The Thoughtful Entrepreneur

Josh Elledge of UpMyInfluence.com
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Jan 21, 2022 • 21min

1049 - Commercial Investing Wisdom with Commercial Investing Group's Mike Sowers

In this episode of the Thoughtful Entrepreneur, your host Josh Elledge talks to the CEO of Commercial Investors Group and author of the book Commercial Real Estate Investing, Mike Sowers. Mike shares that within his company are 3 divisions; the commercial division, the franchising division, and their fund. Josh and Mike explore the advantages of commercial investing over residential. Mike shares his insights about how he realized he couldn’t scale the way he wanted in the residential market. He shares that residential investing is also harder because it’s competitive in most major markets. You have to strategize hard to find deals. Mike shares part of why he loves working in commercial real estate; you’re usually dealing with entrepreneurs, go-getters, and like-minded business people in the space. To him, this is more exciting than working in residential real estate. Not to mention that you’re usually only contacted by your tenants during business hours – not weekends and holidays. Mike shares that his company watches trends, but nothing changes his company’s ability to find deals. Mike has seen all of the recent real estate swings, and shares that they usually get better deals during harder times because there are less buyers on the market. He also shares that there's a discrepancy between perceived risks and true risks – always play things by the numbers and look at data analytics, don’t just follow the media’s trends. Mike talks about how he scores amazing deals in times of inflation and economic hardship. Mike is excited to share the value-add investing strategy at his company. He only buys underperforming properties – assets that have net-income that's depressed for some reasons. There are 2 types of problems with these properties: people problems and property problems. “People problems” can be with owners, tenants, etc. “Property problems” are issues with building maintenance, etc. Mike shares he doesn’t invest in properties that are businesses within the real estate vertical. If it’s a niche property, like mobile homes, mini-storage, or what have you, you need to be proficient within those niches to be successful. Mike’s company also pushes creating an amazing online experience for buyers. Images should be professionally taken, there should be a solid and succinct sales processes, leases should work digitally with e-signatures, and more. If you alleviate the inconveniences of leasing by having an amazing digital system, you start to alleviate the vacancy issues. Learn more about Mike’s book, Commercial Real Estate Investing at https://www.commercialinvestingmastery.com/book-offer-page. Check out Commercial Investors Group at https://www.commercialinvestorsgroup.com/. Check out Mike Sowers on LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/in/mikesowers/. Check out Commercial Investors Group on LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/company/commercial-investors-group/. 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.
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Jan 20, 2022 • 22min

1048 - Bringing Business Ideas to Life with RLVNT Media's Tina Wells

In this episode of the Thoughtful Entrepreneur, your host Josh Elledge speaks to author and founder of RLVNT Media, Tina Wells. Tina Wells started her first business as a marketing agency when she was only 16. This led her to become a product reviewer, which then led her to a career in market research. For over 20 years, she passionately ran a millennial-focused marketing firm. During this time, she became a bestselling tween author. Honing in on this creativity led Tina to found RLVNT Media and become an author on a new content venture. Josh and Tina also discuss how marketing is one of the only industries you could break into as a young person and become as successful as Tina has. Tina’s advice to young people today looking to follow the same path – just do it. Just start, make mistakes, learn lessons, and embrace failure. Learn from your failures and apply those lessons. This is a lot easier when you’re young, Tina shares. Tina works with business owners today by focusing on how to bring business ideas to life. She assesses what needs to change and be pivoted and shares that she enjoys the creative process of working directly with her clients. Tina shares she learns a lot from her clients, too, and this is part of why she truly loves her work. Tina talks about where newer businesses can get stuck. Do a small business check up or diagnostic. What’s working and what’s not? Take a hard, unbiased look at your systems, processes, and customer journey. Tina shares that she sees people thinking things in their business are working without pausing – and missing mistakes they would have caught had they done so. If you take pauses, you can better assess and predict. Future proofing is just as important as the day to day grind, to take the time to deeply and unbiasedly assess your business. Tina explained how she was able to dedicate her time to her creative passions at the same time that she ran a marketing agency. She treated her creative project like a client – she dedicated a little time to it every day. You have to be disciplined and actually set aside that time each day. Self development CAN create income – if you work on it consistently. Tina shares that entrepreneurs who see their challenges and want to formulate a plan are great fits for her work. Tina can help plan and execute a team-wide solution. Her ideologies can save you time and money as you try to grow your business for the better. Learn more about Tina Wells at her website at https://tinawells.com/. Check out RLVNT Media at https://rlvntmedia.com/. Check out Tina Wells on LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/in/tinawells/. Check out RLVNT Media on LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/company/rlvnt-media/about/. 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.
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Jan 19, 2022 • 23min

1047 - Executive Leadership Coaching with Stephynie Malik

In this episode of the Thoughtful Entrepreneur, your host Josh Elledge speaks with CEO and founder of SMALIK Enterprises, Stephynie Malik. Stephynie is a global business consultant who does high-impact performance coaching for her clients. She helps executives oversee massive teams become more refined and better business leaders. Josh and Stephynie explore leadership “blind spots” and how to be more cognizant of them. Stephynie shares that it depends on the executive. How open are you? How well do you listen? These are the questions to ask when looking for your own blind spots. Listen with everything, not just your ears. How does your team engage with you as you walk around the office? Do you engage with them, or do you keep your eyes on your phone? Stephynie shares that you should engage and talk with your team more often to form better leadership relationships. Josh also shares that there are some pretty incredible consequences if you’re not self-reflective as a leader. Stephynie shares that it’s much harder to coach executives and leaders who don’t see their own issues at all. It’s a long road and takes deep human behavioral changes to improve as leaders. Stephynie shares that in order to change, you have to be willing to work. There has to be real stakes and you need to prioritize improvement truly and deeply in order to succeed. Change yourself before you ever try to change your systems or team and always set goals and visions for what success looks like. You and your team work towards the same greater good, so build off of that foundation. Josh and Stephynie also talk about the “don’ts” of leadership. Stephynie explored some tools that she prefers over others; personality tests and analytics tools are nice, but that’s only a piece of things. Be willing to talk to your team in an “outside of the office” sense. Treat them like human beings with lives outside of their job and take an interest in their development. Ask them mindful questions during reviews and conversations and be as invested in their growth as they are. Stephynie shares that at the end of the day, it’s not about how you get all of this information… It’s about how you handle your team, it’s about what you do with that information. Treat your team like they matter, pay attention to what their needs are, and choose your professional family with unprecedented accuracy. Stephynie shares that she meets SMB owners where they are. She wants to deeply understand where they are personally and professionally to help them see these issues and grow as leaders. Check out Stephynie’s Thoughtful Entrepreneur offer! Contact them using the word ‘THOUGHTFUL’ and get 30% off Group Coaching and 20% off One on One Coaching. Go to https://www.stephyniemalik.com/contact to reach them. Learn more about Stephynie at her website https://www.stephyniemalik.com/. Check out Stephynie Mailk on LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/in/stephyniemalik/.  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.
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Jan 18, 2022 • 22min

1046 - Consistency and Giving First with Claire Bahn

In this episode of the Thoughtful Entrepreneur, your host Josh Elledge talks to personal brand strategist and the CEO and founder of the Claire Bahn Group, Claire Bahn. Claire works with both concierge clients and she also coaches individually and in groups. She typically works with angel investors, entrepreneurs in the high 6 to 7 figure range, and executives. Claire and Josh explore what brands should be doing right now in her space. For one thing, she believes in an omnichannel approach when it comes to social media. She also advises that you take a hard look at your website. You could likely be doing more to improve your SEO, and this is where many entrepreneurs fall short. Branding today compounds upwards. The more you improve and add to your brand, the more you own your story and push your brand’s message forward. Claire shares some trends she’s seen that you should avoid – for one thing, there’s not enough consistent content. You need to consistently share and create content that helps and serves your audience in order to really show people that you love to serve. This expedites the know, like, and trust process. She sees too much focus on sales sales and not enough on giving in the coaching space. It needs to be insanely easy to get to know you as a person – so create content to share this with your audience. PR is also changing. Right now, it’s about utilizing someone else’s platform to give your knowledge in an act of service – all the while, you’re engaging with new audience members. Claire shares that ultimately, you need to give more than you get and more than you ask. You need to be generous and altruistic at heart. At the end of the day, you also need to truly be an expert. You can’t just say you can do something – you have to show your audience that you can through valuable and consistent content. Claire also shares that social media, branding, and marketing aren’t overnight processes. It takes consistency because it takes time. You have to give great information consistently with your content and do it all the time. It’s not going to get you millions of followers overnight, but if you show up and deliver with that consistency, you absolutely will see the results. Networking is also key. You have to work to increase the visibility of your peers so that they are willing to increase yours. There always has to be a ‘give’ first – serve your network and your network will take care of you. Learn more about the Claire Bahn Group at their website https://clairebahn.com/. Check out Claire Bahn on LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/in/clairebahn/. 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.
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Jan 17, 2022 • 23min

1045 – Taking Care of You to Take Care of Your Business with Isaac Ho

In this episode of the Thoughtful Entrepreneur, your host Josh Elledge speaks with Isaac Ho. Isaac’s areas of expertise are helping entrepreneurs increase cash flow and helping them outsource work they want to delegate so they can improve their quality of life. He shares there's only two ways to make more money in business – raise your prices or sell more. To dig in and improve that process, you also have to improve your own quality of life.Issac shares that in the beginning, he strived for success due to his own feelings of inadequacies. He eventually hit a point of extreme burnout and he became quite ill. This forced him to take a good look at his business and his health. His poor health resulted in his inability to grow his business for two months. He shares that you have to love yourself enough to want to give yourself a good quality of life. Josh and Issac dive deeper into this. Be willing to love yourself, even if sometimes it’s not the most logical thing to do. Be kind and generous to yourself by, at times, giving yourself what you desire and loving yourself enough to do that without remorse. Josh also shares that there is value in giving yourself nice, emotionally abundant things so you can experience the success you’ve earned. This can also translate to business investments, though, Issac explains. He shares that you should ask yourself the same question in business; are you going to be kind enough to yourself to hire someone to delegate work to? Are you going to love yourself and your business enough to invest in your growth? Learning new skill sets and pivoting towards better patterns are the fastest and most sustainable ways to grow yourself and your business. Issac also shares that in order to have a breakthrough, you have to love yourself enough to take on the risk of failure. He tells you to ask yourself what your pattern is for NOT succeeding. If you’re the common variable, accept that, forgive yourself, and find a better pattern to adopt. Don’t keep repeating the same process over and over without changing things if you don’t find success. Love yourself enough to do the legwork to better yourself and your business. Josh and Issac also talk about how sometimes entrepreneurs get caught up in their own subconscious and they aren’t always coachable. Sometimes, it takes hard breakthroughs, self searching, and an honest look in the mirror. You can only succeed here if you have enough self-love to do it, so be willing to put forth the effort to grow. Text 'AND' to 66866 to find out more about Issac's work.Learn more about Issac Ho and his business online at https://www.isaachocoaching.com/. Check out Issac Ho on LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/in/isaac-ho-coaching/. 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.
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Jan 16, 2022 • 24min

1044 - The Future of Customer Engagement with Engagency's Jason Perry

In this episode of the Thoughtful Entrepreneur, your host Josh Elledge speaks to the founder, President, and CEO of Engagency, Jason Perry. Engagency is a company that creates a personalized marketing experience that actually works for large corporations. Josh and Jason explore what works well in customer engagement today. Jason shares that what works well is creating a user experience that is the ‘path of least resistance’ for all of your market. Now matter what field you’re competing in, your end goal is keeping your customers engaged for the lifetime of your relationship with them. You need to organize the user experience so that it shaves off annoying extras and things that detract from the experience for consumers. There’s also been massive progress when it comes to market testing and experimentation. These studies help companies discover why their audience buys and how to engage with them more. Jason also shares that “engaging” is really just a matter of staying relevant and top of mind to your audience.Jason also explores some consumer trends and how businesses engage today with their audiences. The most obvious trend right now is personalization marketing, which is very popular. Jason shares that artificial intelligence is coming into play for marketing firms, too. The work that goes into correlating data points for market research manually is both expensive and extensive, but companies that use machine learning and artificial intelligence to sort this data are ahead of the curve. Jason predicts that in the future, A.I. will be able to create images and ads on its own (maybe in real time!) His hope is that the future of artificial intelligence and personalization marketing will benefit the consumer and create positive business relationships for companies. Engagency tends to work with enterprises and companies that average over a billion dollars in revenue annually, with a large customer base. They come in,clean up, and organize these companies and the end result is a complete digital transformation. Engagency puts their clients at ease and gets things working and functional. Jason also shares some best practices on how to engage better with your customers. First of all, make a phone call to a good, reputable hosting company. You want to invest in good online performance early on so that it’s not an obstacle as you grow. You also want to invest in a security suite, especially if you’re in a regulated industry. Keep it simple, protected, and responsive. Keeping it simple is the play right now, so don’t overthink the engagement process. Hire a great designer who captures your vision and start with these few best practices to pave the way for the future. Learn more about Engagency at their website https://www.engagency.com/.  Check out Engagency on LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/company/engagency/. Check out Jason Perry on LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/in/jpengagency/.  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.
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Jan 15, 2022 • 19min

1043 - A Virtual Wallet for Gift Cards with GiftPocket's Brooke Yokam

In this episode of the Thoughtful Entrepreneur, your host Josh Elledge talks to the founder and CEO of GiftPocket, Brooke Yokam. GiftPocket is the app that manages all of your gift cards for you. Brooke started GiftPocket when she was just 12 years old! GiftPocket solves the everyday (and ever pervasive) problem regarding losing your gift cards. Brooke shares that 10% of all gift cards purchased are never used – this is simply money lost. Keeping track of your gift cards has now been made easier than ever through the GiftPocket app. Gift cards are the number one requested gift in the country, so organizing them can only help ease your everyday life. Filing them away in bags and drawers only guarantees you’ll lose them. In the digital age, sending gift cards digitally is really the way that makes the most sense. GiftPocket allows you to add your gift card to your virtual wallet and it will generate a code for scanners at stores. Your gift cards are all neatly kept and maintained, without the fuss of keeping track of plastic cards and in your wallet or around the home. Brooke shares her story and how she became inspired to solve this problem. A childhood experience turned into Brooke’s journey to building GiftPocket. A fun feature? On GiftPocket, you can exchange gift cards for others! There’s about 3,000 brands GiftPocket works with that you can choose from. You can also accumulate GP Points, GiftPocket’s in-app currency, to purchase other gift cards to add to your wallet. Brooke explained how her platform connects brands to gift card buyers (something they’re not legally allowed to know otherwise.) GiftPocket offers a fresh network of buyers to brands in an innovative way. Every brand is different, Brooke shares, and all have their pain points as to why gift cards go unused. GiftPocket is an aggregator of various brands, and they’re  streamlining using gift cards, which always benefits the customer. Using GiftPocket is as easy as downloading the app and adding them to your virtual wallet. Brooke shares that she’s always seeking new users and loves to do demographic research on college campuses. Brooke shares a final nugget – the lifeblood of their platform is local businesses and vendors. They love giving brands that platform on their app and they appreciate reaching new customers by partnering with these brands. You can search for GiftPocket in the App store and Google Play! If you’re interested in connecting with someone on the GiftPocket team, go here. Learn more about GiftPocket at their website https://www.giftpocket.com/. Check out GiftPocket on LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/company/giftpocket/.  Check out Brooke Yokam on LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/in/brooke-yoakam-71a1b413a/. 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.
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Jan 14, 2022 • 20min

1042 - Helping Veteran-Owned Businesses Grow with Bunker Labs' Blake Hogan

In this episode of the Thoughtful Entrepreneur, your host Josh Elledge speaks to the CEO of Bunker Labs, Blake Hogan. Bunker Labs is a national nonprofit organization that works with veterans and their families to help them start their own businesses and pursue their dreams. They run three small cohort based programs for their veteran entrepreneurs. Blake shares thoughts on how you need a mission-focused mindset to succeed in business and entrepreneurship can be just the calling for veterans and military families. Blake shares some entrepreneurial wisdom and says to have grit and be resilient. You’ll make mistakes and encounter gray areas, but military veterans are built with the grit needed to enter entrepreneurship. Bunker Labs wants to rally smart thinkers and civic leaders around veteran entrepreneurs to help these companies grow and thrive. Blake also shares that you don’t need to get started with a lot; an idea, some research, and the determination and willingness to succeed are all it takes to start. Josh and Blake also explore how these veterans can use the grit they learned through their military service and translate that into successful entrepreneurship. Blake shares that if you have that grit and drive, go and join their community. He shares that taking action, showing up, and connecting with one person is truly how you can make a difference. Networking, especially in the veteran entrepreneurial space, is a major way these businesses grow. Help other veterans grow their businesses, and they’ll help you grow yours. Josh also shares some wisdom to other veteran entrepreneurs like himself. He stresses that if the resources are there for you because of your military service, take them! Don’t let pride hold off any growth or networking that’s in your best interest (or your business’s.) Blake explains that networking is vital, and veterans are the business owners and entrepreneurs people want to connect with because they’re also business leaders. The three main programs Bunker Labs facilitates are the Veterans in Residence program, the CEOCirlce Growth program, and the Ambassador program. Blake shares where Bunker Labs intends to grow and how they will continue to offer amazing experiences for their members. He shares the visions behind his programs and which business owner is fit for each program. Blake also reminds us that it’s not about offering charity to veteran entrepreneurs – these are simply remarkable leaders that you’ll want to work with. If you’re not a veteran, you can do your part and help just by looking for connections in the veteran space. Learn more about Bunker Labs at their website https://bunkerlabs.org/. Check out Bunker Labs on LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/company/bunkerlabs/.  Check out Blake Hogan on LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/in/blakehogan/. 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.
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Jan 13, 2022 • 23min

1041 - Improve Your E-Commerce Conversion Rate with Wunderkind's Andres Moran

In this episode of the Thoughtful Entrepreneur, your host Josh Elledge talks to Andres Moran, the General Manager and VP of Wunderkind. Wunderkind is a software/SaaS that helps their clients convert website visitors into customers. Their team creates one-to-one messaging to pull leads further into the conversion funnel. Once you take the action and show you’re invested in the consumers’ interests and send them these messages, you're much more likely to create a sale. This can be done through triggered emails or text messages. Wunderkind also uses unique ad formats that are behaviorally triggered so ads aren’t intrusive or interrupting to consumers. Josh and Andres also explore what sets Wunderkind apart. Almost every E-commerce company uses triggered emails, but they’re only able to do that if the user actually has a website login and didn’t checkout as a guest. Wunderkind can identify if a company has permission to send a user who visited a website triggered emails – if so, you can reach far more consumers who visit your website later on with these emails, no sign up necessary. This type of marketing subtly guides the consumers through products that fit them and what they’ve expressed interest in before on an online storefront. Tech and insight leverage is vital, and that’s what Wunderkind can offer their clients. Wunderkind also doesn’t track you across websites – they only look at what you’ve liked in a specific store. Wunderkind is very privacy compliant and they are buttoned-up when it comes to data privacy. Wunderkind has worked with countless major brands and they’ve accomplished these milestones by having performance guarantees that Wunderkind themselves drive. These promises change the tone of a sales conversation and their social proof further speaks to their authority in their space.Josh and Andres also explore when a company should consider working with a SaaS company like Wunderkind. They set this threshold at about 4 million in revenue annually for their E-commerce offering. Andres also explains that Wunderkind has used custom store frameworks in the past, but they’re actually steering away from that as they move into 2022. From a coding perspective, keeping uniformity is key. Brands don’t typically love to offer discounts on their items since it devalues the brand, but Andres explains that context is everything. If you offer a starter deal to get your consumer hooked on your brand, you won’t struggle to keep repeat customers and you won’t devalue your brand that way. If you’re interested in trying out a Wunderkind demo, get in touch with their team here. Contact Andres Moran via email at andres@wunderkind.co Learn more about Wunderkind at their website https://www.wunderkind.co/. Check out Wunderkind on LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/company/bewunderkind/?originalSubdomain=mz. Check out Andres Moran on LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/in/andresmoran/. 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.
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Jan 12, 2022 • 25min

1040 – Investing in Marketing that Differentiates You with The E5 Method’s Todd Brown

In this episode of the Thoughtful Entrepreneur, your host Josh Elledge speaks to the author of The E5 Method, Todd Brown. Todd also does work in the marketing world, helping entrepreneurs that are looking to grow from 1 to 10 - 12 million in revenue and are also looking to do it on the back of effective direct response marketing. The E5 Method is a process for engineering the front-end customer or client acquisition marketing campaign that almost any entrepreneur can use to predictably source buyers from paid media. Todd breaks this down further. There are five stages, the first being the examination stage. This is all about examining your prospects, competitors, and products they’re selling. You need to know what your goals are, your major pain points, and then you also assess your competitors. When you engineer your own campaign using the E5 method, you’re developing a campaign using a superior, irresistible, no-brainer offer (a SIN offer, according to Todd.) Todd also stresses that differentiation is key. If you allow your product or service to commodify, your price points are dependent upon market value. There are two main ways to differentiate your offer – one is having a USP (unique selling proposition), the second is how your product or service works to deliver results consumers care about. This is a unique “mechanism” that diversifies that brand, according to Todd, and why examining competitors is so important. From a strategic perspective, you have to differentiate, but where the E5 Method sets itself apart is how it tactically applies those strategies. The way that many entrepreneurs try to differentiate themselves is typically ineffective. The truth? Commerce has changed and what used to be valuable points of differentiation aren’t as valuable now. Tactically, what you do to differentiate yourself is more effective. Identify your company’s unique mechanism (how it delivers the results you’re promising and how it’s different from your competitors) and leverage that to set yourself apart in your vertical. At the end of the day, educate your audience about your company’s mechanism and describe how you are truly the best solution on the market. This is how you position yourself with a key differentiating factor to consumers. What consumers care about is that they don’t necessarily want an improvement, they want something new that can replace an old system or product. When you can demonstrate to your market that your product or service works in a unique way and prove that, you have adequately differentiated yourself. You’re offering to replace an old method, not improve upon what’s existing. Check out The E5 Method book online, learn more about Todd Brown and his work, and check out Todd’s bio at his website https://toddbrown.me/. Check out The E5 Bundle online at e5bundle.com 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.

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