Find My Catalyst Podcast

On this episode, Mike is joined by Chris Ronzio. Chris is the Founder and CEO of Trainual. They discuss entrepreneurship, company culture and growing your business.  Questions Answered: What are the different stages of being an entrepreneur? Why is there a negative connotation to being self-employed? How can we improve communication with peers? How can we create a company culture with a remote staff? How can we scale our business? Why do we struggle with scaling? How do you create focus? Key Takeaways: Investing in experiences for your team gives them trust that they can communicate with each other. Quarterly Planning retreats, monthly outings, etc...set the foundation for communication following the interactions. It is crucial to have an open line of communication. Physical events, meeting together is very important to maintain a strong culture with a remote staff. Do It, Document It, Delegate It®. This is how you clone yourself. It sounds simple, but you need to follow the process for everything in your business. Delegation is hard, especially with things you are good at or enjoy. It is important to stop doing the things you are good at and stretch yourself. It is easier than ever to start a business because of all the tools that exist. It is harder than ever to scale because it is hard to hand off stuff. 90 challenges (both personally and professionally) help to stay focused. Annual planning and then checking in quarterly and monthly helps with focus. Show Links: Chris on Instagram Chris on LinkedIn Chris on YouTube The 5 Different Stages of Becoming an Entrepreneur on YouTube www.trainual.com Thank You  Please send listener questions and feedback to hello@catalystsale.com or contact us directly on twitter, facebook or LinkedIn. This podcast is brought to you by Catalyst Sale - you can learn more about Catalyst Sale, and the products and services we provide via the following links. Growth Acceleration - Plateau Breakthrough Product Market Fit Demystify Sales - the course

On this episode, Mike is joined by Dr. J.J. Peterson, Chief of Teaching and Facilitation at StoryBrand and Co-Author of Marketing Made Simple. They discuss sales funnels, narrative marketing and story.  Questions Answered: Is now a good time to build a Sales Funnel? What are the 3 steps to a Sales Funnel? What exactly is a Sales Funnel? What does a narrative approach mean? How do we build better call to actions? Is team alignment important? Key Takeaways: Implementation is key. Start doing something. A sales funnel is the path you take customers through when building a relationship. A sales funnel should have 3 levels: curiosity, enlightenment and commitment. Start with a one-liner to gain curiosity. Your website needs to be clear and compelling when telling customers what you do.  A narrative approach clearly articulates what your customer wants and what problems you can overcome for them.  When story follows a path, people engage more. Collaboration is so important. When your internal customers “buy-in” and own your one-liner, they all become Sales People and they see how they contribute to the overall vision. Show Links: Marketing Made Simple on Amazon J.J. on LinkedIn J.J. on Twitter www.storybrand.com Thank You  Please send listener questions and feedback to hello@catalystsale.com or contact us directly on twitter, facebook or LinkedIn. This podcast is brought to you by Catalyst Sale - you can learn more about Catalyst Sale, and the products and services we provide via the following links. Demystify Sales - the course Growth Acceleration - Plateau Breakthrough Product Market Fit

On this episode, Mike and Jody discuss using decision making frameworks, and how they apply to thinking, making decisions, and execution. Questions Answered: What are the things that get in the way of effective decision making? How do we avoid some of those challenges? What are some decision making frameworks? How does using a framework help us in our Sales roles? What do decisions look like with no framework in place? How do we get started using a framework? Key Takeaways: Use appropriate frameworks to help with decision making - the Franklin T, the Eisenhower box, etc.. "Do your best and forgive yourself" - Admiral Payne It’s important to be optimistic Decision frameworks can help us remove emotion Decision frameworks can help us to have a more critical eye Test different things to see what works for you Try using a sales process Test and determine the patterns you see within your business.  Show Links: Dan Cockerell Podcast - Episode 92 Demystify Sales - the course Thank You  Please send listener questions and feedback to hello@catalystsale.com or contact us directly on twitter, facebook or LinkedIn. This podcast is brought to you by Catalyst Sale - you can learn more about Catalyst Sale, and the products and services we provide via the following links. Growth Acceleration - Plateau Breakthrough Product Market Fit

On this episode, Mike is joined by Max Altschuler. Max is the VP of Marketing at Outreach, Founder of Sales Hacker and fellow Sun Devil! #ForksUp. They discuss empathy and things to consider when working with customers during a crisis.  Questions Answered: What inspired Max’s LinkedIn Post about Sales? How can you build trust and rapport digitally? How do you help your team during times like these? Key Takeaways: If you don’t understand basic EQ, you are going to miss the mark. Work on building a long-term relationship. Now is a critical time to build trust. In crisis, leadership has to stand up and be thoughtful about how they are leading their teams. Lead with empathy in your messaging, don’t be as aggressive.  Be purposeful in who you are contacting right now.  Show Links: https://www.outreach.io https://www.saleshacker.com Max on LinkedIn Thank You  Please send listener questions and feedback to hello@catalystsale.com or contact us directly on twitter, facebook or LinkedIn. This podcast is brought to you by Catalyst Sale - you can learn more about Catalyst Sale, and the products and services we provide via the following links. Growth Acceleration - Plateau Breakthrough Product Market Fit Demystify Sales - the course

This week, Mike and Jody discuss marketing and the how-to’s of building landing/sales pages.  Questions Answered: How do you distinguish between what works in the market and what you like to see when building landing pages? What belief has led people to draw out long landing pages? What are some common design mistakes people make? When you refer to the offer, what is that? Is there an order to the landing/sales page? Do you create different pages for different personas? Key Takeaways: To some degree people who are like you, will also like to see what you like when looking at a landing page. It’s not easy to make a decision to spend money, sometimes you want more information. If someone is on the fence, more information is not a bad thing. It helps to have bullet points, headlines, pictures and testimonials If price scares them away, that’s ok. It probably wasn’t for them right now anyway. Understand where the best real estate is for call to action buttons - top right corner. What you are offering people needs to be clear. Make the offer enticing enough that people don’t want to miss it. Answer some common questions on your landing/sales page. Answer questions before people even think to ask them. Keep in mind that to some degree, landing page marketing is similar to what you would say face to face, convey the same message. Show Links: https://jodymaberry.com https://jodymaberry.mykajabi.com/podcastmagic https://catalystsale.mykajabi.com/the-catalyst-core https://catalystsale.mykajabi.com/join Thank You  Please send listener questions and feedback to hello@catalystsale.com or contact us directly on twitter, facebook or LinkedIn. This podcast is brought to you by Catalyst Sale - you can learn more about Catalyst Sale, and the products and services we provide via the following links. Growth Acceleration - Plateau Breakthrough Product Market Fit Demystify Sales - the course

On this episode, Mike is joined by Steve Anderson. Steve is the author of The Bezos Letters. Questions Answered: How does Amazon do it? How are they growing? What is your approach to research? Why do we struggle going deeper? How do we work on understanding our flywheel? How do we make the complex simple? What does it mean to be dynamic? Key Takeaways: Bezos is the master of risk. He understands that businesses have to take risks if they are going to grow. All research starts with a question. You need to be curious. Interpretations help you go deeper. Keep asking “why” 5 times in hopes of getting to the core problem. Amazon’s flywheel isn’t necessarily your flywheel. It is hard to implement - every piece of the flywheel has to be working right. Treat every morning like it is your first day in business. As a business becomes successful, they tend to stop iterating. They need to be constantly watching how customers are changing. Dynamic means it is happening all the time. Core to being dynamic is experimentation.  Businesses need more experimentation, not more innovation.  Every business goes through cycles, don’t get overwhelmed.  Show Links: www.thebezosletters.com The Bezos Letters Jim Collins - Turning the Flywheel Thank You  Please send listener questions and feedback to hello@catalystsale.com or contact us directly on twitter, facebook or LinkedIn. This podcast is brought to you by Catalyst Sale - you can learn more about Catalyst Sale, and the products and services we provide via the following links. Growth Acceleration - Plateau Breakthrough Product Market Fit Demystify Sales - the course  

This is the tenth in a series of short episodes where we will focus on specific topics that are relevant to today's working environment.  Many of us are making the transition to remote work, working from home, leading distributed teams, navigating our own personal experiences.  Execution is a topic that is really important to me.  Specifically helping people, teams, and organizations get better at execution.  I've asked Brent to rejoin me to ask the questions this time.    Questions Addressed What is Execution? What are some common mistakes we make when thinking about Execution? Why do we make these mistakes? How can we avoid these mistakes? How does this change when thinking about execution in the context of working from home or remote work? How does this change when thinking about execution in the context of Teams, Customers, and Self? Show Links Listen to the Entire Series - Share this Link Thank You  Please send listener questions and feedback to hello@catalystsale.com or contact us directly on twitter, facebook or LinkedIn. This podcast is brought to you by Catalyst Sale - you can learn more about Catalyst Sale, and the products and services we provide at https://www.catalystsale.com 

This is the ninth in a series of short episodes where we will focus on specific topics that are relevant to today's working environment.  Many of us are making the transition to remote work, working from home, leading distributed teams, navigating our own personal experiences.  Eric is the Chief Operating Officer of TeamSupport, expert in support and customer experience, and a friend.     Questions Addressed What is Support? What are some common mistakes we make when thinking about Support? Why do we make these mistakes? How can we avoid these mistakes? How does this change when thinking about support in the context of working from home or remote work? How does this change when thinking about support in the context of Teams, Customers, and Self? Show Links TeamSupport Blog CustomerThink.com https://asponline.com Thank You  Please send listener questions and feedback to hello@catalystsale.com or contact us directly on twitter, facebook or LinkedIn. This podcast is brought to you by Catalyst Sale - you can learn more about Catalyst Sale, and the products and services we provide at https://www.catalystsale.com 

In this episode, Mike and Jody discuss clarity and focus and the importance of both in Sales, Business, and Life.  We are including this in the topic specific curated list - because of the focus on two important topics.  This was recorded prior to the series launched last week, however I believe the content is relevant. Questions Answered: What is the difference between clarity and focus? How do they improve what we do? What is the impact of clarity and focus in Sales? How people can work with Catalyst Sale. Key Takeaways: Clarity - quality of being easily understood Focus - Center of activity or attention They provide us with a framework to use when making decisions Clarity and focus can help us make better decisions when we are forced to make a decision on where we are going to spend time, energy, or attention. Clarity gives focus and focus gives clarity - they go hand in hand Clarity and focus help you improve communication with your customers  Work With Catalyst Sale: Listen to our free resource (this podcast) and then put the action items into practice. Share your work with us via Twitter or hello@catalystsale.com Invest in a Catalyst Sale course - self directed Hire us as a consultant/advisor within your team or organization Show Links: Purchase Demystify Sales, A Catalyst Sale Course  here  Interested in working with us? Visit https://catalystsale.com and chat with us, or contact us via Twitter or LinkedIn. Thank You  Please send listener questions and feedback to hello@catalystsale.com or contact us directly on twitter, facebook or LinkedIn. This podcast is brought to you by Catalyst Sale - you can learn more about Catalyst Sale, and the products and services we provide via the following links. Growth Acceleration - Plateau Breakthrough Product Market Fit

This is the seventh in a series of short episodes where we will focus on specific topics that are relevant to today's working environment.  Many of us are making the transition to remote work, working from home, leading distributed teams, navigating our own personal experiences.  Myra is awesome, she is a creator, a curator, and collaborator.  We have connected a couple of times at various learning conferences and through twitter chats.  This is the first time she has been on the podcast, and it will not be the last.   Questions Addressed What is Collaboration? What are some common mistakes we make when thinking about Collaboration? Why do we make these mistakes? How can we avoid these mistakes? How does this change when thinking about collaboration in the context of working from home or remote work? How does this change when thinking about collaboration in the context of Teams, Customers, and Self? Show Links Myra's Pinterest List of Resources Myra on Twitter Thank You  Please send listener questions and feedback to hello@catalystsale.com or contact us directly on twitter, facebook or LinkedIn. This podcast is brought to you by Catalyst Sale - you can learn more about Catalyst Sale, and the products and services we provide at https://www.catalystsale.com