Ready to break barriers in your startup's growth while navigating the maze of personal fulfillment? That's exactly what we're unpacking in a riveting discussion about skyrocketing sales and the deceptive allure of status. From an exhilarating partnership with Ace Hardware to redefining commission structures at Clearwave Water, we're sharing the nitty-gritty of fostering a sales team that's driven by ownership and the promise of passive income. Discover the strategies that are more effective than cold emails when it comes to big-box retail collaborations, and learn how a culture of commitment can significantly multiply your lead generation efforts.
But it's not all about the bottom line; it's also about the journey. As we celebrate personal victories and set new benchmarks, we delve into the often-misunderstood quest for status and happiness. Find out why societal status might be a mirage and how crafting your own benchmarks can lead to profound satisfaction. We'll dissect the power of status in sales and why embracing the grind towards achieving goals can be more rewarding than the goals themselves. Join us as we explore these dynamic terrains, offering insights that could transform not just your business strategies but your life's trajectory.
Ready to break barriers in your startup's growth while navigating the maze of personal fulfillment? That's exactly what we're unpacking in a riveting discussion about skyrocketing sales and the deceptive allure of status. From an exhilarating partnership with Ace Hardware to redefining commission structures at Clearwave Water, we're sharing the nitty-gritty of fostering a sales team that's driven by ownership and the promise of passive income. Discover the strategies that are more effective than cold emails when it comes to big-box retail collaborations, and learn how a culture of commitment can significantly multiply your lead generation efforts.
But it's not all about the bottom line; it's also about the journey. As we celebrate personal victories and set new benchmarks, we delve into the often-misunderstood quest for status and happiness. Find out why societal status might be a mirage and how crafting your own benchmarks can lead to profound satisfaction. We'll dissect the power of status in sales and why embracing the grind towards achieving goals can be more rewarding than the goals themselves. Join us as we explore these dynamic terrains, offering insights that could transform not just your business strategies but your life's trajectory.
All right, guys, what's going on? Good morning? Um little morning vlog here today. Like I said when I started this podcast, um, I really wanted this to be not only me interviewing people, but also almost being like a little diary of kind of what's going on in the real life of of of a startup business. Um, I think, unfortunately, I don't have the uh the budget for a full time videographer right now to to try to capture all the moments, which I will love to do at some point, but I'm thinking this little audio diary will be the next best thing. So it is what they say.
Speaker 1:
Today is February 26, um seven in the morning and uh, a lot of, uh, a lot of good things going on this month. Uh, we have been a fourth quarter team for sure. Um first week of the month was really hot, had a bit of a slouch throughout the middle of the month, but then we were able to pick it up um at the end of the month, which is really, really exciting. Um, so this is actually be our record month as far as deposits go in. I think we're going to bring in 70 grand of actual like cash collected, which is great. Um, the month before, I think we're doing 85 K ish uh in top line, but uh, that wasn't all take home. So you know, we're actually going to be depositing one of our biggest checks uh this month, which would be great because we can then start paying off some of the upstart uh costs of the business um, as well as put some more money into marketing Um and hopefully also get some more equipment on hand so we can install these systems at a faster rate. So it's pretty exciting. Uh, we were also able to finalize um our partnership with a local Ace hardware franchise, so they will be offering our water tests to all their customers, which is great for us because now we can uh go ahead and get a lot of leads in, and then that'll also help the store because they will get a commission based off the sale price. So with that today I kind of want to talk about how, if you're a home service business to um, get these big box retail stores. And then I want to talk about just kind of like meta stuff I've been thinking about that I think could definitely help um, especially if you're trying to build up a team and you're in that little startup mode right now. But going to to big box, uh, real quick.
Speaker 1:
Um, one of the things that I was doing uh a begin of last year, trying to secure these relationships, was a lot of emails, a lot of following on LinkedIn, and unfortunately, I didn't get a lot of good responses from that. Um, I've also tried to get into some retail stores based off some relationships I've had uh with people in the industry for a while, which is a good way to try to leverage that, but again, uh, nothing was really uh coming from that, so it was kind of a waste of time. Uh learned a bit as far as, like, drafting up emails, I guess, but wasn't really able to secure anything meaningful. As far as partnerships, I could get me stuff in their stores and, uh, get some money. I did try some smaller stores, just walking around and I started getting more traction there. So what that showed me was it's almost better to just, if you have an outside sales team, create an incentive for them to go judge up that business for you, because, at the end of the day, when you're running the company, there's only so much you can do. Right, you have other things that you need to be focused on If you want to push the business forward.
Speaker 1:
Um, so what I did was you know, most companies we have or at least most companies do uh door to door uh sales, knocking on doors, you know, to get leads and things like that. So what I did is I just converted that same model for B2B and, if you have an outside sales team, this is a really good way for your reps to earn some uh residual income, which one of the things I think is really important when building a team is figuring out ways to make them feel like they have a piece of the pie, and you want to also find out ways to do that without giving away equity or profit sharing, especially early on. So what I did is I have a structure built into the company where, if any of my door-to-door guys are able to drudge up B2B business or big box retail stores or local gyms that would let us promote, or health clubs or things like that that any store they get, they will get a percentage of every sale and perpetuity of that store as long as they work for the company. So as long as they work here, they will get paid per sale. Now, it's not a massive percentage, right, but it's made to be so if someone, if a rep gets you know they were for five to six stores under their belts. They could theoretically not have to work if they wanted to make, you know, minimum wage. So and then if they are closing deals on top of that it's just added income, added commissions and, you know, as that continues to grow, it becomes a compounding vehicle for the rep. And I think in a lot of sales environments there are not a lot of inherently built compounding vehicles for the salespeople themselves to be able to actually grow with the business and make more money. And for the rep themselves it's a great. It's a great great position to be in because you know they're going to move up with the company. They'll make more money, but they'll also, you know, the longer they're with the business. If they continue to try to go to different businesses, it's just natural they'll get plenty of them for you. So for them they're really able to have a piece of the company. It'll also help you as a business out because you don't have to do all the manual labor that yourself. But also getting these retail stores is a massive lead gen source. So two or three of those could be a difference between you being a 20 or a 10 to 15 install a month company or a 50 to 60 install a month company, so it's really worth incentivizing people to do so. It also gives them skin in the game, which makes it really a win-win for everybody, which is ultimately, if you can find those win-wins, that's amazing. That's really what you want to go for. So then kind of switch into the more meta stuff that I've been thinking about.
Speaker 1:
I listened to this author named Will Store and he basically wrote a book about kind of humans and our evolution and how we think and how he operates and what drives us at the core, and one of the things he was talking about the most was this idea of status and really how ingrained status is into everything that we do. And I thought about that because it's really the main driver between why people stay in the ruts they're in and why people try to achieve more. It's why people get the Lamborghinis, why they get the private jets. A lot of the time it's a status thing and it feels good. He even mentioned how a lot of times when people commit suicide or get really depressed, it's usually during the onset of a dramatic loss of status. You imagine someone was running a Fortune 500 company and they lose it all and now they're a janitor. Or maybe you were an NFL player and you broke your leg and now you're a middle school football coach, something like that. And this goes to everything we do in life.
Speaker 1:
And what I thought was interesting is status. Obviously there's the societal status, but really, if you're looking to be happy and fulfilled, what you need to try to do is determine your own status game within your own life. So when I left the military, I was working out what you would consider a high status position. It looked good but I wasn't super fulfilled. You know, I was working in the Pentagon doing executive protection. I was, you know, with the secretary of the Navy, the secretary defense. No, it's flying on private jets, staying in five-star hotels and wasn't only all these important board meetings that were, you know, shaping the way the country ran.
Speaker 1:
And you know, high status, high status game. And when I left to get into sales, that was socially a low status game. I lost status by doing that. I went from you know what I just mentioned to knocking on doors and sun and homes and I think that Feeling of perceived lost status and the judgment of others is really why people stay poor Because some of the biggest status games in the world take the most amount of time and generally don't have the biggest returns. I mean, sure, being a doctor, high status, but long, you know. Financial commitment, lawyer, same thing, Right, a lot of these like what quote-unquote high status jobs are?
Speaker 1:
Now, as we, you know, the younger generation comes up, you know it's moving more towards social media. Being a brand or having some sort of Following is kind of the new status game. I think so. That's why all these people are just losing their minds trying to get it on social right, and I think the key to happiness, what I've been really trying to to do, is Determine your own status within yourself, because when I went into sales, I didn't see it as a loss of status. To be honest, I saw how much money all these people around me were making and I thought it was an opportunity.
Speaker 1:
Now, yeah, was it Initially a loss of status? Sure, but you know I ate Crap for two and a half three years, so to say, did my, did my reps in the gym? You could say you know was, you know did my tour, and you know lower management and you know being on the front line and now I own up my own business and this business now allowed me to partner with another company and now we're which have then allowed me to to partner with you know, victor Ranker, we're gonna be doing an event here in Virginia. It's gonna be a massive, massive sales and business event. And now I have elevated in status quote-unquote because I now own a company and I'm able to be in different rooms than I was before.
Speaker 1:
But really it doesn't matter, right? That status, this Perceive status, doesn't really matter. You know it's all about how do you feel about the progression that you're making, because, at the end of the day, you know you can only judge. You know when you're at based off where you came from, and a lot of people are judging. You know where they are compared to Somebody else's journey, where they might have been on it for 10 or 15 years, right? So there's a quote that says don't judge your day one on someone's day 100, or however that quote goes. And it's hard to do that when you're, when you're playing these status games. So that's really all we do is bread into us.
Speaker 1:
It's a way that when you see people like who look dirty, you kind of tend to judge them. Or someone looks really rich trying to judge them right. So I'm pulls up in a Lamborghini and I suit you're going to make preconceived notions based off their status. Someone shows up looking like trash, with the trash bag over their shoulder and they're they're dirty and smelly. You're gonna make judgments. Someone's obese? You're gonna make judgments right. We'd make these, these judgments on status all the time.
Speaker 1:
And one thing that I also found is in sales. By knowing this stuff, I've actually been able to tighten up my sales process a bit and get bigger deals, because when you find a client, especially more affluent areas where money is not so much an obstacle, they tend to care way more about their status. So what I've been doing is in homes or when I'm pitching these products or even developing ad copy for my products. Now is, we are leveraging that Status instinct within people to make them buy. So we frame these systems in the homes that these are like the Cadillacs of water. These are the Lamborghinis of water. Only the top-end people get these equipment because of their price points. They have x, y and z. It's very exclusive right.
Speaker 1:
We do all these things To to to give the perceived status change that someone will receive with these systems. In our scripts even, we say listen, you know I'm sure your friends and family you guys might like to host. Every time you get one of these systems and people come over they can't stop raving about it. They're gonna ask you where you got it, they're gonna want to beg you for those referrals, and so that will then future pace the client to have a positive movie play in their head of Ooh, people that come over to my house will love this thing. It'll put me in an elevated status because they don't have it and I do have it. You know it's to keep up with the Joneses.
Speaker 1:
And it's really crazy because If you actually look at yourself and are honest with yourself, think about all the decisions you've made or not made based on how you think it would affect your status, and then think about how your life might have changed or been different if you did not listen to those people and just kept doing the thing that you were supposed to be doing. It's crazy, right, you'd probably be further along, or maybe it protected you. You know it could go both ways, but it's a powerful thing and if you can think back on how you've been moved by status change. You can then implement that when either just talking to people, networking, or just having a little bit of grace for yourself, and where you're at, I will tell you when you hit the benchmarks and the goals that you're trying to hit. Eventually it'll feel like you're back at zero anyway. So you've got to fall in love with the process of getting the goal more than getting the goal. I know that's an overused statement, guys, I understand, but it is so true, because every time you hit something, you hit that goal. It just becomes another thing.
Speaker 1:
Starting a business for me was like this huge milestone and I thought I was going to just be on top of the world forever. But now it's just like everything else. Right, I'm passionate about it, don't get me wrong. I love the fact that I get to be my own boss and run the company, but it does turn into just another day. And so now my goal is hitting certain different metrics. You know, hitting a million in profit within six months that's a goal, and you know when you hit it it's going to feel great, but then it's just going to be like every other day, and then that next month is going to be well. I want to hit, you know, five and six months, then 10 and then 20, right. The bar is always going to move, especially for people like us who are overachievers right, that bar is always going to change.
Speaker 1:
So the only way to not lose your mind is to really just enjoy the process of hitting those goals and enjoying the process of being the person that you're becoming by hitting those goals and by going through the hardships and by reframing myself as, as long as I continue to work to achieve those goals and as long as I continue to work to try to push myself and the company further, then I am in a high status, regardless of what the bank account says, regardless of what the car is in the driveway, the way I have framed it. For me is, as long as I am pushing myself, no matter what the outcome is, I am in a high status and that gives me confidence to push, to take risk, and it has put me in rooms and in conversations that I would not otherwise be in. And if you are listening to this, I highly encourage you to follow your own barometer for success and try to try to fall in love with doing the hard work, doing the things that actually get you to where you want to go, not focusing on the destination of where you're trying to get, because I promise you when you get there it's going to feel great for a moment and then you're going to be wondering what's next. Is this all there is Okay, and the only way to avoid that is to understand that once you get there, there's only a new battle to conquer, and battling that battle is the purpose of living, is the purpose of why we do what we do. So that's where we're at. Thank you, guys for listening.
Speaker 1:
Like I said, good end of the month going into March is my birthday month, so I'm going to try to go super hard during that month. And as I end this podcast, I am heading out to do a couple more commercial quotes. We were also about to bid on two federal contracts, so this goal was to finally start securing some of those federal agreements. And, oh, my company, clearwave Water, is also expanding to multiple states now, which is amazing. So beginning in March, we will be able to serve Jersey, delaware and Maryland. So very, very exciting about that. We are building the team. So if you're a salesperson and you're listening to this podcast and you are in the little states and you want to come join my water team. You are more than happy to come sell for me. I'd love to meet you, I'd love to have you on board and we can see what we can do. All right, guys, peace.