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PROFITABLE CONNECTIONS
March 2021
How to Create Your Own Luck
Hard Work, Serendipity, & Consistency ...
“Luck is what happens when preparation meets opportunity,” Roman philosopher Seneca once wrote. You might think, preparing for an opportunity doesn’t sound the same as luck . However, that’s the trick — luck comes from preparing for opportunity even when you don’t know it’s coming. That way, when an opportunity does come along, you are in a position to leverage it. We’ve gotten many comments over the years about how “lucky” we are to know certain authors, industry experts, speakers, or influencers. But the truth is that after interviewing so many industry experts on our podcasts over the past decade and trying to add value whenever possible, we have created our own luck with brute force — and a strong helping of discipline. There are so many ways this discipline pays off. Take professional advice. We have been the beneficiaries of invaluable professional advice on challenges or opportunities that have come from our network. Whether we’re experiencing hiring, marketing, or technical challenges, we always have someone to call for advice. It even came into play over the decision to launch this very newsletter. Jeremy had interviewed a top direct-response marketer six years ago, a now-retired copywriter who had put out print newsletters since the 1970s. We went to him for advice on starting this newsletter, which helped us shape it. Another way the discipline of the podcast has helped us create our own luck is by communicating one to many. This is something our client, Alexi Cashen, host of the “Alexi Cashen Show,” experienced recently when she got a surprise message from a person she’d met at a conference many years earlier. While it seemed out of the blue for this person to reach out, it turned out they had been listening to her podcast. By putting out consistent content, Alexi’s podcast helped her to remain top of mind with many people in her industry — an achievement that would be difficult to do any other way.
One final way the discipline of doing a podcast can help to create your own luck can be summed up in one word: serendipity. Doing a podcast consistently puts you in touch with dozens of people each year, and good things will come from it. A few years back, Jeremy was attending a large conference and conducting on-camera interviews with exhibitors and attendees for his podcast when he bumped into James Thomson, co-founder of the Prosper Show conference, who he had interviewed previously. James asked about Jeremy’s video and camera crew.
“I’m doing interviews for the show,” Jeremy replied.
“We have a show coming up,” James replied. “Do you want to do that for our show?” That quick exchange turned into multiple projects and collaborations over the years, including helping James launch and manage their “Buy Box Experts” podcast.
So, turning back to that quote from Seneca — how do you prepare for opportunities?
Feature others in podcast interviews. Publish those interviews. And continue to deliver value without expectation of return.
When you do all that, you’ll have all the luck you need.
Dr. Jeremy Weisz & John Corcoran
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Succeed in Business With the Right Strategies
Remember the musical, “How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying”? Ralph Macchio goes from the mailroom to the boardroom by not accomplishing anything in his career other than kissing up to the right people. But, for entrepreneurs, kissing up to the boss won’t help much! If you want to succeed without really trying when you’re running the show, you need to focus on these six things instead. 1. Retain and Maintain Customers. How much money do you lose each month in customer churn? What about employee churn? This is a big issue and a major reason businesses don’t scale. Check out the book “Stop Losing Customers'' by Shaun Buck. A section dedicated to calculating churn discusses why it matters for your business and how you can save a massive amount of money once you know the number and work to lower it. 2. Market to Convert Leads. You need marketing that generates quality leads and a sales process that converts those leads to customers for your business. This is much easier said than done, and I get that. The fundamental items your business needs are:
• Lead generation of quality prospects
• A customer-relationship-management system that allows you to keep track of, nurture, and follow up with leads
• A sales process that includes long-term nurture and follow-up as well as the ability to close a deal
• These are only the minimum requirements, so make sure you have them all.
3. Create Systems and Processes. Businesses don’t scale when they don’t have any systems in place. “Ask the entrepreneur” is not a system, and if you have to do it all, your business will max out very quickly. If you are not a systems and processes person, hire one. A competent person in this position will be your right hand and help you scale. 4. Keep Employees Happy. If your employees are happy, they will do a better job serving your customers. If your customers are happy because your employees are serving them well, then they will refer more, spend more, and stay with you longer. This will make you happy because you will turn a larger profit. By contrast, it costs three times an employee’s monthly compensation to hire, onboard, and train their replacement — minimum . Few things hurt more than high turnover. 5. Play the Long Game. Win wars, not battles. Sacrifice today for tomorrow. Don’t make emotional decisions in business. Build systems, track everything, and nurture relationships. 6. Be the CEO. Invest in the skills required to become the leader you need today and, especially, tomorrow. Learn to delegate and let go of any role that “nobody
can do as well as me,” because that’s how you become what’s holding your company back.
Once you become comfortable with these six fundamental areas, you’ll move your business and yourself in the right direction. Being great at the boring stuff wins business, and that’s how you can afford the life of your dreams.
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Rise25: Helping B2B Businesses Build Profitable Connections
Rise25 Podcast Spotlight "The Relationship Commerce Podcast" Dean Dutro Featuring: Leading e-commerce entrepreneurs and marketers "The Alexi Cashen Show" Alexi Cashen Featuring: Inspirational leaders in the wine, beer, and spirits space "The Leadership Blueprint Podcast" Zach Waters Featuring: Top designers and entrepreneurs
Corn Dogs for All The Development of National Corn Dog Day
National Corn Dog Day began in March 1992 when two Corvallis,
"The Guts and Glory Show" Luis Scott Featuring: Leaders in law and business "The eCommerce Profits Podcast" Joshua Chin Featuring: Top founders and experts in the e-commerce industry "What CEOs Talk About" Martin Hunter Featuring: CEOs, leaders, and entrepreneurs
Oregon, high school students needed a snack while watching a basketball game. They got some corn dogs and called it good. But somehow, this simple snack and sport pairing turned into something huge. Though it’s not clear how, it spread across Oregon and eventually the rest of the country. It’s likely that people just heard
about it from friends and family and thought it was a great idea. In 2012, in honor of the original Corn Dog Day, the then- governor of Oregon issued an official proclamation naming March 17 National Corn Dog Day in the state. Today, it’s celebrated with thousands of events every March. An article printed in The Oregonian in 2009 revealed that National Corn Dog Day parties have been celebrated on nearly every continent — including Antarctica!
"Pitcher This!" Darren Fox Featuring: Beverage industry leaders
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What Can a Netflix CEO Teach You About Business?
If you ask Marc Randolph about his favorite place, he’ll mention an office building in Dallas, where Blockbuster had its corporate headquarters on the 27th floor. Randolph, one of the founders of Netflix and its first CEO, has no illusions about what happened to the former retail giant. In his new book, “That Will Never Work: The Birth of Netflix and the Amazing Life of an Idea,” Randolph shares how Netflix disrupted an industry and took the world by storm, an example every business leader can learn from. Randolph himself is fascinated by the nuts and bolts of business and entrepreneurship: “How does your business test new ideas? Can it happen faster? What’s the cost of having sloppy content hit the internet if it gets you out there sooner?” He examines how quickly you can put an idea in front of a customer where “you will learn more than you could in five months of R&D.” Randolph addresses these issues and more in “That Will Never Work,” all the while explaining their relevance to entrepreneurs. If you’re looking for more salacious details, he spends much of the first chapter debunking the stories about who had the idea for Netflix and whether or not it was an epiphany. “That story is beautiful,” Randolph writes. “It’s useful. It is, as we say in marketing, emotionally true. But as you’ll see in this book, that’s not the whole story.” The whole story is
one we’ll let you read for yourself, and there is plenty more where that came from.
Anybody can research Netflix online, but “That Will Never Work” is a rare glimpse into the inner workings of one of the 21st century’s most lucrative and secretive companies. Juicy stories pair well with marketing lessons, and the writing style is easy to get lost in — it really is a page-turner.
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Inside This Edition
1. 2. 3.
Preparing for Opportunity
Succeed in Business With the Right Strategies
Where Does National Corn Dog Day Come From? Netflix’s CEO on Pursuing Your Ideas
4.
Boost Your Profits in 2021
As if 2020 was not already hard enough, its lasting impacts are going to make sales evaluation a lot harder this year. Brick-and-mortar sales fell 14% last year — a number that even the big increase in online sales just couldn't make up — leaving us with a 10.5% drop in sales overall. What does that big picture mean for your sales team? Should you measure 2021 against 2019? Focus on pre-pandemic projections for the current year? Throw your arms in the air and let the sales crew do whatever they want? First things first: Make sure your sales have stabilized. If you’re not starting to see sales climb again, you need an attack plan to meet your weekly numbers where they’re at. Evaluation is important, but you have to stop the ship from sinking first. Once you’re stable, you can take the next step and run the numbers. What kind of year did your business have in 2020? For many, it was worse than previous years, but some industries saw increased business. If you’re one of those lucky few, your plan is going to look a lot different. Remember, sales numbers are just part of the puzzle. You also need to look at productivity, profits, losses, and more to put together your own big picture. This is when you’ll see if your old metrics are still relevant or if you need a different way to look at 2021. Boost Your Profits in 2021 By Rating Your Sales Team
Then, set up your sales targets for the year. Your first leads should be those who canceled or stopped participating with your business last year. Past clients cost less to reactivate than new ones. It often just comes down to how you incentivize them. This is also a good time to question whether your traditional “ideal client” still looks the same as before the pandemic. Economic downturns are rough, but every time, some businesses bounce back stronger. They often attribute this success to changing tactics on a number of key issues and freeing up resources (especially sales personnel) to tackle new areas of interest. Finally, examine your sales team. It can be unpleasant, but is there anybody you wish wasn’t there? Low performers make everyone look like amateurs. The second half of this process is asking yourself, “How can I incentivize the right sales people?” Make them happy, and you’ll be happy.
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