0 (2s):
Boom, shake the room, Fire Nation. JLD here and welcome to Entrepreneurs On Fire brought to you by the HubSpot Podcast Network with great shows like the MarTech podcast. Today, we're pulling a timeless EOFire classic episode from the archives, and we'll be breaking down how to scale your business without scaling mistakes lessons from the inside to drop these value bombs. I brought Michael Giannulis into the house. Michael has scaled his publishing business over 25 million in gross sales and as the CEO of BPO USA and Pixx Media, as well as a co-founder of a real estate investment company. And he loves sharing his scaling strategies with passionate entrepreneurs and today for our nation, we'll talk about a good front end offer and how they can attract people really fast.

0 (49s):
How modification is necessary when presenting to your target audience and how you're also serving your employees, stockholders and yourself, as well as your customers. And so much more. When we get back from thanking our sponsors,

Thrivetime Show (1m 3s):
looking for a business coach who has helped thousands of entrepreneurs increase profitability by an average of 104% annually, all for less money than what it cost to hire one at minimum wage employee all on a month to month basis. Schedule your free consultation today with Clay Clark, a former SBA entrepreneur of the year at ThrivetimeShow.com/fire. So Michael say what's up to Fire Nation and share something interesting about yourself that most people don't know,

1 (1m 31s):
Hey, what's up Fire Nation. You know, one thing about me that's kind of interesting is I was actually on a weight loss TV show when I weighed about when I weighed about 500 pounds. Wow. Now, now I weigh about 205 pounds. So

0 (1m 47s):
Quite a lot to see the name of the show.

1 (1m 49s):
Yes, it was called extreme makeover, Weight Loss Edition, which was then changed to Extreme Weight Loss and it aired on ABC.

0 (1m 59s):
Wow, congratulations. And if you could just share one thing that you think has made the difference for you from going from 500 to 200, and what is that,

1 (2m 6s):
You know, truthfully, it's being focused on the small things and not trying to do everything at once. Just doing a lot of small things over and over and over. And what's

0 (2m 16s):
One thing you do over and over and over. That's really

1 (2m 19s):
Helpful. I mean, this is not a real breakthrough, but I go to the gym, you know, that's a big part of,

0 (2m 24s):
So Fire Nation, this is not about how to lose weight. This is Entrepreneurs On Fire. We're going to be having an audio masterclass today about how to scale your business without doing those scaling mistakes that we all seem to do over and over again. So I want to start off with an acronym that you have, Michael, I think is pretty neat because the acronym is a mops. And how do we use this acronym mops to clean up our business?

1 (2m 51s):
A lot of times I had people come to me and they want to know how do I grow? How do I scale? How do I sell more? And, and what I find is that people are focusing on the wrong things. They really need to be focused on mops and what is mops, but it's, it's kind of the four big keys that I always focus on as I scale my different companies. So we have the M stands for marketing and the O is operations. The P is your product or service for fulfillment. And the S is sales, which is part of it. Now people always ask me, okay, well, you know, how do you define marketing versus sales?

1 (3m 32s):
Some people don't quite follow that. And the big thing that I say is marketing gets the attention. Sales gets the money, you know? And so the thing is you have these four different components, and there's also a big F that I sometimes write over the word at the end, but that absence for finance. And that's a big piece too, that people don't re don't ever really talk about. But the mop S part is so important because each of those four pieces are tied together. So you can't just do one without the other. If you crank up marketing, then you're going to have to have better operations. That means you're going to have to have better customer service.

1 (4m 14s):
You may have to hire some more people if you crank up the sales team, right? But you don't have enough ads out there to, to, to feed them or feed whatever your sales cycle is. You're going to continually run into problems. So those were kind of the four pieces that, that are just core to being able to scale any company

0 (4m 34s):
That was marketing operations. What was the pay

1 (4m 38s):
P, which is your product or your service. So that includes also not only what do you sell, but how do you fulfill on what you sell? A lot of times companies sell way too fast and they don't have the proper product in place where there's, if it's software it's buggy, right? So you've got to make sure that your product is on point, be it, if it's information, if it's software, if it's, even if it's a physical good, if you have product problems, that's going to lead to refunds, chargebacks complaints, pro you know, all those kinds of things, which w which in the end is a big problem when you scale, because you've got to make sure that you're plugging every possible hole where anything could break.

0 (5m 23s):
Got it. So then it's marketing operations, product and sales mobs, mops violation. So there's three big needs that most businesses need if they're going to scale. But the reality is if they're not solving at least one of these three, they're never going to scale to the level that they could be. So kind of go through these three big needs that we as businesses need. And again, to have at least one, and for going to scale.

1 (5m 51s):
Yeah. So this is something that I actually hate teaching because it makes me sound like an awful person. So I'll begin by saying that this is not like core beliefs that I hold about myself or about things, but it's something that I've seen. So what I'm talking about here is what we sell and the ability to be able to really, really scale products. And this is more specifically, especially for informational products or things that you'll see highly, highly advertised. There, there are three things that I say this sort of tongue in cheek, but also there's a, there's a strong, there's a strong reality to this.

1 (6m 33s):
If you have a product that you, that you want to to scale big, it's, it's got to meet kind of one of these three things, greed, lust, vanity, greed, lust, vanity. And I know that sounds so kind of sad, right? Because we're always talking about and lighten men and spiritual development. And, and these are the things that I, that I'm into. But just over time, when you look and you break down things that a lot of people buy, a lot of, they tend to fall into one of those three. So anything that has to do with earning more income, earning, you know, anything cash wise, right?

1 (7m 18s):
It's, it's all at the end of the day, we can talk about supporting your tribe. And I'm going to teach you how to start a membership site, or I'm gonna teach you how to blog or do e-commerce or teach you to be a coach, be a consultant, all those things. If you, if you get to the root, it's a way for people to wanna make money, which is backed by greed. So I S I say the term greed, not to mean that you, that you need that type of attitude, but just as a way to, so, so, so, so it sticks in your head. So all these things at the end of the day, when we break it down to like the core, that's one greed and then lust.

1 (8m 0s):
So this is one way of talking about dating. And, you know, obviously there's a huge industry online, built around just the sexual side. And I'm not even trying to talk about that, but there's the idea that we have this, this innate deep desire to, to partner and procreate, right? So a lot of times you'll see these really, really big programs, dating advice, get your girlfriend back at your boyfriend back, learn how, you know, dating secrets, how to approach people of the opposite gender, right? All those things. They're all tied in, ultimately in a very crude sounding way, lust.

1 (8m 42s):
Then we jumped to vanity. And when you look at vanity and you look at the things that people are buying, and you'll see this all the time. When you look at display ads, you'll always see things like teeth whitening, how to get more from abs, anything to do with weight loss, right? All those kind of things. They're there. They're all tied into the idea that we want to look better. Anti-aging wrinkle creams, right? These are the things that usually people scale very, very big. What I find is there's people that are, that often will come to me because they want to scale their concept, but you can only scale certain things so big.

1 (9m 27s):
So if you're serving like a very, very certain audience, then I would tell you just, you know, own that audience. You don't have to necessarily change what you're selling to, to, to appeal to more people. For example, if you're selling, like, if, if your, if your thing is you help companies grow from 1 million to 10 million, the reality is there's not a ton ton of those companies, but there's a good chunk, but there's not, as, there's not as much, there's a lot more people that are getting started who want to learn to make their first buck. Then there are those that are at 1 million. So there's a difference of strategy there with what you teach, what you sell, how you, you, you, you help people scale.

1 (10m 12s):
That's, that's a big piece. So those are the three things that I look for in a, in a, in a type of product that I really want to scale big. And again, I'll stress that it's not what I necessarily want. It's just a reflection of what I've seen as I've been out here for 12 years during this, these kind of things.

0 (10m 30s):
I read lust vanity. I mean, the reality is Fire Nation. If you're in the health and wellness field, I mean, that's, that's the vanity right there. You know, people want to look better. They want to feel better. You know, they want to exude confidence. You know, they want those things. And then with it comes, agreed. I mean, that's kind of a harsh word, and that's kind of got a lot of negative Tivity around it. Understandably be. So, you know, I could, I could maybe argue a little bit here as if, you know, you are looking to generate revenue around what you're doing, so you can keep living that lifestyle that you want, then are you being greedy? Well, no, you're maybe being more realistic, but I know what Michael was really talking about is if you're looking to scale, if you're looking to get to 1 million, 10 million, you know, a hundred million dollars ready looking to scale, these are the three things that you really need to be focusing on.

0 (11m 17s):
But if you're looking to, you know, create a lifestyle business where you're making 85,000 a year and you live in Northern Michigan on a lake, and that's fine, like you can do the things that doesn't necessarily revolve around greed less than vanity. So it just is a decision that you're going to make. And how far do you want to take it? I mean, how far do you want to go down that road? And again, what Michael's talking about is about the scaling to the big, massive level. And as you know, Michael, there is a secret to successful scaling. And I know that it's actually hidden within that word scale. So why don't you break that down for us?

1 (11m 51s):
Yeah. This is a big one for me that I realized one day as I was sitting there thinking about the word scale, you know, when you want to scale something that basically means you want to make it bigger, right? You want to do more of that. And the word scale though means kind of two different things. There's the, there's that word scale, as far as we want to scale it up, but then there's also the word scale in reference to balance and reverends to like the scales of justice, right? You can picture up and down. Right? Well, the reality is the real secret to scaling and to doing things at scale is to make sure that you're, that you keep things even, and you keep the scale balanced as you move up.

1 (12m 37s):
So kind of like I referenced earlier with the mops talk, right? You've got to look at each piece of your company and, and ask yourself, you know, if I scale my ad spend, okay, am I going to make sure I have enough support people to, to be there for those say, front end customers. If I scale the sales team, am I going to have enough leads to, for those salespeople to speak with? And I know it sounds like common sense, but when you really break it down, if you just look at each piece and you make sure that you don't push one up without the other at the same time, and you're keeping the, the, the scale balanced as, as you go up, that's just a very, very simple, easy way to think about scaling.

1 (13m 31s):
Because when you say the word scaling, especially if you read like the really professional, like Harvard type books, you know, it can get to be this very, very complex thing where they're talking about formulas and make sure, you know, like, you know, your it'll sound like, make sure your, your GDP is attached to your RC CQ. And, you know, by the time you're done, you're like, what in the world did I just read? But what I found is if you just break it down and you look at those as there's four pieces of marketing operations, product sales, and, and you continue to balance them and bring them all up at the exact same time in proportion to each other, that's where you'll make out. And we've had issues in the past where we're sales went up, but our, our operations side, which includes customer service, wasn't up to speed yet we were behind on hiring.

1 (14m 24s):
So that's part of it too, is sometimes you've got to hire before the need is realized. And that takes, you know, tastes kinda like, you know, being able to look into the future, but it also takes some confidence and a little bit of a guts because it's always a little bit scary to start paying people salary before you even know that they're gonna be started. Right?

0 (14m 52s):
So Fire Nation, mops, marketing, operations, product sales, that's how you clean up in business. And if you look into scale, if you're really looking to scale to that nth degree, is your business solving one of these three big needs, greed, lust, vanity. And then of course, we just talked about the secret to successful scaling. It's not just scaling up, but it's are you scaling up evenly across all levers? Otherwise, if you have this unevenness, this not equal distribution, you might be getting this in trouble. So you gave us one kind of vague example, Michael dive into a real specific example that either you, or maybe even better off one of your clients that you've worked with or a business that you've seen has really scaled, but on equally unevenly so that they really found themselves in a bad situation because they weren't scaling equally across all Evers.

1 (15m 47s):
Yeah. So I'll jump into my own stuff because I always like to kind of talk about what I do. I don't probably don't want, I don't like to talk bad about my, you know, people that I've kind of salted with

0 (15m 57s):
Combat about it. And it's more just, you know, seeing the mistakes they made and how they learn from them. Yeah,

1 (16m 2s):
Yeah, no, for sure. No. So for, in me, right now with my, with my current company, so we sell an e-commerce product. So we teach people how to start their own e-commerce stores, how to get traffic and grow them. And one of the big things that we did is we had a really very, very good front end offer that got in a ton of people extremely fast and pretty in our backend on that is we actually we'll, we'll build a, a store for our people. So they'll cook come in.

1 (16m 42s):
We'll, we'll teach them how to build their own store. But then we say, Hey, if you like, we'll build the store for you. We didn't really know how it was going to convert, but we did have a very, very good front end offer. And I was like, you know what, let's go ahead and just kind of crank it up. We've got two or three people that can build the stores. So we should, we should be, you know, that should be fine. Well, after about one month, we, cause it takes for our sales cycle. It takes about 30 days before we start seeing sales. And what, what we found was our S our, our store sales just went way, way, way up, like way more than we had ever thought it would be.

1 (17m 24s):
So we're getting to the point where we were re actually sold about 300 of these in one month. And instantly we had this major, major backlog of people that were owed stores. And we had about a two week promise to build stores out for four people. And that was kind of what we had. We had set in the sale and I quickly realized like, there's no way possible. We're going to be able to hit this two week timeframe with only, you know, two or three people. So then we had to go out and fast as we possibly could hire almost 10 more people that we added onto the store development team.

1 (18m 7s):
And as you might know, when you're trying to hire people fast, it's like, it's sometimes hard to find the best people, cause you're just like trying to be speedy. So we were adding people and some would stick and some would fall away and some would stick. And meanwhile, because our offer had caught so much traction, it was extremely hard to, to like turn it off or, you know, get it kind of brought down some. So we were continuing to add people, add people, add people on the front end. So it definitely felt a lot like, you know, building an airplane while you're trying to take off, you know, that's kinda the best way to say it. And it took us about 60 days to really get everything streamlined, where we had enough people to build stores.

1 (18m 51s):
We had it, we had brought in some more salespeople, we had brought in some more traffic people on that side because we recruit a lot of affiliates. And we finally Tuesday about, I'd say about two months and we got things streamlined. So, so th th in, under that ex example where we were off was a little bit on the product side. So it's a service and it's a technology product. And we, unfortunately weren't, at the time we weren't able to build the stores as fast as, as we had set the expectations. And then that led to a few refunds, a few upset people, which we were able to talk to them and get them back on track.

1 (19m 37s):
But it was just, it was definitely something that I learned, like we should have already had at least five to 10 people from the start. And then we wouldn't have faced that. But again, as you're scaling, like, I don't want him to get sounded like you, like, you'll be able to solve everything. There will be problems. The good news is problems when they arrive are very loud and you'll see them instantly and you'll know, okay, I I've got to go fix that. So it's, it's not like, unless you're sitting on a ton of cash where you can afford to build your team and the wait, there's not going to be a way to avoid some of this.

0 (20m 17s):
It's going to happen. Fire Nation. It's just something you can't avoid, because even for you, I'm sure this was going through your head, Michael. You're like, I'm hiring all these people right now. What if the demand dries up? Like, what if all of a sudden I have 10, 15 people who are ready to work and you know, this big push, this big launch happened, but then, you know, it turned into a trickle, which often happens with launches and big promotions, et cetera. So it's never going to be this perfect scenario, Fire Nation. You're always going to have to be adjusting and trying to scale, you know, which is even out those scales and always adjust the levers. That's the world that we accepted as entrepreneurs. That's just the reality. And Michael has been dropping value bombs, Fire Nation. And I got to tell you some more coming up after we thank our sponsors specifically, I want to put him to the test with a recent product of mine.

0 (21m 3s):
So stick around for that. We'll be right back.

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0 (23m 20s):
So Michael we're back and there are five persuasion points that make people buy. Let's go through those. What are those five persuasion points?

1 (23m 31s):
All right. Well, at the point of sounding super cheesy, I'll bust out my second acronym. Cause I, I am sort of the acronym king because it's just what my, my brain just naturally thinks of acronyms and what this one is. These are the five things that I look for that I use to sell products, but that I also look for in products and I call them persuasion points and the acronym is fields. So if you want to give your prospect, the fields and get them to want to buy from you, these are the things that people want. So the more that you can make your product fit into this, or the way you advertise your product to fit into at least one of these five, this is what people want.

1 (24m 17s):
They want something that can be fast. It doesn't mean it has to be fast, just means faster than without it. Right? Easy, same thing to have to be easy, but it can be easier than without the product right then. So you have to be a fast, easy. They want to know that they're going to learn or get experienced or get help from an expert. So F E then the L is lifestyle. So how is their lifestyle going to change? And this is where I see people make the mistake that they think, oh, it has to do with, you know, you're gonna drop weight or you're gonna look better, or you're gonna, you know, whatever.

1 (24m 57s):
But, but that's truly just like, kind of like benefit. I'm talking about the benefits of the benefits. So lifestyle change, and then finally that the ass is system. So people want to know that there's a process they can follow. And this applies to just about anything that you sell. If you're selling weight loss stuff, you know, people want to know, they can see that they can drop the weight fast. It it'll be easy because, because you're an expert and you know what you're up to, and they're going to fall and get to wear that black dress again, that they haven't worn since they were in, you know, 21, right. Or whatever.

1 (25m 37s):
And they want to know that there's a proven system. They can follow. They want to be told, you know, at 9:00 AM eat this at 12, o'clock eat this at two, o'clock do this. Right. They want to know there's just a process. Follow the process, the system, those five things legitimately have changed. My life they've been worth to, to me, millions because I just use them again and again and again. And the real cool part is I look for products that solve those problems that do those things. So it's a big part of how I choose what I sell. So if the product doesn't hit those points, I kinda know, Hey, it's probably not going to sell because that's what people want.

1 (26m 18s):
Like, I mean, if you think about even going back to easy every single time, there is like a development of a new product, or just about any type of thing, it's always about making your life easier. Right? I mean, think about the whole robot thing and the whole AI thing. It's all about making life easier. Why should we have to drive our own cars? Why should we have to mow our own yard? Why should we have to vacuum our own house? Right? Like everything is like, is there a way to make this easier where we don't do anything because that's what people at the end of the day want. They want things to be faster than when it'd be easier. They want to know that who they work with or who they learn from knows what they're talking about.

1 (27m 3s):
And the lifestyle change. Of course, that's what they want. And they want a process or a system. So that's, that's my fields.

0 (27m 11s):
Oh, I love the acronyms. I'm a big acronym guy, myself Fire Nation knows. My favorite acronym is focus, follow one course until success. So I love your mops. I love your fields. And I kind of want to put you on the spot here. Like I promised before the sponsorship break, and maybe have you break down my most recent product launch that I've done and maybe kind of tell me how you think it might fit, you know, 1, 2, 3, 4, or all five of these, and maybe give me some ideas of some ways that I could use, you know, the right persuasion points to make people really get excited and fired up about this and Fire Nation as you're listening, actually, this is a live product.

0 (27m 53s):
So you can definitely see what changes I might've made between when I'm interviewing Michael and when I've actually implemented it, when you're hearing this a couple of weeks down the road here, but Michael, this product that I've created, number one, it's free because I really want to get as many people into it as possible. I just really want it to, to impact and to help my audience Fire Nation, who are entrepreneurs, Wantrepreneurs small business owners, people that are just struggling right at the very beginning point, you know, the, just getting started point. So, as you mentioned earlier, you know, this isn't for the people that are going from one to $10 million. This is for the people that are just looking to get started. And I realized that what my audience is biggest struggle is, is the idea singular.

0 (28m 37s):
Like they have a lot of ideas. We all have a lot of ideas, most of us before breakfast, but what's that one big idea. So over the course of many months and some strategizing we've created, what I think is an incredible system. And that's exactly what it is. It is a system that I refer to it as a system in the name of the course is three hours to your big idea, three hours to your big idea. And the promise of the course, Michael, is that you will be able to sit down in three hours later. After following the step-by-step system, you will have your big idea. I will take all of those ideas floating in your mind.

0 (29m 18s):
And I will give you at the end of this system, your big idea. So talk to me, what are your thoughts on that? What are some things that maybe we could improve upon? Let's go,

1 (29m 29s):
I mean, the price point is pretty awesome. You, you can't, you can't really beat that. So that's good. I think, secondly, you, you've got your audience down, you know, who they are, you and you know what they need. One of the biggest things that I've always seen, that I, that I kind of personally, it makes me mad, but I've learned to accept it is most people, you know, they don't, they don't want what they need. Right. They want what they want. And so sometimes we have to kind of modify the way we present things to be more angled towards what people actually want. Right.

0 (30m 5s):
When Henry Ford said, like, if I gave people what they wanted, they would have a faster

1 (30m 10s):
Yeah, yeah, exactly, exactly true. So I would say, and again, you may already do this. I have not seen your actual sales page, but I would definitely tie, I would definitely beef up the problem of the big guy DIA. And the truth is one good idea is, can be worth billions, right? I mean, there's so much value there. So, you know, going back to the, the field side, you have it great with the three hours I would even, I would even test making that sound even shorter, you know, 180 minutes from now, you could have a big idea that could be worth X amount, right?

1 (30m 53s):
Whatever. You gotta be careful with what you promise people, but you know, 180 minutes to the best idea you've ever had in your, in your, in your business life. So the things that jumped out at me, you know, the system part, again, that's such a key and, and I would stress how, you know, what is meant for you because obviously in your job, you know, you're presented with opportunities probably every second, right? You probably get 10 emails a day from people going, I got this idea, I have this idea to try this. And so you've had just through sheer willpower, had to figure out how to vet I Theas.

1 (31m 34s):
And I think that a big part of your core audience, that like you brought up, they've got all these concepts, they have ideas and they want to know, you know, what's the right one. So imagine if in 180 minutes from right now, you could, for sure, without a doubt, know exactly the idea that you should hold on to, and that you should run with. You've got the system. And then I would stress more is as well as how is that going to change their life? You know, it's going to take them from being a, a guy who thinks he might know something and might have an idea to a guy that has the competence to pursue that idea with wild abandoned, right?

1 (32m 15s):
This is this, this is your time to shine because so many times people get stuck in this place where they don't know how to start, or they don't know if, if they're, if they're spending their time on the right stuff. So that's one area too. This is going to save so much time for people. How much time do you waste trying to launch something you should have never done anyway. Right. So there's a huge, huge factor there of really focusing on the problem side and saying, look, you're going to be able to save so much time, and I'm going to show you the fast and easy way to find the idea, the big idea that works for you.

1 (32m 58s):
And again, because you are the expert and you deal with it all the time, you know, that's again where I think you can, you know, do some big stuff there. And I, and I, again, I love the three hour thing, three hours. So your big Thea, let me ask one question. Yeah. What, how, how do you differentiate an idea from a big idea?

0 (33m 22s):
Yeah, I think that is a good question. You know, I would say that one thing that I really do within this three hour system is I have people kind of really flesh out the pros and the cons of each one of their ideas. And so, so cause a lot of people when they have these ideas, they're just thinking about the pros and what's good about it. They don't oftentimes think about the cons. So for me, that exercise that I have within the system really starts to pinpoint, okay, like, listen, I know that this seemed like a really good idea, but now when I'm listing out the cons to it, this is really making me see that, you know, it's going to cost a lot of money or I'm going to have to build a big team or it's going to require funding or all these other things. And then you start to say, okay, maybe this isn't like a really big idea.

0 (34m 3s):
You know, for me, maybe this is just an idea that, you know, would really take me on a path. I don't want to go. So that's kind of how it, one way that I distinguish it by really having people write out those pros, but even more importantly, write out those cons. Cause a lot of times, again, we just don't think about the cons.

1 (34m 18s):
Yeah. That's great. That's great, man. That's very good stuff. And, and I think that ultimately when you're tying it into the bigger, bigger picture, you've got the whole concept of, you know, let's make sure that this idea makes income, right? This idea to income angle,

0 (34m 37s):
Michael, you might as well have worked on this course with me because this course is free. This three hours to your big idea. And then what happens is at the end of the three hours, the whole, the whole point is saying, Hey, now you have your big idea. Let's turn your big idea into real revenue. And then that's the name of the course real revenue. That's that next step? So now you're taking your big idea. Boom, you got that in three hours. Now I've taken and I show them, you know, I've taken four big ideas, my podcast, my podcast and community, my journals, key affiliate relationships. And I've taken each one of those individual big ideas and turn them into million dollar results individually, four of them.

0 (35m 23s):
So I want to show you how I took my big ideas and turn them into real revenue. That's that next?

1 (35m 30s):
Yeah. That's awesome. Yeah. I was going to suggest a good upsell, but you already got it

0 (35m 35s):
Again, been working on this for a while. You came up with it a second, which I'm pretty jealous of. It took me a couple months to get there, but Fire Nation, all I can say is like, this is the process, the fields. I love it. And honestly, like, as you were going through those, I was like, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes. I hit every single one of those, but Fire Nation, it took me a little while to get there. If I had had this acronym, I would have been able to start off with that base. So you have this base Fire Nation. It's so amazing. So before we move on to Michael, anything you want to add or anything you want to point out in that?

1 (36m 8s):
No, I think that's it. I mean, I think that's going to be a good thing for you and I can't wait to see how well you do it, but I would test the 180. Cause it sounds like, Hey, that's not that bad. I mean, three hours is good too, but it could, you know,

0 (36m 22s):
I'm definitely going to do that. I'm going to say, Hey listen, Fire Nation, I'm going to do a survey. I'm going to get it out to you. I'm going to say what sounds more like something that you would want to just jump into right now because it is that fast part of it. It does 180 minutes to your big idea or three hours to your big idea. So by the way, if you're listening to this and you miss the survey that I already sent out, cause I've already now done this after talking with Michael, just shoot me an email. [email protected] Let me know your thoughts. You might still have an impact on that, which would be pretty cool stuff. So I guess the last thing I'll leave you with Fire Nation is if you're like, well, that's pretty cool. Well, it is. So just visit your big idea.io. You can sign up for that course for free.

0 (37m 5s):
So Michael, where I really want to go next is the three questions that we have to be able to answer about our business for anybody who asks, what are those three questions,

1 (37m 15s):
Three big ones that, that I always ask people are, what do you do? Why do you do it? And who do you serve? You know, so it's, it's so what, why and who, and I'm sure that this is done by quite a few people, but I put a small little spin on it because I think about, you know, what do you do? A lot of times people will say, oh, well I, you know, make a podcast course, you know, or whatever. But in reality, you're truly doing a lot more than that. You're offering people a chance to create the life of their dreams, right? If their dream is to be a podcast or you're truly creating their, you know, a chance for them to achieve something that they couldn't do without you possibly.

1 (38m 0s):
Right. So you, you've got to think about that in a, in a bigger way than just what is the, because I think we get focused so much on what is the, the thing that we do. Right? But the thing that we do is really just a means to an end and what is the end? So it's that end that I want people to really focus on first and foremost. And then there's the why, right? I mean, at the end of the day, most people get started. Why they do what they do is because they want to make some extra income. Right. But over time, if you solve that problem, you'll start finding. And some people are, are from the start a lot more altruistic, but you'll find that why you do something begins to change the more and more success that you have.

1 (38m 48s):
And so you got to really dive in as to, as to like, why are you doing this thing? Like, why is it so important to you? You know, what is it that, what do you get back from what you give? That's kind of the, that's how that's one way of thinking about why is, what do you get back? And then finally, who do you serve? You know, this, this answer. So you would think it is so easy because you say, oh, I serve my customers and I give them what they want. Right. But in reality, you actually serve a lot of different people. You do serve customers. You also need to serve your employees. You may have to serve the stakeholders like investors and other people like that.

1 (39m 32s):
You also have to serve yourself, right. Because if you're doing something that's burning you out, you know, at the end of the day, how long can you keep that up? You also have to preserve your family. Right? There's, there's all these pieces that, that, that you, that you've got to serve. So you want to begin to look at your business and think, okay, what are the ways that I can, that I can help all of these different areas? You know, how can I serve more than just, you know, and I know it sounds bad because obviously your customers are, you got to serve them first, but it's the same thing as a whole like airplane oxygen thing, right? If you don't serve yourself or your family, and you're having all these problems at home, odds are, you're going to have a lot of problems in your company.

1 (40m 15s):
And if your employees feel like they're mistreated and then they're going to quit, there's always going to be problems. So it's truly a, an approach where you take into account all the different things. Cause I think the biggest, like a lie that there is in business is the customer is always right. You know, my only thing is that people say, but a lot of times they don't, it's not even, it's not that they're wrong per se, but it's that they just don't even know. Right. They don't even know what's going on behind the scenes. They just kind of see the little piece that they see. So you got to take a well rounded approach to how you do all those things. And you got to set your business up to serve you too.

1 (40m 57s):
Not just the

0 (40m 60s):
Customers, Fire Nation. I hope you've been taking some notes. Obviously our show notes page is going to have every part of this written down in many different ways, but let's just go through it one more time. We have mops marketing operations, product sales, the three big needs, greed, lust vanity. We went through fields, which is fast, easy expert lifestyle and system. And Michael gave me some really cool feedback. So thank you for that, Michael, on what I'm going through right now with my current product launch. And then the three questions that you must be able to answer about your business, which is what do you do? Why do you do and who do you serve? And really go deep on those things.

0 (41m 39s):
And Michael, let's kind of wrap this up with a bow like, oh, let's give Fire Nation a parting piece of guidance, then share the best way that we can connect with you and any goodies you might have for us. And then we'll say goodbye.

1 (41m 53s):
Yeah, sure. You know, a thing that I always say is a quote that I came up with and I always feel weird when I quote myself for the sense of very self-serving, but it's just so good that I don't even feel like I came up with this quote. Like it just like popped into my head. And I always say this, and it's this true for, for any time life rewards, those who take action, not those who take notes, you know, it's, it's such an important key and it's, it's been a, it's been a huge factor in the success that I've achieved is I find out about something and I take massive action. I do write things down. So I do take notes too.

1 (42m 33s):
But the thing is, if you don't, if you don't apply what, you've, what, you're, what you write down or what you hear at events or you hear on podcasts, then you're not really doing anything. You're just kind of giving you my beginning somewhat smarter, but you got to take massive action, right? I mean, that's, that's the big key. I think too many people, they, instead of going for massive, they settle for passive. Right? And then they end up just not doing anything. So that's a big, big thing for me. So if you heard anything on this podcast or any others, like get out there and do it, and you're going to learn so much more by doing something, especially if you screw up, you should be thankful if you screw it up because you're going to learn so much more, be like, this is great.

1 (43m 18s):
Like, you know, there's no better way to learn and getting out there and breaking stuff, you know?

0 (43m 23s):
Yeah. And one thing, Michael, before you kind of finish off there, I want us to say Fire Nation, and this is very similar to something that I've been stressing for a long time as well, which is so many people are just in pure consumption mode. You know, you're just listening to podcasts, watching YouTube videos, reading books, you know, going to conferences, sitting in the audience, consuming, consuming, consuming. That's a really important part of your life. You need to be doing those things, but there has to be a production mode on the other side, just like you're consuming. You need to be producing. So when I first started, I was consuming at 95% and only producing 5%. Cause I didn't have anything to produce. I didn't know what I was doing. But over the last six years, those scales, you know, here, we're bringing the scale equation back.

0 (44m 3s):
Those scales have been shifting to where now I produce 90% and I consume 10% and I'll never drop below 10%. Cause I always want to be learning you. Fire Nation should always be learning. Always be consuming, always be using your drives and your runs for podcast listening, whatever it might be that you should be doing these things to learn, to stay cutting edge to. I mean, we wouldn't be able to have these great acronyms from Michael without it, but you need to be producing. You need to taking action. So Michael, back to you take us home.

1 (44m 35s):
I think that I like to do, when I'm ever on these type of a podcast, I wrote a book. It's not a very big book. It's kind of a short one, but the book is called how to obliterate the blank page. So you've ever had to sell something or convince someone to do something and you have to write either a VSL, a video sales piece or an opt-in page or anything where you've got to get people to take an action. You always start that by staring off at a blank page. And it can be very, very scary for some people. So I wrote this book and it just goes over the core kind of pieces that I teach for people to be able to from scratch, start in, right.

1 (45m 18s):
A converting piece of sales copy. And that's how I got my start back in the old days I wrote I was a copy writer. So that's a book that I give away free on my site. It's only one mike.com/fire. Only one mike.com/fire. You can get the book absolutely free. And when you sign up there to get the book, I also send people my super six template, which is my own little custom thing that I created on, on how I get stuff done every single day. It's, it's all free. There's really, I don't really sell anything. So, and it's just all there for consumption.

1 (45m 58s):
And like you said, to get people to actually go into a production that's awesome

0 (46m 4s):
Fire Nation. You're the average of the five people you spend the most time with in, you've been hanging out with MG and JLD today. So keep up the heat. And if you head over to EOFire.com and just type Michael in the search bar, the Shauna's page will pop up with all of the links to everything we've been talking about, the resources, the timestamps of when we said, well, we say you can just click on it. It will pop right to that place. Or if you want to go back and hear him talking about feels or mops, you can just click on that link will take you right there. And of course, check out his book, how to obliterate the page. Cause you will do just that. And that's by going to onlyonemike.com/fire, get that book and the super six templates and it's all free.

0 (46m 52s):
So make that happen. Fire Nation while you're there. Drop Mike A. Little thank you note for just providing so much free, awesome value. And Mike, thank you for sharing your journey with Fire Nation today. For that we salute you and we'll catch you on the flip side. Hey, Fire Nation. Hope you enjoyed our chats with Michael today. And are you ready to rock your podcast? Well, check out our free podcasting course, where I teach you how to create, grow and monetize your podcast at freepodcastcourse.com. And I will catch you there or I'll catch you on the flip side, looking for a business coach who has helped thousands of entrepreneurs increase profitability by an average of 104% annually, all for less money than it would cost to hire one minimum wage employee all on a month to month basis.

Thrivetime Show (47m 46s):
Schedule your free consultation today with Clay Clark, a former SBA entrepreneur of the year at ThrivetimeShow.com/fire.