

The Thoughtful Entrepreneur
Josh Elledge of UpMyInfluence.com
You’re gonna love this DAILY, commercial-free entrepreneur spotlight show. We feature CEOs and founders of 6-9 figure B2B companies. Agencies, coaches, consultants, and other leaders share not only their success stories - but their advice for business leaders focused on business growth.
You’re going to hear real stories from real people all in 15-25 minutes time - perfect for your commute.
On this podcast, your host, Josh Elledge encourages entrepreneurs to share not only their expertise but their stories and their hearts.
We believe that every person has a unique message which can positively impact the world. Even YOU! If you’d like to be featured on The Thoughtful Entrepreneur, apply here: https://UpMyInfluence.com/guest/
You’re going to hear real stories from real people all in 15-25 minutes time - perfect for your commute.
On this podcast, your host, Josh Elledge encourages entrepreneurs to share not only their expertise but their stories and their hearts.
We believe that every person has a unique message which can positively impact the world. Even YOU! If you’d like to be featured on The Thoughtful Entrepreneur, apply here: https://UpMyInfluence.com/guest/
Episodes
Mentioned books

Mar 6, 2022 • 18min
1099 - Open Source Digital Solutions with Crowd Favorite's Karim Marucchi
In this episode of the Thoughtful Entrepreneur, your host Josh Elledge talks with the CEO of Crowd Favorite, Karim Marucchi. Crowd Favorite works with larger Fortune 500 organizations to create what they need to fix their digital problems. Very basically, they create websites. On a deeper level, they help with integrating digital business needs and can address everything from streamlining workflow issues to improving client relations in the businesses they work with. Karim shares that he’s worked with enterprise clients for 27 years, and the one thing that has stayed consistent was that many of his clients weren't utilizing the right technological solutions to address their issues. In short, Crowd Favorite creates bespoke solutions for their clients’ problems. Karim shares that he became a major proponent for open source technologies after seeing how proprietary technologies were forcing businesses down their own closed road maps. Open sourced technology is both community-based and constantly evolving to serve the user base first. The variety and openness in an open source platform makes for a much more unique roadmap for users. Karim and Josh also discuss when to avoid open source architecture. One downside is the security issues; when an open source project first starts, it's prone to hacking attacks. The upside to this is that after a piece of technology has the proper infrastructure and testing added, most corrupted pieces of code are already removed before it can spread to other users. Another caveat to using open source software is that the ‘crowd’ might want to go in one direction and your company wants to go in another. The way to address this is to strategically implement the aspects of an open source software that work for your business, and use it in the way that benefits you (even if you’re only using part of a software.) Karim also shares how he’s helped major brands like Disney transition from building their own proprietary softwares that became money sinks to using open source software, such as WordPress. Josh and Karim also explore how enterprises can work with WordPress. It will run great if you apply the correct infrastructure, he shares. Enterprises need robust hosting and plugins that are to scale in order to use an open source program like WordPress, but when executed in a scalable way, it can do anything. You can also add on other plugins and softwares to improve the personalization with WordPress – these additions can extend your open source software enough that it rivals other expensive, 7-figure solutions on the market. When you have a deep infrastructure with hosting and security in check, you won’t have issues.Want to learn more? Check out Crowd Favorite’s website at https://crowdfavorite.com/. Check out Crowd Favorite on LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/company/crowdfavorite/. Check out Karim Marucchi on LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/in/karimmarucchi/. 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.

Mar 5, 2022 • 18min
1098 - Helping Entrepreneurs Get to Their Goals with Joel Gandara
In this episode of the Thoughtful Entrepreneur, your host Josh Elledge talks to the CEO of Morro Capital and president of Joel Gandara Coaching, Joel Gandara.Joel shares that he’s a family-oriented entrepreneur and he loves to share what he’s learned and help others develop and learn. Joel shares that his specialty is addressing the harder issues with his entrepreneurial clients. Sometimes, business leaders need an objective guide who will tell them the truth and help them forge their own path. Joel gets his clients to the next level by addressing the deep issues and helping them improve as business owners and leaders. Joel explains that he focuses on red flags and overcoming issues with his clients as they arise. The number one issue he sees over and over is that business owners overcomplicate things. It doesn’t always need to be a complex web; sometimes you just need a second pair of eyes on things to show you your own blind spots. If you lay out every issue, you can start with step one and go from there. Overcomplicating things is the fastest way to avoid dealing with an issue; Joel helps business leaders face these issues head on. Josh and Joel also explore how to address issues once you realize they exist. Don’t just seek the ‘how’ of the fix – find the ‘who’. Hire an expert, someone more qualified than yourself, to operate in their zone of genius and provide a fast and effective solution. It only costs you more money to try and DIY complex issues when a professional could fast track success for you. Joel also discusses his fulfillment company, Morro Capital, where he invests and acquires various businesses. He works in the eCommerce space and he explains that most of the businesses he has acquired weren’t even for sale; he knows he wants the business, and he knows how to help the current owner get to their own goals where they’re ready to sell. He also talks about looking for businesses to acquire that he knows he can make more profitable; when he knows he can reconfigure and streamline a business, he flips it and turns things around. Between providing better fulfillment and back end treatments as well as getting the previous owners where they want to be, Joel and his team thrive in this space.Want to learn more? Check out Joel Gandara Coaching’s website at https://www.joelgandara.com/. Check out Morro Capital on LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/company/morro-capital/. Check out Joel Gandara Coaching on LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/company/joel-gandara-coaching/. Check out Joel Gandara on LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/in/joelgandara/. 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.

Mar 5, 2022 • 18min
1097 - Operating with a Profit First Mindset with Pivot Business Group's Pam Jordan
In this episode of the Thoughtful Entrepreneur, your host Josh Elledge speaks to the President of Pivot Business Group, Pam Jordan. Pam shares that she worked in the corporate world until the construction company she worked for went bankrupt. After that, it became her personal mission to help business owners really understand their numbers. Pivot Business Group helps business owners translate these numbers into actual sustainable strategies. Josh and Pam explore how Pivot rolls up their sleeves and gets to work. They look at all factors, from profit to revenue to scalability. They go through and make sure businesses are charging enough, offer enough products, have enough clients, and overall, get them closer to true profitability. Pam sometimes encourages clients to have hard conversations, such as when an entrepreneur lives their lifestyle through their business. She shares that, for instance, payroll can’t be met if money is being spent on a lifestyle beyond their means. Most of the time, though, Pam shares that many business owners just need to dig into the details and see where the money sinks are. Josh and Pam also explore how much money pours into things, sometimes without the business owner’s full awareness. Focus on profit first; top line is an ego metric, and the bottom line is a real profitability metric. Sometimes, uncomfortable conversations need to happen to make necessary pivots. A lot can be done and there are many drivers that can tip the scale; Pam and her team are experts at digging down and prioritizing these drivers. CFOs provide the road to a successful business and/or exit, and this is where Pivot Business Group thrives. Pivot starts working with their clients by first conducting a profit analysis. They discover how money is really moving in a business and where things work and where they don’t. They see opportunities and issues and they are completely equipped to renovate and then maintain a sustainable business. Most of Pivot Business Group's industry agnostic clients make 7-figures or more at the topline, but struggle with how they spend money. They’re looking for companies wanting to get to the next level; the answer to their solution is financial clarity. The truth? Everyone thinks that everyone else has it together when it comes to their business finances… But this is a misconception. It’s more common than you’d think. Many businesses share the same struggles relating to financial lack of clarity, across various verticals. Want to learn more? Check out Pivot Business Group’s website at https://pivotbusinessgroup.com/. Check out Pivot Business Group on LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/company/pivot-business-group/. Check out Pam Jordan on LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/in/pamjordan/. 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.

Mar 4, 2022 • 22min
1096 - Content That Helps Your Audience Know, Like, And Trust You with Automation Wolf's Matthew Hunt
In this episode of the Thoughtful Entrepreneur, your host Josh Elledge speaks with the founder of Automation Wolf, Matthew Hunt. Automation Wolf, based in Toronto, Canada, works with B2B entrepreneurs to create all of their social media in a single hour. Matthew Hunt shares that busy entrepreneurs never have enough time – and that his company saw a need they could fill. They help these busy business owners consistently post on social media such as LinkedIn in a short form, snackable way. Matthew shares that they pull micro content from an hour long meeting he and his company conduct with their clients. This single hour of answering questions and talking about their business can offer months of evergreen content to post on their platforms. Matthew also shares that consistency is required in order to get your audience to know, like, and trust you. Automation Wolf utilizes three pillars of different types of content; short form, snackable content, long form content, and controlled form content. Not any one of these types of content is enough to see your business transform, but the combination of these pillars with consistency will build your audience’s relationship with you. You don’t get transformation until you demonstrate your abilities via long form content. Controlled content is all community focused – own the relationship and encourage your audience to engage with you. This is how your audience will begin to trust you. The problem, Matthew shares, is that not many entrepreneurs have the time for this. One way to get started is to hold a once-monthly event you conduct for your community. Run a poll and see who signs up – they don’t even need to attend live. An event is an amazing way to get your audience to like you through long-form content. Matthew describes each pillar as corresponding with know, like, and trust; short form content is helping your audience get to know you, long form content will get your audience to like you, and controlled content will help your audience trust you. But who do you invite to your event? Find a way to get yourself ‘in the room’ with those you’re trying to target – virtually or otherwise. Run a mastermind event, break bread, don’t pitch, and you’ll fastrack earning authentic trust from your target audience. The bottom line? The byproduct of strategizing the know, like, and trust process will result in leads and sales. Don’t aim for sales, aim for trust and community. Want to learn more? Check out Automation Wolf’s website at https://automationwolf.com/. Check out Automation Wolf on LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/company/automationwolf/. Check out Matthew Hunt on LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/in/matthewhuntme/#experience. 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.

Mar 4, 2022 • 26min
1095 - Partnership-Driven Growth with Hawke Media's Ashley Scorpio
In this episode of the Thoughtful Entrepreneur, your host Josh Elledge talks to the VP of Partnerships at Hawke Media and an advisor to Partnerhub, Ashley Scorpio. Ashley’s work revolves around business partnerships. She shares that not all industries have established ‘partnerships’ as a common business function. Ashley would love to see a variety of verticals adopt smart partnerships more broadly. Partnerships offer unique opportunities in the way of scaling. Hawke Media, the company Ashley works for, has over 1,200 partners over several different categories. Not only can partnerships be beneficial in the way of scaling, they’re also lucrative.Ashley shares that at the end of the day, business is relationships. Partnerships are dedicated relationships in business; make smart partnership choices and you’ll experience unprecedented growth and success. A partner leader can even become the face of your business if that’s what you need to generate revenue. A combined effort can make all the difference when trying to become more profitable. In the B2B world, if you and someone you know resonate and there is target audience overlap, why not collaborate? You don’t have to compete with those in adjacent niches. Collaboration should be the first thing you think of when networking, not competing. Josh and Ashley explore what partnerships look like today. Josh shares his philosophy in that he likes to be authentic and share his real experience in a partnership rather than just blast his email list with information about someone else. You know your audience better than anyone, Ashley shares, and co-marketing should be tackled strategically. There are all types of partnerships, but you have to go about them in the structure that makes the most sense for your audience. Ashley shares that you need to discover what it is your company’s marketing needs in relation to working with a partner, and then choose a partner that resonates with that need. Partnerships shouldn’t be embarked upon lightly, remember that you don’t want to rush into these types of relationships. They should build up organically over time, and both companies should resonate with each other’s missions. Ashley also shares that there are community building opportunities in the partnership co-marketing space. There are community-wide events across different partnerships that simply exist to help everyone in the community. This sense of giving and assisting with co-marketing is one amazing way to not only be a part of a community of partnerships, but also helps you discover new partnership opportunities to build upon. Want to learn more? Check out Hawke Media’s website at https://hawkemedia.com/. Check out Partnerhub at https://www.partnerhub.app/. Check out Hawke Media on LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/company/hawkemedia/. Check out Ashley Scorpio on LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/in/ashleyscorpio/. 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.

Mar 3, 2022 • 18min
1094 - Email Marketing Best Practices with Liz Wilcox
In this episode of the Thoughtful Entrepreneur, your host Josh Elledge speaks with email marketing expert, Liz Wilcox. Liz is an expert on how to write amazing emails to send to your network and client base. Her philosophy is to make email marketing as simple as possible for entrepreneurs. Josh explains that he feels the best emails are personal, relevant, and are all focused on what the recipient needs. Liz shares her three step email marketing framework; first, you earn a follower through some medium online, you get them onto your email list, and then you strive to become their friend. You need to catch their interest with whatever your common interests are and then deliver information and legitimate value with each and every correspondence. Treating your email list like they’re your friend and feeding the commonalities between yourself and your network is everything. Interact in your inbox the same way you would send letters to friends in the mail. Be that one person your recipient wants to hear from, the person whose correspondence they want to open. Liz and Josh also explore open rates. For one thing, make each email high value and make sure it’s always within whatever you promised your email list upon sign up. How do you turn your email list into your friends, though? Number one, invest time into building a genuine relationship. NEVER lead with sales, share in a relatable and authentic way, and be interested in what your network has to say. When you appear in their inbox consistently, you also stay top of mind. If once a week is overwhelming, send biweekly or once monthly. As long as you actually stay consistent with whatever you set as the expectation, you’re starting to build a friendship. As for tone when writing emails, write how you speak! Liz shares that however your demeanor is when you talk to people in person should be how you write in an email. It needs to actually sound like you to resonate and build the friendship. If you’re only just getting into email marketing, consider writing a newsletter for your business. This also allows you to evolve your brand and practice maturing your email tone. It’s the same with every medium of communication; with media, you adapt with your audience’s needs. The same applies to email marketing. There are four essential types of emails to send to your email list, especially if you’re trying to regengage a list you haven’t consistently emailed for some time. For one, send your freebie to them (again, if needed.) Next, add emails with your best content and valuable information. The third email type to send is a newsletter expectation – let them know what you’re going to be offering, especially new content and new free or paid products. The final email to work on is the friendship reengagement email; this is where you share your story and your why. Liz stresses that this should never be the first email you send; by the fourth email, the subscriber is invested, so this is when to send this message. Want to learn more? Check out Liz Wilcox’s website at https://metriccollective.com/. Check out Liz Wilcox on LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/in/liz-wilcox-58740b1b0/. 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.

Mar 3, 2022 • 19min
1093 - A Holistic Approach to Franchising with Metric Collective's Rob Huntington
In this episode of the Thoughtful Entrepreneur, your host Josh Elledge talks with the CEO of Metric Collective, Rob Huntington.Metric Collective is a vertically integrated franchise and technology company. They work in all areas of franchising, from top of funnel onward. They can also help with franchise leads, franchise sales, and equity investments into franchisors. Metric Collective is also a franchisee and ‘eat their own dogfood’ when it comes to their technology. They’ve dialed in their services and earned their domain authority through years of franchise work and their backend is intricately designed. Their leadgen system is quite sensitive and they prioritize filtering their leads for their clients. They can generate and filter reasonably, long before they sell them to a brand. Rob and his team also believe direct marketing is constantly changing – there’s no secret sauce. They stay up to date on all platforms and target niche audiences that they find through advanced lead generation. Rob also shares why lead collection and the selling of leads can be seriously negatively impacted by how a purchaser treats the leads. Metric Collective’s franchise leads tool allows their users to automatically reach out and begin the relationship-building process without as much of the manual hassle. If you’re letting leads accumulate and you’re calling them all one day per week with a few seconds or less, you’re simply not going to see results. Metric Collective is a few different companies that offer various franchising services. FranchiseHelp is the largest lead generator for franchisors in the country, according to Metric Collective’s website. Through this company, they offer highly qualified leads through their specially designed proprietary matching quiz. FranFunnel is their SaaS product offering that gives franchisors and franchisees the ability to communicate with their leads more effectively through automated texting. Finally, they also offer their third business, a Franchise Development company called Oakscale, which is a fully outsourced franchise sales organization.Metric Collective makes franchising “cool” and attainable for those who are new to franchising or for seasoned franchisors. Franchising allows you to be your own boss, without any capital, and offers you an opportunity to become a franchising entrepreneur. No matter how far along you might be, they have an innovative, high-level offering for you. This method of business is becoming more and more popular, and Rob shares that he and his team have spread awareness about how amazing the space can be when tackled effectively. Want to learn more? Check out Metric Collective’s website at https://metriccollective.com/. Check out Metric Collective on LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/company/metric-collective/. Check out Rob Huntington on LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/in/robertahuntington/. 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.

Mar 2, 2022 • 24min
1092 - Building Real Relationships Within Your Center of Influence with The High Five Effect's Matt Ward
In this episode of the Thoughtful Entrepreneur, your host Josh Elledge talks to Word of Mouth consultant and the author of The High Five Effect, Matt Ward. Matt helps service-based business professionals build better relationships and make more sales through referrals. Josh and Matt explore why professionals struggle with referral-based business. The reality is that many service-based professionals think they’re better at word of mouth and referral based business than they think. Someone in your center of influence needs to know who you are and why they should direct business to you. List your referral sources (that weren’t referred by other existing clients), find the common denominator, and find your ideal center of influence and ideal referral sources.Once you discover this, double down, focus, and build relationships with people. You need to outrun your competition by staying in touch with your center of influence. Stay top of mind and reach out more than your competitors do. Matt also advises to send more than just email when building these relationships – mail adverts in the mail, send handwritten cards, and show you’re dedicated beyond just virtual communication. Matt’s philosophy is to work with clients that truly bring you joy. Entrepreneurs give up so much during the first five years of their business to create success. In reality, they lose money, time, and relationships by constantly overextending themselves. When you build relationships with like-minded people, Matt shares, they know, like, and trust you. They want to send business your way. You want to go a step beyond – you want people in your sphere to know, like, and care about you. This is the basis of referral-based business. Transition away from business and move towards knowing someone personally when you build a relationship with someone. What are their hobbies? Do you know their family? Ask yourselves these things and invest in your center of influence as though they’re your friends. Josh and Matt explore the ways sales have become sleazy and unenjoyable for most people being sold to. When you aren’t authentic, everyone you sell to can pick up on this. Businesses and consumers are more wary than ever of being sold to, so when you manage to strike up a relationship with a company or brand, don’t jump to selling. Ask how they are, check in, and be willing to have these types of conversations. Touch points and reaching out should never be sales-driven; play the long game and invest time and energy into them long before they’ll even consider investing money with you. Check out Matt Ward on LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/in/mattwardspeaks/. Check out Matt Ward’s book, The High Five Effect at https://www.amazon.com/High-Five-Effect-Business-People-Bring-ebook/dp/B09HXXKYX7. 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.

Mar 2, 2022 • 29min
1091 - Turn Yourself Into An Effective Leader with 30 Day Leadership's Nils Vinje
In the first ever sponsored episode of the Thoughtful Entrepreneur, your host Josh Elledge speaks to the founder and CEO of 30 Day Leadership, Nils Vinje. Josh and Nils explore high-level networking and how the B2B world is built entirely on networking. Put yourself in a position to make these connections – but not in a sales setting. Paying a little extra to be in a VIP setting at events, masterminds, and functions is an amazing opportunity to forge these connections organically. Nils explains how he adapted and pivoted once the pandemic hit. He realized he needed to build something more sustainable and focused. The pandemic forced him to pivot away from one-on-one high touch consulting and towards a one-to-many model. He focuses now entirely on leadership coaching. He wrote the book, the 30 Day Leadership Playbook, available for free here! Nils also explores how being a leader in a B2B business requires you to inspire your employees to believe in the solutions you offer. You also need to understand what your team needs and they need to understand your company’s message and vision. All of these factors, universally, depend upon good leadership.Josh and Nils also talk about how good leadership is created. Nils breaks this down into four pillars; leading yourself, leading others, leading with communication, and leading with metrics. Leading yourself requires you to manage yourself and your time efficiently (not to mention knowing the areas you need to improve upon); self awareness is key here. Leading others requires you to drive your team’s performance – don’t just ‘lead’, coach your team forward. Leading with communication means, fundamentally, you have communication tuned in internally and externally when it comes to your business. Leading with metrics means being data driven – prioritizing logistics and understanding the actual numbers that run your business. These pillars round out what it means to be a successful leader; implementing these pillars can be a challenge, which is where 30 Day Leadership can help. Nils also talks about how he and his team measure success in their B2B leadership academy. They maintain scorecards that track each participant's pillar progres as well as where they are in their leadership modules. By tracking these aspects, participants will learn to integrate the tools and lessons they learned into their businesses in real time. Want to learn more? Check out 30 Day Leadership’s website at https://www.30dayleadership.com/. Check out Nils Vinje’s book, the 30 Day Leadership Playbook at https://www.30dayleadership.com/book. Check out 30 Day Leadership on LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/company/30-day-leadership/. Check out Nils Vinje on LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/in/nilsvinje/. 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.

Mar 1, 2022 • 25min
1090 - The Truth About Impactful, Scalable Coaching with High Impact Coaching's Zander Fryer
In this episode of the Thoughtful Entrepreneur, your host Josh Elledge talks with the founder and CEO of High Impact Coaching, Zander Fryer. High Impact Coaching helps coaches build 6 and 7-figure businesses in a variety of verticals. Zander and Josh explore how coaches struggle in their space. He talks about owning and recognizing our own individual obstacles and limiting beliefs. Coaches become niche experts in their space, and may spend years or decades honing that expertise. However, coaching and business expertise aren’t always learned or honed simultaneously. If coaches don’t learn the business side of things and become a CEO and not just a coach, their business won’t thrive or scale. In early stages of business, it’s easy for a coach to stay in their zone of genius. The issues arise as their businesses start to grow and need to scale. You can’t be predictable if you don’t have reliable, consistent lead generation, which only comes with being an entrepreneur as much as you are a coach. Being a great coach from the beginning isn’t the challenge – it’s learning how to grow your business sustainably and reliably. Zander shares a bit of wisdom he was given by a mentor – you can either have a crappy product that reaches a lot of people but doesn’t deliver, or you can have an amazing product but be terrible at marketing. The truth is the latter situation is worse. You need to become an expert marketer to be an effective, impactful coach. Zander shares how he experienced self-limiting beliefs and how it doesn’t matter if you’re starting from scratch. Anyone can become a marketer, but you have to put in the time to hone that mindset. Zander’s philosophy is that a coach should also be their own marketing master, but this takes years. Mastery isn’t something that happens overnight. But what about tactics? One of the biggest shifts Zander learned through his research is that until you make your first 7-figures, 80% of your focus should be on sales. As long as you’re focused on selling, you’re having active conversations and you’re learning more about your target market. Until this point, you likely haven’t narrowed that down completely. If you’re working with a minimum viable product, talk to as many people as possible to find out how to improve that product to then launch the next iteration. You need to study every aspect of what these leads are wanting out of your solution – this is the only way you’ll grow in the right direction for your target audience. Want to learn more? Check out Zander Fryer’s website at https://zanderfryer.com/. Check out High Impact Coaching on LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/company/sh-t-you-don-t-learn-in-college/. Check out Zander Fryer on LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/in/zanderfryer/. 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.


