In this episode of the Thoughtful Entrepreneur, your host Josh Elledge speaks to virtual CMO and author, Edwin Dearborn. Edwin shares that he helps companies, who are doing well but don’t have a CMO on board, who want to become more growth-driven. In other words, he’s the perfect fit for a company that doesn’t want to hire a full time CMO but needs that guidance to get to the next level. Edwin also helps to advise on content creation. A lot of the companies he has worked with have great content ideas but haven’t executed on any of them; Edwin helps with actually pulling the trigger on the content creation process.Josh and Edwin also explore how to approach solving marketing problems in business. Edwin explains that many businesses only see their most immediate or direct problem and not any other issues that negatively impact the business. More often than not, your issues aren’t just chalked up to one problem, but rather several that influence one another. Edwin helps his clients take off their blinders and untangle the web of problems, then he helps create a blueprint that will help those businesses overcome those challenges and get to the next level of growth. Edwin and Josh agree that a confused mind does nothing. If your marketing and messaging isn’t clear or doesn’t resonate with your target audience, your prospects simply aren’t going to buy. If you’re having leadgen issues, you need to reframe your messaging to actually hit home with your demographic. Do market research to find out how your marketing is actually being perceived and use that feedback to change your ad strategy. Another important point to consider is keeping up with trends and changes. A CEO that runs all of their own marketing isn’t going to have the bandwidth to continue being their own marketing expert. This is the beauty of hiring a virtual CMO – you can outsource your needs to the experts without necessarily creating a whole new role within your company’s framework. Don’t wait until the last moment to outsource this type of work to a virtual CMO or marketing expert; start working on this early to stay on top of marketing trends and to build your processes effectively from the get go. A good CMO can drive revenue beyond what you might think is possible and this can all be done fractionally and virtually. Edwin shares that he works with ambitious businesses that want to scale. His clients have big dreams and want to create massive amounts of presence in their space. Want to learn more? Check out Edwin Dearborn’s website at https://virtualcmo.expert/. Check out Edwin Dearborn on LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/in/edwindearborn/. Don’t forget to subscribe to The Thoughtful Entrepreneur and thank you for listening. Tune in next time!More from UpMyInfluence:✅ We are actively booking guests for our DAILY Entrepreneur Success Podcast. Schedule HERE.✅ Are you a 6-figure consultant? Let us fill your sales schedule and move you to 7-figures. Learn more here.✅ Check out our free Authority Transformation Masterclass.

In this episode of the Thoughtful Entrepreneur, your host Josh Elledge talks to leadership coach Andy Petranek.Andy is a life coach who serves a variety of people. His channel isn’t narrow; most of his clients have already achieved some level of success but realize what they’re doing isn’t getting them to their goals. He helps men and women find and achieve their life’s true purpose. Josh and Andy talk about how goals and life aspirations can change over time. Those who have achieved their surface level goals in life often realize over time that they want something more fulfilling. Josh shares that we should all give ourselves grace when we grow and change; if our desires or goals change, that’s simply a part of life. Andy explains that one of the biggest emotional obstacles his clients have to overcome is actually breaking from the habits of their current life. Every choice we make has residual effects that linger. The longer we stay in a habitual life cycle, the less we feel like we can deviate from it. Andy shares that breaking this cycle is the first step to changing your life; if you’re unhappy or unfulfilled, don’t continue on the way you have been just because changing things up is frightening and challenging. Getting stuck in these emotional grooves only ever holds us back.The level of honesty you have with yourself is very important, Andy says. Self-awareness and honesty with yourself is required when you make major life changes. When you feel ‘off’ in life but can’t put your finger on why, dive inward and deeply. The more honest you are with yourself, the closer you are to finding the answers to your feelings of lack of fulfillment. Andy describes this as ‘the pit’. We all have our own pits of unhappiness and pain, but many of us avoid exploring them within ourselves. Finding meaning in life requires surveying these internal pits for all they are and changing your life based on what you find.There is also something to be said for having a tenacious attitude and intense determination. You have to take a ‘failure is not an option’ approach and be willing to accept and rise from blunders and fumbles. This is especially true in business, where many entrepreneurs do give up when they feel they aren’t doing well enough in their business. When the stakes only affect you, the business owner, you’re less likely to keep going even when you want to give up. Give yourself and your business the same due diligence you give to others; have tenacity and always be willing to get back up and fight for positive change in your life and in your company. Want to learn more? Check out Andy Petranek’s website at https://andypetranek.com/. Check out Andy Petranek on LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/in/andypetranek/.  Don’t forget to subscribe to The Thoughtful Entrepreneur and thank you for listening. Tune in next time!More from UpMyInfluence:✅ We are actively booking guests for our DAILY Entrepreneur Success Podcast. Schedule HERE.✅ Are you a 6-figure consultant? Let us fill your sales schedule and move you to 7-figures. Learn more here.✅ Check out our free Authority Transformation Masterclass.  

In this episode of the Thoughtful Entrepreneur, your host Josh Elledge speaks with the founder of Savvy Pro Web, Sean Rosensteel.Savvy Pro Web helps their clients simplify their marketing so they can have more opportunities to pitch to their ideal prospects. Sean says he and his team help uncover the untapped potential of their clients. But why aren’t these businesses having ‘at bats’ with their prospects in the first place? It’s all about how you position yourself in the marketplace, Sean explains. You have to position yourself and your products as the ‘hero’ of the story you’re telling through your marketing. Sean and Josh talk about how not enough brands focus on the prospect in their marketing; they only focus on what they offer, not what the prospect actually needs. Position yourself and your marketing from a place of service and talk to your audience about their wants, needs, and goals. Sean explains that brands also tend to focus more on establishing their authority and sharing accolades than on the customer in their marketing. This leaves the prospect asking whether or not the brand actually resonates with and understands them. Don’t leave your prospects asking themselves whether or not you actually get them; your marketing and branding should always tell a story and answer those questions right away. This all goes beyond just your website; all of your marketing collateral, from pamphlets to PowerPoint presentations, needs to incorporate empathy. It's easy to talk too much about your product, but you can never talk too much about your customers and how you solve their problems.Once you solve your positioning issues by putting the prospect at the center of your marketing story, you need to repackage all of your marketing assets. You need to reframe all of your messaging to match your new position; every piece of marketing you use needs to connect emotionally to your ideal prospect. Be the hero to their story no matter where they’re learning about you and make sure your marketing is consistent across different channels. Always adjust and fine tune that messaging to maintain vital consistency. Your goal should always be to deliver the maximum value to your audience. Deliver true value to your ideal prospects and always put service first. Success leaves clues, Sean says. You might have the makings of a successful business, but perhaps you struggle with closing sales. If so, you can increase your level of performance by adjusting your marketing position and packaging. Once those aspects have been adjusted, you can better target your ideal audience and actually see traffic growth and a higher rate of conversions.  Want to learn more? Check out Savvy Pro Web’s website at https://www.savvyproweb.com/. Check out Savvy Pro Web on LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/company/savvy-pro-web/. Check out Sean Rosensteel on LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/in/seanrosensteel/. Don’t forget to subscribe to The Thoughtful Entrepreneur and thank you for listening. Tune in next time!More from UpMyInfluence:✅ We are actively booking guests for our DAILY Entrepreneur Success Podcast. Schedule HERE.✅ Are you a 6-figure consultant? Let us fill your sales schedule and move you to 7-figures. Learn more here.✅ Check out our free Authority Transformation Masterclass.

In this episode of the Thoughtful Entrepreneur, your host Josh Elledge talks to the founder of MiloTree, Jillian Leslie. MiloTree offers a pop up app that lives on sites their users own that asks visitors to follow the site owner/business on social media or by email. You can boost your own social media following and your email list by tapping into your traffic flow, Jillian explains. The best part is that this application is fast, efficient, and seamless. It won’t bog down your website or affect traffic performance. MiloTree eats their own dogfood and uses their own application when trying to grow their following. Jillian explains that it’s MiloTree’s philosophy to make tech as easy and seamless as possible for their app users. This philosophy is what organically led to MiloTree’s creation of a payment platform for content creators to be able to monetize their audience directly. Creators rely heavily on platforms and algorithms completely outside of their control in order to monetize the community they built. Jillian explains that MiloTree’s system allows creators to go directly to their community with paid services like digital products, memberships, coaching products, and more. MiloTree also knows that creators don’t have the time to spend trying to figure out complex payment systems for products – their technology is completely user friendly and already interfaced. This means it's ready for you to use with ease right away. Jillian shares her personal philosophy; do B minus work. She explains that we all hold ourselves to unattainable standards, but she is refusing this way of thinking. Hitting above average and doable is what you need to hit. Test and experiment from there. This is a great way to build your business; you can learn from your market and find your dedicated tribe simultaneously. MiloTree Easy Payments offers an extremely simple sales page creation process that only takes minutes. The best part? You can set up as many sales pages and products as you want. Jillian invites listeners to come try their system for FREE to see how your audience will react to direct offerings from you. Experiment and test your offerings to see how your community reacts and then go back and tweak. This is how you build a business through monetizing your audience and cutting out the middleman that is platforms and algorithms. Jillian says that you need to make sure you stay connected to your audience authentically. With the internet as big and loud as it is, you need to get smaller and more personable to build a strong, dedicated following. Invest that time into your loyal community to continue building that relationship and to stay top of mind.Want to learn more? Check out MiloTree’s website at https://milotree.com/easypayments. Check out MiloTree on LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/company/milotree/. Check out Jillian Lesliel on LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/in/jilliantohberleslie/. Don’t forget to subscribe to The Thoughtful Entrepreneur and thank you for listening. Tune in next time!More from UpMyInfluence:✅ We are actively booking guests for our DAILY Entrepreneur Success Podcast. Schedule HERE.✅ Are you a 6-figure consultant? Let us fill your sales schedule and move you to 7-figures. Learn more here.✅ Check out our free Authority Transformation Masterclass.

In this episode of the Thoughtful Entrepreneur, your host Josh Elledge speaks to the co-founder and CEO of LearnWorlds, Panos Siozos. LearnWorlds helps entrepreneurs create online courses from their own websites. Panos shares that what sets LearnWorlds apart is that they have an innate understanding of eLearning. LearnWorlds’ goal is to completely overhaul the eLearning space so that it becomes more creative, engaging, and advanced. LearnWorlds offers unique tools on their platform that are specially designed to help create these highly engaging and interactive learning experiences. Not only does this platform make it easy to create amazing eLearning courses, but it will also help to create loyal return customers who trust your authority and your online courses. Panos and Josh explore how LearnWorlds fits into most business models today. Panos explains that many companies recognize that eLearning is one of the best forms of marketing to invest in right now. LearnWorlds keeps business owners connected to the pulse of their customer base and allows them to take a proactive approach to their educational material and marketing. Education fits everywhere, Panos says, and you need to train your employees, your partners, and your customers. Leverage your knowledge base in order to create courses that keep you connected to your customers in an engaging, effective way. Customer education can and should start at the top of the funnel and trickle all the way down to your retention rate, but you have to use best practices to keep your customers engaged and interested. The space became crowded over the last few years, Panos shares. The pandemic brought about a flood of online courses, but not all of these eLearning opportunities were well executed. You have to provide top value in a course and differentiate yourself from other coaches who offer the same type of eLearning courses. LearnWorlds creates substantial, engaging, and highly interactive learning content that prioritizes value. One way some entrepreneurs and coaches stand out is to host hybrid courses; dedicate some of your course to self-paced interactive learning, but pair that with live virtual classes you host for your customers. This not only sets you apart from other coaches offering similar courses, but it keeps you directly connected to your clients. You can better follow along their journey and quickly identify pain points by involving yourself in the execution of your eLearning course. LearnWorlds offers a variety of packages and monthly courses. They offer packages for businesses in all stages and rates of growth. Want to learn more? Check out LearnWorld’s website at https://www.learnworlds.com/. Check out LearnWorlds on LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/company/learnworlds/. Check out Panos Siozos on LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/in/siozos/. Don’t forget to subscribe to The Thoughtful Entrepreneur and thank you for listening. Tune in next time! More from UpMyInfluence: ✅ We are actively booking guests for our DAILY Entrepreneur Success Podcast. Schedule HERE. ✅ Are you a 6-figure consultant? Let us fill your sales schedule and move you to 7-figures. Learn more here. ✅ Check out our free Authority Transformation Masterclass.

In this episode of the Thoughtful Entrepreneur, your host Josh Elledge talks to the founder and CEO of Engagify, Anders Boulanger.Engagify helps companies make their events and teams more engaging. Their background is specifically in working trade show floors. Anders shares that his career background is that he is a magician, and he leveraged this skill set at tradeshows to draw engaging attention from his audience while also teaching the marketing methods behind Engagify. Anders shares that he had to start at these events without an existing audience – people had to walk by and be engaged and interested enough to stop. Engagify has codified how they create engagement, command attention, and deepen connection with their audiences. Now, they teach customer facing teams those skills for their clients. ROI means 'returns on interaction’ at Engagify. Anders shares that their mission is to share how to really engage with people, which seems to be a lost art in the business world today. Josh and Anders explore how to apply these principles to a virtual environment. It’s a lot harder to do that, Anders explains. There was a bit of a chasm Engagify had to cross with the loss of the initial connection that comes with a chance encounter at a physical event. These types of hybrid events are becoming more and more common, Anders shares, with thousands of attendees. Josh and Anders explore how events are better suited when they’re either in person or virtual (but not both.) Hybrid events aren’t just difficult when it comes to building engagement – you can’t really do both at 100% efficiency and success simultaneously. Anders and Josh agree that organizers should generally choose one event method and stick with it (hint: if your event has a virtual offering, expect your in-person attendance to plummet.) Anders also shares some tips about how to up your engagement level so you can have maximum impact at the events you attend. Start off your presentations by celebrating the success of your company – offer a reward or novelty factor from the get go (perhaps a cash prize, which is Ander’s approach.) However, you have to tread carefully; your attention-grabbing dopamine booster needs to fit in with the story you’re telling. It needs to be relevant to your presentation, otherwise it will come off as a desperate attempt at getting attention. Be methodical in your approach and offer rewards that make sense in the context of your engaging presentation.  Want to learn more? Check out Engagify’s website at https://engagify.ai/. Check out Engagify on LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/company/guestio/. Check out Anders Boulanger on LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/in/andersboulanger/. Don’t forget to subscribe to The Thoughtful Entrepreneur and thank you for listening. Tune in next time!More from UpMyInfluence:✅ We are actively booking guests for our DAILY Entrepreneur Success Podcast. Schedule HERE.✅ Are you a 6-figure consultant? Let us fill your sales schedule and move you to 7-figures. Learn more here.✅ Check out our free Authority Transformation Masterclass.

In this episode of the Thoughtful Entrepreneur, your host Josh Elledge speaks with the co-owner of The Franchise Consulting Company and the CEO of LeBrun Advisory Group, Rich LeBrun.Rich shares that he and his company helps their clients buy franchises or create their own franchise. Entrepreneurship is up, he explains, and many people want to be their own bosses and own their own businesses. The franchise model works extremely well for those who want to change their career path and become business owners, Rich shares. LeBrun Advisory Group helps experienced and new entrepreneurs build their franchise businesses from start to finish, no matter where they are in that process.&nbsp;Josh and Rich discuss what’s new and hot today in the world of franchising. Rich explains that he and his team watch these trends carefully, especially when new industries break into the franchising model. According to Rich, the food, sports, and fitness industries took the biggest hit when it came to franchising during the pandemic. You had to be very strong in your space to be able to adapt and survive, but now those franchises that went the distance are flourishing.&nbsp;Rich explains that there are some misconceptions about the franchising space overall. There’s no ‘magic’ or secret sauce – franchising is just another business model. It should be treated like an investment, Rich says. Where people get in trouble is when they don’t see franchising as the complex business model that it is. When deciding if you want to franchise, you have to approach things with methodical strategy, not just passion and an idea. You need to start off on the right foot with a strategy that shows your franchising investment the respect and due diligence it deserves.&nbsp;Josh and Rich also discuss what you should do if you’re considering franchising. Rich explains it will require a few hours from you weekly and about four months of development before you’ll start to see ROI. He stresses that you should explore every option and avenue before committing to the time franchising requires.&nbsp;Franchising is a way for many executives, especially those looking to leave the corporate sector, to take their careers to the next level. If you have or want business experience and think franchising might be the fit for you, check out LeBrun Advisory Group’s confidential business assessment here.&nbsp;Want to learn more? Check out LeBrun Advisory Group’s website at https://www.rlebrun.com/.&nbsp;Check out LeBrun Advisory Group on LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/company/lebrunadvisorygroup/.&nbsp;Check out The Franchise Consulting Company online at https://www.thefranchiseconsultingcompany.com/.&nbsp;Check out The Franchise Consulting Company on LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/company/the-franchise-consulting-company/.&nbsp;Check out Rich LeBrun on LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/in/richlebrun/.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Don’t forget to subscribe to The Thoughtful Entrepreneur and thank you for listening. Tune in next time!More from UpMyInfluence:✅ We are actively booking guests for our DAILY Entrepreneur Success Podcast. Schedule HERE.✅ Are you a 6-figure consultant? Let us fill your sales schedule and move you to 7-figures.<a...

In this episode of the Thoughtful Entrepreneur, your host Josh Elledge talks to the owner of Real Estate Project Solutions, Max Fisch.&nbsp;Real Estate Project Solutions was born because people in Max’s network asked how he sourced the VAs who worked within his real estate businesses. Real estate project solutions offers virtual real estate teams and data experts that investors and real estate professionals can hire with ease.&nbsp;Max and Josh explore the origin of Real Estate Project Solutions. Max shares that he is big on networking. He would speak to other professionals on a daily basis who would often ask him how he saw such success with the team of VAs he built. After enough times where he was asked, Max realized there was a business opportunity where this need was not being met within his industry.&nbsp;Max shares that his first client was a friend of his. He helped his friend set up two VA cold callers on his team. From there, Max proceeded to take over the management of those employees. Real Estate Project Solutions now offers entirely outsourced VAs and experts – all managed on their clients’ behalf&nbsp;by their own team internally.&nbsp;Max explains that you should have a robust and holistic front end approach, especially when it comes to sourcing good VAs. This makes the back end approach more seamless and simple later on down the line, he shares.Cold calling is an easy solution to implement if you’re trying to affordably break into the real estate space cost effectively, Max says. Real Estate Project Solutions covers every aspect of outreach for their clients that isn’t face-to-face. Max and his team hire amazing VAs, train them to be experts in the work they do in the real estate space, and then they manage the company’s clients with a high level of competence and expertise.&nbsp;Max also explains who would be the right fit for this type of outsourcing. It all comes down to budgeting; there’s no specific starting point, but you need to have the room for it in your budget. Lead time can take up to 6 months in the real estate space, so outsourcing for real estate requires a long term commitment and budget.&nbsp;Josh and Max explore how investors can increase their profitability. You need to either increase the top line or decrease the bottom line. That often means outsourcing work strategically. Look at all the ways from the bottom line that you can restructure your business and your budget.Want to learn more? Check out Real Estate Project Solutions’ website at https://www.realestateprojectsolutions.com/.&nbsp;Check out Real Estate Project Solutions on LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/company/realestateprojectsolutions/.&nbsp;Check out Max Fisch on LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/in/maxfisch/.&nbsp;Don’t forget to subscribe to The Thoughtful Entrepreneur and thank you for listening. Tune in next time!More from UpMyInfluence:✅ We are actively booking guests for our DAILY Entrepreneur Success Podcast. Schedule HERE.✅ Are you a 6-figure consultant? Let us fill your sales schedule and move you to 7-figures. Learn more here.✅ Check out our free Authority Transformation Masterclass.&nbsp;

In this episode of the Thoughtful Entrepreneur, your host Josh Elledge speaks with the CEO and Owner of Oh Hello, Natalie Micale.Oh Hello is a full service creative digital agency that builds brands through strategy, identity, package, web development, design, and more. They also offer services around brand management that helps get their clients’ messages out there via digital advertising. Oh Hello’s X-factor is strategy; they don’t throw their clients into random marketing engagements. They build brands at a high level of strategy to help these companies reach their ideal audiences.Natalie and Josh explore who Oh Hello tends to work with. Oh Hello focuses on working with companies who want to align their brand and understand their audience deeply. That being said, Natalie shares that Oh Hello’s clientele is industry agnostic. Natalie and her team strategize every step of a campaign, from lead generation to messaging, branding, and channel utilization.&nbsp;Natalie explains that most of their clients are able to give Oh Hello the building blocks of what they need to truly capture the spirit of a brand. During those early conversations, Natalie and her team focus especially on building a persona around those brands to create a better, more effective digital presence. Effective ads should emotionally connect to the purpose and goals of the business and the prospects. Oh Hello also does extensive data mining in the early stages of working with a brand so that their messaging and outreach is optimized.Natalie and Josh also talk about best social media practices to utilize right now. Boosting your reach requires a few key strategic steps. For one thing, Natalie shares that you should utilize Instagram reels. People’s attention spans are shorter than ever, and when it comes to advertising, you should be aiming for a fifth grade reading level for your messaging. If you use bigger words, people simply won’t dedicate the attention to reading your ad. Another tip she shares is to grow your email list. Too many business owners don’t build up their email lists, but the reality is your email list is one of your greatest assets. People who sign up for your email list want to hear from you, so leverage that and facilitate growing your list.&nbsp;Oh Hello covers brand strategy holistically. Their framework is proprietary and all encompassing. They will help build every page on your website that features your brand and manage successful marketing campaigns through a variety of channels on your behalf. This will help ensure that the message of your service to your audience is concise, effective, and clear.&nbsp;Want to learn more? Check out Oh Hello’s website at https://oh-hello.co/.&nbsp;Check out Oh Hello on LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/company/oh-hello-agency/.&nbsp;Check out Natalie Micale on LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/in/nataliemicale/.&nbsp;Don’t forget to subscribe to The Thoughtful Entrepreneur and thank you for listening. Tune in next time!More from UpMyInfluence:✅ We are actively booking guests for our DAILY Entrepreneur Success Podcast. Schedule HERE.✅ Are you a 6-figure consultant? Let us fill your sales schedule and move you to 7-figures. Learn more here.✅ Check out our free Authority Transformation Masterclass.&nbsp;

In this episode of the Thoughtful Entrepreneur, your host Josh Elledge talks to sales keynote speaker, the author of Better Selling Through Storytelling and The Sale Is In the Tale, “The Pitch Whisperer” John Livesay.&nbsp;John and Josh discuss how many entrepreneurs feel like they’re drowning in a ‘sea of sameness’, as John puts it. What he shares is that you have to be an effective storyteller in order to close sales. You have to stand out from your competition and give your prospects a reason to buy from you; facts and figures during a rehearsed sales pitch aren't going to cut it anymore. You have to create real relationships with your prospects and be a great storyteller to earn their business. That’s what John’s newest book, The Sale Is In The Tale, is all about.&nbsp;Stories are what people remember, so tell good ones. But why are stories critical to connecting with your audience, customers, investors, employees, and more? Stories win because they make you magnetic and memorable, John explains. Most prospects ‘interview’ a few options before making the choice of who they will buy from. When they have that next appointment after the sales call, you have to show them you’re different from the crowd. If you don’t stand out from a list of considerations, the prospect will choose the cheapest option. Sell better and stand out through telling captivating stories during your discovery calls.&nbsp;You have to sell yourself and your company in a clear, concise, and compelling way. John’s book Better Selling Through Storytelling is the best book for entrepreneurs just learning about how to pivot into storytelling selling. He explains that this book is a great place to start and learn how this works, whereas The Sale Is In The Tale shows the reader&nbsp;these strategies actually work through a narrative format. These books help you tell a great story through both tactical explanation and, not surprisingly, through storytelling.&nbsp;We all have moments where we feel frustrated, disappointed, or rejected. John shares a tactic called the 555 method. Ask yourself if what you’re stressed or upset about will matter in 5 minutes, 5 hours, or 5 days. Most things won’t matter in those time frames and many of your daily problems and negative experiences can be filtered out using this technique. The key? When you’re ready to let go of something that’s bothering you, you actually have to let it go and not talk about it anymore. Don’t give your energy to the things that don’t matter in the grand scheme of life. Focus on the things that will make a real impact over the course of your business and your life.&nbsp;John shares another nugget – don’t share testimonials, share your clients’ stories. Don’t tell a partial story with your case studies, turn them into narrative opportunities.&nbsp;&nbsp;Check out John Livesay’s website at https://johnlivesay.com/.&nbsp;Check out Better Business Through Storytelling at https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07NRTKKZ9/ref=dbs_a_def_rwt_bibl_vppi_i1.&nbsp;Check out The Sale Is In The Tale at https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B09R4G61N9/ref=dbs_a_def_rwt_bibl_vppi_i0.&nbsp;Check out The Sale Is In The Tale on LinkedIn at <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/company/thesuccessfulpitch/"...

In this episode of the Thoughtful Entrepreneur, your host Josh Elledge speaks to the CEO of DealRaise and the Executive Director of Virtual Worker Now, Jonathon Kendall.&nbsp;Virtual Worker Now is a digital marketing agency that offers services in paid ad buying, organic social media, video editing, graphic design, copywriting, funnel building, website development, customer support, virtual assistance, executive assistance, and web development coding. Jonathon shares that he started in copywriting originally, which helped him step into marketing, which then led to him stepping into entrepreneurship. He approaches business with an engineering approach by applying repeatable, high level skill sets. Virtual Worker Now is result-driven and is immediately consultative with their clients. They use data and hard numbers to know where the businesses they work with really sit so that Virtual Worker Now can deliver results at both a high level and at optimum speed.&nbsp;If you know you have a marketing pain point or challenge, don’t just outsource to someone less expensive than an agency – remember, you get what you pay for. If you want immediate, proven marketing results, you have to work with an agency that’s tuned into your data and the challenges you’re facing.Agencies sometimes overcomplicate things to sell more services, Jonathon explains. Moreover, most entrepreneurs can see those tactics from a mile away. Invest in an agency that doesn’t mess around with trying to upsell you on services you really don’t need. You need to trust the agency you’re working with; they need to show you that they’re driven by your data and that they will get you tangible results.Start with smaller services, Jonathon explains, and work your way up. If you aren’t totally ready to commit to an agency or strategy, experiment and dabble with an idea to see where the results land. Agencies should de-risk their offers by offering a ‘sample’ or smaller service for this exact reason; they need to give their prospects a way to do a trial run so they can truly fall in love with the work their agency does.&nbsp;The number one thing to do is to become so trusted by your audience that you are their trusted advisor in your space. Dedicate yourself to deeply solving your clients’ issues. Jonathon explains that some business owners second guess adding new services either because they lack the skill set or because they lack the necessary operational structure within their business. Virtual Worker Now helps tackle these challenges and more.Want to learn more? Check out Virtual Worker Now’s website at https://virtualworkernow.com/.&nbsp;Check out Virtual Worker Now on LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/company/virtualworkernow/.&nbsp;Check out Jonathon Kendall on LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/in/jonathon-kendall/.&nbsp;Don’t forget to subscribe to The Thoughtful Entrepreneur and thank you for listening. Tune in next time!More from UpMyInfluence:✅ We are actively booking guests for our DAILY Entrepreneur Success Podcast. Schedule HERE.✅ Are you a 6-figure consultant? Let us fill your sales schedule and move you to 7-figures. Learn more here.✅ Check out our free Authority Transformation Masterclass.

In this episode of the Thoughtful Entrepreneur, your host Josh Elledge talks to the founder and Managing Director of Bandelli &amp; Associates and the author of What Every Leader Needs and soon to be released, Relational Intelligence, Adam Bandelli.&nbsp;Adam shares that he’s always been fascinated by what great leaders do. He has a doctoral degree in leadership, influence, and relationships and his dissertation is the subject of his new book, Relational Intelligence. He started his firm in 2016 and focuses on three key areas; selection for internal and external placements, leadership development and executive coaching, and training to help leaders grow.&nbsp;Adam shares some insights he’s gathered from his favorite basketball legends over the last couple of decades. For one thing, a good leader knows how to leverage their team to focus on the strengths of the individual team members. Pay attention to every person on your team and figure out where they shine and thrive. Next, don’t just tell your team how to succeed, model what you’re preaching. Be a leader worthy of looking up to by setting the best example. Not only will this encourage others to follow best practices, but it shows how much you’re willing to invest in them by doing the best practices. He also noticed that leadership comes with a ‘brand’. How does your team look at you? What does your reputation or habits say about you? Be mindful of these elements of your leadership practices.You need strong self-awareness to be an effective leader, Adam explains. You have to know, acknowledge, and accept your weaknesses and blindspots and then delegate those tasks to team members who can thrive in those roles. You also need to find a good coach or mentor who will actually have a positive impact on your life and business. The objective view a mentor can offer will help determine your strengths, weaknesses, and goals.&nbsp;Josh and Adam also address those entrepreneurs who think they don’t need a coach, or that it’s a sign of weakness to seek one out. Adam shares that this is a damaging stereotype. A coach isn’t someone who will “fix” you as a person or business leader – they’re a trusted advisor. A coach is there to help make decisions and solve problems with a business owner, not for them. Don’t look at coaching and mentorship as a sign that you’re ‘less than’; look at it as a way to boost the success you’ve already attained.&nbsp;Want to learn more? Check out Bandelli &amp; Associates’ website at http://bandelliandassociates.com/.&nbsp;Check out Bandelli &amp; Associates on LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/company/bandelli-associates/.&nbsp;Check out Adam Bandelli on LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/in/adambandelli/.&nbsp;Don’t forget to subscribe to The Thoughtful Entrepreneur and thank you for listening. Tune in next time!More from UpMyInfluence:✅ We are actively booking guests for our DAILY Entrepreneur Success Podcast. Schedule HERE.✅ Are you a 6-figure consultant? Let us fill your sales schedule and move you to 7-figures. Learn more here.✅ Check out our free Authority Transformation Masterclass.

In this episode of the Thoughtful Entrepreneur, your host Josh Elledge speaks to Certified Fractional CFO and the Chief Profit Officer at The Business Profit Coach, Diana Miret.&nbsp;The Business Profit Consultancy helps small to medium size business owners understand, navigate, and really get a hold on their numbers. The numbers are just the beginning, though. Diana explains that once she has a business’s numbers, she can start to unravel the company so she can find what needs to be fixed. Diana is also an expert at project management, processes, and system execution. She takes a holistic, step by step approach to her work.&nbsp;Growing when you’re not stable isn’t good, Diana shares. Sales are good, but they’re not going to fix your problems. If you don’t address your problems, or you apply Band Aid solutions through just trying to make more revenue, you’ll eventually implode. There are separate drivers to push sales/revenue, profit, cashflow, and more. Diana and her company break it down further to really address the root cause of a company’s individual problems.If you drain your profitability, it doesn’t matter how many sales you make. You need to zero in on every piece of the business and determine where you’re not operating optimally. You need to maximize the money you do have before trying to make more. Don’t make great money if you can’t keep great money!Diana shares some signs that indicate a business needs to talk to a CFO. Diana’s target clients make over 7-figures in annual revenue but might still struggle to make payroll, might struggle to pay the business owner, and/or might struggle to pay vendors during the cash conversion cycle. These entrepreneurs are usually burned out and exhausted – and are finding that more sales aren’t actually fixing their problems.&nbsp;Diana believes very strongly in the profit first model. You have to learn how to measure yourself. Use the envelope method, if needed. Allocate firm, fixed budgets and don’t scramble to pay taxes or payroll. You will be profitable if you’re disciplined and organized. Yes, you can be profitable on day one.&nbsp;But how do you operate under a profit first method? If you take profit first, but don’t have enough to pay the rest of your expenses, don’t just jump straight to the numbers as they are. If you know you don’t have enough money to allocate things the way you want to, you need to restructure and plan for the future. Diana says this reframing might take some time, but if you allocate more to yourself gradually, you’ll see your profit go up over time. It’s not overnight, but it is effective. You’ll get ‘there’ (wherever that goal is for you) – just give it the time, planning, and dedication it deserves. Profitability is stability, so dedicate yourself to aligning your finances with your business foals.&nbsp;Want to learn more? Check out The Business Profit Coach’s website at https://www.dianamiret.com/.&nbsp;Check out Diana Miret on LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/in/thebusinessprofitcoach/.&nbsp;Don’t forget to subscribe to The Thoughtful Entrepreneur and thank you for listening. Tune in next time!More from UpMyInfluence:✅ We are actively booking guests for our DAILY Entrepreneur Success Podcast. Schedule HERE.✅ Are you a 6-figure consultant? Let us fill your sales schedule and move you to 7-figures. Learn more here.✅ Check out our free Authority Transformation Masterclass.

In this episode of the Thoughtful Entrepreneur, your host Josh Elledge talks with the founder of Certain Change, Stephen Bates.&nbsp;Stephen is in the business of getting the best out of people, he shares. He believes that a business leader can make or break the execution of their amazing idea based on how they live up to their own potential. Certain Change helps entrepreneurs use their skills and time to the best of their ability – and then help them get the best out of their teams, too.&nbsp;Stephen shares that he got his start in the physical therapy industry. He shares that people would come into his office in real physical pain and he’d spend time to coach them on how to change their lifestyle and heal their pain faster. What he noticed was that many of the patients he coached, about 40% in his experience, didn’t do what would help them at home. He realized that if people could endure acute chronic pain and knowingly not help themselves, then everything else in our lives, careers, and relationships can be treated the same way with ease.&nbsp;Josh and Stephen explore the pain points his clients tend to experience. The first major challenge is for the business owner to overcome their own frustration. The reality, Stephen explains, is that many of these business owners know they’re capable of doing more but don’t let themselves. A lot of this is labeled and chalked up to imposter syndrome or anxiety, but in any case, there’s an evident gap between what these entrepreneurs know they can achieve and what they actually allow themselves to achieve. For a business owner, this can manifest as underpriced services and products, under promoted services or offerings, and lower-than-they-should-be prospecting goals. The underlying issue is this gap and the frustration that comes with this cycle of self-limiting behavior.&nbsp;Imposter syndrome is as pervasive as ever. Josh and Stephen discuss how to address it. First of all, see it for what it is – ‘imposter syndrome’ is an exaggeration of doubt. Stephen explains that every worthwhile good decision is going to come with doubt and a loss of confidence with uncertainty. This is the natural process of making a good, important decision. You’re meant to let go of the emotion to make a logical, clear decision. Don’t let a natural part of the process become exaggerated into imposter syndrome. This is simply the fear of the consequences of your decision. Stay out of the self-sabotage loop and let go of your fear. Let your authority, knowledge, and skills guide you.Want to learn more? Check out Certain Change’s website at https://www.certainchange.co.uk/.&nbsp;Check out Certain Change on LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/company/certain-change-ltd/.&nbsp;&nbsp;Check out Stephen Bates on LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/in/stephenbatesuk/.&nbsp;&nbsp;Don’t forget to subscribe to The Thoughtful Entrepreneur and thank you for listening. Tune in next time!More from UpMyInfluence:✅ We are actively booking guests for our DAILY Entrepreneur Success Podcast. Schedule HERE.✅ Are you a 6-figure consultant? Let us fill your sales schedule and move you to 7-figures. Learn more here.✅ Check out our free Authority Transformation Masterclass.&nbsp;

In this episode of the Thoughtful Entrepreneur, your host Josh Elledge talks to the CEO of Unleashing Influence, Dr. Angela Mulrooney.Unleashing Influence helps people to develop their personal brands on LinkedIn by helping them create amazing content, identify and understand their own archetype, and get out of their own way so they can change the world with what they know. The people she works with are high level professionals and entrepreneurs who pursue work with other high level professionals. This is what makes LinkedIn an amazing resource, Dr. Angela explains. LinkedIn is where high level business leaders, professionals, and entrepreneurs congregate and connect.&nbsp;Josh and Dr. Angela explore what people typically look for on LinkedIn. Users are generally looking for snackable tips and strategies to apply to their own job or business and they’re looking for good networking opportunities. LinkedIn is consumed differently than other forms of social media, she shares. Other forms of social media encourage mindless media consumption whereas LinkedIn not only encourages a thoughtful, deliberate approach – it demands it if you want to use it effectively. LinkedIn is designed for sophisticated professionals, so it requires that level of diligence when being utilized efficiently.&nbsp;Most people’s profiles are maybe 20% filled out. Most people only see LinkedIn as a resume rather than a way to share their personal brand. There’s so much color and personality you can and should bring to your profile, Dr. Angela says. People should be able to look at your LinkedIn and have a general sense about who you are truly. Dr. Angela advises telling your story in the About section. Put the technical jargon and information in your Experience section. The About section is where you should tell your story, and if you tell it well, people will read the whole thing and then dig even further into your profile.&nbsp;Dr. Angela and Josh also talk about engagement on LinkedIn. She explains that being active should look like a couple of quality posts every week, consistently. LinkedIn prefers quality content over a large quantity of content. The algorithm will favor you and your content will also be more optimized for engagement and interaction.LinkedIn users want good information in every piece of content they consume, so focus on producing quality over quantity.&nbsp;Dr. Angela also shares some tips on what she forecasts is on the horizon for LinkedIn. She says first of all, do more original thought leadership. To ensure content doesn’t come off as narcissistic, focus on providing tangible, real value to your existing clients and audience. Don’t focus your content on you, what you do, or even your accolades. You can’t come off as ‘you-centric’. Give your audience some of the best tools you have to offer and don’t dangle the carrot. Give tactical takeaways that they can really apply so they can begin to know, like, and trust you based on what you really offer through your content.&nbsp;Want to learn more? Check out Unleashing Influence’s website at https://unleashinginfluence.com/.&nbsp;Check out Unleashing Influence on LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/company/unleashing-influence/.&nbsp;Check out Angela Mulrooney on LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/in/angelamulrooney/.&nbsp;Don’t forget to subscribe to The Thoughtful Entrepreneur and thank you for listening. Tune in next time!More from UpMyInfluence:✅ We are actively booking guests for our DAILY Entrepreneur Success Podcast....

In this episode of the Thoughtful Entrepreneur, your host Josh Elledge speaks to B2B consultant and strategist, Chaz Horn.Chaz and his company help B2B consultants identify, attract, and convert qualified prospects. B2B companies tend to be great at delivering their offering, but they don’t have a predictable way to get referrals. Chaz’s business provides a predictable way to get new qualified prospects on an organic attraction and referral basis.&nbsp;Tactics before strategy is the path of failure and strategy before tactics is a much slower path to success. Chaz explains that you have to have an effective balance of both of these key factors. You have to position yourself with leverage to convert the maximum number of prospects. Know your customers’ desires and position yourself where you have leverage.&nbsp;Chaz shares that when you leverage yourself based on yourself and not your clients, you won’t see the results you’re aiming for. Everything you do needs to be because of what your prospects told you. Leverage yourself based on the needs explicitly laid out by your audience and market. Focus your messaging and efforts on the top few problems in your audience base.&nbsp;Content should be carefully and strategically crafted to reach your audience on an emotional level – this is the best way to drive traffic to your profile on LinkedIn and to your website. You catch someone’s interest with content, but if you don’t speak to their wants and needs and put yourself in a position to welcome the perfect prospect, you won’t see the maximum level of conversions.&nbsp;Your marketing and your sales teams should also always be on the same page, too, which is a major issue Chaz sees. Providing an outstanding customer experience means having a streamlined and holistic corporate team approach.&nbsp;Chaz and Josh explore some of the biggest issues with B2B targeting today. Chaz shares that too many companies aren’t coming from a place of service; if you’re just spamming lead lists with messages, you’re not only not adequately targeting, but you’re damaging the efficacy of your message. If your positioning isn’t on point and isn’t leveraged from the client’s perspective, you simply don’t have leverage. Your messaging should not revolve around you or what you think – you can only reach these prospects by making things about them, their issues, and by connecting with them on an authentic emotional level. Take the time to truly know your prospects and use that in your marketing.&nbsp;Want to learn more? Check out Chaz Horn’s website at https://b2bclientsnow.com/.&nbsp;&nbsp;Check out&nbsp;Chaz’s company, Mastery of B2b Sales,LLC on LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/company/masteryofb2bsales/.&nbsp;Check out Chaz Horn on LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/in/chaz-horn/.&nbsp;Contact Chaz at [email protected]’t forget to subscribe to The Thoughtful Entrepreneur and thank you for listening. Tune in next time!More from UpMyInfluence:✅ We are actively booking guests for our DAILY Entrepreneur Success Podcast. Schedule HERE.✅ Are you a 6-figure consultant? Let us fill your sales schedule and move you to 7-figures. Learn more here.✅ Check out our free Authority Transformation Masterclass.

In this episode of the Thoughtful Entrepreneur, your host Josh Elledge speaks with The Unstoppable Woman’s Amira Alvarez.&nbsp;Amira is a business coach and strategist that helps high-achieving women entrepreneurs grow their businesses and their income. Amira works with driven women who want more for their lives, businesses, and communities. Her clients tend to have hit an internal block when it comes to executing on their goals. Amira helps them find the solutions that are right in front of them by resolving the internal blockages and by facilitating breakthroughs.&nbsp;Josh and Amira explore the cultural impact of women entrepreneurs. There aren’t as many systemic barriers than there used to be for women to become successful business owners, but there is still some lingering conditioning that limits some of these female business leaders. This occurs especially when it comes to sales and leadership. Amira shares that over-nurturing or not asking the deeper questions can sometimes occur in cases like this. Women tend to be more aware of when someone becomes uncomfortable during the sales process – which can lead to not pulling the trigger when you should. It’s all about balancing your confidence, eliminating your conditioning, and recognizing the real guidelines in sales and business operations.&nbsp;Josh and Amira also explore her background. She shares that she grew up in a middle class family – she herself says she had a solid upbringing and she had a good childhood. When she started her first business in the health and fitness space, she didn’t know how to do sales or marketing. She needed to learn the tactics. She ultimately relocated and launched into something new – she says that her first year in business, she made around $30K. The next year, she tripled that. She went above and beyond again the third year along – but found she couldn’t work any harder. She started getting lost in her business and she couldn’t work any harder or scale any further; she hit a wall. If your only tool is to “work harder”, there’s a rude awakening ahead, Amira explains. She decided to deeply study success and figure out how to scale without ‘working harder’ (so to speak). The result? She increased her income five times over after taking that step back to realign herself. She back-engineered how she did that, laid out a methodology, and now she teaches other female entrepreneurs how to do what she did. Amira says she was limited by her own beliefs until she transformed herself and how she defined her identity as a business owner to scale, thrive, and achieve business success.&nbsp;Want to learn more? Check out The Unstoppable Woman’s website at https://theunstoppablewoman.com/.&nbsp;Check out The Unstoppable Woman's FREE resources at https://theunstoppablewoman.com/free-stuff/.Check out The Unstoppable Woman on LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/company/the-unstoppable-woman/.&nbsp;Check out Amira Alvarez on LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/in/amiraalvarez/.&nbsp;&nbsp;Don’t forget to subscribe to The Thoughtful Entrepreneur and thank you for listening. Tune in next time!More from UpMyInfluence:✅ We are actively booking guests for our DAILY Entrepreneur Success Podcast. Schedule HERE.✅ Are you a 6-figure consultant? Let us fill your sales schedule and move you to 7-figures. Learn more here.✅ Check out our free Authority...

In this episode of the Thoughtful Entrepreneur, your host Josh Elledge talks to LinkedIn specialist, Daniel Alfon.Daniel joined LinkedIn in early 2004. He explains that there was no handbook, so he had to figure it out and strategize from the bottom up. He shares that he had to write his own rules and forge his way as an expert on the platform, ultimately becoming a niche, authoritative expert on all things LinkedIn.&nbsp;Josh and Daniel explore some ways in which users miss key opportunities on LinkedIn. Daniel explains that many people don’t set or pursue an objective with the platform, which is their first mistake. If a business leader thinks about their next position and then leverages LinkedIn to build a network, they are better prepared to utilize the platform the way it was intended. If you want to grow your business and revenue, your LinkedIn profile should support your real life business objectives. Your messaging and community networking on the platform should align with your business objectives – without going overboard.&nbsp;Josh asks Daniel about how the platform has been misused. Daniel shares that LinkedIn isn’t the place to mass spam people with prospecting messages. Not only will you not get leads this way, but you could lose your profile if you’re not careful. You should leverage posts, articles, groups, and media on LinkedIn along with making good connections regularly. The business you should be pursuing on LinkedIn should be referral based – or, you should be pursuing any leads you find on the platform outside of it.&nbsp;Daniel specializes in organic LinkedIn. You should optimize your content by defining your ideal prospect and answering their real problems and issues. Don’t go off of just what you offer. Make an effort to really understand your prospects and what they really need, regardless of your offering. You need to educate them with your content to become a trusted advisor in your circle, especially when leveraging content on LinkedIn. Don’t produce content just for LinkedIn, though, Daniel says. Reuse and repurpose your general evergreen content and share it in strategic groups on LinkedIn. This means you’re not overspending on your LinkedIn content AND you’re giving that content to truly interested audiences.&nbsp;Daniel and Josh agree that companies should not be sliding into DMs to make uncomfortable pitches. Good business leaders oversee the execution of how messaging and connecting with prospects is done. Tactically, you need to invest in making genuine connections that foster the know, like, and trust process. Fostering trust means building a relationship over time, not abusing LinkedIn’s direct message system.&nbsp;Want to learn more? Check out Daniel Alfon’s website at https://www.danielalfon.com/.&nbsp;&nbsp;Check out DanielAlfon.com on LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/company/www-danielalfon-com/.&nbsp;Check out Daniel Alfon on LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/in/alfon/.&nbsp;&nbsp;Don’t forget to subscribe to The Thoughtful Entrepreneur and thank you for listening. Tune in next time!More from UpMyInfluence:✅ We are actively booking guests for our DAILY Entrepreneur Success Podcast. Schedule HERE.✅ Are you a 6-figure consultant? Let us fill your sales schedule and move you to 7-figures. Learn more here.✅ Check out our free Authority Transformation Masterclass.

In this episode of the Thoughtful Entrepreneur, your host Josh Elledge speaks with the author of Unio: The Art of Intentional Community Building, Bess Auer.&nbsp;Bess and Josh explore the power of community and how powerful it can be. Bess has a lot of experience developing and engaging with communities, and Josh and Bess connected in the Central Florida area for that exact reason. 2022 is the year of human connection, Josh says. Now more than ever, community is an extremely important element that business leaders need to focus more on now than ever before.&nbsp;Bess shares that when you find your community, you’ll find your client base. The people who engage with you online are your audience. Organic reach isn’t dead, which is the common misconception. If you actually find out what your community wants and needs from you and you act on that information, you don’t have an issue with organic reach. When you know who your audience is and what their needs are, it’s incredibly easy to stay relevant to them.Listen with empathy and critical thinking, Bess shares. Meet your community members and interview them. Talk to your target demographic and actually determine what they want in a product or service. Don’t assume you know what your community wants – make your community love and trust you by actually asking them.&nbsp;Bess says that sometimes in the hustle and bustle of running a business, it’s easy to forget that your community is your business. If you aren’t fostering and caring for your community, you’re not caring for your client base. You need both the support of your community but also the data they provide. Yes, have those one on one interviews, but also engage with your community online to give everyone an opportunity to connect and exchange more ideas. Facilitating engagement between your community members only strengthens it.&nbsp;In order to bolster and support your community, you need to make your website and online community hubs are “grandma proof”, Bess shares. This means you need to make sure things are as easy and streamlined as possible. You need to simplify your website and make it accessible, regardless of your audience’s age, native language, or location on the globe.&nbsp;Bess has extensive experience when it comes to community building and engagement. According to Unio’s website, Bess has trained over 2,000 community leaders, marketers, and influencers, hosted a nationally syndicated TV show on growing your tribe, and is a seasoned speaker who focuses on turning your audience into a meaningful community.Want to learn more? Check out Unio’s website at https://buildwithunio.com/.&nbsp;Order Unio: The Art of Intentional Community Building at https://www.amazon.com/dp/B09GCF6YYM.&nbsp;Check out Unio on LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/company/buildwithunio/.&nbsp;Check out Bess Auer on LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/in/bessauer/.&nbsp;Don’t forget to subscribe to The Thoughtful Entrepreneur and thank you for listening. Tune in next time!More from UpMyInfluence:✅ We are actively booking guests for our DAILY Entrepreneur Success Podcast. Schedule HERE.✅ Are you a 6-figure consultant? Let us fill your sales schedule and move you to 7-figures. Learn more here.✅ Check out our free Authority Transformation Masterclass.

In this episode of the Thoughtful Entrepreneur, your host Josh Elledge speaks to the founder and CEO of Interchange Capital Partners, Ahmie Baum.Interchange Capital Partners works in a specialized area of transition planning by unlocking a lifetime of work. They work with business owners, medical professionals, accountants, and other professionals in order to help them manage their financial affairs and generational wealth building with optimum efficiency. Making mistakes with wealth building can impact generations of your family, and getting it right requires a different model and approach than what’s considered the standard. Interchange Capital Partners has worked with hundreds of business owners and professionals to help them ‘get it done right’.&nbsp;Josh and Ahmie explore how business owners tend to have the bulk of their wealth tied up in their business. This is typically because they want to retain control and stay away from risks like the stock market. It’s a common phenomenon and an important challenge to overcome so that business owners can diversify how they structure their wealth.&nbsp;&nbsp;Family businesses tend to be even more complex, especially when it comes to wealth structuring. There are stages and different systems that have to coexist and interchange between one another. Any one system by itself can have different values, stakeholders, and missions. This leaves room for significant conflict, which makes it by nature incredibly complex. Interchange Capital Partners focuses on alleviating these challenges, especially for family businesses. As a business owner, you have to be objective enough to be able to work through the significant number of issues that come with a transition for a family business owner.&nbsp;According to their website, Interchange Capital Partners applies data-driven strategies to help their clients increase the likelihood of successful transitioning. Through their collaborative and comprehensive process, they help clarify a business owner’s current situation and develop a clear vision for achieving their desired future.Most exits happen internally between the family and management, Ahmie shares. Exit, succession, and transition planning should be done from day one. This is so you can be prepared for the inescapability of a liquidity event. If you prepare for this often, it’s simply good business.&nbsp;Oftentimes, people don’t pull back and assess where they really need to spend the time to optimize their wealth and finances. If there isn’t clarity around the business owner and the family’s ownership, succession planning cannot go smoothly. You have to infuse business principles into your succession plan through clarity, understanding, and action.&nbsp;Want to learn more? Check out Interchange Capital Partners’ website at https://interchangecp.com/.&nbsp;Check out Interchange Capital Partners on LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/company/interchange-capital-partners/. .&nbsp;Check out Ahmie Baum on LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/in/ahmiebaum/.&nbsp;Don’t forget to subscribe to The Thoughtful Entrepreneur and thank you for listening. Tune in next time!More from UpMyInfluence:✅ We are actively booking guests for our DAILY Entrepreneur Success Podcast. Schedule HERE.✅ Are you a 6-figure consultant? Let us fill your sales schedule and move you to 7-figures. Learn more here.✅ Check out our free Authority Transformation Masterclass.

In this episode of the Thoughtful Entrepreneur, your host Josh Elledge talks to the founder of TaxPlanIQ, the founder of Meyer Tax Consulting, and CPA, CTS, and CTC, Jackie Meyer.&nbsp;Jackie does a lot, she shares. She’s an entrepreneur through and through and has owned a boutique CPA firm for high net worth individuals and their family offices since 2010. Because of her success around tax planning and thought leadership in the space, she became a speaker and coach by happenstance. She also became a SaaS software developer by providing project management solutions for CPAs.&nbsp;Josh and Jackie explore Jackie’s calling to help and coach other accounting firms. Around 2016, Jackie completely converted her own practice to value pricing around tax strategy and planning. She ultimately tripled her company's revenue and equally reduced her time spent doing so. She knew she could take this experience and help other firms see the same success and growth and this is what led her to become a tax planning coach.At the end of the day, it's a choice to either stay in the grind or graduate as a tax professional. Jackie excels at helping other CPAs transform their practices for the better. In an innovative, thought-leading move, Jackie is hosting a CCA Busy Season Reunion during the busiest tax days of the year. She shares this is one way in which she pushes her own practice and her clients’ practices to not conform to the set expectations of ‘busy season’.&nbsp;Jackie also offers consulting services and masterminds. She teaches a few core tenants to other tax professionals. The truth? Everything tax professionals have been taught is backwards. CPAs need to have healthy boundaries with their clients while still providing top notch value. It takes proper education, discipline, and making the choice to go to the next level. Jackie and her coaching services offer the support to help get tax professionals to that next level. They assess the front and back ends of practices, pricing, value ads, and more. Jackie transforms practices by reframing each of these aspects individually so that the professionals she coaches can focus on what really matters and have healthy work life boundaries in the process.&nbsp;According to her website, if you’re a CPA or tax professional, Jackie’s coaching services can help transform your practice so that you can demonstrate your ROI to your accounting clients, add 35% more revenue for your firm with tax planning services, and streamline processes starting with sorting your email inbox, with your team, with operations of your firm, and more.Want to learn more? Check out TaxPlanIQ’s website at https://www.taxplaniq.com/.&nbsp;Check out Meyer Tax Consulting at https://www.meyertax.com/.&nbsp;Check out TaxPlanIQ on LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/company/taxplaniq/.&nbsp;Check out Jackie Meyer on LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/in/jackiemeyercpa/.&nbsp;Don’t forget to subscribe to The Thoughtful Entrepreneur and thank you for listening. Tune in next time!More from UpMyInfluence:✅ We are actively booking guests for our DAILY Entrepreneur Success Podcast. Schedule HERE.✅ Are you a 6-figure consultant? Let us fill your sales schedule and move you to 7-figures. Learn more here.✅ Check out our free Authority...

In this episode of the Thoughtful Entrepreneur, your host Josh Elledge speaks to YouTube growth and viral expert, Chris Zissis.&nbsp;Chris helps entrepreneurs and investors create passive income through having a YouTube channel. An investor can diversify their portfolio by investing in a YouTube channel with the intention of generating revenue through viral content. But what are the elements of creating a viral video?&nbsp;Chris explains that yes, there’s a little luck when it comes to creating viral videos, however, it can be repeatable. Chris has been building these channels for several years now and knows typically what works and what doesn’t when it comes to building large, successful channels. News oriented videos are quite popular, but you can work with anything that has an audience. These audiences will watch content about their niches daily, over and over, for hours. These elements come into play when building successful YouTube channels.&nbsp;There are many ways to generate revenue with YouTube videos, with digital ads and video sponsorships at the top of the list. Where people go wrong with YouTube, Chris shares, is that users don’t look at the platform as a business. At the end of the day, YouTube is an amazing audience aggregator organically. Why wouldn't you build audiences through well made, viral-tuned content? Chris and his expertise assists these investors and entrepreneurs with a fully-managed YouTube channel that generates revenue totally passively.&nbsp;&nbsp;Josh and Chris explore what to produce content around if you want to start your own channel. If you want to generate revenue, choose a niche that gets a lot of daily views. Chris suggests one tool, SocialBlade, which can give you an idea of the daily views of specific channels. See what niches accumulate views quickly and consider picking something in that vein. Chris shares that if there’s an audience for it, people will consume it if it’s good quality content. Social Blade is one tool that can provide these types of insights, but there are many more.&nbsp;Chris’s business model revolves around taking the work and headache out of managing a YouTube channel for his clients. His business offers a done-for-you channel that’s maintained and optimized completely on behalf of his clients. YouTube is a fascinating way to diversify your portfolio and generate meaningful content.&nbsp;There is a lot of power that comes with influence and being able to generate content on a platform like YouTube is an amazing opportunity to connect with real audiences. You directly benefit from this positive type of engagement and generate tons of revenue at the same time. Go where the audiences are and monetize strategically to see viral results.Want to learn more? Check out Chris Zissis on Instagram at https://www.instagram.com/itschriszissis/?hl=en.&nbsp;Check out Chris Zissis on LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/in/paulrakovichceo/.&nbsp;Don’t forget to subscribe to The Thoughtful Entrepreneur and thank you for listening. Tune in next time!More from UpMyInfluence:✅ We are actively booking guests for our DAILY Entrepreneur Success Podcast. Schedule HERE.✅ Are you a 6-figure consultant? Let us fill your sales schedule and move you to 7-figures. Learn more here.✅ Check out our free Authority Transformation Masterclass.

In this episode of the Thoughtful Entrepreneur, your host Josh Elledge speaks with the founder and CEO of Clicks and Clients, Paul Rakovich.&nbsp;Clicks and Clients is a full service digital marketing agency that works across different channels and verticals to take businesses to the next level. Clicks and Clients partners with businesses that face complex marketing challenges who need a team that’s as invested in their success as they are.&nbsp;Paul and Josh explore what the source of unnecessary frustration is in the paid ad space. One source is expectations, one is strategy, and one is execution. If your expectations aren’t realistic and feasible, you won’t actually go anywhere. This is likely because there is a poor strategy around the paid ads and their targeting. This will ultimately lead to poor execution. These are the three issues Paul sees constantly within the paid ad space.Paul shares what he likes to see in a good agency. He loves disruptors who bring new ideas to the table. Agencies should always be on the cutting edge and look out for what’s next for their clients. You need to always be on top of new trends and studies and bring those to the table for your partners and clients.&nbsp;Josh and Paul also discuss the impact of the iOS update that occurred last year on the paid ad space. The evolution of Facebook has made it so that you have to craft messages creatively and carefully. The volume and efficiency of paid ads has dropped and it's costing more to generate effective ads. You need to always have fresh, creative approaches to your ads to see results.&nbsp;Diversification is important, Paul says, and you can’t put all your eggs in the Facebook basket, so to speak. Facebook can work to reach audiences, but you have to balance your channels and not rely solely on it.&nbsp;Josh and Paul also talk about how ‘hustle’ culture has flooded the marketing space. You need a strategic, calm, and steady agency guiding you through the tumultuous changes in the paid ad space. Paul shares a key practice he and his team use with their clients; they try to steal their own clients. Every so often, Clicks and Clients will look at the ways another agency could take their clients’ business and they bring those fresh ideas to the clients. Clicks and Clients is dedicated to keeping their clients’ ads cutting edge, creative, and streamlined.Want to learn more? Check out Clicks and Clients’ website at https://www.clicksandclients.com/.&nbsp;Check out Clicks and Clients on LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/company/clicksandclients/.&nbsp;Check out Paul Rakovich on LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/in/paulrakovichceo/.&nbsp;Don’t forget to subscribe to The Thoughtful Entrepreneur and thank you for listening. Tune in next time!More from UpMyInfluence:✅ We are actively booking guests for our DAILY Entrepreneur Success Podcast. Schedule HERE.✅ Are you a 6-figure consultant? Let us fill your sales schedule and move you to 7-figures. Learn more here.✅ Check out our free Authority Transformation Masterclass.

In this episode of the Thoughtful Entrepreneur, your host Josh Elledge speaks to the founder and CTO of Indico Data, Slater Victoroff.Indico Data is an AI powered bionic arm for the modern knowledge worker. They offer a modern application that pairs with your business to generate AI solutions to maximize efficiency. But what is ‘unstructured data’? Slater explains that unstructured data is data that doesn’t fit well into pre-structured “columns” of interconnected data. This is data that’s miscellaneous, such as strings of text or media. AI, roughly, is anything humans do today that machines will do tomorrow. The definition of artificial intelligence has fluctuated since its conception. But how does unstructured data fit in?Slater shares that deep learning is very useful for a specific set of tools that relies on unstructured data. AI is not autonomous. It's essentially a bionic arm for the digital worker, as Slater puts it. AI is an assistant in your day to day work.&nbsp;According to their website, Indico Data is purpose-built for unstructured data. It combines robust data analytics, advanced artificial intelligence and ML technologies, deep learning capabilities and highly efficient process automation, enabling enterprises to maximize opportunity, reduce risk, and accelerate revenue.Slater explains the misconceptions he had about AI when he was a college student. He believed deep learning was dead – but this was due to the industry climate at that time. Very few organizations did research on deep learning back in 2012. Deep learning is an amazing technology in a constrained environment. It took a lot of time and hard work, but this is how Indico Data was born.&nbsp;Josh and Slater explore how Indico didn’t hire a CEO initially. At some point, this team of engineers needed to choose someone among them to be the CEO. Slater was the CEO for some time, but he considered leaving the role. Once his team caught wind, he ultimately went back on his intuition and stayed in the role. While the company stayed afloat and was doing alright during Slater’s time as CEO, it couldn’t scale and grow. Ultimately, he pushed his team to allow him to step aside so they could seek another CEO. This meant that Slater and the team were on the same side of the table to find a new executive. He was put in the wrong role, plain and simple. When they found the right roles for both Slater and the new CEO of Indico Data, it was able to thrive and flourish.&nbsp;Want to learn more? Check out Indico Data’s website at https://indicodata.ai/.&nbsp;Check out Indico Data on LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/company/indico-data-solutions/.&nbsp;Check out Slater Victoroff on LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/in/slatervictoroff/.&nbsp;Don’t forget to subscribe to The Thoughtful Entrepreneur and thank you for listening. Tune in next time!More from UpMyInfluence:✅ We are actively booking guests for our DAILY Entrepreneur Success Podcast. Schedule HERE.✅ Are you a 6-figure consultant? Let us fill your sales schedule and move you to 7-figures. Learn more here.✅ Check out our free Authority Transformation Masterclass.&nbsp;

In this episode of the Thoughtful Entrepreneur, your host Josh Elledge speaks with the co-author of the international award winning sales novel The Wentworth Prospect: A Novel Guide to Success in B2B Sales, Wayne Moloney.Wayne and Josh explore some of the biggest issues in B2B sales today. Wayne shares that people are forgetting the basics. There are a lot of snake oil tricks returning to this space and it’s becoming more prevalent and annoying than ever. Spam bots generate blatantly faked “personalized” messaging and blow up our inboxes inordinately. The basics haven’t changed, Wayne shares. The technology and tactics have changed, but a strong foundation starts with the same basics.&nbsp;The first basic principle is to build strong relationships. Many sales “gurus” say relationship selling is dead. Relationship selling is about building strong and trusting relationships that come with tangible outcomes. You’re not just a ‘business-to-business’ organization, you need to be ‘business-for-business’. Sell your prospects tangible outcomes via strong relationships.&nbsp;One method Wayne uses is traditional snail mail. You might delete everything that came into your email inbox, but it’s not likely that you’d throw away personalized, written correspondence. If you want to break through and forge relationships with decision makers, send a letter.&nbsp;The next basic principle is to facilitate good planning. So many B2B business owners don’t actually plan for their goals and ambitions adequately. You need methodical steps and actionable tactics, not just a vague idea and a dream.&nbsp;Marketers flock to great ideas until they’re ruined, Josh says. If you want to do phenomenal business, you can’t automate relationships. That’s a basic principle of marketing. Scripts ruin authenticity. You need to set objectives for a discovery call, but you should never have a memorized pitch. You need to sell what your prospect actually needs. Referrals are some of the best ways to generate revenue, but you’ll only get those referrals if you’re authentic and have real relationships with your clients.&nbsp;&nbsp;As fat as prospecting is concerned, you need to start with clearly defining your ideal customer profile. Who is it you can work with that you really deliver value to? Can you teach them something they truly don’t know that can change the game for them? You need to qualify your prospects by ensuring they will benefit greatly from your offering. You need quality prospects over a large quantity of them. Less is more, go for quality over quantity and you will close more deals.&nbsp;&nbsp;Check out Wayne’s website at https://waynemoloney.com/.&nbsp;Check out The Wentworth Prospect: A Novel Guide to Success in B2B Sales on Amazon at https://www.amazon.com/Wentworth-Prospect-novel-guide-success-ebook/dp/B09DPDL9FX.&nbsp;Check out The Wentworth Prospect on LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/company/the-wentworth-prospect-edvance/.&nbsp;Check out Wayne Moloney on LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/in/waynemoloney/.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Don’t forget to subscribe to The Thoughtful Entrepreneur and thank you for listening. Tune in next time!More from UpMyInfluence:✅ We are actively booking guests for our DAILY Entrepreneur Success Podcast. Schedule HERE.✅ Are you a 6-figure consultant? Let us fill your sales...

In this episode of the Thoughtful Entrepreneur, your host Josh Elledge talks with the CEO of Demonstrate, Joey Hodges.&nbsp;Demonstrate is a full service marketing and communications firm. They specialize in outsized ideas and amplifying those ideas. They work in PR, social media, influencer marketing, and paid media services. They were founded under the premise of brand storytelling and so Demonstrate approaches communication and marketing holistically.&nbsp;Joey shares that it’s more important now than ever to have the foundation of your communication in place. If you find yourself with deteriorating revenue because you’re struggling to reach your B2B audience in a meaningful way, you need to return to basics and restructure messaging. Demonstrate’s strategy is to build brand belief and purpose to communicate effectively with the end user.&nbsp;Josh and Joey explore how PR has evolved, especially since COVID began. Joey explains that having stories to tell is an important key element. The first thing they do with new clients is to dive into the brand, its identity, and its mission. This first step gets Demonstrate to the root of a company’s messaging. This 4-6 week period helps Joey and his team discover the core audience they need to reach for a company and what their story is. From there, they use a bespoke approach to firmly address and solve the weaker points of a company’s existing marketing strategy.&nbsp;According to their website, Demonstrate believes that influence is earned, and that brand communications have evolved. Forget about “brand building,” it’s time to focus on growing your influence — brands need to play a role within culture to be successful. Joey shares that Demonstrate had to pivot how they talked about their branding clients online – they had to go cutting edge and digital when it comes to connecting with their core audiences. At this point, real physical events and experiences aren’t the standard anymore. This pivot to creating an excellent digital strategy is key when it comes to adapting to the new normal of the post-COVID world.&nbsp;Joey’s goal in founding Demonstrate was to provide a solution that wasn’t siloed or broken apart – he brought each communication work stream together to create a holistic approach. Marketing and communications should always be operated closely as they go hand in hand. If one team doesn’t know what the other is doing, how can messaging create an effective impact? You need a holistic approach to make your marketing, messaging, and communications effective and impactful.&nbsp;Want to learn more? Check out Demonstrate’s website at https://www.wearedemonstrate.com/.&nbsp;Check out Demonstrate on LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/company/wearedemonstrate/.&nbsp;Check out Joey Hodges on LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/in/joehodges/.&nbsp;Don’t forget to subscribe to The Thoughtful Entrepreneur and thank you for listening. Tune in next time!More from UpMyInfluence:✅ We are actively booking guests for our DAILY Entrepreneur Success Podcast. Schedule HERE.✅ Are you a 6-figure consultant? Let us fill your sales schedule and move you to 7-figures. Learn more here.✅ Check out our free Authority Transformation Masterclass.

In this episode of the Thoughtful Entrepreneur, your host Josh Elledge talks to the CEO and founder of M&amp;A Science, Kison Patel.&nbsp;M&amp;A Science solves M&amp;A industry issues using science. According to M&amp;A Science’s website, traditional M&amp;A processes are highly inefficient and antiquated. The industry operates in silos, and everyone has their own approach. Deals fail to deliver anticipated value because important deal processes, such as diligence and integration, are being poorly conducted and without proven techniques for success. The industry needs a platform to share knowledge and identify proven techniques. Teams execute better when they have a science-based approach to follow. M&amp;A’s typical clients are 8-figure market cap companies that conduct three or more acquisitions a year. They also work with investment banks and corporations.&nbsp;Mergers and acquisitions have changed over the last few years, and tools and intel has certainly improved, but this doesn’t fix the lack of standardization and siloing commonly associated with the space. Josh and Kison explore the last five years of the industry’s evolution. The strategies used are very finance focused and it takes tactical integration to merge companies successfully. The biggest shift Kison has observed is that you need to use a people focused M&amp;A approach to drive success. This pushes collaboration and teamwork between both organizations, and when you’re only focused on the finance side, there’s so much team value lost. The first step to approaching a merger or acquisition with a people focused mindset is to know what steps it will take to achieve results and share that with the appropriate teams. Executives need to be encouraged to participate beyond the close. Understanding the values of a company and a team is also important. Both organizations need to be respected for their approaches to create value, so understanding that can also unlock a deeper leadership understanding. This can help to bridge the gap between company values and operating standards. When both teams approach things with a collaborative mindset, solutions reveal themselves much faster. If you want to create a culture of responsiveness, you have to put people first and execute integration plans with both teams involved and respecting one another’s differences. Making sure that acquisitions are successful for your employees across the board is integral for both efficiency and effectiveness.&nbsp;Put people first when operating in the mergers and acquisitions space instead of leading with transactional, financial ambitions. Dedicate the merger to making sure teams and missions are aligned and you’re more likely to see true success.Want to learn more? Check out M&amp;A Science’s website at https://www.mascience.com/.&nbsp;&nbsp;Check out M&amp;A Science on LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/company/mascience/.&nbsp;Check out Kison Patel on LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/in/kisonpatel/.&nbsp;Don’t forget to subscribe to The Thoughtful Entrepreneur and thank you for listening. Tune in next time!More from UpMyInfluence:✅ We are actively booking guests for our DAILY Entrepreneur Success Podcast. Schedule HERE.✅ Are you a 6-figure consultant? Let us fill your sales schedule and move you to 7-figures. Learn more here.✅ Check out our free<a...

In this episode of the Thoughtful Entrepreneur, your host Josh Elledge speaks to executive life coach, Jan Broders.&nbsp;Jan helps executives achieve fulfillment in life by helping them find happiness outside of their business success and achievements. Jan explains that he utilizes Maslow’s hierarchy of needs in order to help these executives determine where they actually are in life. This will indicate where their wellbeing and mental health are – especially relating to the success they have achieved. Jan works with the executives who are controlled largely by the responsibilities and demands of their success.&nbsp;Josh and Jan explore how high business achievers get where they do because they have high standards for themselves. Jan shares that he’s noticed that high achievers burn out eventually, which definitely doesn’t feel like success to the person experiencing it. Everyone has unique strengths they play to, but high achievers tend to also be perfectionists, which ultimately becomes their greatest weakness. When things aren’t perfect, sometimes burned out executives have trouble coping with that. When your focus on perfection is that consuming and obsessive, it is a weakness.&nbsp;Jan also stresses the importance of boundaries and self care. You need to let yourself do the things that bring you peace. Jan explains that self care goes beyond good lifestyle habits. You have to make an effort to actually walk away from work during the day and you need to push yourself to take breaks. Habit changes can help, but this can also cause you to feel more stress. You need to do some deep, mindful self assessments to figure out where your stress relating to work stems from.&nbsp;Josh and Jan also talk about how money doesn’t actually solve your problems. Yes, it can certainly improve certain circumstances, but the misconception is that money is the key to fixing any issue. The reality is that your problems scale with your income. Money is great, but if you’re losing sleep, experiencing health issues (especially relating to stress), and you’re not spending time enjoying life with your loved ones, then you still have serious issues.&nbsp;Jan says that each individual sees the world differently. People can look at the exact same situation in all different ways; each person perceives life, success, and happiness differently. Our reality is programmed by our experiences and surroundings, especially how success functions, relationships work, and our roles and expectations for ourselves within that reality. Having this mindfulness is the first step to reframing your life and feeling at peace in your reality.&nbsp;Want to learn more? Check out Jan Broder’s website at https://janbroders.com/.&nbsp;Check out Jan Broders on LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/in/janbroders/. .&nbsp;&nbsp;Don’t forget to subscribe to The Thoughtful Entrepreneur and thank you for listening. Tune in next time!More from UpMyInfluence:✅ We are actively booking guests for our DAILY Entrepreneur Success Podcast. Schedule HERE.✅ Are you a 6-figure consultant? Let us fill your sales schedule and move you to 7-figures. Learn more here.✅ Check out our free Authority Transformation Masterclass.

In this episode of the Thoughtful Entrepreneur, your host Josh Elledge speaks with The Dolce VITA Leadership and Lifestyle Designer, Angela Santi.&nbsp;The Dolce VITA Lifestyle is a bespoke, Italian signature lifestyle. Angela shares that this means focusing and committing yourself to hard work. However, it also means having a lighthearted approach to all facets of life. Whether you're working hard or it’s the weekend, you shouldn’t put your life on hold. Have fun and connect with people, and seize the day, Angela explains.&nbsp;Angela says that you should strive to live in the moment. In America, we don’t vacation very often. According to the Italian mentality, you have to take lots of breaks and vacation to allow yourself the time and space to rest, digest, and to let good ideas percolate. If you’re burned out, you’re far from your creative peak. When you’re rested and relaxed, you bring your best work to your company and to your team.&nbsp;Josh and Angela also explore how to set boundaries for yourself at work. Set notifications on a timer and don’t have them on all the time. You have to seize the moment in a functional way. Devote time to work – answering emails, reading Slack messages, whatever it is, but then fill the rest of your time with restful activities. Your mind simply can’t function optimally without time to recoup from work, especially if you’re an entrepreneur.When you don’t let go of your need to have eyes on everything at all times, you don’t recharge. As a business owner, you need to relent control and let go of the anxiety attached to your business. You’re operating off of fear and fight or flight when you attach these emotions to your job. You have to break down your own desire to feel busy and be willing to walk away sometimes for your own mental health. When you’re an anxiety-based workaholic, you’re training your brain out of creativity. You can’t think creatively while under immense stress. Don’t undermine your own ability as a business owner and set your own guilt-free boundaries, Angela shares. These boundaries will be your lifeline, and you have to be disciplined and dedicated to letting go. It seems counterintuitive, but in truth, this lifestyle will only help your creativity and mental health as a business owner flourish. Commitment and organization serve very important purposes, and there is a balance you have to strike. You have to balance how you focus on the present and caring for yourself and how you focus on the future and growing your business.&nbsp;Want to learn more? Check out Angela Santi’s website at https://angelasanti.it/.&nbsp;Check out Angela Santi on LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/company/thedolcevitalifestyledesigner/.&nbsp;Don’t forget to subscribe to The Thoughtful Entrepreneur and thank you for listening. Tune in next time!More from UpMyInfluence:✅ We are actively booking guests for our DAILY Entrepreneur Success Podcast. Schedule HERE.✅ Are you a 6-figure consultant? Let us fill your sales schedule and move you to 7-figures. Learn more here.✅ Check out our free Authority Transformation Masterclass.

In this episode of the Thoughtful Entrepreneur, your host Josh Elledge talks to the founder of E-Mediation Services, Christy Foley.&nbsp;E-Mediation Services not only provides virtual conferencing mediation services for parties in legal disputes, but they also provide corporate training on conflict resolution, emotional intelligence, and more.&nbsp;&nbsp;Christy shares that the corporate training her company offers helps their clients resolve conflicts in the workplace. Workplace disputes are a very fast way for a company to lose revenue, she explains. Christy wants to help people resolve serious issues, not only from the legal standpoint, but from an emotional perspective. The people left in the workforce feel overworked and burned out. Christy works with new leaders to help them navigate workplace conflict and stressors. What she teaches brings peace to the people she works with and shares that she has a lot of fun doing that.&nbsp;Christy and Josh explore how she teaches emotional intelligence skills and techniques. It all depends on what the company needs, but generally she helps them build leadership skills within their teams.&nbsp;Christy has been mediating since 2009 and shares an anecdote about how she regained control in a high stress mediation. She explained that you have to retain control even during chaos and maintain your composure, especially as a leader. These are the types of skills she teaches to her clients.&nbsp;Small businesses tend to have external disputes, Christy explains. In other words, most disputes will occur between the team and clients. Customer service training should include emotional intelligence training for this reason, she says.&nbsp;Josh explores the impact of acknowledging emotions before addressing business issues. Sometimes, acknowledging the other party’s emotions is the right play. It’s an important piece of conflict resolution but doesn’t often occur enough. Christy shares that you should reframe issues to those you’re trying to resolve conflict with. At the end of a good reframe statement, you should always be asking someone if you understood their concerns correctly.&nbsp;&nbsp;Empathy is priceless, Christy says. It’s the most important part of conflict resolution and often solves the problem more often than trying to use “sympathy”. She also shares some ways to prevent workplace conflict. For one, if you’re starting a new business, listen actively to whoever you interact with. Reframe what they say and listen critically. Next, be transparent. Explain why you need what you need.&nbsp;Christy and her work are industry agnostic. As she explains, conflict can happen anywhere and in any stage of business growth. She’s worked in the retail landscape, city planning industry, healthcare, and more.&nbsp;Want to learn more? Check out E-Mediation Services’ website at https://emediationservices.com/.&nbsp;Check out Christy’s website at https://christytalks.com/.&nbsp;Check out Christy Foley on LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/in/christyfoleyesq/.&nbsp;Don’t forget to subscribe to The Thoughtful Entrepreneur and thank you for listening. Tune in next time!More from UpMyInfluence:✅ We are actively booking guests for our DAILY Entrepreneur Success Podcast. Schedule HERE.✅ Are you a 6-figure consultant? Let us fill your sales schedule and move you to 7-figures. Learn

In this episode of the Thoughtful Entrepreneur, your host Josh Elledge talks with the founder and CEO of Certa, Jag Lamba.Certa is a lifecycle management product for third parties. Large companies use Certa to automate the entire lifecycle of the third party services that they utilize. Certa automates every part of this lifecycle. They solve the bottleneck that happens when two companies work together. On the side of the vendor, the issues are acute; they don’t get paid during bottleneck delays. On the other hand, the clients Certa work with struggle with knowing how long their bottleneck period might take. On both sides, especially with large enterprises, there are major issues that Certa addresses using their automated system.&nbsp;Unfortunately, Jag shares, enterprises sometimes make suboptimal decisions. It’s harder to work with smaller companies, and while enterprises want to do good by working with smaller businesses, the pain points are undeniable. But with Certa, the stars don’t need to align. Their automated processes make onboarding much easier.&nbsp;Jag shares the origin of Certa. When he left his previous career, he dabbled with business ideas. He found that the procurement process was too lengthy for anyone to want to invest in his business ideas. He’d experienced the issues from both sides, so through some sharp and well executed collaborations, Certa launched and has achieved major success since they started. Certa addresses acute pain points by providing the right combination of automation and support for clients.Josh and Jag also explore how Certa is piloting the innovation process behind solving these major problems within the onboarding and vendor process. Jag shares his personal stake and passion relating to fixing these issues. This is a no code system, and the UI is built into the platform. Each enterprise has their own unique way that they work with third parties. There’s no way to establish a ‘standard solution’ here – they can use Certa’s best practices while also retaining their in-house processes. The only way to solve the problem, Jag explains, is not to standardize the solutions for procurement bottleneck issues. That’s why Certa took no code technology and used that as the foundation of their offering.&nbsp;Certa works with two types of companies. Digital native companies are their primary clients and tend to like working quickly with the best practices Certa has created but within their own proprietary framework. The other type of clients they work with are fortune 500 companies that are working to restructure and digitally transform themselves.&nbsp;Want to learn more? Check out Certa’s website at https://www.getcerta.com/.&nbsp;Check out Certa on LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/company/getcerta/.&nbsp;Check out Jag Lamba on LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/in/jlamba/.&nbsp;Don’t forget to subscribe to The Thoughtful Entrepreneur and thank you for listening. Tune in next time!More from UpMyInfluence:✅ We are actively booking guests for our DAILY Entrepreneur Success Podcast. Schedule HERE.✅ Are you a 6-figure consultant? Let us fill your sales schedule and move you to 7-figures. Learn more here.✅ Check out our free Authority Transformation Masterclass.

In this episode of the Thoughtful Entrepreneur, your host Josh Elledge speaks to the founder and CEO of Naked Development, John Driscoll.&nbsp;Naked Development is a creative development agency that builds mobile and web apps for startups. Their DNA reaches out to disruptive tech and startups, John explains. They’ve worked with major brands such as Quicksilver, UPS, Bank of America, The Jim Henson Company, and more. Naked Development offers services around brand strategy, product design UI/UX, product strategy, software development, digital marketing, and more.&nbsp;John shares some exciting news on one of Naked Developments newest applications and he explains that they have really innovated in the way of automation. Naked Development specializes in working with entrepreneurs who aren’t as tech forward so that no matter what, their business has the necessary tech built for them. John explains that he mentors founders through the tech building process. You have to be able to think correctly when it comes to tech. There are rules, and you can succeed, but you have to play the game right to come out with a functional, effective new technology.&nbsp;Josh and John also explore how money moves differently than it used to. The concept of what a ‘bank’ is is changing – now, either your employer or a third party has the ability to hold your money for you.&nbsp;John explains that even small businesses can ‘become’ banks. You don’t need to be massive to offer this type of service. This is a trillion dollar industry and investment opportunities are on the horizon. The banking industry is about to be seriously disrupted, and John predicts that in the next few years, we won’t be walking into banks anymore, period. Now is a very good time to begin investing in startups that offer these ‘banking’ services. John says you need to change the rules of the game to see the best opportunities. Be a game-changing disrupter – or invest in one. There’s a mass of untapped potential in the banking space, and it’s only a matter of time before the industry changes dramatically.Technology is about solving human problems, it’s about people. If you can take the friction out of people’s lives with technology, you’re using it properly. If you want to learn more about Naked Development’s disruptive work, check out their case studies linked below.&nbsp;Check out Naked Development’s YoutTube channel here.Interested in Naked Development’s case studies? Check out their work here.&nbsp;Want to learn more? Check out Naked Development’s website at https://nakeddev.com/.&nbsp;Check out Naked Development on LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/company/nakeddev/.&nbsp;Check out John Driscoll on LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/in/thejohndriscoll/.&nbsp;Don’t forget to subscribe to The Thoughtful Entrepreneur and thank you for listening. Tune in next time!More from UpMyInfluence:✅ We are actively booking guests for our DAILY Entrepreneur Success Podcast. Schedule HERE.✅ Are you a 6-figure consultant? Let us fill your sales schedule and move you to 7-figures. Learn more here.✅ Check out our free<a href="https://upmyinfluence.com/1" rel="noopener noreferrer"...

In this episode of the Thoughtful Entrepreneur, your host Josh Elledge speaks to CEO of Stride Search, the host of the podcast Hire Power Radio, and the author of Healing Career Wounds, Rick Girard.Rick shares why he named his book the way he did. He shares that the book was written for entrepreneurs and business owners. Rick wanted to teach his readers that in order to retain stellar talent and have a healthy company culture, you have to heal the career wounds of your employees before you mindlessly throw money at them. Make them feel safe and valued and you’ll see unprecedented happiness within your staff.If you want great people, you have to frame things from their point of view. The employees control the selection process, so you have to demonstrate value beyond a paycheck to attract good talent. Stride Search is an executive recruiting firm and they specialize in filling hard-to-fill roles. They recruit executives, engineers, developers, and more. Stride Search seeks to help companies refine their recruiting and hiring processes so that forever moving forward, the companies they work with are equipped to find and keep the best talent possible.&nbsp;An unfortunate trend Rick has noticed is that the recruiting industry tends to ‘throw stuff at the wall to see what sticks’. Most recruiters only hope they sourced the right fit. At Stride Search, it may take a little time, but they find the perfect candidates for their clients. On average, the companies they work with choose a candidate Stride Search found within the first 3 candidate choices.&nbsp;People often fail in roles because they were either hired wrong or trained wrong. Too many companies seeking candidates aren’t up front about internal issues, so when a new employee is surprised, they tend to resign. Josh and Rick explore how to build a company culture and how as a business, you should want your employees to thrive. You want to have a more meaningful relationship with your employees beyond just what they’re paid and their roles. Make them feel a part of something with mission, purpose, and value.&nbsp;Rick shares the three things to look for when hiring. First, what is the candidate’s ‘pain’? Were they disenchanted by their previous job? How have they been mistreated in previous roles?&nbsp; Next, what are the candidate's desires and how can you meet those desires? Finally, what impact did they make during their previous role? How did they grow in it? Ask these questions and make them an intrinsic part of your hiring process.&nbsp;Want to learn more? Check out Stride Search’s website at https://www.stridesearch.com/.&nbsp;Check out Rick’s book, Healing Career Wounds at https://www.amazon.com/dp/173580360X.&nbsp;Check out Rick’s podcast Hire Power Radio at https://www.stridesearch.com/hire-power-radio.&nbsp;Check out The Stride Search on LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/company/stride-professional-search/.&nbsp;Check out Rick Girard on LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/in/rick-girard-07722/.&nbsp;Don’t forget to subscribe to The Thoughtful Entrepreneur and thank you for listening. Tune in next time!More from UpMyInfluence:✅ We are actively booking guests for our...

In this episode of the Thoughtful Entrepreneur, your host Josh Elledge talks with the founder of Royal Legal Solutions, Scott Smith.&nbsp;Royal Legal Solutions is a team of around 40 people that helps entrepreneurs and investors protect themselves legally, optimize their portfolio, and build and maintain wealth. Their clients are medium to high net worth individuals who want curated advice from top-notch experts. Scott shares that when he first began investing, he ignored the wealth-building side of things. It was incredibly difficult to align everything, but once he optimized his investing, he started offering his approach and solutions as Royal Legal Solutions. They help these people reduce their taxes and increase their income and wealth.&nbsp;Scott shares that it’s hard to find, vet, and trust the experts and mentors who are out there. It’s hard to find savvy mentors that all agree on how to tackle your wealth. Royal Legal Solutions offers all of these services in-house so you don’t have to search endlessly for qualified experts. Royal Legal can help position your wealth and portfolio to begin generating passive income. If you diversify your portfolio and build a passive system that builds wealth, you can deeply and truly enjoy your life thanks to financial freedom.&nbsp;In quarterbacking information, you see a lot more errors and lack of consistency in wealth building. Royal Legal Solutions is dedicated to educating their audience on how to become financially free - you can even ask the experts at Royal Legal questions during their live events. They seek to facilitate connections between their audience members and encourage other individuals to share their strengths and weaknesses during their educational events. This form of networking is just another benefit you can see from hiring a seasoned, professional in-house team to manage your wealth for you.&nbsp;Scott shares that he and his team, in two months, can walk their clients through the entire process required to build and maintain their wealth. He shares that after his clients go through these meetings, they know exactly what they need to spend money on and what their finances need to flourish. More often than not, they choose to make the investment to work with Royal Legal Solutions. Check out the twenty question investor quiz on their website so they can provide you with curated content and to see where they can assist you with your wealth management.&nbsp;Want to learn more? Check out Royal Legal Solutions’ website at https://royallegalsolutions.com/.&nbsp;Check out the Royal Legal Solutions at https://go.royallegalsolutions.com/financial-freedom-quiz-page-1.&nbsp;Check out Royal Legal Solutions on LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/company/royal-legal-solutions/.&nbsp;Check out Scott Smith on LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/in/scott-royal-smith/.&nbsp;Don’t forget to subscribe to The Thoughtful Entrepreneur and thank you for listening. Tune in next time!More from UpMyInfluence:✅ We are actively booking guests for our DAILY Entrepreneur Success Podcast. Schedule HERE.✅ Are you a 6-figure consultant? Let us fill your sales schedule and move you to 7-figures. Learn more here.✅ Check out...

In this episode of the Thoughtful Entrepreneur, your host Josh Elledge talks to the founder of The Garden Continuum, Monique Allen.&nbsp;The Garden Continuum builds and maintains beautiful landscapes. On their website, The Garden Continuum shares that landscape is more than a “thing” that surrounds a house or business. Your landscape can become a Life‑Scape™; a special, beautiful and functional part of your property. The Garden Continuum strives to enrich the human experience by considering your unique personality, the natural features of your land, and the environmental impacts of design and installation. This is what sets Monique and her company apart.&nbsp;Monique shares the different types of providers within the landscaping space. She shares her story about how she fell into this space when she met someone in college who suggested she try her hand at landscaping. She realized for the first time that she felt alive while doing work and she hasn’t steered away from that drive since.&nbsp;Josh and Monique explore how this has typically been a male-skewed industry, especially back in the 80s when she started The Garden Continuum. Women tended to only work on the stylistic end of things back then – Monique shares that she wanted to break that mold and do all of the work, including the hard physical labor. The Garden Continuum has more females on their team and the space has seen more women in these roles, she shares. Monique also explains that she is nurturing and compassionate above all else. She’s tough, but she also knows how to get results. She approached the trade without being hard on her team, and this has made all the difference.Monique and Josh also talk about the evolution of trade-based businesses. Most people are passionate about these trades and start as technicians. As you learn and become more adept, you become a master. That’s when you start asking yourself why you shouldn’t work for yourself. There has been a shift in the space and trade service owners need to understand that their teams are experiencing burnout – enough to put some companies out of business. It’s the job of trade service owners to build the next generation of trade workers. Turnover is higher than ever in the trade services, so providing roles for technicians that encourage good company culture will result in retention. Don’t HUNT for the perfect employee in a trade space; you have to attract them.&nbsp;Want to learn more? Check out The Garden Continuum’s website at https://www.thegardencontinuum.com/.&nbsp;Check out The Garden Continuum on LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/company/the-garden-continuum-inc/.&nbsp;Check out Monique Allen on LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/in/moniquetgc/.&nbsp;Don’t forget to subscribe to The Thoughtful Entrepreneur and thank you for listening. Tune in next time!More from UpMyInfluence:✅ We are actively booking guests for our DAILY Entrepreneur Success Podcast. Schedule HERE.✅ Are you a 6-figure consultant? Let us fill your sales schedule and move you to 7-figures. Learn more here.✅ Check out our free Authority Transformation Masterclass.

In this episode of the Thoughtful Entrepreneur, your host Josh Elledge speaks with the founder and CEO of Diesel Laptops, Tyler Robertson.Diesel Laptops provides efficiency solutions for people fixing diesel equipment. Tyler shares that it’s not just highway workers who use diesel engines – there are actually more diesel engines off the highway than on it, so this is actually a massive industry with a need for what Tyler’s company offers.&nbsp;Tyler explains that farming equipment, airstrip vehicles, plumbing, and more require diesel engines. It’s not going away anytime soon; this is the industry that gets products to your door.&nbsp;Tyler and Josh explore the origins of Diesel Laptops – which was started by accident. Tyler had a lot of experience working with a software company before he built kits to help their customers use and download this software for their diesel powered engines. Before long, he had a powerful business idea take off.&nbsp;Diesel Laptops grew incredibly fast, but they needed to diversify, Tyler shares. They continued building software that could truly diagnose and educate the user (some of which they developed for free until they ultimately developed it into a SaaS program.) Diesel Laptops is the only solution that provides the computers, software, and hardware that can communicate between the engine/truck and the computer. Tyler shares that when they started Diesel Laptops, there wasn’t a company that offered all of the components of a diesel diagnostic solution on the market. This is what makes Diesel Laptops unique – they offer a holistic approach to diesel solutions and they provide content and education on the subject.&nbsp;&nbsp;Tyler shares he had close relationships with his clients in the beginning so he was able to tackle every need and desire of theirs directly. As they scaled, Tyler has had to rely on other means to garner this data, which has been a bit of a challenge. He stresses that the number one way to streamline and optimize your business is to listen to your customers. They know what problems they need solved and what they want to see from your business, so ask them! Tyler shares that many of their products were made and provided for free to their clients when they established a minimum viable product. This allowed for product testing and real time feedback from clients as Diesel Laptops grew.&nbsp;Whether you’re a highway worker or you’re in an industry that utilizes diesel engines, Diesel Laptops has the solutions for you.&nbsp;&nbsp;Want to learn more? Check out Diesel Laptops’ website at https://www.diesellaptops.com/.&nbsp;Check out Diesel Laptops on LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/company/diesel-laptops/.&nbsp;&nbsp;Check out Tyler Robertson on LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/in/tyler-robertson-diesel/.&nbsp;Don’t forget to subscribe to The Thoughtful Entrepreneur and thank you for listening. Tune in next time!More from UpMyInfluence:✅ We are actively booking guests for our DAILY Entrepreneur Success Podcast. Schedule HERE.✅ Are you a 6-figure consultant? Let us fill your sales schedule and move you to 7-figures. Learn more here.✅ Check out our free Authority Transformation Masterclass.&nbsp;

In this episode of the Thoughtful Entrepreneur, your host Josh Elledge speaks to the founder and CEO of Virtudesk, Pavel Stepanov.Virtudesk is a company that provides trained and managed virtual assistants for small to medium sized businesses. They started working in the real estate space and have now branched into the insurance and even weather protection industries.&nbsp;Josh and Pavel explore how difficult it has been for small businesses to find VAs. It’s simply hard to find qualified talent at the right price. Not only that, but there could be issues with productivity, accountability, and accuracy. This is where Virtudesk steps in. They manage and train the VAs they outsource and they know how to monitor key KPIs for the given positions they fill for the companies they work with.&nbsp;If you’re a business owner who is too busy to do the work to find good VAs, then outsource to a firm like Virtudesk. An assistant is supposed to learn your business, help you establish standard operating procedures, and help you build these systems. Only qualified, professional virtual assistants can do this work. Pavel also explores how granular the various roles within a company can get and shares that you can’t function at a high level doing those roles yourself. You need competent assistants to fill those roles so you, as the business owner, can focus on your zone of genius.&nbsp;There is a common myth that only the business owner can execute a high level of service - if you hire right, your company will thrive without you in that role. Pavel explains that your customer isn’t in love with you, they’re in love with your level of service. When your company is organized by procedures and systems, the right hire with the right training can do any job you need filled within your organization. Virtudesk helps with hiring right.&nbsp;Josh and Pavel also explore how to bring on a VA. You need a robust onboarding experience, you have to indicate how your company does things, and you need to have standard operating procedures for them to follow. Systems and modules are key when it comes to hiring VAs. Pavel shares a good indicator of your systems – if you go on vacation and you come back to see more revenue than when you left, chances are things are operating well within your business. When things are clear enough where your teams can step in and operate at all levels, you have good systems and processes in place.&nbsp;Want to learn more? Check out Virtudesk’s website at https://www.myvirtudesk.com/.&nbsp;Check out Virtudesk on LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/company/virtudesk/.&nbsp;Check out Pavel Stepanov on LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/in/pavelgstepanov/.&nbsp;Don’t forget to subscribe to The Thoughtful Entrepreneur and thank you for listening. Tune in next time!More from UpMyInfluence:✅ We are actively booking guests for our DAILY Entrepreneur Success Podcast. Schedule HERE.✅ Are you a 6-figure consultant? Let us fill your sales schedule and move you to 7-figures. Learn more here.✅ Check out our free Authority Transformation Masterclass.

In this episode of the Thoughtful Entrepreneur, your host Josh Elledge talks to the founder and CEO of Zoomin Software, Gal Oron.&nbsp;Zoomin Software helps customers of B2B companies self-serve more efficiently. Zoomin sets a completely new standard in how this is being done through technical content. In essence, they look at the customers of the businesses they work with and they determine how to give those customers a stellar end user experience. Zoomin makes customers feel empowered when it comes to using enterprise offerings and helps them self-serve without the need to reach out to tech support. Gal shares that almost 90% of customers that have bad technical experiences with a piece of software will simply switch to a different product. Most consumers won’t want to deal with the hassle of calling customer support or sending emails back and forth. Giving them stellar, self-serve solutions is the best way to retain these customers.With enterprise products, there are typically complications and issues that require support, there’s just no way around that. You should be creating technical content (blog posts, tutorials, and more) around how to strategically use these enterprise offerings. Zoomin doesn’t create or manage this content for their clients – they take what their clients already have, they go out of their way to understand their clients’ desires, and they know how to contextualize the current customer experience. Zoomin offers ways to deeply understand where technical pitfalls occur based on user experience analysis – Gal and his team can give their clients actionable insights, including the moment a customer is thinking about switching to a different solution. Knowing why and when this happens is key in improving your customer retention.&nbsp;When Zoomin works with their clients, they see an immediate impact on experience KPIs. There is a direct impact on both customer retention at the end of the sales cycle as well as an impact on earning customers. Gal shares that users who consume a lot of technical content are automatically credible leads, and Zoomin’s solutions offer ways to analyze and pinpoint these leads using their unique data analytics.&nbsp;Customers don’t want to spend their time on the phone with tech support. Statistics show that most customers will totally dislike the support experience no matter what, simply because they feel their time is wasted when they can’t find the answers easily within your content. Improve your customer experience by providing top-notch educational content about your enterprise offering.&nbsp;Want to learn more? Check out Zoomin Software’s website at https://www.zoominsoftware.com/.&nbsp;Check out Zoomin Software on LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/company/zoomin-software/.&nbsp;Check out Gal Oron on LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/in/gal-oron-6857902/.&nbsp;&nbsp;Don’t forget to subscribe to The Thoughtful Entrepreneur and thank you for listening. Tune in next time!More from UpMyInfluence:✅ We are actively booking guests for our DAILY Entrepreneur Success Podcast. Schedule HERE.✅ Are you a 6-figure consultant? Let us fill your sales schedule and move you to 7-figures. Learn more here.✅ Check out our free Authority Transformation Masterclass.

In this episode of the Thoughtful Entrepreneur, your host Josh Elledge speaks to a partner with ReadySpaces, Kevin Petrovic.&nbsp;ReadySpaces provides small industrial spaces for small to medium sized businesses. Let’s say you’re a small business owner working out of your garage, but you need a slightly larger space (along with some equipment.) ReadySpaces provides full service, turnkey industrial spaces for these types of businesses to use as a service. ReadySpaces is flexible, easy, and tailor-made for the businesses they work with. Other rental-based industrial spaces don’t tend to come fully equipped and ready for work – this is where ReadySpaces saw and filled a need.&nbsp;Kevin shares the challenges that ReadySpaces addresses, whether you’re concerned with commercial-level operations or with help aligning logistics, like internet and equipment. ReadySpaces has over 20 locations across the US and Canada, so if you’re in a major city, see if they have a location near you here.&nbsp;Kevin also explains that ReadySpaces users are able to create and build new distribution centers by utilizing their network. This means business owners that they work with have unprecedented opportunities for reach and growth. Kevin and Josh also explore how ReadySpaces tends to operate – they convert large warehouse spaces into segmented, fully equipped commercial workshops. They also have different space offerings based on the needs of the individual businesses they’re working with. The smallest units cost less than $500 monthly, which are about the size of a one car garage. The cost of the units also fluctuate with the local market. No matter where you are with your business, ReadySpaces has an affordable option for you.&nbsp;According to their website, ReadySpaces provides real estate solutions to businesses looking for warehousing, industrial, and storage spaces between 250 sq. ft. and 5,000 sq. ft. These spaces are a notch above the ordinary. Their spaces are reconfigurable, secure, accessible 24/7, and well-maintained. They offer a variety of lease lengths to help provide the flexibility that's key for small businesses. ReadySpaces offers a variety of top-notch amenities for their partners, including internet, office spaces, kitchens, full electricity, forklifts, pallet jacks, WiFi, and more.Kevin shares that there were many obstacles along the way during ReadySpaces’ first couple of years, but they have come a long way and pivoted well to see the success they’ve achieved. If you’re a small to medium sized business with a need for a fully equipped commercial industrial space, contact ReadySpaces’ solutions team to see if and where they can accommodate your needs.&nbsp;Want to learn more? Check out ReadySpaces’s website at https://readyspaces.com/.&nbsp;Check out ReadySpaces on LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/company/readyspaces-warehouses/.&nbsp;Check out Kevin Petrovic on LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/in/kevinpetrovic/.&nbsp;Don’t forget to subscribe to The Thoughtful Entrepreneur and thank you for listening. Tune in next time!More from UpMyInfluence:✅ We are actively booking guests for our DAILY Entrepreneur Success Podcast. Schedule HERE.✅ Are you a 6-figure consultant? Let us fill your sales schedule and move you to 7-figures.<a href="https://upmyinfluence.com/b2b" rel="noopener...

In this episode of the Thoughtful Entrepreneur, your host Josh Elledge speaks with the founder and CEO of SJO Investments, Scott Oots.&nbsp;Scott owns a real estate investment firm based in southern California. They buy about 200 houses annually, mainly in the fix and flip and wholesaling industries. He also coaches young entrepreneurs and investors on how to take the first steps in their business journeys and get to the next level.&nbsp;Josh and Scott explore what makes Scott unique as an investor. He shares that he didn’t come from money – he built everything he has from scratch. His parents worked nine-to-five jobs and he wanted something different. This is what Scott encourages his clients to do – strive for the “different” they desire in life. There’s so much more to life than grinding for a company at a corporate job, and this is what Scott seeks to help others learn.&nbsp;Scott also explains why he thinks investors should add real estate to their portfolio. We all know there is long term wealth and passive income opportunities within real estate. There are many ways to get into real estate investing and the long term return on investments, when things are done right, is unmatched. But where do you draw the lines between active versus passive investing?Buying, fixing, and flipping is the “active” side of real estate investing. You always get good returns when you make strategic active investment choices. Short term investments make you a lot of money quickly through active investing. Long term investments, more passive ones, bring you more wealth over time. The best part about real estate investing is that you can get creative with how you decide to diversify your real estate portfolio.&nbsp;Josh and Scott also explore where beginners should start. You don’t need a lot of money to start, Scott says. If you want to get into passive investment properties, first find where you want to have your first investment. Choose location based on the market, return on investment, which way the state leans when it comes to tenants and landlords, property taxes, and more. Scott recommends landlord-friendly states to start with.&nbsp;Scott shares the work he does today. He and his team help investors get to the next level, make smart deals, avoid common investor mistakes, and more. Scott says he really wants to help other investors succeed and thrive and this is why he offers speaking engagements and coaching work.&nbsp;Want to learn more? Check out SJO Investments’s website at https://guestio.com/.&nbsp;Check out Scott Oots’s website at https://www.scottoots.com/.&nbsp;&nbsp;Check out Scott Oots on LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/in/scott-oots-3a2b341b/.&nbsp;Don’t forget to subscribe to The Thoughtful Entrepreneur and thank you for listening. Tune in next time!More from UpMyInfluence:✅ We are actively booking guests for our DAILY Entrepreneur Success Podcast. Schedule HERE.✅ Are you a 6-figure consultant? Let us fill your sales schedule and move you to 7-figures. Learn more here.✅ Check out our free Authority Transformation Masterclass.

In this episode of the Thoughtful Entrepreneur, your host Josh Elledge talks to content strategist, writer, and podcaster with Simple Creative Marketing, Anfernee Chansamooth.Simple Creative Marketing focuses on producing customer success stories and case studies for B2B service and SaaS companies. They typically work with 7-figure or more companies on assets to help them sell more. Content creation and marketing has to be executed effectively in order to scale at that level. Anfernee shares that they conduct marketing audits for the companies they work with when they begin working together. Seeing where existing marketing needs to be pivoted is the first step in actually seeing higher conversion rates. You have to narrow down the content that works for selling versus content that works to build a brand. When someone is evaluating a product or service, they want tangible proof and case studies to convince them the solution will work for them. This is the hurdle service providers need to overcome when scaling.&nbsp;Josh and Anfernee also discuss the differences between a testimonial and a case study. Testimonials are short and can definitely be executed wrong. When they’re jargon riddled or a copywriter wrote it for you, it won’t resonate with your audience. A case study, on the other hand, offers engagement context, methodology details, and why working with you really made a difference. A case study also needs to speak to the long term impact from working with your solution. This is where case studies really work better than testimonials – it tells someone the story behind your value proposition and what sets your company apart from your competitors. You need to prove you can deliver, especially when scaling above 7-figures.&nbsp;Josh also explores some common problems he sees with testimonials. A random name and last initial doesn’t resonate with a prospect when it comes to attributing a testimonial. You need to connect your testimonials and case studies to the audiences reading them. Introduce the person to your leads - show them why your case study, review, or testimonial subject is just like the prospect. If you don’t tell that story clearly through them, it won’t hit home or resonate. Give the case study the authority and credibility to speak to the rest of your audience.&nbsp;Your ad results need to achieve the specific goals and KPIs you set, but you have to deliver your messaging with emotion. Show your audience where they fit into the story of your solution. Show them with empathy and tangible proof that you can be the solution to their problem.&nbsp;Want to learn more? Check out Simple Creative Marketing’s website at https://www.simplecreativemarketing.com/.&nbsp;Check out Simple Creative Marketing on LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/company/simple-creative-marketing/.&nbsp;Check out Simple Creative Marketing's free goodies for listeners of The Thoughtful Entrepreneur at https://www.simplecreativemarketing.com/upmyinfluence/.&nbsp;Don’t forget to subscribe to The Thoughtful Entrepreneur and thank you for listening. Tune in next time!More from UpMyInfluence:✅ We are actively booking guests for our DAILY Entrepreneur Success Podcast. Schedule HERE.✅ Are you a 6-figure consultant? Let us fill your sales schedule and move you to 7-figures.

In this episode of the Thoughtful Entrepreneur, your host Josh Elledge speaks to the CEO of Guestio, Travis Chappell.&nbsp;Guestio is a pay-to-play platform marketplace that allows you to book yourself onto quality podcasts – or, if you’re a podcast, you can find amazing guests. This platform brings quality creators and guests together through Guestio’s network.&nbsp;Guestio’s users are all dedicated to excellent podcasting and this is why they’re a paid platform. This platform ensures that serious, dedicated podcasters meet high-level guests. The best part is that Guestio allows each guest to charge an appearance fee as much as podcasts can charge an interview fee, so everyone is paid for their talent.&nbsp;Podcasting won’t necessarily bring you a windfall of traffic, but the traffic you will get will be ready to buy from you. Podcasting reaches an untapped audience and begins the know, like, and trust process organically. If someone wants to listen to you host or guest on a podcast for the entire length of a show, they’re already starting to like you. This is what makes podcasting so valuable. It may not be a massive quantity, but the leads that come from podcasting will always be quality, organic leads.&nbsp;Travis shares a valuable insight; you need to own your name when it comes to online authority and ranking. You need to build a strong network and make efforts to rank online in order to have reach and authority. One of the best ways to establish this authority and credibility is to be a guest on podcasts. Tell your story and get yourself in front of audiences. Podcasting, for many reasons, should be a part of your monthly budget, Travis advises.&nbsp;Travis and Josh discuss Guestio’s concierge service and how their offerings can manage someone’s podcasting bookings entirely. On the other hand, they also have “do it yourself” services. Guestio has offerings for companies at various levels of growth and revenue.&nbsp;Travis also shares how to charge for interviews as a creator. If you have more demand than you have guest slots, chances are you can start charging appearance fees. Beyond that, you can offer a “skip the line” offering that’s optional for those that want faster interviews and publishing dates. Monetizing your show appearances, or monetizing yourself as talent, has been made seamless by Guestio’s platform. Travis shares that there are many common mistakes when it comes to monetizing a podcast and he stresses that you’re not selling out if you monetize. There’s real value to an interview when your podcast is an established, authoritative platform.Want to learn more? Check out Guestio’s website at https://guestio.com/.&nbsp;Check out Guestio on LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/company/guestio/.&nbsp;Check out Travis Chappell on LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/in/travischappell/.&nbsp;&nbsp;Don’t forget to subscribe to The Thoughtful Entrepreneur and thank you for listening. Tune in next time!More from UpMyInfluence:✅ We are actively booking guests for our DAILY Entrepreneur Success Podcast. Schedule HERE.✅ Are you a 6-figure consultant? Let us fill your sales schedule and move you to 7-figures. Learn more here.✅ Check out our free Authority Transformation Masterclass.

In this episode of the Thoughtful Entrepreneur, your host Josh Elledge speaks with keynote speaker, coach, and founder of Phenom Leap Education, David Lindsay.Phenom Leap Education was born during the first phase of the COVID-19 pandemic, David explains. David’s face-to-face coaching business was suddenly totally on hold. He and some like minded friends in his network came together and created their courses online. From there, they founded Phenom Leap Education in order to enable them to have a global, virtual impact on their audience. Now, they’re interacting with audiences all over the world.&nbsp;David explains that he and his team help small to mid-level business owners who have hit a wall. He and his team helps to bridge that gap by helping them become better leaders and better versions of themselves. He shares that business owners who are plodding along and spinning their wheels and aren’t gaining momentum need to tackle making a bigger impact. Face-to-face coaching was reliant on local business, but the pandemic changed how the world communicates. Specifically, David strives to help middle management with the heat they receive on both ends. Building a robust middle management team is key to bridging some of the gaps with business stagnation.&nbsp;David shares that he sees many leaders losing momentum. As a coach, your role is to always push them to execute their roles optimally. Every link of the chain in a business has to be strong, but it needs to be through legitimate team building. If you bond your team through friendship, studies have shown people feel more community and are willing to work harder with their team, David shares.&nbsp;The smallest level of engagement with your team can add up, and creating a healthy, vibrant company culture can really make a difference. You have to do the work to create a dedicated team like this – your actions need to speak louder than words. Show your team you’re dedicated to success by creating strength and healthy habits within yourself. Sometimes, this means taking things one day at a time. If you make a little-by-little effort each day to change your habits, you’ll actually be more successful in changing your habits. If you take your time and change a little each day, you’ll see the openings you need to excel and become a better leader. There is a mental long game being played here, David explains. You have to have the discipline to keep going with healthy habits.David also shares that staying grounded and present is key. Condition yourself to being present in every moment, for every interaction and decision, and avoid multitasking. Multitasking pulls you away from the moment that matters – the present.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Check out the Phenom Leap Education’s website at https://www.phenomleap.com.au/.&nbsp;Don’t forget to subscribe to The Thoughtful Entrepreneur and thank you for listening. Tune in next time!More from UpMyInfluence:✅ We are actively booking guests for our DAILY Entrepreneur Success Podcast. Schedule HERE.✅ Are you a 6-figure consultant? Let us fill your sales schedule and move you to 7-figures. Learn more here.✅ Check out our free Authority Transformation Masterclass.&nbsp;

In this episode of the Thoughtful Entrepreneur, your host Josh Elledge speaks to the owner and founder of the G$D Agency Accelerator, Cody Getchell.&nbsp;Cody shares that he and G$D focus on traffic, sales, and systems. He and his business partner have worked around 15 years in the agency space. They found the most important, key aspects of successful scaling involved all three of those areas. He shares that G$D is all about getting stuff done – and they hold their clients accountable for the steps required to see success. Their dedication to accountability is what sets G$D apart.&nbsp;Cody and Josh also explore what works well right now in marketing. He shares that you have to be authentic and personable. Your personality needs to shine through your messaging, and when you do this correctly, you create permission-based marketing within your organic network. This means they will come to your content and take the next step in the relationship with you. This framework is very different from what most outbound marketing looks like today, which isn’t typically based on the lead’s permission or interest in you. This is how you build scalable, real relationships in the coaching space.&nbsp;This is what G$D teaches. They fight strongly against spam, which has unfortunately saturated the space. When you have effective targeting and messaging, you’ll have leads coming to you out of genuine interest.&nbsp;Josh explores the pressure many early-stage business owners feel and that it can push them to follow bad advice from sleazy marketers. Don’t listen to outdated, bad marketing tactics by sliding into DMs. Explore the levels of your clients’ relationships with you, Cody says. You can’t fool your target audience, period. You shouldn’t just talk to random strangers or throw a clickfunnel at someone. You need to see who is engaging with your content and go from there. Engage back with them too, and open the door to having a conversation with them. Letting this be the foundation of your outbound marketing is both ethical and effective; the key is to dial in your targeting and operate with a permission-based marketing model. It needs to be the right time for your lead to become your customer, and that comes in relationship stages that only you can nurture organically over time. Ultimately, you want your prospects to be relaxed and comfortable with you. Talk to them, be authentic, and be their friend. People buy from and network with their friends, so be a friend to your prospects and be invested in their journeys.&nbsp;Check out the G$D Agency Accelerator’s website at https://joingsd.com/.&nbsp;Check out Cody Getchell on LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/in/codygetchell/.&nbsp;Don’t forget to subscribe to The Thoughtful Entrepreneur and thank you for listening. Tune in next time!More from UpMyInfluence:✅ We are actively booking guests for our DAILY Entrepreneur Success Podcast. Schedule HERE.✅ Are you a 6-figure consultant? Let us fill your sales schedule and move you to 7-figures. Learn more here.✅ Check out our free Authority Transformation Masterclass.

In this episode of the Thoughtful Entrepreneur, your host Josh Elledge talks with the President of Blaze PR, Matt Kovacs.Blaze PR is a lifestyle agency that focuses on challenger brands. They want to help these brands make their marketing dollars go that much farther, especially in the lifestyle space. They have an opportunity to work in numerous mediums with the flexibility of their vertical, so they’re not pigeon-holed into antiquated solutions. Blaze PR helps brands break the noise through creative, cutting edge approaches.&nbsp;Josh and Matt explore how PR brands tend to be apprehensive about eating their own dogfood, so to speak. Blaze PR hasn’t shied away from setting themselves apart and using their own processes. They like showing their clients that they’re on top of things and believe in their own systems.&nbsp;Matt explains the ‘imagination process’ that comes into play when helping brands stand out. They first conduct a media perception audit and they explore what media think of a brand. Next, they look at who a brand is trying to reach. Who is their target audience, what do they care about? These are the questions Blaze PR asks when navigating the creative side of marketing for a brand.&nbsp;Josh and Matt also discuss how influencer marketing has begun to dominate many industries. When do you know when to pursue influencer marketing versus traditional marketing? Blaze PR applies both approaches strategically. They know that morning television reaches more members of a household than influencer marketing on YouTube does. Traditional media still reaches the general consumer, Matt shares. Influencer marketing is extremely focused, and it can work, but not for all niches.&nbsp;It all depends on the audience you need to reach and the channels you use need to match your brand’s messaging. You have to be cognizant of exactly who is watching your advert or content, even using traditional methods.&nbsp;Matt also shares one of the biggest issues he sees in PR. When he sees the false promises agencies make about what they can get for their clients, it really creates a false set of expectations within the space. The reality is that big media appearances in the traditional marketing sense take time.&nbsp;Blaze PR also loves podcasting. They strategically search for hosts that gel well with their clients. Every piece of what they do is tailored to the company they’re working with. By always being strategic with moves towards visibility, you’ll have a lot of amazing content with untapped reach. You can also convey way more in a positive podcast appearance than you can in an Instagram post. Podcasting is an opportunity to share your company’s vision, in your own words, with your audience.&nbsp;‘Want to learn more? Check out Blaze PR’s website at http://blazepr.com/.&nbsp;Check out Blaze PR on LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/company/blaze-pr/.&nbsp;Check out Matt Kovacs on LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/in/mattjkovacs/.&nbsp;Don’t forget to subscribe to The Thoughtful Entrepreneur and thank you for listening. Tune in next time!More from UpMyInfluence:✅ We are actively booking guests for our DAILY Entrepreneur Success Podcast. Schedule HERE.✅ Are you a 6-figure consultant? Let us fill your sales schedule and move you to 7-figures. Learn more here.✅ Check out our free<a...

In this episode of the Thoughtful Entrepreneur, your host Josh Elledge talks to the CEO of Executive Ownershift, Dan Norenberg .Executive Ownershift is the framework Dan created for executive and strategic teams to help them improve their leadership skills and organizational results. Dan shares his background and explains how he ended up living in Europe. Dan shares that he was able to follow his desires to live there by adapting to constraints. He looked for marketing and sales roles he could serve in, but he recognized that what he needed was coaching and training to be ready to work where he lived in Germany. He became self employed ultimately, and that’s how he’s lived ever since.&nbsp;Josh and Dan explore the importance of making your team feel a part of something more. Dan says you have to explore where the culture of employee engagement starts in your business. You need to start engaging at the bottom, not the top. Executives who are self-aware enough to want to improve their leadership skills often work with solo coaches. Dan says this is where his services differ; Dan coaches entire leadership teams, as teams. Leadership is a team construct in Dan’s eyes, and this is why he coaches in this fashion.Dan and Josh also talk about how engagement needs to happen within your company. Don’t just tell your team what to do, inspire them to follow in your footsteps. You need to show your team through actions that you want to engage with them and that you care. They also talk about also having people at all levels in an organization engage with customers. If things should be customer-centric, commit your team to excellence down to the individual employee.&nbsp;You also need to create a culture around the company’s mission. Talk to your team about the positive impact they make and encourage them to feel community in the shared vision of the organization. Dan explains that there are three areas of immediate opportunity for improvement that can be addressed in leadership teams across industries. For one, do they have a clear and worthy goal for future success? It’s hard to make a goal both clear and worthwhile in this day and age. Next, dedicate yourself to continuous improvement and excellence in your leadership team. If you aren’t driving that constant improvement at a leadership level, you won’t see results with the rest of your team. Finally, work on the business, not in the business. Don’t lose track of the ultimate goal by getting caught in the weeds.&nbsp;‘Want to learn more? Check out Executive Ownershift’s website at https://www.dannorenberg.com/.&nbsp;Check out Executive Ownershift on LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/company/dan-norenberg-executive-ownershift/.&nbsp;Check out Dan Norenberg on LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/in/dannorenberg/.&nbsp;Don’t forget to subscribe to The Thoughtful Entrepreneur and thank you for listening. Tune in next time!More from UpMyInfluence:✅ We are actively booking guests for our DAILY Entrepreneur Success Podcast. Schedule HERE.✅ Are you a 6-figure consultant? Let us fill your sales schedule and move you to 7-figures. Learn more here.✅ Check out our free Authority Transformation Masterclass.

In this episode of the Thoughtful Entrepreneur, your host Josh Elledge speaks to the CEO of LeadRoll, Tyler Kemp.&nbsp;LeadRoll works with high-ticket companies to help them scale exponentially, up into the multi millions. LeadRoll gets rid of the bad outbound marketing approaches and ‘growth hacks’ without cutting corners. They get guaranteed results on a performance basis. They fill their clients’ closers’ calendars with qualified leads who will convert. As long as what the company offers works, LeadRoll can help them scale.&nbsp;Josh and Tyler explore the importance of using lead lists with buyer intent, but also with creating a relationship with your prospects. Sliding into someone’s DMs for transactional conversations isn’t relationship building. Tactically, you have to have your messaging dialed in.&nbsp;Tyler also explores the reality of successful lead generation. Having a good list is only one piece of the puzzle. LeadRoll has this down to a science, and inevitably, you have to know your math from the start with your lead gen. Many companies finish with where they should only be starting. Always continue fine tuning. High relevancy and high-level, high-touch marketing is vital. Tyler shares that LeadRoll has made its fair share of mistakes, but the key differentiator for them is that they learn and pivot each time. They keep going until they get it right.&nbsp;Another important thing to accept is that some leads simply won’t buy sometimes. Organic leads have to work so specifically and go well enough each time to work. With mostly organic leads, people fall out of your funnel rather than into it. You have to have some outbound leadgen going, but you have to do it right. It can’t be automated and it can’t be cookie cutter. You will simply waste time and money because making the investment for an expensive, effective approach isn’t often the first choice. You need to have relevant, personalized messaging. You won’t find that with a widget or automation tool.&nbsp;&nbsp;Every step has to be precise and controlled, and LeadRoll isn’t secretive about their processes. They offer free education on their website that covers their systems and how they apply and execute their strategies. Their work is effective because there is no secret sauce; they have the data and the experience behind their processes to see amazing success when scaling businesses. Anyone can try to fill their calendar, but it has to be done right to see maximum conversions, and this is where most businesses fall flat.&nbsp;Want to learn more? Check out LeadRoll’s website at https://www.leadroll.co/.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Check out LeadRoll on LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/company/venturetactics/.&nbsp;Check out Tyler Kemp on LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/in/tjkemp/.&nbsp;Don’t forget to subscribe to The Thoughtful Entrepreneur and thank you for listening. Tune in next time!More from UpMyInfluence:✅ We are actively booking guests for our DAILY Entrepreneur Success Podcast. Schedule HERE.✅ Are you a 6-figure consultant? Let us fill your sales schedule and move you to 7-figures. Learn more here.✅ Check out our free Authority Transformation Masterclass.

In this episode of the Thoughtful Entrepreneur, your host Josh Elledge speaks with Kyle Nelson and Eli Libby, the co-founders of Results Imagery. They’re also the co-hosts of Biz Bros.&nbsp;Results Imagery was founded about 6 years ago and they help brands and agencies create exceptional photos and videos. Ultimately, this support will generate more revenue and customers for the companies they work with. They have an eCommerce background and they understand how to use imagery and content to excel in the eCommerce space. This is what sets Results Imagery apart – they have an innate understanding of having great media behind your eCommerce brand.&nbsp;Having images showcasing the features of your product in a way that evokes emotion is key. You need a beautiful, high quality image to tell a story for the consumer. Using amazing imagery is the first real touch point in the customer journey, so it needs to leave a lasting and effective impression. This is how consumers buy today. When you purchase online, you’re going off of visuals. An image needs to perform well on conversion just as much as traditional marketing needs to.Eli and Kyle explore how they’ve gathered insights over the years regarding effective eCommerce imagery. They look at the metrics and results of a company’s past efforts against their work with Results Imagery. This is how they fine tune their process and stay on the cutting edge of branding imagery. The first set of images is going to be a good indicator of market fit. Use fantastic imagery and see what the market says; this will give you a realistic idea of current market trends.&nbsp;Josh, Eli, and Kyle also explore the oversaturation of bad stock images in the small to medium-size business space. If you want to effectively tell your brand’s story through imagery, you won’t do it with outdated stock photos. The consumer knows when they’re seeing a curated stock photo. When you’re driving online traffic, the first images consumers see need to convert immediately. Only after that should you talk about product reviews and community. A good photo can truly speak a thousand words in this case.&nbsp;Some of the biggest insights Eli and Kyle learned came from raw conversations with their clients. They’ve made major pivots already to stay relevant and effective as they’ve learned valuable lessons over time. They’re only just getting started, they share, and they love the creative impact they have on their clients’ businesses.&nbsp;Want to learn more? Check out Results Imagery’s website at https://www.resultsimagery.com/.&nbsp;Check out The Biz Bros on their website, https://www.bizbros.io/.&nbsp;Check out Results Imagery on LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/company/results-imagery/.&nbsp;Check out Eli Libby at https://www.linkedin.com/in/elilibby/.&nbsp;Check out Kyle Nelson on LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/in/kylenelson1/ .&nbsp;Don’t forget to subscribe to The Thoughtful Entrepreneur and thank you for listening. Tune in next time!More from UpMyInfluence:✅ We are actively booking guests for our DAILY Entrepreneur Success Podcast. Schedule HERE.✅ Are you a 6-figure consultant? Let us fill your sales schedule and move you to 7-figures. Learn more here.✅ Check out our free Authority Transformation Masterclass.