Ep184: Justin Smith

Today on the More Cheese Less Whiskers podcast, we're talking with Justin Smith from Orange County, California.

I really enjoyed this conversation because so much of what Justin's doing in the industrial real estate market mirrors exactly what we talk about in the residential real estate market.

We went through all the ways of creating a 'Before Unit' to attract his ideal clients without making outbound phone calls, which is always my preference. Everything I do to engage people is framed as 'what would I do if my phone only accepted incoming calls?'

We went through the process of narrowing down to a single target market and thinking through how to get those people to raise their hands. Then we talked about ways to educate and motivate those people so when they're ready, they'll take the next step.

There's a lot you can extract from this episode that will apply to your market as well.

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Ep183: Bruce Browning

Today on the More Cheese Less Whiskers podcast, we're talking with Bruce Browning from New York.

Bruce is in an interesting position because he can do anything… well, almost anything. The company he works with, the company he's a distributor for, does literally anything you can think of with digital marketing, printing, promotional products, uniforms… you get the idea, all kinds of promotional and marketing materials.

He has access to an amazing collection of capabilities, so we talked about how to focus potential, and find a focused target audience for the things he does.

We had a great conversation about how to think about your capability and really use it as an asset.

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Ep182: Blas Carrasco

Today on the More Cheese Less Whiskers podcast, we're talking with Blas Carrasco Phoenix, Arizona, and we had a great conversation because he's in a position that a lot of people find themselves in.

Often, people learn how to do something with marketing, you successfully apply it to your own business, you get results, you start sharing the ideas with other people, and you start getting individual clients that you're working with.

This is exactly the position Blas is in, and he's experiencing a lot of the challenges we see as people look for ways to move their new business to the next stage.

We talked about a scalable model that he can syndicate. You've heard me use those words before, but I think this is an amazing time in history where scaling a model you can syndicate is more possible than any other time.

This was a great discussion about it. I'm excited to see what Blas does with the ideas, and you are going to get a lot out of the episode too.

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Ep181: Craig Alsup

Today on the More Cheese Less Whiskers podcast, we're talking with Craig Alsup from Ft Worth Texas.

Craig has a neat business. He has an office that does a lot of family and marriage counseling, but with the current situation, they're shifting to do a lot of virtual, telephone and zoom type of sessions.

We talked a lot about the transition to this model, and I shared a lot of the experiences I had in writing a book with a marriage counselor called Stop Your Divorce, which we've had online since 1998 at stopyourdivorce.com.

Craig's business model is similar to the way we were working back then, but now it's become very possible for people to have a meaningful conversation in a virtual way. In fact, as we're all getting used to gathering in this way now, it might turn out to be a more preferable way for people to meet.

We had a great conversation about the model, and how to expand the opportunity by narrowing the focus.

There are a lot of great ideas for us all in this one.

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Ep180: Heather Prestanski

Today on the More Cheese Less Whiskers podcast, we're talking with Heather Prestanski from Ontario, Canada, where she runs a great design business.

Heather's an interior designer who helps people get the best designs and the best outcomes when they're remodeling their home. It's become a very successful business, and although she's been in the industry for some time, this new business, so we talked a lot about target markets and an approach to making sure she's establishing a brand.

You'll hear how we define that term to resonate in the minds of the people who happen to live within a radius of Windsor, Ontario, where she's focused, and we also talked about some very specific target audiences and how to really stand out to a very specific group of people.

As we describe in our Profit Activators, this is really a plan to dominate your category.

I really enjoyed this conversation. There's so much potential in this business, and I you're going to get a lot of ideas from it.

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Ep179: Ashton Palmer

Today on the More Cheese Less Whiskers podcast, we have a very interesting situation.

You may have noticed there's a little bit of a virus going around! Now imagine if your business was 100% dependent on travel and not just any travel. Not business travel or essential travel, but on vacation travel. Expedition trips to be precise, the kind of discretionary lifetime bucket list type of travel.

Your business might be in a little bit of flux right now.

So today, we're talking with Ashton Palmer, who just happens to own a business that specializes in expedition trips. We actually recorded this a week or two ago, right at the beginning of the travel restrictions. The US had started quarantining, no-one knew where this was going to land, and we talked about some immediate things Ashton could do to make the most of a situation that's quickly evolving.

I think you're going to enjoy this episode. It's a great look into some rapid responses.

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Ep178: Brett Ruffino

Today on the More Cheese Less Whiskers podcast, we're talking with Brett Ruffino from Georgia.

Now, this is an episode that we just recorded on the spur of the moment to address some of the opportunities that small businesses have to adapt too in the midst of this current shutdown.

Everybody is being asked to stay inside. Business locations are forced to close. Many of the businesses most affected by this, of course, are service businesses in local areas like restaurants, salons, gyms, all businesses that deal with people locally and in-person.

Brett is one of those businesses affected. He owns a restaurant, so we discuss how a restaurant can really adapt and serve the needs of the community and be best positioned to survive through what's going on right now.

This is obviously very timely, and I hope the thought process here will be something you can adapt for your business, and make a pivot at the same time.

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Ep177: Kevin Kennedy

Today on the More Cheese Less Whiskers podcast, we're talking with Kevin Kennedy from Bergen County in New Jersey, where Kevin and his wife Deirdre have a great fitness studio.

Like most studios, they have a certain number of sessions they run each week that they're looking to fill, and we had a great conversation about the model of think about it like a hotel, with available rooms (sessions) that if not filled, are perishable.

We talked about the reality that every one of his clients or potential clients is really within a three-mile radius of where he is right now, and we outlined an idea for focusing on becoming 'Three Mile Famous' and target all the people in his chosen avatar.

We dialed in on Facebook as the mechanism because you can specifically target exactly who you're looking for and target the messaging directly to them.

I really enjoyed this conversation. We left Kevin with some homework I'll keep you posted on how it all unfolds.

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Ep176: Alyson Caffrey

Today on the More Cheese Less Whiskers podcast, we're talking with Alyson Caffrey from Nashville, Tennessee, about something that is very, very pivotal to growth in your business.

So, you've figured out something that works for your business. You figured out how to do it. You figure out how to get clients, and it starts to grow and get traction.

But as an entrepreneur, you start to get busy, too busy. Too busy to do it all yourself, so you start to build a team, and that can be the most freeing, or it can be the most frustrating experience.

That difference between it being freeing or frustrating is having the right process, the right standard operating procedures in place

That's what Alyson specializes in helping people do.

She helps people get off the operations or agency hamster wheel… finding yourself running crazy, trying to keep up with everything, and bring a sense of calm, peace, and order to your day to day operations.

We had a really great conversation about the role of operations and procedures in a business and what to do to really get some traction in that area.

It was a fun conversation, and you're going to enjoy it, no matter what stage of growth you're at.

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Ep175: Lawrence Neal

Today on the More Cheese Less Whiskers podcast, we're talking with Lawrence Neal, who's calling in from Ireland, where he helps personal trainers grow their business.

He has a nice membership community, and we talked about the difference between growing something organically and growing something with paid advertising.

It really comes down to the velocity you can gain from paid traffic and the access you have to a bigger volume of people, so we talked about how to safely do that in a way that helps you figure out the right way to get people on board.

We talked about the different philosophies of people trying something on a free trial basis, and I think if you're in that kind of situation, where a free trial is a practical way for people to trial your service, you're going to enjoy this episode.

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