What If It Did Work?
What If It Did Work?
Unlocking Business Growth: Strategic Marketing and Lead Optimization with Solomon Thimoty
Unlock the secrets to business growth with marketing expert Solomon Thimoty as he shares invaluable insights into building robust brand awareness. Discover the power of a broad sales funnel and why expanding the top of your funnel is crucial for driving sales at the bottom. Solomon emphasizes the importance of nurturing potential leads with offers like free PDFs or calls, transforming them into loyal customers while using effective strategies like podcasts and digital ads to boost visibility and engagement.
Explore the delicate balance between immediate sales efforts and long-term brand building in your marketing funnel. Solomon details how targeting customers at various stages can lead to business resilience and success. By addressing common obstacles like impatience and ego, we encourage an approach centered on sustained growth. Gain a comprehensive growth formula by harmonizing short-term actions with future-focused strategies, ensuring your business thrives in the ever-evolving market landscape.
Step into the world of strategic decision-making and time management for entrepreneurs. Solomon sheds light on the inefficiencies of spreading marketing efforts too thin and the power of concentrating investments on high-impact channels. Learn the art of outsourcing weaknesses and focusing on "money-making activities" to skyrocket your growth potential. With a strategic, data-driven approach, discover how to optimize lead generation and customer acquisition, ultimately achieving sustainable success in today's competitive arena.
Join the What if it Did Work movement on Facebook
Get the Book!
www.omarmedrano.com
www.calendly.com/omarmedrano/15min
I never told no one that my whole life I've been holding back. Every time I load my gun up so I can shoot for the star, I hear a voice like who do you think?
Speaker 2:all right, everybody. Another day, another dollar. Another one of my favorite episodes of my own podcast, season four underway, and I've got with me Solomon Timothy. Solomon Timothy is a highly accomplished entrepreneur with over 17 years experience in marketing and sales. As a co-founder and CEO of one IMS and IMS2, leading inbound marketing and sale agencies, as well as ClickX and LeadX, he has helped businesses increase their revenue using the 10X framework. Solomon is also an expert in lead generation and customer acquisition the lifeblood and the lifeline of any corporation anybody in sales. You just have to have brand awareness. He's also a USA Today and Wall Street Journal bestselling author. In addition to his work, Solomon is also an angel investor. Startup advisor has helped numerous startups grow and scale, leveraging his expertise in marketing, sales and business strategy.
Speaker 3:How's it going, man? Hey doing well. Thank you so much for the intro and thanks for having me on your show, man the pleasure is all mine.
Speaker 2:Now, before we got on, we were talking about something that I love. I know you're great at lead acquisition, and that's what we're going to talk about, because and customer acquisition, because you can't just open up a brick and mortar store and have people do the conga line. You're not Chick-fil-A, you can't have a business oh, I'm a sales person. Or you know, I'm a coach. I'm a business coach, but yet you know, I am certified from whatever. Let me open up the door Well, figuratively, literally, I mean online and have people call me up. It just doesn't work that way. But in order to do that, brand awareness and you are a brand awareness expert, so 101, because a lot of people lack common sense.
Speaker 3:Basically, what is brand awareness man? So the easiest way to put it in if you can't have a customer, which is, you know, we use the example of a funnel, right, and I have a funnel in my office, just so you know, JR, I don't usually bust out my funnel, but, Omar, I think you're the right guy for it, okay.
Speaker 2:I got a funnel.
Speaker 3:Dude, when I was in my fraternity way back in the 90s. I know, I know, I know this is a different kind of funnel. This is a sales funnel, right? So I can't have somebody buy my products which is the bottom of funnel if you, if they don't know you exist, which is the top of funnel. So I have to make it very simple for those entrepreneurs. So if you don't invest your time and energy, money, getting on podcasts, doing all the things that you do to build awareness, you can't expect somebody to buy your products and services at the bottom of it, because you and I have not bought anything from somebody you've never heard of, have you?
Speaker 2:uh, no man, but unfortunately it. I've gone the other way, where you know you, to the guru. You see the guru and you think he walks on water and you realize. But no, definitely I have in general common sense brand awareness. I've seen him, I've heard of him or her.
Speaker 3:Right, and the piece that entrepreneurs, small business owners, people getting into business trying to scale they need to understand is that in order to make the bottom bigger, you got to make the top bigger. Right, like the smaller, the funnel. I don't have all the little pieces of my funnel, I have all of these props, but you know, tiny funnel, how much stuff goes down? Just a little bit, it's always. The bottom is always smaller. So if you just think about that from a business perspective, you need a bigger funnel. That's what you need. That means you need more awareness. And so, omar, I want to encourage whoever's listening who doesn't believe in brand awareness or never done it or never heard of this concept. The reason why I do podcast appearance, the reason why I do anything, is so that more people hear about me or know about what we do and they go into the funnel. And then I need to nurture them so that at some point, if they're the right fit and I'm the right fit for them, they can become a customer.
Speaker 2:Now, it doesn't matter. If you do, you have to necessarily have a brick and mortar store location, or can it be any product, any service?
Speaker 3:It could be any product, any service, online e-commerce what do you think? Amazon has the biggest brand awareness. Every time a truck goes by, it says Amazon on it. Every time you see a box at your neighbor's house, it says Amazon on it. Amazon's great at it, right? They don't have to buy billboards because the truck does a really good job. And people who don't know Amazon if there's one human being, will be like what is Amazon? And that's what we need for our businesses. What is your company? What do they do? And they'll Google it and they'll find you and they're like oh, that, that's what that is. And you see that 10 to 12 times they will probably become a customer if they're the right fit now if they're the right fit.
Speaker 2:now a funnel for most people. Most people know what the funnel is. Now do you create with the brand awareness, an offer like for a free PDF, a free digital copy of a book, a free five-minute phone call, absolutely Just to get as many potential clients let's be optimistic All these clients that just haven't signed on yet. That's at the very top of the funnel, correct?
Speaker 3:absolutely um, so you don't have to start with that. I think what you and I are doing is probably the best type of funnel things that we could do. They will only download my ebook or my lead magnet or anything. Watch my, my free training, the masterclass, if they're interested in what they listen to on short form video content or on a podcast. We have to intrigue them and say you know what? I want to learn more about what Omar said. I want to buy that book. What if it did work? Then I go to Amazon or Audible and pay the $10 and I get his book.
Speaker 3:Does that make sense? And your book might be the first step towards learning more about your binge listening, all the podcast episode. But we don't have to start with an ebook because we need to start with even smaller than that. It's hearing about you, it's watching a video of you or reading a blog post or something even more surface level knowledge about you. Does that make sense? Let's simplify it One episode is what we want them to consume. Then they know this podcast exists.
Speaker 2:When you do that, okay, it's like aha, it's that recognition, it's like saying, yes, you are an industry leader or you're someone that a person of interest, you have knowledge on something you might be able to solve, to fix a problem that I have absolutely, or it goes into our subconscious mind when we have that problem.
Speaker 3:We might recall this podcast episode or this website we visited, or whatever it is, because there was that one time. They remember seeing an ad or this or something else. That's why repetition is also important. Brand awareness does a really good job. Keep showing them stuff, keep putting things out there, keep making more podcasts.
Speaker 2:Right, keep posting on linkedin so what you're saying is you have to do work on a consistent basis.
Speaker 3:There's no overnight success the only overnight success I know is omar. No, I wish.
Speaker 2:I'm no doogie hauser man, I'm playing the back nine. I I graduated college without a computer. If you can believe that there was no no one in I graduated college without a computer. If you can believe that there was no one in my fraternity used a computer to graduate college he started off as a turnaround coach.
Speaker 3:He wrote a book it was literally and then he just started off with a half a million downloads on his podcast.
Speaker 2:That's the only guy that I know Literally I wrote it overnight. I'll put within a month at 500. Not that it took over three years.
Speaker 3:Not at all Right. Everybody wants that one blue pill or whatever and then instantly you're Internet famous. But all I'm saying is that let's think of it from a business perspective, because all I care about is growth. Right, I want to help my customers grow. How do they grow? Well, they got to get people to know, like and trust them. You can't like somebody if you don't even know them. They're not going to trust somebody they don't know. It's just very basic, but when you translate it into impressions and clicks and whatever, that's just more YouTube views, more YouTube shorts, views, reels, views Anything that you put out there is an impression. An impression is an awareness. Somebody is going to get to know you. That's what it is.
Speaker 2:That's all, man. But yet everybody and I love it because you and I were like-minded people it requires consistency and it requires time. I mean nothing was. I mean heck, if I was fearful of rejection. It took me lots and lots and lots of rejections just to finally get a TEDx talk. So there's work.
Speaker 2:And you know, I was called the vacation CEO because everybody thought, overnight, 20 years of business. They didn't see the losses, they didn't see the struggle, they didn't see the A, b, c, d. They saw when I was still married with my children going off on vacations. They saw the X, y and Z. Because it's not, it's not sexy, but it's also because, deep down inside, isn't it easier? It's easier, solomon's saying man, solomon's lucky, he did no work, he, because it's an easier way than, instead of, you know, like looking at a reflection and going right, I am here right now, based on every decision or lack of decision that I have ever made in my life absolutely, um and and, like I said, it's, it's when you decide that that's the secret, you will double down on creating content, you'll double down on staying consistent, because guess what that's?
Speaker 3:That's literally what it takes. So people pay us thousands of dollars. I'm sure you know, omar, you're a marketing expert. What do they really need to hear? This thing that we're just talking about in this episode? That's what they need to hear, but they need help executing it, because not everybody knows how to execute it. But the truth hasn't changed. This is what newspaper did they buy the back page ad or whatever. It is the friend side inside outside. That's Super Bowl. They're not necessarily going to get a lot of sales the day after Super Bowl, by the way, in case we were wondering, but they're going to get a lot of people to remember and recall their name and their company and their offers.
Speaker 2:Now. Marketing, though, is like farming you plant today in order to have a great crop and you water it and you nurture it. But no farmer that I'm not a farmer, I don't know much about agriculture, but I do know that if you plant seeds today, it's not going to sprout tomorrow where you're living in abundance. A lot of times, when it comes to brand awareness, when it comes to marketing, when it comes to lead acquisition, customer acquisition, people are like oh, it's not working, and they stop. Brand awareness requires time. Sometimes, time is money, so it requires money. And yet it's like the old analogy You're going to laugh. I own five Smoothie Kings.
Speaker 2:That's where he was SARS and before social media, when things were slow, either I would get only an owner would do this inside a blow-up costume, or I would innovate him, do this sign spinning, and then people would laugh and they would go well, it's not working, because people weren't outside in the conga line. And it's like, no, nobody's going to stop. Like that, it's like a billboard. It's brand awareness. Oh yes, I remember that place. Next time, maybe two days from now, three days from now, maybe they have to see it again, but, people, there's no form of advertising. There's no form of advertising, there's no marketing, social media marketing, brand awareness works, because how many of us actually go out of our way to try a new restaurant because they've built brand awareness by doing a lot of catchy reels, a lot of promos and a lot of a lot of attention that says, hey, we're right here, give us a shot absolutely.
Speaker 3:Um, it's a long game. That's what you need to understand. A lot of people want it fast and quick and and you know short term versus long term if you're going to build a restaurant and get all these chefs and everything you got to make sure you've done everything you possibly can so people know you exist right, so there's no way outside of it. But you know, one of the ways that you can get customers quicker because obviously brand awareness is key if you can get customers quicker is to go and find everybody that's in the market looking for what you're doing, which is more bottom of funnel. That's the other element. So when they come to a professional like you, they want to know what's the fastest way for me to grow my business. So we call that capturing the demand in the marketplace for people that are looking for what you do right now. And there's single digits people looking for what you do right now, not double digits, not, you know, because you know there's a million people get by your product in wherever you are, and if you're a local business, a regional business, there's only so many people.
Speaker 3:But not all of those people are looking for what you do right now. They got other things they're looking for. They're not in your funnel and somebody else's funnel, right? So we run ads, we do all this lower funnel activity to capture those people. Turn that into cash, invest that into the longer term marketing which is plaster the internet with omar everywhere. So when they do need a turnaround coach, he's the number one, right like that's getting them the future people. But today omar's got to get all the people that are looking to sell their business exit valuation, whatever it is they need to planning for exit in five years from now or scale up whatever it is their goals are. That's why both sides exist. Some people like the fast and furious, the last bottom of funnel. However, it's not sustainable, right Like we want both, because it's going to cost you a lot more. Go ahead.
Speaker 2:No, no, Sorry to interrupt Solomon. So at the very top of the funnel. It's huge. It's lead them to something that shows that, whether it's a YouTube video, whether it's a podcast episode, whether it's a TED Talk or whatnot, something that they can click on and get to know who you are, Give them a compelling reason to invest more time into you. So that's the very top. Now, the further down we go down the funnel, those are offers correct Absolutely.
Speaker 3:Those are things that they're starting to understand that what you do they're relatively in the market. You know it doesn't, you know it may not move very fast. And so we call that middle of funnel consideration stage. They're considering to work with somebody that may or may not be you. Does that make sense? And this is where you're giving out estimates and then you're not closing. That's people that are in that consideration stage. Maybe it's too early, maybe it was priced too long, maybe they're not even ready yet you jumped the gun on giving an estimate.
Speaker 3:Whatever it is, it's that middle of funnel and the bottom of funnel is like, hey, we have this big problem. We have, you know, we need a restoration company. Our basement is flooded. You know what I mean. Like we're not going to wait three weeks to make that decision or three months. We need somebody quick, that's ready to go. That's like one call close. If you ever get one call close, it's because you are the right, right call, right time, right problem, right person. You just got lucky. But I don't like one call close. I want to close every call every day.
Speaker 2:So I work on my top yeah, no one call close would be ideal, that that would be like unicorns and rainbows they're out there but in in any, any business. Whether you're selling, you're a realtor. Whether you're selling a product or a service, a commodity, unless it's like a hamburger and you're like dairy queen and you're in the middle of nowhere and there's like that town, in footloose, there's no other place to eat that that one one. Stop. Close, you know, one touch close. It's it rare? No, it's unlikely.
Speaker 3:So what we would want is a proper growth formula which is work on the now and work on the future at the same time, because it has to be both. It's stocks and bonds. It's short term, long term right, and the reason we do that is because we don't want to just be short sighted. You know, when we are working on running ads running ads, for instance, to get the people that are looking for whatever it is that you do right now you're going to pay a lot more money because you're competing with everybody else that is also looking to do the same thing. But when you go to the top, you pay peanuts because nobody does that, nobody wants to invest that time. It doesn't cost you anything actually to drop a video five times a day on whatever it is, but nobody does it because they don't see the instant gratification, they don't see the leads coming in. So they don't, they don't, they don't do it.
Speaker 2:they don't do what omar does well, not only that, but I mean it. Not only is there no instantaneous growth or you know results from it. It's like if somebody sat on their couch for years and they, they power walk for like 10 minutes and like, okay, or they, they had that solid, or they ate clean for one meal after eating lousy, and they feel discouraged. And also, though sometimes solomon, it's the ego. Oh yeah, I don't want. I don't want, I don't want a little too desperate, I don't want people to think I need sales. It's like, well, when you, when you go to the bank and you deposit that check, the color is not like. I see you had a post five times today. Is that what? What got you here? It's like no man. You like no man. You're depositing money. You're depositing money. Money, prospects, clients is the lifeline. Sales so that you can grow, you can be bigger and you can invest in whatever it is that you want. You can have that freedom to be able to do whatever you want on your own terms.
Speaker 3:Yeah absolutely to do whatever you want on your own terms. Yeah, absolutely. Now you, what you're? What you're saying is what we want for everybody, but not everybody gets that right. Not everybody gets that, that concept. So here's the deal our customers are going to go whatever they're seeing. You know, we make decision based on whatever media that we consume. Do you agree? Agree, if I see a bunch of yoga mats, I'm going to go buy a yoga mat. If I'm hanging around with a bunch of people that like to go on cruises, I'm going to be on a cruise in a couple of months, there's no doubt.
Speaker 3:So if you want to influence someone else to take action, to buy your products and services, you got to get in front of their eyeballs, however that is, and you need to let them know that you exist, because, fact of the matter is, they're going to spend that money on that leisure activity or that products or services with somebody else. It's because they were in front of you. That's really what it is. They outperformed you in some way or shape or form. Spend more money on ads, got better landing pages right, better trap how's that? They just had better funnels. However, you, too, can do the exact same thing, because internet is even playing field. There's nothing that omar does, that somebody else can, but the fact is omar's probably faster, quicker, better. He's able to iterate faster, change, change quicker. It's just what it is. It's a highly competitive space. It's a highly competitive space.
Speaker 2:But no, no, no, go ahead. I was going to say we try to model, we try to parrot someone else instead of being our own selves, and that's your superpower is who.
Speaker 3:Superpower is who you are yeah, no, I was going to say if you ever search on google, do you ever see some there's? You ever find a google search? There's nothing coming up. No, there's a page for everything. Does that make sense? Like somebody's already made a page about whatever it is, or an article, or you know that's already been talked about on reddit. It's amazing that you didn't know it existed.
Speaker 3:But what I'm saying is you have to do the exact same thing for your products and services. I don't care your local business is selling insurance is highly commoditized, or real estate or mortgage or anything. The fact of the matter is you're not going to get a deal because every a lot of people in that sort of industry. They get, they've been spoiled by referrals and that stops them from actually going and building a funnel and making a self-sustaining kind of a funnel that drives leads and customers. Because I get referrals too, but I don't make referrals my source of business. I want to make business by doing proper marketing, lead generation, lead nurturing. Does that make sense? Somebody getting on a sales call, making a proposal and then tracking how many proposals does it take to close a deal? If I'm in the B2B space, if you're B2C, you just need eyeballs and people coming to your location or calling your office or whatever it is that you do. That's it, okay.
Speaker 2:Now, okay, we're building out a funnel. Now do we go with your company? How hard is it? Because I just mastered the advocates I'm working on the word processor Can I hire you guys and build an exceptional funnel?
Speaker 3:Here's the deal. I say that are we the right fit, and the right fit all the time, because omar looks like your business, for instance. Not everybody wants a business. Turnout is the right fit for you, right oh?
Speaker 2:yeah, it's a lot of times it's based on personality, or or they'll go with a lot more because they saw a guru or that the guys aligned with the guru and it's like well, the obvious question would be like, so, have you ever owned a business? But but usually like, oh, in my industry it's. It's mainly put it to you this way a lot of people would never get on a plane to someplace mountainous, vail, steamboat, where you have to be a great pilot to land in places like this. And you go to the pilot and you're like well, you're a great pilot, right? And you're like no, I've done great on these simulators and I just crush it all the time. But when it comes to a, it comes to like a consultant. In any business, even the 10x, you have results on how to 10x. So I would go to you. But some people would be like well, I never checked credentials, I just saw a snazzy reel or a snazzy video on their Instagram or TikTok and they look super cool and I hired them.
Speaker 3:Yeah, it's unfortunate, but it's the reality, right? We just we just said that. But long story short, not everybody's a good fit. So what I try to do is lead with as much information as I possibly can, so people that want to help themselves they can find their own consultant, and if we're the right fit, great. If we are not, I just want to help people. How's that, omar? That's the reality is, how many people can we impact?
Speaker 2:that that's what I like here already that you you said right off the bat. Solomon said full disclosure. We're like-minded people. We are both in service. We want to help out people. A lot of times, the majority in any line is they want to put themselves as a guru and it's not profit. The P-R-O-P-H-E-T. They just look at you as profit P-R-O-F-I-T and let they see you as a checking account. And unfortunately, I mean just looking at everything. To me it's not because you're my guest, it's a no brainer, just everything that you're talking about. What you are doing is you're saving people, the most valuable commodity that people can never get back, and that's time.
Speaker 3:Absolutely, and also the knowledge. You want people to know what they're buying, what they should be looking for when they're hiring the consultant or the coach or an agency or anything like that, because that person may not be the right person for you, but you need to know what's good and what's not, what to ask. And, by the way, all of us have capacity limits, which is another thing. So if I had 10 million people trying to come up to me, I can't help them right. So I pick and choose who is the best fit, and we have several companies, but it doesn't still make it the right thing. But I just want to lead people to the right decisions that they can make.
Speaker 3:Sometimes hiring is the best thing to do. Sometimes outsourcing is the best thing to do. Sometimes a part-time person is the right thing to do. Sometimes an agency is the right thing to do. We don't know. But you have a lot of people that are listening. They're all in different walks of life, different budgets. You know different cash flows. They got to do what's best for them. But what we really care about is could they learn something from this episode? Could they grow and do whatever the next thing that they need to do to get to the next level in their business well, you are a leader in lead acquisition, customer acquisition.
Speaker 2:A lot of times, though, especially entrepreneurs yeah, we're narcissists. We think we're the next Jack, we're Jack Welsh or we're John Maxwell when it comes to leadership, and the number one thing is outsource your weakness. Yeah, you, you said right off the bat and I I see it everywhere on on your website and whatnot 10x yeah that that that that's not slow, snail pace, that that that can change the trajectory of your business, of of your legacy, of your family's legacy.
Speaker 3:Yeah, absolutely, and that's because, like you said, I only want to focus on the things that are going to drive to the next level and every entrepreneur here. If you look at your calendar, look at where your time is going. I had this conversation with a girl just right before this very successful business owner in the accounting field. In accounting field, you kind of become the business. They need you. She's like for every hour I talk to a customer, I need to prep for two hours and then she's got clients every week and she's trying to grow and we're helping her. But the problem is she can't scale. She's only got so many hours in the day. But the problem is she can't scale. She's only got so many hours in the day, but she wants to grow. So what do we do? We got to help her get rid of things, not add things. That's the only way she can take on more clients. She's really wanting to grow.
Speaker 3:I said look, don't matter how good this campaign is going to be, you can only take so many clients, so we end up being that person that leads them. You got to get rid of 70% of the things that you're doing so that I can help you 10x If you're trying to do everything in your business and want to save money, you can't 10x at all. There's no chance because it's an inefficient company. But what you can do is get rid of 80% of the things that you're doing that are not working, that are not going to scale. Get rid of services. Get rid of clients% of the things that you're doing that are not working, that are not going to scale. Get rid of services. Get rid of clients that are not, you know, paying you well, focus on that. 20%.
Speaker 2:Now you have a better chance. So then, what you're really trying to say is focus on MMA, and I'm not talking about the mixed martial arts, money making activities.
Speaker 3:Yeah, there you go. You see Right. But also sometimes you know let's just talk about marketing, because we deal with that a lot. Customers invest their money in so many different avenues and arenas, from helping the local chamber of commerce to the sponsoring, the 5k runs, to whatever people come in and ask them for money, they're like, yeah, we're going to spend that in this and the other, but you got to look at what's driving the results. 80 of that is actually wasted spent, but across the board, we've done this way too long. Even buying something that felt like a great trade show or a regional this or that, it was not driving one cent of sales. It wasn't even the right people to even get in front of, like from an awareness perspective. Do you know what I mean? It was just not good. So when you take that much money and you dump it into the things that did work, what do you think is going to happen to that sales?
Speaker 2:funnel. What you focus on to me, you get more in abundance. A lot of times, people have zero focus, zero clarity, so that's why they can't grow. They can't, they, they, they can't acquire new clients, they can't acquire new customers, new customers or leads right. A lot of times, people too. When things are looking murky, they, instead of looking forward, they, yes, the first thing that they do is what? Customer acquisition? I'm not spending marketing. That's crazy. We need to get rid of marketing. And it's like well then, how do you plan on getting out of this hole?
Speaker 3:A hundred percent. Oh yeah, I mean, that's an episode by itself, that's the right, that's the sequel, right? However, think about that 80 that was being wasted. But you said, oh, but I'm, I'm, I'm, I love this thing. I love the cost, I love everything they're doing, but but is it the right people that you want to invest in?
Speaker 3:So if you really cut back on the things that you're doing that's driving revenue and invest the money into the area that was driving, because we as an organization have to track every lead to the source of our customers. So I got to say that Omar came from here and there and the other, and so it was worth spending two grand here and $400 on that and $10,000 on this, so we can show that on a page and let the executives make the right decision. So if we don't do that, we'll be spending money everywhere thinking that's where the next client's going to come from. It's not. Thank God for digital, omar. Everything can be tracked and measured so that we can double down on the things that works and then get rid of what doesn't work.
Speaker 2:Look at the work. No, go ahead. I apologize.
Speaker 3:The personal, the sales people's activities. Who are they calling, and is this even the right prospects? And also, why would I call to book appointments If that is the kind of organization you have? You have sales people. Why not run ads, show them to interested people? Then you talk to those people that are interested, rather than talking to people and trying to get them interested. It doesn't work. When was the last time you were able to call somebody and get them to convert, you know, to buying your products? It's hard, but you could talk to somebody that is desperate for your help. Their business is in shambles right now. Some devastating thing happened. They lost their big client. They've talked to Omar. They're going to sign up tomorrow just saying or you're going to call 1,000 businesses trying to get one person to convert. What's more efficient? So it's everywhere those inefficiencies that we find and we optimize. Keep going until we can start to see like this ship is going to take off. We found the offer, we found the niche, we found the channels that work. The channels didn't work.
Speaker 2:We've become more of a scientific business rather than live by the hunch well, solomon, I have to ask you this this is probably you've heard this question when it comes to organizations, when it comes to small businesses, when it comes to businesses in general, the failure rate is the same as it was pre-social media pre-funnels. Yeah, pre-social media pre-funnels.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Isn't that crazy, Isn't that wild. I mean now, now, any excuse that you had even before oh, bad location, or which which was fine. And we're like, you know, before all that and the dawn of all these tools, all these resources for entrepreneurs, you would think that the numbers would have changed substantially, but it's the same.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I'm glad you brought that up. Here's my theory on why business. There's a lot of reasons, don't get me wrong, but the biggest reason that I think can be fixable is lead generation and customer acquisition. I think can be fixable is lead generation and customer acquisition. You got to get, like you said building something and they will come. It doesn't work. You mentioned that earlier, Quite honestly. That's when 90% of the people that have not been in your shoes or my shoes built businesses and held a sign outside their driveway or, you know, the roadside or whatever, understood they would think that all I have to do is put the best restaurant in the best you know shopping mall or whatever it is.
Speaker 3:You know a buddy of mine, which is we work with agencies. He's an actual agency owner. He went to a Taco Tuesday place. There was only two people there. He's like you got to be kidding me. There's nobody here on Taco Tuesday and you have all these specials. Why he thinks making a Taco Tuesday promo is all it takes. It's not. It's getting as many people to see the promo is the promo. It's not the promo. And he's like he told the owner if this keeps going on, you're not going to be here and obviously he's a marketing guy, he saw it. But think about that. That's what a lot of people try to do is like well, we got Taco Tuesday special and it's happy hour. It's this, that doesn't mean anything. What you need to do is get that in front of the people that are looking and talking about tacos on Facebook ads. They say the word taco and Facebook does the rest. You know what I mean. Facebook will show the ad because you know Zuckerberg's got that figured out and but you, this is what you said best.
Speaker 2:Well, we have all these promos. What your average entrepreneur says is well, things are slow, so let me cannibalize, let let. Let me cannibalize my offer and instead of going for premium a lot of times it's not the price they just don't know you. So why are you gonna go drop down thinking you're like Payless Shoes or JCPenney's and going for broke? They're not coming in the door. The little people that are coming through the door all of a sudden, they're paying less, which means you're hurting even more. That or my product is the best. I stand by it. People, people will find it that. That's like me saying well, stephen king wrote a book, I wrote a book, I wrote two books. It's great, it's a great book. They're all gonna buy it. And you know, before you know it, I'm gonna be on oprah's couch because I'm an author. But that's's how the entrepreneur thinks, right, in general.
Speaker 3:Yeah, and I think left to our own devices, right, this is sort of what happens. However, thank God, there's plenty of qualified marketing people out there who can kind of lead the way. But even for the marketing folks, I want to say that scattershot still doesn't work. It's easy to be on all platforms, but which platform should we be on? Where our audience is at, and I would track it to the leads that we're getting. For me, it's all numbers. At the end of the day, you've got to figure out where your leads are coming from, and you might be overlooking some things by not tracking where your leads are coming from. Just reminded of an entrepreneur who's like a $6 million company, wants to get to $12 million. That's a big number. If you're, you know they need to call Omar. That's what they need to do, but the simple challenge is I want to go back to numbers. Is that their website phone number, their trucks and their business cards and everything they do is one phone number, omar? How am I going to know where they saw you?
Speaker 2:You're not.
Speaker 3:You're not. But how many businesses listening today has one phone number and they want that to be the best phone number. But if you did this and you did that and you did the other and you have no idea where your leads are calling from, how am I supposed to figure that out?
Speaker 2:Well, the excuse I can give them is the pre-internet, the pre-social media. When it comes to marketing, you grab everything, you throw it up against the wall and you see what sticks. But unfortunately, what people do is they don't. They never tracked it, so they would keep on throwing more and more spaghetti. Or they would see what sticks and like okay, we tried that. Let's go back to the stuff that's not working and like let's reinvest more time, more resources, more money into the marketing that hasn't been working, because eventually that will work too.
Speaker 3:Right, it's this common things, right. So if we can fix those things, then we're likely to know where it's doing. How about this networking events? I'm not saying anything's wrong with networking events. I think you should go to networking events, meet entrepreneurs. But is your people that you're trying to get at these networking events or the people that know the people that you're trying to get at these networking events? Or are we just wasting time? What if they got on Omar's podcast and that got 100 leads? What's the best use of your time?
Speaker 2:Think about it, I agree, but sometimes you're in the wrong. You can't lead. You have to be in the right room, whether it's a mastermind. Here's a perfect example. I joined a marketing. Well, I'll change the name to protect the innocent BNI people. I changed the name let's, let's market what you know. Let's 10 X, that's 20 X through marketing social media, through whatever. Go jump on my podcast. Even though you don't have something compelling, we'll make it compelling crickets. I'm like let's, let me look at your social media marketing. Let's create a, a campaign.
Speaker 2:And they all looked at me like I. I was like speaking a foreign language. I'm like what you're doing? Meeting for breakfast once a week and taking two, three hours. So, uh, does anybody need a painter? And it it's like, yeah, sure, you can grow if you're 20 and you want to wait 30, 40 years. But I mean, that's the Rolodex. Yeah, the Rolodex was fine man, but you know, it's 2024 or, at the time, 2023. And they looked at me like I was crazy. And then finally they're like hey, dude, we don't, we don't, you're speaking was crazy. And then finally they're like hey, dude, we don't, we don't, you're, you're speaking. You know they were acting like I was trying to lead them away from the call, because the proper way to mark it is to show up and and just have a one meeting. Hey, you know your elevator. Pitch for one minute, have breakfast rinse, repeat, because can anybody give me a referral and show up the following week and do it over and over and over again and expect 10, 20, 30, 30 X on your business.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I couldn't make it to one of those. I'll be honest with you.
Speaker 2:Oh, I'm stubborn. It took me a while to realize that's not my customer, that's not my client. And then they're like we can't really give you anybody until you're here. Just try us for a full year, and then a year to 18 months. And it's like what business do you want to just be losing money, losing time and then eventually, eventually, like you know, after you know a lot of revenue loss, a lot of time loss, you can break even on it.
Speaker 3:Oh terrible. No, that ain't going to 10x and you know that it won't even 2x, so forget about it.
Speaker 2:And when we talk about pivoting and sometimes you have to do things. What I love just just about reading your story. Solomon is like myself. His original business was you were creating websites, right that's right.
Speaker 3:I was a self-taught web designer, didn't know a thing thing. I learned it at a Panera Bread, meaning that's all it took right. It was easy to build it and then I turned that into a business because clearly at that time, when you're looking 15, 16 years ago, omar, you have a very beautiful website, but people didn't know how to build that. They didn't know there was no web designers for hire. Today we have influx of them.
Speaker 2:So that's not my business, but that was the business that I started and you pivoted though you, because you either pivot and you grow at the times like you're either growing or you're retreating and you're dying and you made that pivot and you literally 10x. But by by going to something that anybody can build a website If I I'm horrible at coding, but if I really wanted to, or if anybody wanted to build a website. But when it comes to a funnel, when it comes to brand awareness, when it comes to acquiring both leads and clients, that's an art.
Speaker 3:Right, yeah, it's, it's worth more. And if I'm able to drive somebody, a million dollars of revenue, right. These are the numbers that we have to deal with every single day. Uh, do you think they'll have a hard time paying me a hundred thousand dollars?
Speaker 2:heck. No, that's it, that's a no-brainer. But but how many websites like right, how many times can somebody have such a phenomenal website that, I mean, is Disney World? Disney World because of their website?
Speaker 3:No, not at all. They're Disney World because of awareness. Bam, exactly, that's the punchline.
Speaker 2:I don't think there's anybody in this. You would have to go to, like one of those in the Amazon, one of those indigenous tribes, and you know they, they and they still might know Mickey Mouse Something might've flown off the plane, landed somewhere. They might've. But yeah, coca-cola, disney world, all these Apple, it's all based on brand awareness. It's all about creating raving fans because they're loyal.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I mean companies try to compete with these giants and yeah, you can get some market share. But I mean I remember, like Disney World's competitor Six Flags, disney World's competitor Six Flags their whole marketing campaign for like one year was we're way closer to where you live and to Disney World. Wow. That's like saying I know you can't get a date and I'm available if you're desperate.
Speaker 3:Absolutely. But the fact of the matter is, every single day, like you said, we can only lead horse to the water, can't make them drink. Why isn't people doing that right? We need to think about that, and I honestly think is that it's the lack of knowledge, is the fear of it not working? And let's go back to your title of your book. What if it did work? What if they did invest in facebook ads and all of a sudden, they got 10 leads and they never have to go to that bni breakfast ever in their life, because the people that they're talking to are not their customers, even, or they they might be selling their the lower end of the deals and not the ones that they could get. So I go where the customers are, don't get me wrong and I believe that you want direct access to your customers and you want to scale up or scale down as you have capacity Now.
Speaker 2:Solomon, what is an ideal customer? Let's say, I own a couple of I don't I'm just throwing out. I own a couple of pizzerias. Or you know, I'm a, I'm an entrepreneur, I have a print, a printing press, I do bags and I do all these things. Can, can we go through you and create a funnel for for, like you know, the, the startup, the side hustle, or is it best to hey, you have some money, you have some resources and you already have some sales.
Speaker 3:Absolutely so. First of all, if a person like that comes into my world, I would have them watch my 10X Masterclass. I have a free masterclass. That's the first thing they should do. They shouldn't buy anything from anybody until they know what they're buying and uh, and I would let them learn what we call the growth formula. I'm just saying, once they have an idea of what the growth formula is, how to get to the next level in their growth, then that would that would be the right time to even have a conversation.
Speaker 3:It's not that I don want to work with people. It's just that we want to work with the right people. This is like the decision that our people that are listening need to make for themselves. Not every client is the right fit, and clients can slow you down, believe it or not, because I want to work with like-minded people that want to grow. So if I ask you to double your investment because I see it's like a stockbroker, I see an opportunity, it's a no-brainer, but you're going to be like, nah, let's come back to this and three weeks from now, that opportunity is gone. Who missed out? So we need to be able to make those kinds of adjustments, and I thought your question was how do you find out who the ideal customer is? I was going to say if you want to know how to find your ideal customers you have to look at lifetime value.
Speaker 3:That wasn't my answer. I didn't know. You were asking to me personally, but I was going to say you got to know how much your customers are worth and you work based on that. So I use that as my basis to find my perfect customers. Because I'm not in it for the next two months, omar, neither are you.
Speaker 3:You're not going to stop the podcast and just go back to B&I, right Like you want people that are in it for the long run, want to invest and maybe diversify, maybe start a second business, whatever it is. But once you have a really good team and this is something you'll see in these big giant companies you'll take them everywhere you go. Would you agree Completely? It's the secret to your success. Is the people that you got your marketing guy, your sales guy, your VP, or this or that and the other. I've seen entrepreneurs moving companies, selling companies, taking their group of 10 people eight people wherever they go. So I'm in people's groups and I automatically am part of their deal, even if I don't even know what the deal is, because we've helped them grow so much they don't even need to ever look for another person. That's what you want for your business. You want these extremely hard to find people that understand you know how you work, ready to do whatever it takes, committed, and they're sold on whatever you're going to do.
Speaker 2:And Solomon, what I love too. Man, you do live in abundance and you are in service. If you go on 1IMScom, you literally give free tools.
Speaker 3:Oh tons.
Speaker 2:I mean, like, just on that, I mean I was getting ready. I've been on it for a little while just looking at all your strategies and if I was, if I was back to being a full-time brick and mortar having five to seven locations, I think we would have ended here Absolutely, because I mean this is gold right here. Just just these, all this stuff that you have here on this website can literally that's the growth formula.
Speaker 3:By the way, that's the growth formula, yeah. Someone is drowning and right there, it looks like that yes exactly.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I was just like I've been on it and it's like wow, Because usually everybody's like, oh, I'm not going to give out. You literally teach someone how to fish just on that website.
Speaker 3:Hey, again, we don't get paid to fish. We fish together, right? This is like that's the model, right? It's no secret. Let's be honest with you. Google does SEO in a way that I can see whatever my competition is doing. It's no secret. Let's be honest with you. Google does SEO in a way that I can see whatever my competition is doing. It's pretty open. The question is who do you want to work with to make you get there? Who do you trust? Who do you think is going to stick around for the long haul? Who do you you know? Who do you want to be part of your allies? Right, it's, that's what it really is.
Speaker 3:I would give an easier link, which is 10xinfo, omar, and the reason is it's so much easier when you're driving or listening to this podcast.
Speaker 3:If you go there, 10xinfo, there is a free masterclass, no cost, and the reason I say that is I want them to learn the growth formula, I want them to execute it and then come to me and tell me how well it did or what didn't work and whatnot.
Speaker 3:And I'm happy to coach them and get them on the right track, because everybody can do this and I like people to try it on their own. Test it out, make some content, figure out where your leads are coming from, figure out the lifetime value of your customers. These are very simple things that every single person here can do some self-search and look at your QuickBooks or wherever you track your leads. How many leads are you getting per day? Can you double that, because I know you want a 10 exit, but could we double that? That's when you run into the issues like, well, we don't know how to double it because we don't know where it comes from. Thank you, right. So maybe we start tracking it, but the different phone numbers and different days, so we can now get some better numbers, so we can start measuring and scaling and scaling, and scaling.
Speaker 2:Well, I know you're all about giving out information, knowledge, which is amazing. There's 10xinfocom, there's one IMS 10xinfo.
Speaker 3:It's info info.
Speaker 2:Yeah, you see. Hey, it shows you. When it comes to tech, man, I just know how to turn on.
Speaker 3:No, it's okay, it's all good.
Speaker 2:The one IMS, and what?
Speaker 3:other way.
Speaker 2:I know you got your LinkedIn, which is your name.
Speaker 3:That's right.
Speaker 2:And what, what other tools work? Where can we go and really just have absolutely?
Speaker 3:So on that one I am as website. If they're on that website, there is it under resources. We have what's called webinars. These are free trainings that I've held for like six, seven months. This year I did it and we're just taking a little break because I'm in like five different projects all at once, but every single month we talk about different things how to get rid of your dry pipeline, how to 10x your pipeline, all kinds of resources, omar, that there's nobody going to call you if you fill out the form. No one's going to like harass you. We're not that company. Why? Because, like I said, the right fit. We're here to serve the right fit, but we want to help as many people get ahead of this problem. Look, look at businesses as a whole. This year they're a little shaky because they don't know what's going to happen with the election. They don't know if we should spend money. Like you said, we pull out Instead of doubling down and making money when everybody else is scared. They're sort of like sitting on the sideline.
Speaker 1:Isn't that true?
Speaker 3:You know how many people that could have started a business is waiting for 2025 because it's kind of a little interest rate. Let's not buy a building right now, would you agree, omar? You talk to entrepreneurs every single day. Are they scared or are they very optimistic about our climate right now?
Speaker 3:the only people that are optimistic or lobbyist uh, people angling for an ambassadorship or to be on one of two cabinets I was gonna going to say this would be the time, because if somebody else is sitting there waiting for the right time to come in, I want to go scoop it all up. Right Now is the time.
Speaker 2:The one thing that I wish not because I wish I was younger, just to be younger. I wish I had all these tools available when I started over 20 years ago and I would have been able to grow exponentially, absolutely. And that's what you are. You are like Ponce de Leon with the fountain of youth.
Speaker 3:Now, you're not making people younger, but you're saving time, which is the second next best thing yes, um, and I think, uh, you mentioned this multiple times about time and I think you and I uh probably understand that, knowing what you've gone through and all the hard and struggle work, you wish you can shorten that 20-year cycle five and entrepreneurs do that, by the way, and so when I say 10x, people are like I don't want a 10x. All of a sudden they want to take 100 years to 10x is what they're saying.
Speaker 3:Exactly Rather than get rid of all the stuff that is not working and only work on what's efficient. That's what you and I would do, or anyone that understands the value of time would do, right, like that's the difference. It's either you get it or you don't. And I try not to convince everybody because there's no point. Not everybody gets the concept, but those that do, they understand that time is of the essence because we could be, you know, time is of the essence because we could be, you know, affected by the Netflix coming in and scooping our business, or the Airbnb is going to come in scooping the business. And that's the challenge If you don't do whatever you're supposed to do now, we might be obsolete in a couple of years.
Speaker 2:Now, solomon, I can talk to you forever and ever because we're like-minded people and we've been clicking, but you know we live in that TikTok society, so you know we're way past. There's probably some Netflix show that they need to catch up on, or on Prime or Disney+, but I have to wrap it up with this one last question what words of wisdom, what advice do you have to that entrepreneur or the entrepreneur? Either they haven't started or the person that's been in business for a while. They've seen no growth. They say it is what it is. They feel defeated, they feel like it's it, I can't do it, it's never going to happen.
Speaker 3:Yeah, absolutely. I think it's 99% mindset than anything else. So I would work on that. And it's not the marketing tactics, whether they work or not. We've been doing this for quite a long time. I can tell you all the numbers are there, but if the entrepreneur is not sold on the strategy, there's nothing I can do. I can go right. I can go into a job interview and then think in my head that I'm going to blow it and guess what's going to happen, omar, what's going to happen. I'm like I'm not going to get this job. I'm not going to get this job.
Speaker 2:You say that 10 times going into the job, exactly what is going to happen, right, and so you could sit here and say that you're defeated, or you say you know what the best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago, the next best time is today and you freaking, execute like there's no tomorrow. Man, thank you. Thank you for that answer, thank you for the time and thank you for man just being in service, living in abundance, because in a world where I'm not going to give anybody any answers or everybody in scarcity, more people out there like you, man we make some major, massive change. Solomon, thank you for everything you want to tell people. I know you're an acclaimed author too. How about that? End it with? How do we get the book?
Speaker 3:Oh yeah, just go to my website. Like I said on the 10xinfo, there's a link to my website. Absolutely, if that's what they want to do, 100%, all the books will make you money. So it's up to you if you want to make money or not.
Speaker 2:It's not the price of the book, it it's not the price of the book. It's what you're paying by not buying the book. Wow, omar, hats off. Thank you, brother, for your time absolutely thanks for having me.
Speaker 1:What if you took action and made it happen? It's gonna live in the side of your purpose. What is it d word? Right now you can make a choice To never listen to that negative voice, no more. The hardest prison to escape is our own mind. I was trapped inside that prison all for a long time. To make it happen, you gotta take action. Just imagine what if it did work.