Now the problem is, is more easily attackable. Now 416 00:27:31,100 --> 00:27:35,180 you can focus on something small and not this big, huge unknown, 417 00:27:35,900 --> 00:27:36,440 awesome. 418 00:27:36,500 --> 00:27:40,480 Unknown: I think that that's really wise, that whole idea of 419 00:27:40,480 --> 00:27:44,680 rethinking lists, traffic and offers, and understanding that 420 00:27:45,400 --> 00:27:49,000 online business, offline business, business in general, 421 00:27:49,180 --> 00:27:54,400 you can silo everything into one of those three buckets, and once 422 00:27:54,400 --> 00:27:58,180 you do that, you can see where you need to dial something up 423 00:27:58,180 --> 00:28:03,720 and easily hire somebody that can tackle that for you and 424 00:28:04,140 --> 00:28:08,280 increase your sales and marketing at the same time. 425 00:28:09,240 --> 00:28:13,800 Robert Plank: And I think that it's important to have goals and 426 00:28:13,800 --> 00:28:16,920 have deadlines, but also don't panic. And you and I were 427 00:28:16,920 --> 00:28:19,560 talking about this five minutes more where we started recording 428 00:28:19,560 --> 00:28:23,540 is that sometimes it's easy to make a lot of stupid decisions 429 00:28:23,540 --> 00:28:27,440 or say a lot of weird things just because you you don't even 430 00:28:27,440 --> 00:28:29,840 know what's going on. And I think that there, there is 431 00:28:29,840 --> 00:28:35,420 something to be said about having goals and my my recent 432 00:28:35,720 --> 00:28:38,300 the most, the thing that's helped me the most, as far as 433 00:28:38,600 --> 00:28:41,980 making progress and continually making progress and reminding 434 00:28:41,980 --> 00:28:44,920 myself that it doesn't all have to be done in one day. What's 435 00:28:44,920 --> 00:28:47,500 more important is to consistently do things every 436 00:28:47,500 --> 00:28:52,540 day. Is if there's a task that I that I know I need to do and I 437 00:28:52,600 --> 00:28:55,780 don't do it, and I don't do it, and a day passes and a day pass 438 00:28:55,780 --> 00:29:00,780 and I still can't get that task done, then I will cut the task 439 00:29:00,780 --> 00:29:04,380 in half and just try to do a smaller version of that task. 440 00:29:04,380 --> 00:29:07,320 And if that doesn't work, cut the task in half and try to do a 441 00:29:07,320 --> 00:29:11,280 smaller version of that and if that doesn't work, then contact 442 00:29:11,340 --> 00:29:14,700 one of our employees and say, can you just take a stab at 443 00:29:14,700 --> 00:29:19,080 this? Can you just get something going here? And so an example of 444 00:29:19,080 --> 00:29:24,080 that is something that I'm getting to this week is we, me 445 00:29:24,080 --> 00:29:28,520 and the wife, want to put out some some Kindle books, some 446 00:29:28,580 --> 00:29:32,180 like self help books and some recipe books, things like that. 447 00:29:32,240 --> 00:29:35,720 And we want to not even have to touch we just want these books 448 00:29:35,720 --> 00:29:40,220 to just get cranked out because Amazon has the list or Amazon 449 00:29:40,220 --> 00:29:43,060 has the traffic, and then we can have links in the book and build 450 00:29:43,060 --> 00:29:47,020 the list, and then the offers are these other Kindle books. 451 00:29:47,260 --> 00:29:52,060 And it's a thing I've wanted to do forever, but after this call 452 00:29:52,060 --> 00:29:54,820 is done, I'm going to be assigning a task, and I'm going 453 00:29:54,820 --> 00:30:01,500 to say, just spend an hour, and I have 10 ideas. For this, for 454 00:30:01,500 --> 00:30:04,560 this ghost written book, for this person. And I will, I'm 455 00:30:04,560 --> 00:30:09,180 going to say, choose one of these 10, spend an hour and make 456 00:30:09,180 --> 00:30:13,200 me an outline. And I'm going to record a five minute screen 457 00:30:13,200 --> 00:30:16,980 capture of just starting on the outline. And I'll say, whatever 458 00:30:16,980 --> 00:30:20,040 you come back with in an hour. Let me just see what there is. 459 00:30:20,040 --> 00:30:23,120 And there has been so many times with these employees where I'll 460 00:30:23,120 --> 00:30:27,680 say, just, just create this part of it, right? Just create this 461 00:30:27,680 --> 00:30:31,580 logo, just create this graphic, or just like, write this title, 462 00:30:31,580 --> 00:30:35,120 or just make these bullet points. And then if I don't 463 00:30:35,300 --> 00:30:38,660 finish what they started, then I feel like I'm letting them down. 464 00:30:38,780 --> 00:30:42,700 And so many times they just get the ball rolling, because they, 465 00:30:42,700 --> 00:30:46,660 they just, they get that very first piece done. I'll say, Make 466 00:30:46,660 --> 00:30:50,680 me a website. I want the website to have these four things in it, 467 00:30:50,860 --> 00:30:55,120 and then once I see it in in place, once there's something 468 00:30:55,120 --> 00:30:58,000 visual, once or something concrete, I can say, well, now I 469 00:30:58,000 --> 00:31:00,780 want to add this and remove that, but it's less of something 470 00:31:00,780 --> 00:31:06,420 in my imagination, and now it's something that is in real world 471 00:31:06,420 --> 00:31:10,380 terms. And I think that that it's important to get a little 472 00:31:10,380 --> 00:31:14,760 bit done every day. And I was a few weeks ago, I was reading a 473 00:31:14,760 --> 00:31:18,120 book that was supposed to help with habits, and it's like one 474 00:31:18,120 --> 00:31:23,180 of the top selling Amazon self help books right now, and it was 475 00:31:23,180 --> 00:31:26,660 going off and it was adding all these crazy terms. And the more 476 00:31:26,660 --> 00:31:30,440 I like read, I was like, they're taking, like, some really simple 477 00:31:30,440 --> 00:31:34,460 foundational stuff, and they're making it way more complicated 478 00:31:34,460 --> 00:31:37,340 than it has to be. Like we keep mentioning here list traffic 479 00:31:37,340 --> 00:31:40,780 offers, and that applies to Amazon. It applies to Fiverr. It 480 00:31:40,780 --> 00:31:46,060 applies to Etsy. But then as far as getting momentum right, as 481 00:31:46,060 --> 00:31:48,520 far as us getting things accomplished, as far as us 482 00:31:48,520 --> 00:31:52,960 taking action on this employee thing there, I think there's 483 00:31:52,960 --> 00:31:55,960 nothing simpler, and there's nothing better than this concept 484 00:31:55,960 --> 00:32:00,300 of SMART goals, S, M, A, R t, where your goals need to be 485 00:32:00,300 --> 00:32:03,540 specific, which means you can just say it in one sentence, 486 00:32:03,540 --> 00:32:06,420 that and that way it keeps it small, and that way you know 487 00:32:06,420 --> 00:32:09,420 exactly what you're working on. Maybe you're just naming your 488 00:32:09,420 --> 00:32:12,900 Etsy store. Maybe you're just creating a web page with with a 489 00:32:12,900 --> 00:32:15,960 headline. It needs to be measurable, so that you know 490 00:32:16,020 --> 00:32:19,800 that you've completed it. And it's not just some some thing 491 00:32:19,800 --> 00:32:23,240 where you're 90% done, you can say, I can provide proof that I 492 00:32:23,240 --> 00:32:27,380 did this. It's actionable. So that way it's you have all the 493 00:32:27,380 --> 00:32:30,920 tools in place, and you know that you can get started with 494 00:32:30,920 --> 00:32:35,720 it. And something else that is kind of a good mind hack is know 495 00:32:35,720 --> 00:32:40,840 where you'll be taking action on something. If you say that you 496 00:32:40,840 --> 00:32:45,040 want to land some podcast editing clients, and you'll 497 00:32:45,040 --> 00:32:47,620 contact 10 people. Well, maybe you know that you'll be 498 00:32:47,620 --> 00:32:50,500 contacting those 10 people when you're sitting on your kitchen 499 00:32:50,500 --> 00:32:54,340 table with your laptop. And it seems silly, but so many people 500 00:32:54,340 --> 00:32:59,500 don't use their imagination for positive results. They just say, 501 00:32:59,560 --> 00:33:03,480 I'll get it done, it sooner, sooner or later, but they don't 502 00:33:03,480 --> 00:33:05,640 know what that will look like, right? They don't know what 503 00:33:05,640 --> 00:33:08,820 things will look like when their task is accomplished. They don't 504 00:33:08,820 --> 00:33:11,880 know where in the house or where in the office they'll be doing 505 00:33:11,880 --> 00:33:14,400 it. They don't know which computer they'll be doing it. 506 00:33:15,000 --> 00:33:17,880 Make sure that things that you do are actionable, and then the 507 00:33:17,880 --> 00:33:22,100 last two parts of that smart goals acronym are relevant and 508 00:33:22,100 --> 00:33:25,880 time bound. And the relevant thing, I think that's what so 509 00:33:25,880 --> 00:33:30,380 many people overlook the most, is that the goal or the tasks 510 00:33:30,380 --> 00:33:34,280 that you have needs to be related to other tasks. And like 511 00:33:34,340 --> 00:33:38,300 you said earlier, I'm looking to get on podcasts, but the point 512 00:33:38,300 --> 00:33:43,180 of being on podcast is to then plug our websites at the end. So 513 00:33:43,180 --> 00:33:47,200 there is a path to making money, but sometimes people will just 514 00:33:47,440 --> 00:33:49,660 think they need to do something, right? Oh, I need to be on 515 00:33:49,660 --> 00:33:53,200 podcast, just because. Well, if you don't know what you're going 516 00:33:53,200 --> 00:33:56,680 to talk about, if you don't have an offer, then you'll burn out 517 00:33:56,680 --> 00:34:00,100 very quickly, because there won't be results from that. But 518 00:34:00,160 --> 00:34:03,900 so the R in smart goals is relevant make sure that you have 519 00:34:03,900 --> 00:34:07,260 a task that relates to your other future tasks. So that way, 520 00:34:07,380 --> 00:34:10,020 when this thing you're doing is done that leads to the next 521 00:34:10,020 --> 00:34:14,640 thing. And then the the T and smart goals is time bound, which 522 00:34:14,640 --> 00:34:18,840 means that you have a real date, a real deadline. And something 523 00:34:18,840 --> 00:34:22,160 that I was reminded of recently was it's important to have a 524 00:34:22,160 --> 00:34:26,060 time and a date, right? Don't just say you'll have this thing. 525 00:34:26,060 --> 00:34:30,080 Don't just say that you'll have this opt in page, or this web 526 00:34:30,080 --> 00:34:32,960 page done, or your LinkedIn profile done. Don't say you'll 527 00:34:32,960 --> 00:34:36,320 have it done by Friday. So you'll have it done by Friday at 528 00:34:36,320 --> 00:34:39,800 nine o'clock PM, and even if Friday nine o'clock pm rolls 529 00:34:39,800 --> 00:34:44,680 around and it's still not done, then publish what you have. And 530 00:34:44,680 --> 00:34:47,020 in the worst case, even if you can't publish what you have, 531 00:34:47,140 --> 00:34:51,700 then by Saturday at nine o'clock PM, readjust and publish half of 532 00:34:51,700 --> 00:34:55,420 what you have. But I think that, like as far as what we've been 533 00:34:55,420 --> 00:34:59,140 talking about today, list traffic and offers, that way, 534 00:34:59,140 --> 00:35:03,540 you have a real. Business that way you you know the the minimum 535 00:35:03,540 --> 00:35:07,440 tasks that you need to build up, that Etsy store, that Amazon 536 00:35:07,440 --> 00:35:11,880 store, that fiber presence, to at least have one offer, have 537 00:35:11,880 --> 00:35:15,180 one traffic source, have least somewhat of a list that you're 538 00:35:15,180 --> 00:35:18,960 building. And that way, then you have a business that you can 539 00:35:19,380 --> 00:35:22,700 then think of because you're the boss, right? You're you should 540 00:35:22,700 --> 00:35:25,220 not be the worker. You should be the person that thinks about the 541 00:35:25,220 --> 00:35:28,460 strategy, the big picture, solve the problems, and then assign 542 00:35:28,460 --> 00:35:31,160 the small tasks or people to do that. And then you can work on 543 00:35:31,400 --> 00:35:34,640 enlarging the list, enlarging the traffic, or enlarging the 544 00:35:34,640 --> 00:35:38,960 offers. And then as far as getting there, as far as getting 545 00:35:38,960 --> 00:35:42,940 things done, smart, goals, specific, measurable, 546 00:35:43,000 --> 00:35:46,600 actionable, relevant and time bound. There's a lot of noise 547 00:35:46,600 --> 00:35:48,820 out there. There are a lot of people that take simple things 548 00:35:48,820 --> 00:35:52,180 and try to chart it into all these crazy extra terms, which 549 00:35:52,240 --> 00:35:56,020 you you can do that if you want, but so many times, just the 550 00:35:56,020 --> 00:36:00,480 simple foundational ideas are the ones that that get us there. 551 00:36:01,080 --> 00:36:01,320 And 552 00:36:01,379 --> 00:36:04,259 Unknown: what I love about the way you sort of wrap that up is 553 00:36:04,259 --> 00:36:10,019 it forces you, as a current or future business owner to start 554 00:36:10,019 --> 00:36:14,639 thinking more like a CEO, right? Like I don't care necessarily 555 00:36:14,639 --> 00:36:17,759 all of the details, even though I need to know about them, I'm 556 00:36:17,759 --> 00:36:21,679 just worried about these high level things and understanding 557 00:36:21,679 --> 00:36:27,799 that everything fits together, relevancy in the way that I like 558 00:36:27,799 --> 00:36:31,879 them too. So Robert, I really appreciate you being a guest on 559 00:36:31,879 --> 00:36:38,899 your own show, allowing me to be a host on this amazing show. So 560 00:36:38,899 --> 00:36:43,719 if people want more episodes, more type of information that 561 00:36:43,719 --> 00:36:47,079 you provide. Where can they check you out? Marketer 562 00:36:47,079 --> 00:36:48,279 Robert Plank: of the day.com, 563 00:36:49,780 --> 00:36:55,060 Unknown: marketer of the day.com go there right now. Subscribe, 564 00:36:55,180 --> 00:36:59,560 check out the hundreds, literally hundreds and hundreds 565 00:36:59,560 --> 00:37:03,660 of different episodes that are there for you, where you can 566 00:37:04,380 --> 00:37:08,220 find out different nuggets, find out different business models, 567 00:37:08,220 --> 00:37:12,240 hear what other people are doing. It's an easy way for you 568 00:37:12,240 --> 00:37:16,320 to start thinking about your business at a different level, a 569 00:37:16,320 --> 00:37:21,080 way to start implementing it in a different way, and a way for 570 00:37:21,080 --> 00:37:25,760 you to start considering how you can use employees to actually 571 00:37:25,940 --> 00:37:29,960 boost your business and move yourself forward. So this is 572 00:37:30,020 --> 00:37:34,460 Lance thomasurel for the Robert plank marketer of the day 573 00:37:34,520 --> 00:37:39,560 podcast with my special guest Robert plank, thank you and have 574 00:37:39,560 --> 00:37:40,060 a good day. You. I 575 00:37:43,420 --> 00:37:46,540 Robert Plank: want to listen to more fantastic marketers of the 576 00:37:46,540 --> 00:37:53,020 day. Subscribe to us at marketer of the day.com/itunes and browse 577 00:37:53,020 --> 00:37:55,960 past episodes at marketer of the day.com