More Cheese Less Whiskers

Today on the More Cheese Less Whiskers podcast we have a bit of a different show. I'm down in South Beach this week, and one of the things I got to do was spend a little time with my friend Frank Kern, and it reminded me of being on his podcast, ‘Your Next Million’. We talked about ‘the self milking cow’. I shared the idea that the struggle or limitation, holding back a lot of entrepreneurs back is that they're trying to be ‘self milking’. They're trying to do it all; trying to make the milk, meaning come up with the ideas, the money and the strategies, and they're also trying to milk themselves, package it, take it to market, and do the billing and clean up around the shop and farm. The sooner you realize making the milk is the most important thing you can do, and it's the thing that only you can do, the more success you’ll have. Everything else can be done by farmers, and I'm saying that not in a demeaning way to farmers, because there are people who love to be in support roles or love to do things without

Today on the More Cheese, Less Whiskers podcast we're talking with Ricardo Vasquez from Toronto and Ricardo has something pretty neat. He's working on creating a system in a community and a membership program for people who want to pursue mixed martial arts. We had a really great conversation. Ricardo’s been a lifetime MMA practitioner. He's been involved in the sport for a very long time and has a real passion for it. He's just getting started with it as a business, so we talked a lot about how to get things going. How do you start with a big vision for something that could have a global community, but take actionable steps to really to get started. Where do you begin and how do you structure and organize it so that you've got a scalable business. What we call a scale ready algorithm.   Show Links:Show TranscriptProfitActivatorScore.com     Want to be a guest on the show? Simply follow the 'Be a Guest' link on the left & I'll be in touch. Download a free copy of the Breakthrough DNA book all about the 8

Today on the More Cheese, Less Whiskers podcast we're talking with Matthew Coast, and Matthew has a company, a website with tools, programs and coaching, to help women find the man of their dreams. The one who will love them, treat them like a queen. The one who will think about them above all others. He's really has a dream-come-true scenario for women who want to be in a relationship with ‘the one’ right guy. He has a big list of women who are eager to hear their information, so we talked a lot about how to connect all the help they can give these women, in a way that makes it easy for them to get started. We talked a lot about continuity programs, email, super signatures, and scorecards, all about starting conversations and getting people engaged. And all of it transfers to anyone else in a similar situation; where you have information that can help a specific group of people get a very specific result. So every time you hear us talk about dating or hear about women, you can insert your situation, the kind

Today on the More Cheese, Less Whiskers podcast we're talking with Chris Hill all the way from New Zealand. Now, I first met Chris at a Breakthrough Blueprint event in London. He came to the very first event I did there, and he runs a company called Hands up Holidays. It’s a really interesting company because they combine luxury travel with voluntourism. Chris has a really a great backstory to how all of this happened. His company has gone through different iterations and different ways it's evolved over time, and what we were talking about today is how do we, when you've got a global market as an opportunity and you've got a very defined type of person who you're trying to attract, how do you narrow that down to the best people to approach. I always love when we spent a lot of time in our Profit Activator one, trying to zone in on the ideal target audience and how to get people to raise their hands. You're really going to enjoy how we dial it in over this episode. Show Links:Show TranscriptProfitActivatorSco

Today on the More Cheese Less Whiskers podcast we're talking with Victor Vento Jr, and Victor has an agency that helps people with subscription services. We had a really great conversation that flew by! I've got a lot of experience in this particular endeavor and recurring revenue is one of my favorite models. During the call we dove deep into the specific things Victor is doing with one of his clients, but the examples we talk about don't really matter because the model of getting someone to try something for the first time, and then offering a way for them to stay and deliver a service to them month after month after month, it's the same underlying mechanics and psychology. The motivations are the same whether it's a subscription to a software services or a newsletter, or information or coaching or anything. Everything that we talked about is transferrable to all of these models, and so much of it is about getting the metrics right. You're going to enjoy this episode, especially if you are working with or h

Today on the More Cheese Less Whiskers podcast we're talking with Paul Adams from Brisbane Australia, and today is one of those time when you know that you've hit on something that's a great idea. Paul is a theater producer and an actor, and he had an idea for a theatrical show that he wanted to produce for primary school age kids and their families, and do it at a time when school is out on vacation. The original discussion was about how can he can get the word out about the show but in that discussion we started thinking about how high is high, or what other models could we draw from here? We started talking about Simon Cowell, Tyler Perry, and other models. I then shared with him an example of something that I know real estate agents do here in America and Canada, that could solve the entire issue for him. We really, as we thought it all out, realized this is THE idea.   Show Links:Show TranscriptProfitActivatorScore.com     Want to be a guest on the show? Simply follow the 'Be a Guest' link on the left &a

Today on the More Cheese Less Whiskers podcast we're talking with Chris Rogers from Victoria, Canada, a fellow Canadian, and we're talking about something pretty neat. He has skills in design and building, he's been a very successful home builder and remodeler, and the idea he has now is helping people create curb appeal for their homes. This could be doing some simple things, things that are just cosmetically pleasing like cleaning up, adding some visual appeal to the house, all the way up to some construction type of things like adding an element to the house, a porch or a portico or dormers, something that's going to increase the curb appeal. His theory or idea is that this would be appealing to real estate agents or people who are selling their homes, to help give them an edge and help their house stand out. We brainstormed through that process and how he may be able to reach out to some of these realtors, and we walked through a great email sequence to send. You're going to enjoy the thought process here

Today on the More Cheese Less Whiskers podcast we're talking with Nandu Awatramani from New Orleans. Nandu helps restaurant owners grow their business and has the distinction of being the gentleman who opened a chain of Italian restaurants in India. He has a very interesting character, we had a great conversation, and one of the things we talked about was establishing what I call proprietary metrics; ways to help you know what you're doing is working, so you can pass the results on to the businesses you're working for. If you establish a metric that you know, that you can help effect, that can create the foundation for a training program, that you're the only one in the world that can help people with, then you're on to a winning formula. You're going to enjoy this episode. Show Links:Show TranscriptProfitActivatorScore.com     Want to be a guest on the show? Simply follow the 'Be a Guest' link on the left & I'll be in touch. Download a free copy of the Breakthrough DNA book all about the 8 Profit Activat

Today on the More Cheese Less Whiskers podcast we have a wonderful episode with Vanessa Shaw and Vanessa is a top level coach helping people from various backgrounds. She's been in practice for a long time and has a lot of experience working with many different types of clients, so we talked about some of the really great opportunities she has offering high level programs, and about how she can use a book as a marketing tool. I think you're really going to enjoy this episode, especially if you're in a situation where you have a lot of experience helping people, and you can craft that into offering some high end. Show Links:Show TranscriptProfitActivatorScore.com    Want to be a guest on the show? Simply follow the 'Be a Guest' link on the left & I'll be in touch. Download a free copy of the Breakthrough DNA book all about the 8 Profit Activators we talk about here on More Cheese, Less Whiskers...

Today on the More Cheese Less Whiskers podcast we're talking with Jody McNamer from Seattle, Washington, and Jody has a really great mission that they're focused on. He shared the story of his son Tyler, who's autistic and has gone from being an autistic child to now, someone who's 24 years old, has written a book, and speaks to thousands of people about autism, and who's acting in support and helping parents of autistic children. It's a really great mission they have, and we had a great conversation about the context of thinking about what they're able to do for people from a During Unit perspective to identify the outcomes they could help create for people. Then they can build their business around being able to facilitate those things. You're really going to enjoy this conversation. It's a little different than the usual type of business we have, but you'll see immediately how the 8 Profit Activators apply to every situation.   Show Links:Show TranscriptProfitActivatorScore.com     Want to be a guest on th

Today on the More Cheese Less Whiskers podcast we're talking with Jonathon Schultheiss from North Carolina, and Jonathan is a financial advisor with a very interesting specialty. They specialize in managing 401k plans for large companies. We had a really great conversation about the Before Unit for them and I have 100% confidence that if they get people lined up ready to get some help, in the During and After Unit they are 100% ready to help them because they have a great retention rate. So we focused our attention on the Before Unit, and how to identify the exact target audience. Jonathon has narrowed it down to 500 people and we talked about how to get involved in a conversation with them that can lead to the opportunity for him to bring them on board. Jonathan's a marketing lover and he's got some great ideas that you're going to enjoy. I'll keep you updated with reports from the field as he's implementing all these things. Show Links:Show TranscriptProfitActivatorScore.com     Want to be a guest on the sh

Today on the More Cheese Less Whiskers podcast we're talking with Milan Krueger from New Zealand. Milan has a very special program where he's helping people in New Zealand, young men, 18 to 35 years old who have between 30 and 80 pounds to lose. That's a specific group, and you'll see as we go through the conversation how we arrived at that very specific articulation of his target audience. It's great to see that thinking come together. He's had a lot of success and enthusiasm for helping people. In fact, he lost 80 pounds himself and that was a big part in sparking his passion for helping people, young men in New Zealand, do the same thing. We had a great conversation about the entire 'Before Unit'. About how to set his program up, and how to think about all the profit activators that act together to identify his audience, to get people to raise their hand, to educate and motivate them, and then to make offers so they are ready to get the help he can provide.   Show Links:Show TranscriptProfitActivatorScore.

Today on the More Cheese Less Whiskers podcast we're talking with Monique DeBose who’s in LA. You are in for a treat if you like music, and jazz music particularly, because Monique has a wonderful jazz album that's debuted on the iTunes charts at number two in the jazz category. We had a great conversation to brainstorm ideas around how to make her music dreams come true. We talked a lot about the importance of getting people to know you, like you and then to trust you, and by trust in this context, we talking about people trusting they will have a good experience when they come to see her perform or they buy her album. She has the opportunity to model some of ways this has been done in other situations and really take an approach of starting in her local market to lay the foundations before looking at different ways of distributing her music or who else might be interested in sponsoring or participating in an event with her. You're really gonna enjoy this episode. There's a lot of parallels no matter what yo

Today on the More Cheese Less Whiskers podcast we're talking with Pat Rieli, who owns a restaurant in Ybor City near Tampa, called the Big Easy Bar. This is a really fun episode. You hear me often talk about the restaurant experience as a great kind of visual or learning experience to understand the concept of the guest experience timeline, and so we really got to talk about that in this episode. We talked about some strategies to bring in new people from the local area and people who are visiting from out of town, and we talked about the importance of building a list of local people who are already coming to your restaurant that you can continue to build a relationship with by email. It was really fun to dig into some strategies and tactics they could deploy.   Show Links:Show TranscriptProfitActivatorScore.com The Big Easy Bar   Want to be a guest on the show? Simply follow the 'Be a Guest' link on the left & I'll be in touch. Download a free copy of the Breakthrough DNA book all about the 8 Profit Acti

Today on the More Cheese Less Whiskers podcast we're talking with Rebecca Hourihan from San Diego, and Rebecca helps financial advisors with their marketing, branding, and content strategies. We had a really great conversation about all of the tools she’s able to help people with, and some of the strategies she can apply right now to increase the number of people they can help. When we got to the bottom of it, we figured out that the thing that's going to make the biggest impact for Rebecca right now is working on some Profit Activator two steps of collecting more lead. Opportunities that are going to get her in conversations with people, and then, in Profit Activator three, begin to educate and motivate those people by increasing the frequency that she’s adding value and always using that as the opportunity to present her super signature and ways to get started. This is a really fun conversation. Rebecca's very enthusiastic and I love talking with people who love marketing.   Show Links:Show TranscriptProfit

Today on the More Cheese Less Whiskers podcast we're talking with Jonathan Pantalis from phikind.com the organic, sugar free chocolate people. Chocolate the favorite thing of everyone everywhere, and if you love dark chocolate, this is going to be an exciting conversation because they've got a really great business and there's a lot of lessons here about focusing on the customer experience. We spend a lot of time talking about the first time somebody tries their chocolate, and the first 60 day experience to encourage them to reorder more chocolate and join as a recurring ongoing client. They're doing a fantastic job. People love what they're doing, and as you’ll hear, they love the story. Show Links:Show TranscriptProfitActivatorScore.com PHIKind.com     Want to be a guest on the show? Simply follow the 'Be a Guest' link on the left & I'll be in touch. Download a free copy of the Breakthrough DNA book all about the 8 Profit Activators we talk about here on More Cheese, Less Whiskers...

Today on the More Cheese Less Whiskers podcast we're talking with Linda McKissack. I love episodes like this where I get to combine my two greatest loves; marketing and real estate, and Linda and I have very similar backgrounds in that she has been involved in real estate since her early twenties, just like me, and she has gone on to build one of the largest organizations within Keller Williams with thousands of agents, and lots of offices. Today we're talking about how she can use her assets of her book and starting a podcast to help grow her organization and really just do what she loves to do; helping, and mentor people. Linda is great to talk with and you're really going to enjoy this episode. Show Links:Show TranscriptProfitActivatorScore.com Thinking Out Loud     Want to be a guest on the show? Simply follow the 'Be a Guest' link on the left & I'll be in touch. Download a free copy of the Breakthrough DNA book all about the 8 Profit Activators we talk about here on More Cheese, Less Whiskers...

Today on the More Cheese Less Whiskers podcast we’re talking with Troy Assoignon who's calling in from Spain, but he's traveling all over the world. He has a great desire to help people creatively. He’s very creative. He’s got a lot of experience in design, and he couples that with a knowledge and a great aptitude for copy. When you combine marketing, copy and design, you've got a really great trifecta and you're going to see the evolution here. We started out trying to figure out who Troy works with or who he would like to work with. Then as we progressed in the conversation we get more and more clarity and I think by the end we had nailed down to a very specific outcome, a very specific segment of the market that he can help. He was really excited about it. I love when we have this kind of outcome and I think this will be a really great conversation if you're in a similar situation, where you can do a lot of things, help a lot of people, but are having a hard time nailing it down to a specific group of peop

Today on the More Cheese Less Whiskers podcast we're talking with Ted Carr, who just happens to be the newly minted mayor of the Raw Vegan community in Canada and we appointed him right on the show today, so you're going to get to hear a coronation as it were. It's really very interesting because Ted has a lot of cool stuff going on, all centered around a raw fruit festival that he organizes as part of a Canada fruit-fest. He gathers all the raw vegans who are really into living this life, for a week of education and Merriment and they had a really successful kickoff for it this year. Now he’s really thinking about growing the event, and how to use marketing to help with that. We really focused on the bigger picture, and bigger opportunities he has to organize this whole community throughout the year, and not just have it all revolve around the one thing, like an annual event. I really enjoyed this. The hour went so quick and if you're in a situation where you are looking to do big things with an identifiable

Today on the More Cheese Less Whiskers podcast we're talking with Stephanie Taylor from Arizona where she owns Twisted Yoga. She's a friend of Joe Polish who makes a special guest appearance, and we had a really interesting conversation, looking for opportunities to apply the 8 Profit Activators. Stephanie was very open and willing to share everything that's going on. She's been in business for almost a year and has done a great job of building her business on the strength of some facebook advertising just after she opened, and again at the end of the year here. But as you'll hear, there's a major difference in what happened the first three months compared to the last three months, and that's where one of the biggest lessons is. She's built an asset in her list of potential clients that will have an ongoing yield year after year after year, and the great thing about something like a yoga studio is the whole point of the business is to build up a recurring clientele that returns month after month. We talked a