Scientific Marketing – May Entrepreneur Book
As a follow-up to last month’s read, we decided to cover a little more on marketing for the month. It’s something everyone should know more about so why not spend some extra focus there?
Check out the video below, I introduce the book, tell ya why I think it’s a good pick for the month, and share some great marketing tips as well.
Wanna Join Our Monthly Entrepreneurship Book Club?
Awesome! This book club started locally here with our young entrepreneurs group… and we decided to open it up to people outside of our area too because we kept getting emails from people who wanted to read the books we were doing.
So, it’s FREE. You just have to buy the book each month on your own.
But, sign up to the email list below… we’ll send you the details about the book each month, and the conference call in details for the end of the month ‘Decompression Chat” on the book.
Look forward to hearing all of your thoughts and insights into this incredible book.
- Trevor
Entrepreneur Book for March and April 2013
After a long drawn out search through my library here at The Loft we finally picked a book for our Entrepreneur Book Club to read this month. We decided we didn’t want to cover any of the major things that Jim Rohn covered in our last book (The 5 Major Pieces to the Life Puzzle) and wanted to read about something a little different but equally as valuable.
The book we chose is written by someone who is always easy to read, because not only is he hilarious but full of incredible information. Intrigued?
Check out the video below, I introduce the book, tell ya why I think it’s a good pick for the month, and share some great marketing tips as well.
Wanna Join Our Monthly Entrepreneurship Book Club?
Awesome! This book club started locally here with our young entrepreneurs group… and we decided to open it up to people outside of our area too because we kept getting emails from people who wanted to read the books we were doing.
So, it’s FREE. You just have to buy the book each month on your own.
But, sign up to the email list below… we’ll send you the details about the book each month, and the conference call in details for the end of the month ‘Decompression Chat” on the book.
Look forward to hearing all of your thoughts and insights into this incredible book.
- Trevor
My Favorite Book From 2012 – And January Entrepreneur Book Club Book
I started an entrepreneur club a little over a year ago and we recently launched a book club. We are kicking off 2013 with a great book that I read recently that really helped me change focus and think differently about a lot of things. I wanted to be sure to share the book with as many people as possible so decided to read it this month again with the Young Entrepreneur Society (YES).
Check out this video, I’ll introduce the book and share a few of my take aways:
Wanna Join Our Monthly Entrepreneurship Book Club?
Awesome! This book club started locally here with our young entrepreneurs group… and we decided to open it up to people outside of our area too because we kept getting emails from people who wanted to read the books we were doing.
So, it’s FREE. You just have to buy the book each month on your own.
But, sign up to the email list below… we’ll send you the details about the book each month, and the conference call in details for the end of the month ‘Decompression Chat” on the book.
Look forward to hearing all of your thoughts and insights into this incredible book.
- Trevor
How To Discover That Hidden Blind Spot That Is Crippling Your Potential
I was 20 years old, sitting in my college library studying away on a computer. For almost a year I had been learning every technique, tactic and legality in real estate… so much so that I could accurately answer questions “newbies” were posting on online forums like a seasoned pro.
But, the only thing is… at that time… I’d never done a deal. Not a one. In fact, I’d never spoken with a seller… never even talked with a real estate investor in real life except for my business law professor who was an active investor himself in small multi-family properties.
I know lots of people who are like I was. Knowledgeable as heck… but hadn’t applied it in the real world yet.
This could even be you. And I’m not just talking business or real estate. I’m talking everything from asking someone you like out on a date, to signing up for that first triathlon, to speaking in front of a group of local entrepreneurs teaching then what you know… that you know can help them do great things in business or life. In fact, all of those things are things at one point in my life I hesitated in… before I took real action.
And it all boils down to one simple, but powerful thing.
Your Beliefs
Recently I ordered a book called “Loving What Is: The Four Questions That Can Change Your Life” by Byron Katie. I haven’t read it yet (It’s on the way to me now) but without even knowing it… I’ve lived and benefited because of those 4 questions in her book. I’d suggest you order that book today and read it.
So, what are “beliefs” and how can then truly help you reach true freedom (emotional, financial, spiritual, etc.) in life? A friend of mine summed it up well…
“Beliefs aren’t right or wrong. There is no such thing as a true belief or a false belief. Beliefs are just beliefs. But, beliefs can be either empowering or limiting… they can hold you back or let you soar”
And honestly, it was my beliefs that held me back as a 20 year old from actually going out and doing, rather than just sitting by passively learning without doing for over a year. I already had all of the “tactical” knowledge I needed to buy a multi-family property… I just had beliefs holding me back.
I had all kinds of reasons internally that justified why I hadn’t taken my first real step into business… why I hadn’t made any offers… why I hadn’t actually stepped out of my comfort zone to do great things.
Some of them included…
- “I’m too young for people to take me seriously”
- “I’ve never started a business, never owned any real estate in my life… no-one will agree to do an owner carry on a multi-family property to me because of my lack of experience”
- “You have to have money to make money… and I didn’t have hardly any money”
- “People will just turn down my offers”
… and on and on.
And this wasn’t just in business. I was holding myself back in other areas of my life too because I had “limiting” beliefs that were crippling my potential.
What Limiting Beliefs Do You Have That Are Holding You Back? And The 5 Questions To Ask To Turn Those Limiting Beliefs Around…
One of the best examples of turning limiting beliefs into empowering beliefs that I’ve seen was on a video I watched by a fellow young entrepreneur named Dane Maxwell. It’s what spurred on this article… so thanks Dane.
EXERCISE: I want you to grab a piece of paper right now and write down something you’ve been striving for but haven’t made happen yet in life.
It could be something personal (the dating scene), it could be with your business goals (getting your first real estate deal done, or going after bigger deals), whatever it is that deep inside you know you want… but for some reason aren’t making happen.
Lets start with an example in real estate. What if I told you that you had to talk with 3 sellers tomorrow and make 3 offers by the end of the day… and you don’t have any money lined up for a deal… and you have a belief that you needed to have money lined up before you can make offers.
How does that make you feel internally? Does that create a lump in your throat, tightness in your chest, or nervousness in your stomach? If it does, that’s a limiting belief… and we need to turn that belief around. If you don’t turn it around, you’ll never go out and talk to those sellers… and make offers… and never do deals… never get that freedom you want.
So, how do you do that? How do you turn a limiting belief into an empowering belief? Byron poses 4 questions in her book… and Dane added on another couple that I’ll go over below.
First, ask yourself these 5 questions:
- Is this belief true?: [NOTE: Most of the time you’ll answer “yes of course”, because its something you believe… so move onto the next question]
- Is this belief beyond a shadow of a doubt true?: [NOTE: Is there any single possibility that one person in the world has proved it false? With the real estate example above… YES, of course… tons and tons of people have done deals without having money lined up before making an offer.]
- How does this belief make you feel?: [NOTE: The more light you feel when you say this belief, the better it is. The more heavy and nervous… the more limiting. Do you feel trapped, scared, unsure, when you think of making offers without having funding lined up? That’s an indication of a limiting belief.]
- What would the opposite thought be?: [NOTE: In this example it might be… “I can find the money when I’m working on truly great deals. There’s money everywhere”.]
- How does that opposite feeling make you feel?: [NOTE: You might be excited, wide eyed, you can sense the possibility. That’s an empowering belief. For others, you may have a red flag come up that says… “well, I can’t get private money even if I had a great deal… I have no credibility”. That’s a deeper set of limiting beliefs that you need to take through this same process.]
Any time you find yourself doubting yourself or feeling trapped, unsure, or nervous about something… take those beliefs through these 5 questions to find that empowering belief that’ll push you forward.
It’s amazing what this simple exercise can do and how you’ll feel after you go through it anytime you feel a limiting belief.
We all have limiting beliefs… no matter who we are, what level in business or life we’re in. Those of us who can identify our limiting beliefs that are holding us back and turn them around into empowering beliefs, will feel light, positive, free, and see the world of possibilities and potential. Those who live trapped inside their limiting beliefs (like most people) will feel trapped, like there’s no way out of your situation, like someone knows a secret you don’t, like you just can’t break through. Work this process into your life. You’ll be glad you did. Once I crushed my limiting belief of feeling “too young and inexperienced” at the age of 20… I bought a 4 unit apartment building within 4 months. What can you do once you crush your own limiting beliefs?
What Are You Trying To Build? Do You Even Know?
I guess you could call it a personality flaw… but I love to get stuff started… but not huge on sitting down and writing down a specific plan. Ideas fall out of my ears and I tend to implement fast on getting stuff rolling.
But, the problem I realized a little while back is that sometimes the benefits I get from the speed of implementation can be offset by the lack of really clarifying what the heck I’m trying to build.
What’s the end game?
Questions like…
- What do I want this THING to look like in a year?
- What benefit do I really want to get out of this THING?
- Who am I trying to help, impact, or work with on this THING? (being very specific)
- What changes will I have to make personally to make this THING be successful (and not just a time-suck)?
- What resources will it really take to get this THING launched the right way?
- Is this THING directly in line with my passions and life purpose… i.e. – will it help me live that or is it a distraction?
… all need to be asked.
My flaw up to this point has been that I haven’t taken the time to ask these questions on a few big projects recently and am coming to regret it.
One Big Thing
Have you ever wondered when too much as an entrepreneur is too much? Or heck, even if you haven’t started a business yet… have you ever wondered when taking on too much in life is too much?
Ya, I think we all have. And, most of us have probably at one point or another looked at what we have going on in life or business and thought… “damn! I’m doing way too much stuff… so much that I can’t get anything done”. Heck, this might even be you right now.
I know I have. In fact, just in the past 18 months I’ve gone through this struggle and while the answer seems to be clear and right there in front of your face (that you should be working on fewer “things”)… for some reason it’s easy to justify all of the stuff we’re doing and say that “I can handle it all”.
You see, a funny thing happens when you see a bit of success… or even before you see success but everything clicks mindset wise and you see everything out there as a legitimate opportunity that you know you can take advantage of. Heck, after I had a couple business successes… people started coming to me with ideas… ideas that I loved and knew that if I would get behind would work and be home runs.
Opportunity breeds optimism. And optimism breeds opportunity. They feed off of each other. The more you see the world for what it is… FULL OF OPPORTUNITY for those of us looking for it and optimistic about the outlook of the word… the easier it is to fall into this trap that I’m about to lay out below.
Ever Heard Of Too Much Opportunity?
It sounds like a contradiction right? Too much opportunity?
It’s like too much ice cream (I have had too much ice cream before, it wasn’t pretty). Some people struggle seeing opportunity in anything (if that’s you, you can turn it around. It’s all mindset, gratitude, and surrounding yourself with the right people). Some people see opportunity in everything… almost to a fault (that’s me).
Going into last year I had 2 thriving businesses (by thriving I mean both providing a more than full-time income on a fraction of the hours normal people work each week). Then half way through that year my income dropped by nearly half.
Why?
It wasn’t a lack of opportunity. It wasn’t that customers weren’t there. It wasn’t that the industry had changed. None of that.
What it was… was in the previous year I had seen so much damn opportunity… and said YES to so many projects… I flooded myself with a workload and responsibilities I couldn’t keep up with.
Deadlines here. Deadlines there. Getting missed.
Splitting my focus on project A with projects B, C, and a new D project.
If you can picture a juggler juggling 1 ball… it’s easy for them right? You add another ball… still easy… the juggler needs to concentrate a bit more… but even 3 balls that juggler can do pretty much without problem. But, as you add on new balls into the mix… the juggler starts to lose focus on each individual ball. Balls get dropped… the arcs the juggler throws the balls on get sloppy… and before you know it, every single ball the juggler is tossing in the air gets less and less attention and eventually they all fall down.
That was me.
So, How Do You Know When It’s Too Much?
I always struggled with this until a mentor and mastermind member told me this.
“Always be working on the main thing and 1 big thing”.
What he means by the “main thing” is whatever you’re doing that is bringing in the money right now. For me, the business that was my “main thing” had slid down the list to number 2 or 3 on the focus ladder sometimes. So my income there started to hurt.
And since I was working on 2 or 3 “main things” at once… the “big thing” I wanted to work on really never got off the ground the way it should have.
So, this past 4 months has been my time to remove balls from the juggling routine… and to really decide what is my “main thing” that will get the vast majority of my attention… and what is the 1 “big thing” I’ll be working on on the side to do something big.
For me, it wasn’t easy. My passions have changed in the last 2 years and what was once my “main thing” is now being taken completely off the table by me making the tough decision to sell the company (even though it’s a great company and can be highly profitable). Now I’m forced to focus on growing the main company only… and still be able to push forward 1 epic project at the same time. All without overwhelm… and with a clarity I haven’t had in 2 years. It feels darn great 
What’s Your One Big Thing?
So I ask you… do you feel like you’re spinning your wheels? Do you feel like you’re working on a lot of great high opportunity projects but none of them are getting pushed forward like you know they can and should? If that’s the case, you’re probably juggling too many balls.
Sit down today and figure out what your 1 “main thing” is that you’ll spend the vast majority of your time focusing on. Then, what is the 1 “big thing” you want to push forward on the side? It could be another business, a book you want to write, a non-profit, etc.
Always be working on something big, and something that brings home the bacon today. Nothing more, nothing less.
Dane Maxwell Interview – Epic Call On Entrepreneurship, Recurring Revenue, Life Purpose, and More
A few months back I watched a Mixergy episode where this guy named Dane Maxwell (smart dude for sure) talked about how he’s started a few small software companies that have pumped predictability into his life as an entrepreneur.
No matter what business you’re in…
- Author
- Expert
- Coach
- Local service business
- Hard products seller
- Software
- Online publishing
- A big ass bank or something…
… predictability (as far as revenue goes) is a good thing.
But, most businesses have everything but predictability. I’d suggest you check out the Mixergyinterview this week.
But before you head over there…
Listen In As I Interview Dane Maxwell (and how it relates to your business in a BIG WAY)
Recently (just before my wife and I had our little baby boy Colton) I got on the phone with Dane on his birthday… and picked his brain on everything from…
- His story and how he started his most successful software app (brings in about $40k/mo w/ little of his effort not)without coming up with the idea himself, without knowing how to code, nothing.
- The 3 specific questions to ask in any market BEFORE you sell anything that basically assures people will buy
- His “airport and beer” story that helped him realize his lifes purpose (this wasn’t something we planned on talking about, it just came up as we were talking)
- Exactly how to bring recurring revenue and income predictability to any business (even non software businesses… including a pizza parlor that he talks about as an example)
- … and his new project called theFoundation that is his new passion (check out that link for sure, great lesson in marketing and transparency).
Check out the mp3 interview below. Enjoy 
(click the player below or download the mp3 to start)
Amazing Eulogy From Son To Father – Are You Leaving Your Luke Skywalker Inside Of You?
If you’re a student of sales and marketing… the name Chet Holmes is a name you’ve for sure heard of. He’s one of the thought leaders and great men in the industry.
Chet passed away this month from a year and a half long battle with cancer (way too early in life).
When I watched this eulogy his son gave at the memorial service… it made me choke up and think of two powerful things that immediately made me re-center myself on my purpose and passions:
- Don’t forget the simple things in life and raising my kids. You never know when that “light sabre” battle in your living room will make a huge impact on your kids.
- Life is finite and nothing is guaranteed. Don’t let your best and passions stay bottled up inside of you waiting for the “right time”. Today is the right time to live your true life.
Email Marketing Strategies Interview With Ben Settle
In this podcast I interview Ben Settle and get some great tips on email marketing and Ben’s unique email marketing strategies like…
Why your subscribers want you to email them every single day (and what happens if you don’t)- How to shift into pitching in emails in a cool way people love
- How important is it really to check email stats?
- The value of a great subject line
- Action steps to start your own email marketing campaign, or making the one you already have better
Like stuff like this? Join my email newsletter. You’re gonna love it.
When To Launch A New Business
So, the past 3 years I’ve had a project “on the sidelines” waiting to launch.
You probably ask… “For 3 years? Seriously? Why’d you wait so long?”
Truthfully, I never intended on it. Originally I had planned on launching this new service (more on it later in this post) in 2010.
But didn’t.
Until last week.
Here’s why.
How Many Rabbits Are You Chasing?
Today I was reading a post from Tim Berry on his blog. Great post by the way. You should read it.
He shows a quote from this article... which reminded me of really why I’d waited so darn long to launch this service that I know will absolutely crush it with the approach we’re taking… in a market that needs disrupting.
To boil it down, this passage says it well…
Remember this: More companies die of indigestion than starvation. When you look back five years from now, your success will based much more on the times you said “no” rather than the times you said “yes.” As the old Chinese proverb states wisely, “Chase two rabbits and both will escape.”
When A Business Idea Is Ready To Roll
For me, this idea was ready to roll in 2009. But the problem was that I wasn’t ready to roll until the last couple months.
There’s a big difference.
In 2009, 2010, and 2011 my team wasn’t built out enough to be able to handle it. I was working on running my online publishing company (which I sold actually June 1st of this year to my crazy awesome business partner Patrick Riddle who is taking it over 100% to grow and prosper), starting our software company Automize, our entrepreneur co-workspace The Loft here in Roseburg, and just couldn’t add another rabbit to the mix.
But, once the sale of my publishing company happened… the timing was right. 3 years after I not only had the idea but a fully working beta system with 300 beta users in the hacked together system. 3 years.
When I was 12 I remember my mom driving up to this drive through ATM machine off the busiest street in our small town of Klamath Falls, Oregon. She drove up, put in her card… punched some numbers… and out popped some cash.
But, 15 minutes before that we were at the video rental store getting a movie.
While at the ATM the idea came to me that it would be really cool if I could drive up and get a movie the same way people drive up and get cash. Cool right? Ya, Redbox has made a billion dollar industry out of that one idea.
The idea was right, but the timing for me when I was 12… wasn’t (but I wish it was .
What I Need To Be Ready To Launch A New Business
I didn’t realize this when I started my first company… really I didn’t realize this stuff until the last year or so. But, now after starting 4 companies… selling 1… and currently growing 2… I’ve figured out what I need to keep me sane in the business, having fun, and make it profitable.
- Focus: For me, I get distracted pretty easily by new ideas. I’m getting better now… but still am a pretty darn optimistic guy who sees opportunity everywhere. So, for me I can’t have more than 1 main focus… and no more than 2 side projects. That’s it. Anymore and I start to drop balls everywhere and end up wasting time juggling stuff and buried in planning and email all day. It sucks. So, for me… it’s one main project that I focus 80% of my time on (or more)… and at most 2 side projects to grow… with a team helping me. Right now Automize is my main thing (we have big plans for it)… and my 2 side projects are this new service currently called REItheme and my local entrepreneur things (the Young Entrepreneur Society and The Loft entrepreneur co-workspace).
- Help: I used to get off on thinking I could do things myself. I’m a quick learner and tend to do a pretty darn good job at most things. But, it took me a few years to learn that asking for help is a good thing. Especially when I can solve the problem with a bit of money… that would give me leverage so I could focus on better stuff. Now, I can’t launch a new venture without having a team ready to take on the bulk of the dirty work. This new service is a software as a service currently aimed at the real estate investor market (we’ll be quickly growing outside of this market in the next 18 months too). Before I was ready to launch it this year I recruited my brother, Kyle Mauch to dive in as the head of operations, secured our lead tech person for the build outs and tech side of the support, and the next move is bringing in support staff and then eventually a sales/marketing lead so I can step away and just run the business from the strategy side of things.
It’s not easy for me to pass things off. I’m getting better at it… but this new business would never have been ready to launch last week if we didn’t have at least a skeleton of a team ready to roll so I wasn’t doing everything.
- A Leverage-able Advantage: For me this is a biggie. This new service would have fell by the wayside long ago if this didn’t exist for me. It’s not easy to launch a new business or service into a market that you don’t have a foothold in already. Can it be done? Yep, I’ve done it. But it took some damn hard work and didn’t happen quickly. But, now I look for places where I have leverage in the market that I can play toward my advantage to get the business launched more quickly. In this particular market, the real estate investor world, I’ve built up a lot of knowledge in this world as an investor myself (so know the product and customer inside and out), I’ve built up a lot of goodwill and relationships with people in the market who have influence, and we have assets (i.e. – websites and email lists) in this market already that we can immediately spread the word to about our new service. But, let me be clear on this… the real estate investor market isn’t our main goal with this service. In fact, we see it being a small part of the business long-term. But, it’s where we can come out of the gates quickly… grow the business and the team… provide a lot of value to the customers… then we can roll out in a bigger way with the momentum we’ve already created in a market I know well.
For me, thats what I look for now.
It makes starting a new business or launching a new service a heck of a lot easier, quicker, and more profitable.
Time To Grow.
So, here on my blog I’ll chronicle the growth of this company as we go. It should be fun. It’ll be my first business working with my brother which will be awesome. This business has a huge upside exit potential (you’re probably thinking “how?”… we’ve got some big plans. More on that later). And I’m excited as heck to roll this puppy out in a big way.
We’ll be learning a ton as we grow this company… and I’ll pass on the good stuff to ya.
So, are you waiting for the right time to launch a new company? First off, if you already have a company or two… wait until you don’t have so many rabbits in the race (or until you have more people with you on your team to chase the rabbits) to launch. If you don’t have a company yet… that’s called procrastination 
. Get started, hit it hard, and stay focused.