The Thoughtful Entrepreneur

In this episode of the Thoughtful Entrepreneur, your host Josh Elledge talks with the founder of Royal Legal Solutions, Scott Smith. Royal Legal Solutions is a team of around 40 people that helps entrepreneurs and investors protect themselves legally, optimize their portfolio, and build and maintain wealth. Their clients are medium to high net worth individuals who want curated advice from top-notch experts. Scott shares that when he first began investing, he ignored the wealth-building side of things. It was incredibly difficult to align everything, but once he optimized his investing, he started offering his approach and solutions as Royal Legal Solutions. They help these people reduce their taxes and increase their income and wealth. Scott shares that it’s hard to find, vet, and trust the experts and mentors who are out there. It’s hard to find savvy mentors that all agree on how to tackle your wealth. Royal Legal Solutions offers all of these services in-house so you don’t have to search endlessly for qualified experts. Royal Legal can help position your wealth and portfolio to begin generating passive income. If you diversify your portfolio and build a passive system that builds wealth, you can deeply and truly enjoy your life thanks to financial freedom. In quarterbacking information, you see a lot more errors and lack of consistency in wealth building. Royal Legal Solutions is dedicated to educating their audience on how to become financially free - you can even ask the experts at Royal Legal questions during their live events. They seek to facilitate connections between their audience members and encourage other individuals to share their strengths and weaknesses during their educational events. This form of networking is just another benefit you can see from hiring a seasoned, professional in-house team to manage your wealth for you. Scott shares that he and his team, in two months, can walk their clients through the entire process required to build and maintain their wealth. He shares that after his clients go through these meetings, they know exactly what they need to spend money on and what their finances need to flourish. More often than not, they choose to make the investment to work with Royal Legal Solutions. Check out the twenty question investor quiz on their website so they can provide you with curated content and to see where they can assist you with your wealth management. Want to learn more? Check out Royal Legal Solutions’ website at https://royallegalsolutions.com/. Check out the Royal Legal Solutions at https://go.royallegalsolutions.com/financial-freedom-quiz-page-1. Check out Royal Legal Solutions on LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/company/royal-legal-solutions/. Check out Scott Smith on LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/in/scott-royal-smith/. Don’t forget to subscribe to The Thoughtful Entrepreneur and thank you for listening. Tune in next time!More from UpMyInfluence:✅ We are actively booking guests for our DAILY Entrepreneur Success Podcast. Schedule HERE.✅ Are you a 6-figure consultant? Let us fill your sales schedule and move you to 7-figures. Learn more here.✅ Check out our free Authority Transformation Masterclass. 

In this episode of the Thoughtful Entrepreneur, your host Josh Elledge talks to the founder of The Garden Continuum, Monique Allen. The Garden Continuum builds and maintains beautiful landscapes. On their website, The Garden Continuum shares that landscape is more than a “thing” that surrounds a house or business. Your landscape can become a Life‑Scape™; a special, beautiful and functional part of your property. The Garden Continuum strives to enrich the human experience by considering your unique personality, the natural features of your land, and the environmental impacts of design and installation. This is what sets Monique and her company apart. Monique shares the different types of providers within the landscaping space. She shares her story about how she fell into this space when she met someone in college who suggested she try her hand at landscaping. She realized for the first time that she felt alive while doing work and she hasn’t steered away from that drive since. Josh and Monique explore how this has typically been a male-skewed industry, especially back in the 80s when she started The Garden Continuum. Women tended to only work on the stylistic end of things back then – Monique shares that she wanted to break that mold and do all of the work, including the hard physical labor. The Garden Continuum has more females on their team and the space has seen more women in these roles, she shares. Monique also explains that she is nurturing and compassionate above all else. She’s tough, but she also knows how to get results. She approached the trade without being hard on her team, and this has made all the difference.Monique and Josh also talk about the evolution of trade-based businesses. Most people are passionate about these trades and start as technicians. As you learn and become more adept, you become a master. That’s when you start asking yourself why you shouldn’t work for yourself. There has been a shift in the space and trade service owners need to understand that their teams are experiencing burnout – enough to put some companies out of business. It’s the job of trade service owners to build the next generation of trade workers. Turnover is higher than ever in the trade services, so providing roles for technicians that encourage good company culture will result in retention. Don’t HUNT for the perfect employee in a trade space; you have to attract them. Want to learn more? Check out The Garden Continuum’s website at https://www.thegardencontinuum.com/. Check out The Garden Continuum on LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/company/the-garden-continuum-inc/. Check out Monique Allen on LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/in/moniquetgc/. Don’t forget to subscribe to The Thoughtful Entrepreneur and thank you for listening. Tune in next time!More from UpMyInfluence:✅ We are actively booking guests for our DAILY Entrepreneur Success Podcast. Schedule HERE.✅ Are you a 6-figure consultant? Let us fill your sales schedule and move you to 7-figures. Learn more here.✅ Check out our free Authority Transformation Masterclass.

In this episode of the Thoughtful Entrepreneur, your host Josh Elledge speaks with the founder and CEO of Diesel Laptops, Tyler Robertson.Diesel Laptops provides efficiency solutions for people fixing diesel equipment. Tyler shares that it’s not just highway workers who use diesel engines – there are actually more diesel engines off the highway than on it, so this is actually a massive industry with a need for what Tyler’s company offers. Tyler explains that farming equipment, airstrip vehicles, plumbing, and more require diesel engines. It’s not going away anytime soon; this is the industry that gets products to your door. Tyler and Josh explore the origins of Diesel Laptops – which was started by accident. Tyler had a lot of experience working with a software company before he built kits to help their customers use and download this software for their diesel powered engines. Before long, he had a powerful business idea take off. Diesel Laptops grew incredibly fast, but they needed to diversify, Tyler shares. They continued building software that could truly diagnose and educate the user (some of which they developed for free until they ultimately developed it into a SaaS program.) Diesel Laptops is the only solution that provides the computers, software, and hardware that can communicate between the engine/truck and the computer. Tyler shares that when they started Diesel Laptops, there wasn’t a company that offered all of the components of a diesel diagnostic solution on the market. This is what makes Diesel Laptops unique – they offer a holistic approach to diesel solutions and they provide content and education on the subject.  Tyler shares he had close relationships with his clients in the beginning so he was able to tackle every need and desire of theirs directly. As they scaled, Tyler has had to rely on other means to garner this data, which has been a bit of a challenge. He stresses that the number one way to streamline and optimize your business is to listen to your customers. They know what problems they need solved and what they want to see from your business, so ask them! Tyler shares that many of their products were made and provided for free to their clients when they established a minimum viable product. This allowed for product testing and real time feedback from clients as Diesel Laptops grew. Whether you’re a highway worker or you’re in an industry that utilizes diesel engines, Diesel Laptops has the solutions for you.  Want to learn more? Check out Diesel Laptops’ website at https://www.diesellaptops.com/. Check out Diesel Laptops on LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/company/diesel-laptops/.  Check out Tyler Robertson on LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/in/tyler-robertson-diesel/. Don’t forget to subscribe to The Thoughtful Entrepreneur and thank you for listening. Tune in next time!More from UpMyInfluence:✅ We are actively booking guests for our DAILY Entrepreneur Success Podcast. Schedule HERE.✅ Are you a 6-figure consultant? Let us fill your sales schedule and move you to 7-figures. Learn more here.✅ Check out our free Authority Transformation Masterclass. 

In this episode of the Thoughtful Entrepreneur, your host Josh Elledge speaks to the founder and CEO of Virtudesk, Pavel Stepanov.Virtudesk is a company that provides trained and managed virtual assistants for small to medium sized businesses. They started working in the real estate space and have now branched into the insurance and even weather protection industries. Josh and Pavel explore how difficult it has been for small businesses to find VAs. It’s simply hard to find qualified talent at the right price. Not only that, but there could be issues with productivity, accountability, and accuracy. This is where Virtudesk steps in. They manage and train the VAs they outsource and they know how to monitor key KPIs for the given positions they fill for the companies they work with. If you’re a business owner who is too busy to do the work to find good VAs, then outsource to a firm like Virtudesk. An assistant is supposed to learn your business, help you establish standard operating procedures, and help you build these systems. Only qualified, professional virtual assistants can do this work. Pavel also explores how granular the various roles within a company can get and shares that you can’t function at a high level doing those roles yourself. You need competent assistants to fill those roles so you, as the business owner, can focus on your zone of genius. There is a common myth that only the business owner can execute a high level of service - if you hire right, your company will thrive without you in that role. Pavel explains that your customer isn’t in love with you, they’re in love with your level of service. When your company is organized by procedures and systems, the right hire with the right training can do any job you need filled within your organization. Virtudesk helps with hiring right. Josh and Pavel also explore how to bring on a VA. You need a robust onboarding experience, you have to indicate how your company does things, and you need to have standard operating procedures for them to follow. Systems and modules are key when it comes to hiring VAs. Pavel shares a good indicator of your systems – if you go on vacation and you come back to see more revenue than when you left, chances are things are operating well within your business. When things are clear enough where your teams can step in and operate at all levels, you have good systems and processes in place. Want to learn more? Check out Virtudesk’s website at https://www.myvirtudesk.com/. Check out Virtudesk on LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/company/virtudesk/. Check out Pavel Stepanov on LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/in/pavelgstepanov/. Don’t forget to subscribe to The Thoughtful Entrepreneur and thank you for listening. Tune in next time!More from UpMyInfluence:✅ We are actively booking guests for our DAILY Entrepreneur Success Podcast. Schedule HERE.✅ Are you a 6-figure consultant? Let us fill your sales schedule and move you to 7-figures. Learn more here.✅ Check out our free Authority Transformation Masterclass.

In this episode of the Thoughtful Entrepreneur, your host Josh Elledge talks to the founder and CEO of Zoomin Software, Gal Oron. Zoomin Software helps customers of B2B companies self-serve more efficiently. Zoomin sets a completely new standard in how this is being done through technical content. In essence, they look at the customers of the businesses they work with and they determine how to give those customers a stellar end user experience. Zoomin makes customers feel empowered when it comes to using enterprise offerings and helps them self-serve without the need to reach out to tech support. Gal shares that almost 90% of customers that have bad technical experiences with a piece of software will simply switch to a different product. Most consumers won’t want to deal with the hassle of calling customer support or sending emails back and forth. Giving them stellar, self-serve solutions is the best way to retain these customers.With enterprise products, there are typically complications and issues that require support, there’s just no way around that. You should be creating technical content (blog posts, tutorials, and more) around how to strategically use these enterprise offerings. Zoomin doesn’t create or manage this content for their clients – they take what their clients already have, they go out of their way to understand their clients’ desires, and they know how to contextualize the current customer experience. Zoomin offers ways to deeply understand where technical pitfalls occur based on user experience analysis – Gal and his team can give their clients actionable insights, including the moment a customer is thinking about switching to a different solution. Knowing why and when this happens is key in improving your customer retention. When Zoomin works with their clients, they see an immediate impact on experience KPIs. There is a direct impact on both customer retention at the end of the sales cycle as well as an impact on earning customers. Gal shares that users who consume a lot of technical content are automatically credible leads, and Zoomin’s solutions offer ways to analyze and pinpoint these leads using their unique data analytics. Customers don’t want to spend their time on the phone with tech support. Statistics show that most customers will totally dislike the support experience no matter what, simply because they feel their time is wasted when they can’t find the answers easily within your content. Improve your customer experience by providing top-notch educational content about your enterprise offering. Want to learn more? Check out Zoomin Software’s website at https://www.zoominsoftware.com/. Check out Zoomin Software on LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/company/zoomin-software/. Check out Gal Oron on LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/in/gal-oron-6857902/.  Don’t forget to subscribe to The Thoughtful Entrepreneur and thank you for listening. Tune in next time!More from UpMyInfluence:✅ We are actively booking guests for our DAILY Entrepreneur Success Podcast. Schedule HERE.✅ Are you a 6-figure consultant? Let us fill your sales schedule and move you to 7-figures. Learn more here.✅ Check out our free Authority Transformation Masterclass.

In this episode of the Thoughtful Entrepreneur, your host Josh Elledge speaks to a partner with ReadySpaces, Kevin Petrovic. ReadySpaces provides small industrial spaces for small to medium sized businesses. Let’s say you’re a small business owner working out of your garage, but you need a slightly larger space (along with some equipment.) ReadySpaces provides full service, turnkey industrial spaces for these types of businesses to use as a service. ReadySpaces is flexible, easy, and tailor-made for the businesses they work with. Other rental-based industrial spaces don’t tend to come fully equipped and ready for work – this is where ReadySpaces saw and filled a need. Kevin shares the challenges that ReadySpaces addresses, whether you’re concerned with commercial-level operations or with help aligning logistics, like internet and equipment. ReadySpaces has over 20 locations across the US and Canada, so if you’re in a major city, see if they have a location near you here. Kevin also explains that ReadySpaces users are able to create and build new distribution centers by utilizing their network. This means business owners that they work with have unprecedented opportunities for reach and growth. Kevin and Josh also explore how ReadySpaces tends to operate – they convert large warehouse spaces into segmented, fully equipped commercial workshops. They also have different space offerings based on the needs of the individual businesses they’re working with. The smallest units cost less than $500 monthly, which are about the size of a one car garage. The cost of the units also fluctuate with the local market. No matter where you are with your business, ReadySpaces has an affordable option for you. According to their website, ReadySpaces provides real estate solutions to businesses looking for warehousing, industrial, and storage spaces between 250 sq. ft. and 5,000 sq. ft. These spaces are a notch above the ordinary. Their spaces are reconfigurable, secure, accessible 24/7, and well-maintained. They offer a variety of lease lengths to help provide the flexibility that's key for small businesses. ReadySpaces offers a variety of top-notch amenities for their partners, including internet, office spaces, kitchens, full electricity, forklifts, pallet jacks, WiFi, and more.Kevin shares that there were many obstacles along the way during ReadySpaces’ first couple of years, but they have come a long way and pivoted well to see the success they’ve achieved. If you’re a small to medium sized business with a need for a fully equipped commercial industrial space, contact ReadySpaces’ solutions team to see if and where they can accommodate your needs. Want to learn more? Check out ReadySpaces’s website at https://readyspaces.com/. Check out ReadySpaces on LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/company/readyspaces-warehouses/. Check out Kevin Petrovic on LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/in/kevinpetrovic/. Don’t forget to subscribe to The Thoughtful Entrepreneur and thank you for listening. Tune in next time!More from UpMyInfluence:✅ We are actively booking guests for our DAILY Entrepreneur Success Podcast. Schedule HERE.✅ Are you a 6-figure consultant? Let us fill your sales schedule and move you to 7-figures. Learn more here.✅ Check out our free Authority Transformation Masterclass.

In this episode of the Thoughtful Entrepreneur, your host Josh Elledge speaks with the founder and CEO of SJO Investments, Scott Oots. Scott owns a real estate investment firm based in southern California. They buy about 200 houses annually, mainly in the fix and flip and wholesaling industries. He also coaches young entrepreneurs and investors on how to take the first steps in their business journeys and get to the next level. Josh and Scott explore what makes Scott unique as an investor. He shares that he didn’t come from money – he built everything he has from scratch. His parents worked nine-to-five jobs and he wanted something different. This is what Scott encourages his clients to do – strive for the “different” they desire in life. There’s so much more to life than grinding for a company at a corporate job, and this is what Scott seeks to help others learn. Scott also explains why he thinks investors should add real estate to their portfolio. We all know there is long term wealth and passive income opportunities within real estate. There are many ways to get into real estate investing and the long term return on investments, when things are done right, is unmatched. But where do you draw the lines between active versus passive investing?Buying, fixing, and flipping is the “active” side of real estate investing. You always get good returns when you make strategic active investment choices. Short term investments make you a lot of money quickly through active investing. Long term investments, more passive ones, bring you more wealth over time. The best part about real estate investing is that you can get creative with how you decide to diversify your real estate portfolio. Josh and Scott also explore where beginners should start. You don’t need a lot of money to start, Scott says. If you want to get into passive investment properties, first find where you want to have your first investment. Choose location based on the market, return on investment, which way the state leans when it comes to tenants and landlords, property taxes, and more. Scott recommends landlord-friendly states to start with. Scott shares the work he does today. He and his team help investors get to the next level, make smart deals, avoid common investor mistakes, and more. Scott says he really wants to help other investors succeed and thrive and this is why he offers speaking engagements and coaching work. Want to learn more? Check out SJO Investments’s website at https://guestio.com/. Check out Scott Oots’s website at https://www.scottoots.com/.  Check out Scott Oots on LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/in/scott-oots-3a2b341b/. Don’t forget to subscribe to The Thoughtful Entrepreneur and thank you for listening. Tune in next time!More from UpMyInfluence:✅ We are actively booking guests for our DAILY Entrepreneur Success Podcast. Schedule HERE.✅ Are you a 6-figure consultant? Let us fill your sales schedule and move you to 7-figures. Learn more here.✅ Check out our free Authority Transformation Masterclass.

In this episode of the Thoughtful Entrepreneur, your host Josh Elledge talks to content strategist, writer, and podcaster with Simple Creative Marketing, Anfernee Chansamooth.Simple Creative Marketing focuses on producing customer success stories and case studies for B2B service and SaaS companies. They typically work with 7-figure or more companies on assets to help them sell more. Content creation and marketing has to be executed effectively in order to scale at that level. Anfernee shares that they conduct marketing audits for the companies they work with when they begin working together. Seeing where existing marketing needs to be pivoted is the first step in actually seeing higher conversion rates. You have to narrow down the content that works for selling versus content that works to build a brand. When someone is evaluating a product or service, they want tangible proof and case studies to convince them the solution will work for them. This is the hurdle service providers need to overcome when scaling. Josh and Anfernee also discuss the differences between a testimonial and a case study. Testimonials are short and can definitely be executed wrong. When they’re jargon riddled or a copywriter wrote it for you, it won’t resonate with your audience. A case study, on the other hand, offers engagement context, methodology details, and why working with you really made a difference. A case study also needs to speak to the long term impact from working with your solution. This is where case studies really work better than testimonials – it tells someone the story behind your value proposition and what sets your company apart from your competitors. You need to prove you can deliver, especially when scaling above 7-figures. Josh also explores some common problems he sees with testimonials. A random name and last initial doesn’t resonate with a prospect when it comes to attributing a testimonial. You need to connect your testimonials and case studies to the audiences reading them. Introduce the person to your leads - show them why your case study, review, or testimonial subject is just like the prospect. If you don’t tell that story clearly through them, it won’t hit home or resonate. Give the case study the authority and credibility to speak to the rest of your audience. Your ad results need to achieve the specific goals and KPIs you set, but you have to deliver your messaging with emotion. Show your audience where they fit into the story of your solution. Show them with empathy and tangible proof that you can be the solution to their problem. Want to learn more? Check out Simple Creative Marketing’s website at https://www.simplecreativemarketing.com/. Check out Simple Creative Marketing on LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/company/simple-creative-marketing/. Check out Simple Creative Marketing's free goodies for listeners of The Thoughtful Entrepreneur at https://www.simplecreativemarketing.com/upmyinfluence/. Don’t forget to subscribe to The Thoughtful Entrepreneur and thank you for listening. Tune in next time!More from UpMyInfluence:✅ We are actively booking guests for our DAILY Entrepreneur Success Podcast. Schedule HERE.✅ Are you a 6-figure consultant? Let us fill your sales schedule and move you to 7-figures. Learn more here.✅ Check out our free Authority Transformation Masterclass. 

In this episode of the Thoughtful Entrepreneur, your host Josh Elledge speaks to the CEO of Guestio, Travis Chappell. Guestio is a pay-to-play platform marketplace that allows you to book yourself onto quality podcasts – or, if you’re a podcast, you can find amazing guests. This platform brings quality creators and guests together through Guestio’s network. Guestio’s users are all dedicated to excellent podcasting and this is why they’re a paid platform. This platform ensures that serious, dedicated podcasters meet high-level guests. The best part is that Guestio allows each guest to charge an appearance fee as much as podcasts can charge an interview fee, so everyone is paid for their talent. Podcasting won’t necessarily bring you a windfall of traffic, but the traffic you will get will be ready to buy from you. Podcasting reaches an untapped audience and begins the know, like, and trust process organically. If someone wants to listen to you host or guest on a podcast for the entire length of a show, they’re already starting to like you. This is what makes podcasting so valuable. It may not be a massive quantity, but the leads that come from podcasting will always be quality, organic leads. Travis shares a valuable insight; you need to own your name when it comes to online authority and ranking. You need to build a strong network and make efforts to rank online in order to have reach and authority. One of the best ways to establish this authority and credibility is to be a guest on podcasts. Tell your story and get yourself in front of audiences. Podcasting, for many reasons, should be a part of your monthly budget, Travis advises. Travis and Josh discuss Guestio’s concierge service and how their offerings can manage someone’s podcasting bookings entirely. On the other hand, they also have “do it yourself” services. Guestio has offerings for companies at various levels of growth and revenue. Travis also shares how to charge for interviews as a creator. If you have more demand than you have guest slots, chances are you can start charging appearance fees. Beyond that, you can offer a “skip the line” offering that’s optional for those that want faster interviews and publishing dates. Monetizing your show appearances, or monetizing yourself as talent, has been made seamless by Guestio’s platform. Travis shares that there are many common mistakes when it comes to monetizing a podcast and he stresses that you’re not selling out if you monetize. There’s real value to an interview when your podcast is an established, authoritative platform.Want to learn more? Check out Guestio’s website at https://guestio.com/. Check out Guestio on LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/company/guestio/. Check out Travis Chappell on LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/in/travischappell/.  Don’t forget to subscribe to The Thoughtful Entrepreneur and thank you for listening. Tune in next time!More from UpMyInfluence:✅ We are actively booking guests for our DAILY Entrepreneur Success Podcast. Schedule HERE.✅ Are you a 6-figure consultant? Let us fill your sales schedule and move you to 7-figures. Learn more here.✅ Check out our free Authority Transformation Masterclass.

In this episode of the Thoughtful Entrepreneur, your host Josh Elledge speaks with keynote speaker, coach, and founder of Phenom Leap Education, David Lindsay.Phenom Leap Education was born during the first phase of the COVID-19 pandemic, David explains. David’s face-to-face coaching business was suddenly totally on hold. He and some like minded friends in his network came together and created their courses online. From there, they founded Phenom Leap Education in order to enable them to have a global, virtual impact on their audience. Now, they’re interacting with audiences all over the world. David explains that he and his team help small to mid-level business owners who have hit a wall. He and his team helps to bridge that gap by helping them become better leaders and better versions of themselves. He shares that business owners who are plodding along and spinning their wheels and aren’t gaining momentum need to tackle making a bigger impact. Face-to-face coaching was reliant on local business, but the pandemic changed how the world communicates. Specifically, David strives to help middle management with the heat they receive on both ends. Building a robust middle management team is key to bridging some of the gaps with business stagnation. David shares that he sees many leaders losing momentum. As a coach, your role is to always push them to execute their roles optimally. Every link of the chain in a business has to be strong, but it needs to be through legitimate team building. If you bond your team through friendship, studies have shown people feel more community and are willing to work harder with their team, David shares. The smallest level of engagement with your team can add up, and creating a healthy, vibrant company culture can really make a difference. You have to do the work to create a dedicated team like this – your actions need to speak louder than words. Show your team you’re dedicated to success by creating strength and healthy habits within yourself. Sometimes, this means taking things one day at a time. If you make a little-by-little effort each day to change your habits, you’ll actually be more successful in changing your habits. If you take your time and change a little each day, you’ll see the openings you need to excel and become a better leader. There is a mental long game being played here, David explains. You have to have the discipline to keep going with healthy habits.David also shares that staying grounded and present is key. Condition yourself to being present in every moment, for every interaction and decision, and avoid multitasking. Multitasking pulls you away from the moment that matters – the present.   Check out the Phenom Leap Education’s website at https://www.phenomleap.com.au/. Don’t forget to subscribe to The Thoughtful Entrepreneur and thank you for listening. Tune in next time!More from UpMyInfluence:✅ We are actively booking guests for our DAILY Entrepreneur Success Podcast. Schedule HERE.✅ Are you a 6-figure consultant? Let us fill your sales schedule and move you to 7-figures. Learn more here.✅ Check out our free Authority Transformation Masterclass.