Latest / Glovisor Podcast / Your Business Isn't Ready to Scale Until You Fix This | Rich M. Smith [Ep 86]

Transcript

Your Business Isn't Ready to Scale Until You Fix This | Rich M. Smith [Ep 86] · Glovisor Podcast

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: I'll get questions like, well, should we be doing more
• 0:03
  Speaker 1: on social media or Facebook? Do we need to be
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: investing more in SEO or now, you know, AEO? Should
• 0:10
  Speaker 1: we go to more trade shows? I get questions like that.
• 0:13
  Speaker 1: And my answer is always, well, maybe.
• 0:20
  Speaker 2: Welcome to the Glowvisor podcast, where we explore business growth,
• 0:23
  Speaker 2: communication and personal development. through real conversations with people who
• 0:27
  Speaker 2: make an impact. Our guest is an executive advisor, behavioral
• 0:31
  Speaker 2: marketing strategist, and a speaker with more than 30 years
• 0:35
  Speaker 2: of experience across financial services, healthcare, insurance, mortgage, and technology.
• 0:41
  Speaker 2: His career includes launching the first platinum MasterCard and visa
• 0:46
  Speaker 2: in the U.S. and helping scale a healthcare company beyond
• 0:50
  Speaker 2: $ 100 million in revenue. Glowvisor welcomes... Rich M.
• 0:56
  Speaker 1: Smith. Hey, Joe. How are you?
• 0:58
  Speaker 2: Great, thanks. Pleasure. I'm excited. I can't wait to hear more. So, Rich,
• 1:04
  Speaker 2: tell us, what is it that you do and who
• 1:06
  Speaker 2: do you help?
• 1:07
  Speaker 1: Well, you know, today I have a company that I
• 1:11
  Speaker 1: call Growth Studio. And we work with usually founder-led organizations, startups.
• 1:19
  Speaker 1: typically around the point where they've gotten market traction, but
• 1:23
  Speaker 1: they're looking for more predictable and sustainable ways to scale
• 1:28
  Speaker 1: and to get to the ultimate outcome that they're looking for.
• 1:32
  Speaker 1: So we help them with all sorts of strategic challenges,
• 1:39
  Speaker 1: everything from market selection to refining their ICP to just putting...
• 1:49
  Speaker 1: sales pipeline process in place, right? So there are, those
• 1:52
  Speaker 1: are just a few examples, but often find that in
• 1:56
  Speaker 1: these situations, it's really helpful to begin to put systems
• 2:02
  Speaker 1: and structure in place around the founder, because usually what
• 2:05
  Speaker 1: happens is up until that point, they've kind of been
• 2:08
  Speaker 1: doing everything themselves. And they need to then put some
• 2:12
  Speaker 1: systems and processes in place and people in place around
• 2:16
  Speaker 1: them in order for them to scale themselves up, which
• 2:20
  Speaker 1: is necessary to scale the organization up.
• 2:23
  Speaker 2: Out of all those situations that you mentioned, which is
• 2:26
  Speaker 2: the most challenging? The one that you see coming up
• 2:29
  Speaker 2: the most and you think that probably it's the one
• 2:31
  Speaker 2: that most people should put a focus on?
• 2:34
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I'd say the one that comes up the most
• 2:37
  Speaker 1: in almost every case is there's a tendency to jump
• 2:44
  Speaker 1: straight to tactics. without thinking about the strategic questions. You know,
• 2:50
  Speaker 1: I'll often, in an initial conversation with a CEO, a founder,
• 2:55
  Speaker 1: I'll get questions like, well, should we be doing more
• 2:58
  Speaker 1: on social media or Facebook? Do we need to be
• 3:01
  Speaker 1: investing more in SEO or now, you know, AEO with,
• 3:05
  Speaker 1: you know, AI answer engines? Should we do more, go
• 3:10
  Speaker 1: to more trade shows, right? I get questions like that,
• 3:13
  Speaker 1: and my answer is always, Well, maybe, right? You know,
• 3:18
  Speaker 1: those are all fine tactics, but you have to have
• 3:23
  Speaker 1: the strategy first. So tell me what your strategy is,
• 3:26
  Speaker 1: and then I'll tell you what tactics you should use,
• 3:29
  Speaker 1: you know, to give you the best shot of achieving
• 3:32
  Speaker 1: that strategy. I think it often happens backwards. It jumps
• 3:36
  Speaker 1: straight to tactics without thinking through. the strategy and the
• 3:41
  Speaker 1: strategic questions. And then, you know, you might get lucky, right? Hey,
• 3:45
  Speaker 1: you could get lucky, but chances are pretty good that
• 3:48
  Speaker 1: if even if you do get lucky, you won't know
• 3:49
  Speaker 1: why and you won't necessarily be able to repeat it.
• 3:53
  Speaker 1: So that is, as I said, that that's the one
• 3:57
  Speaker 1: that I think is the most prevalent. A close second
• 4:02
  Speaker 1: to that would be what's your top line message? And
• 4:08
  Speaker 1: usually It's something, you know, again, this is another question
• 4:12
  Speaker 1: that I'll ask a CEO in our first conversations. I'll
• 4:15
  Speaker 1: ask him something like, pretend that I'm your ideal prospect.
• 4:20
  Speaker 1: Tell me why I should buy from you as opposed
• 4:23
  Speaker 1: to one of your competitors or some other solution. And
• 4:26
  Speaker 1: you can't say people, service, or quality. And then I
• 4:30
  Speaker 1: usually get stammering. You know, I don't get a straight
• 4:34
  Speaker 1: answer because... So much of what, particularly I think in
• 4:38
  Speaker 1: the B2B world, so much of what you see in
• 4:42
  Speaker 1: top line messaging on a website is all about some
• 4:47
  Speaker 1: flavor of people, service, or quality. And the problem with
• 4:52
  Speaker 1: that is everyone's saying the same thing, and your prospects
• 4:54
  Speaker 1: can't tell the difference between you and your competition. So
• 5:00
  Speaker 1: that's a really prevalent problem as well, and it shows
• 5:03
  Speaker 1: up a great way to tell whether You're kind of
• 5:06
  Speaker 1: falling into this trap or not. Go to your website.
• 5:10
  Speaker 1: Just go to the homepage, right? Turn the color off.
• 5:16
  Speaker 1: Make it grayscale. With the color off, is your website
• 5:21
  Speaker 1: distinguishable from your competition? Or could it fit, you know,
• 5:25
  Speaker 1: slap a different, slap a competitor's logo on there. Would
• 5:28
  Speaker 1: it work for them too? So that's one thing to do.
• 5:31
  Speaker 1: The second is count up the number of times you
• 5:33
  Speaker 1: say we, our, or your brand name. on your homepage
• 5:38
  Speaker 1: versus the number of times you say you, your, or
• 5:41
  Speaker 1: something about the customer, right? Almost always the we's and
• 5:46
  Speaker 1: ours vastly outnumber the you's and yours, right? So your
• 5:51
  Speaker 1: website is basically talking about yourself, right? So who's it for?
• 5:55
  Speaker 1: Is it for you and your company or is it
• 5:58
  Speaker 1: for your prospects, your customers, right? And so that perspective
• 6:03
  Speaker 1: is really important because your prospect comes to the website.
• 6:06
  Speaker 1: It's just all about you. It's not really telling them
• 6:09
  Speaker 1: what's in it for them if they were to buy
• 6:11
  Speaker 1: from you. So you have to flip that perspective. So
• 6:15
  Speaker 1: those are, I'd say, the two most common problems that
• 6:18
  Speaker 1: I see.
• 6:19
  Speaker 2: Boy, I really like those. You know, as you're mentioning this,
• 6:22
  Speaker 2: I'm going through my website in my mind. I'm saying,
• 6:24
  Speaker 2: how many we's, how many you's? But going back to
• 6:27
  Speaker 2: the top line, do you have an example of the
• 6:30
  Speaker 2: ideal top line? it that doesn't include people quality and service?
• 6:36
  Speaker 1: Yeah, well, so that's, that's actually a really good question.
• 6:39
  Speaker 1: I don't know that I've been asked that one recently. Yeah,
• 6:42
  Speaker 1: I think the, the ideal would obviously be different for,
• 6:46
  Speaker 1: you know, every business, but it's, it's usually some case
• 6:53
  Speaker 1: of what kind of impact are you trying to have
• 6:57
  Speaker 1: in the world? You know, one way to start thinking
• 7:01
  Speaker 1: about a top line message would be finish the sentence,
• 7:07
  Speaker 1: I envision a world where. Complete that sentence with respect
• 7:12
  Speaker 1: to what you do, right? And really be problem focused,
• 7:17
  Speaker 1: not solution focused. This is another thing that I see
• 7:20
  Speaker 1: a lot with founders is that they're very solution focused.
• 7:25
  Speaker 1: They have this great idea. for a product or a
• 7:28
  Speaker 1: service and they are bent on that solution and that
• 7:34
  Speaker 1: idea that they have in their mind. But usually what
• 7:37
  Speaker 1: happens is when any solution makes contact with the marketplace,
• 7:42
  Speaker 1: it has to change. It has to adapt or shift
• 7:45
  Speaker 1: in order to really solve the problem. So you really
• 7:48
  Speaker 1: need to be problem focused, not solution focused. What's the
• 7:51
  Speaker 1: problem that you're solving? And if you were to work
• 7:54
  Speaker 1: that into that top line statement, you know, we envision
• 7:57
  Speaker 1: a world where, and then talk about the problem that
• 8:01
  Speaker 1: you're solving, that's usually a great place to start. It
• 8:06
  Speaker 1: takes more than that, of course, but that's a really,
• 8:09
  Speaker 1: really strong place to start.
• 8:11
  Speaker 2: Now, are there specific industries that you work with?
• 8:14
  Speaker 1: I tend to work more with B2B services companies. So
• 8:21
  Speaker 1: companies that are selling software or FinTech or MarTech or
• 8:27
  Speaker 1: health tech, even data companies, organizations like that, even some e-commerce.
• 8:33
  Speaker 1: I mean, I do more in the B2B world than
• 8:36
  Speaker 1: in the B2C world, even though My background is mostly B2C.
• 8:43
  Speaker 1: Because I've been the buyer of a lot of those
• 8:46
  Speaker 1: things for corporate organizations, I kind of have an understanding
• 8:50
  Speaker 1: of what the typical B2B service business that's trying to
• 8:54
  Speaker 1: sell into large corporate America. I understand the psychology of
• 8:59
  Speaker 1: their buyer really, really well. So I tend to work
• 9:02
  Speaker 1: with a lot of them because I can help them out.
• 9:05
  Speaker 1: I want to go back to the bio that I
• 9:08
  Speaker 1: read off earlier. It talks about you launching the first.
• 9:14
  Speaker 2: Plan of MasterCard and Visa in the U.S. Can you
• 9:16
  Speaker 2: tell us a little more about that?
• 9:18
  Speaker 1: Yeah, sure. It was relatively early on in my career
• 9:22
  Speaker 1: that I got the opportunity to manage product development at
• 9:27
  Speaker 1: a growing and becoming a big player credit card company
• 9:33
  Speaker 1: called MBNA America. you know, based out of Newark, Delaware.
• 9:39
  Speaker 1: And MB & A had grown quickly over the first
• 9:42
  Speaker 1: few years that I was there, and mostly due to
• 9:46
  Speaker 1: being pioneers in the affinity marketing space. So you could get,
• 9:51
  Speaker 1: you know, we had endorsement arrangements with professional organizations like
• 9:57
  Speaker 1: the uh, the NEA, the National Education Association. Um, we
• 10:01
  Speaker 1: had them with, uh, you know, interest organizations like Ducks Unlimited, uh,
• 10:06
  Speaker 1: American Dental Association, right. And then lots of different colleges
• 10:10
  Speaker 1: and universities, which is actually how I ended up at
• 10:12
  Speaker 1: the school. I went to Penn State and MBNA sponsored
• 10:14
  Speaker 1: the Penn State card. So, so, so I, That had
• 10:19
  Speaker 1: helped the organization grow very quickly. But one of the
• 10:24
  Speaker 1: challenges that we were facing was attracting a higher spending consumer.
• 10:32
  Speaker 1: You know, credit card companies make money in multiple ways,
• 10:37
  Speaker 1: but the most common ones are through interest.
• 10:40
  Speaker 2: Right.
• 10:41
  Speaker 1: And then also through interchange, which is a fee that
• 10:44
  Speaker 1: the merchants pay when you use your card there. So
• 10:48
  Speaker 1: a higher spending customer, even if they don't revolve a
• 10:51
  Speaker 1: balance and don't end up paying you interest, can still
• 10:54
  Speaker 1: be very profitable for a credit card company because of
• 10:56
  Speaker 1: the interchange, as long as, you know, they're transacting a
• 10:59
  Speaker 1: good bit. So that was a challenge that we had.
• 11:03
  Speaker 1: And the solution that we came up with was, you know,
• 11:08
  Speaker 1: create a new category. American Express had had a Platinum
• 11:11
  Speaker 1: Card for years. In fact, they actually had the trademark
• 11:15
  Speaker 1: on the word, the Platinum Card. So, we were a
• 11:20
  Speaker 1: little bit concerned that if we went out with a
• 11:23
  Speaker 1: platinum card, we were going to get a cease and desist.
• 11:26
  Speaker 1: But just going through the research and talking to consumers
• 11:30
  Speaker 1: about if we put together the package of benefits that
• 11:33
  Speaker 1: we were thinking about and services that we were thinking
• 11:35
  Speaker 1: about and then you know, asking people in a focus
• 11:38
  Speaker 1: group what we should call it, it was over and
• 11:41
  Speaker 1: over again. They were saying, oh, platinum, platinum, platinum. And
• 11:43
  Speaker 1: then when we introduced that in focus groups, you know,
• 11:46
  Speaker 1: you could just see people smile. And, you know, because
• 11:51
  Speaker 1: it's status, right? So much of what we do as
• 11:56
  Speaker 1: humans is in the things that we buy and the
• 11:59
  Speaker 1: places we go and the services that we seek, they're
• 12:02
  Speaker 1: all about status. Uh, and even though we don't like
• 12:06
  Speaker 1: to admit it, but that's, that is really the truth. Uh, it's,
• 12:10
  Speaker 1: it's all about status and, you know, where you fit
• 12:12
  Speaker 1: in the social order.
• 12:13
  Speaker 2: Right.
• 12:14
  Speaker 1: So creating a whole new category that went up market, um,
• 12:19
  Speaker 1: one immediately differentiate differentiated us from our competition because nobody.
• 12:23
  Speaker 2: Else had that category.
• 12:25
  Speaker 1: Uh, now, you know, credit card world is about as
• 12:28
  Speaker 1: close to pure competition as you can get, uh, you know,
• 12:31
  Speaker 1: from a classical economics standpoint. So any advantage is typically
• 12:36
  Speaker 1: copied quickly by other issuers. So, you know, we might
• 12:39
  Speaker 1: have had a three to six month head start, but
• 12:42
  Speaker 1: that was enough to do, you know, millions of new
• 12:44
  Speaker 1: accounts and billions of new receivables in just that short timeframe.
• 12:50
  Speaker 1: And it honestly changed the industry completely because I imagine
• 12:53
  Speaker 1: if you pull out your wallet or many of your
• 12:55
  Speaker 1: listeners pull out their wallets, they've got platinum cards in
• 12:59
  Speaker 1: their cards, plural in their wallet. And, That's where it
• 13:03
  Speaker 1: all started.
• 13:05
  Speaker 2: Yeah. So now every time I use my card, I
• 13:07
  Speaker 2: want to think of Rich.
• 13:08
  Speaker 1: Good.
• 13:11
  Speaker 2: So now, Rich, you were at MBNA. What was the
• 13:14
  Speaker 2: defining moment that took you from working for a bank
• 13:17
  Speaker 2: or organizations and then going to entrepreneurship, doing this on
• 13:21
  Speaker 2: your own?
• 13:22
  Speaker 1: Yeah. So I got a taste of it about six,
• 13:29
  Speaker 1: seven years ago. So I had been working actually maybe
• 13:33
  Speaker 1: and go back a little bit further than that. So
• 13:35
  Speaker 1: I left the CMO corporate job. I started my own
• 13:41
  Speaker 1: management consulting business and because it was something that I
• 13:45
  Speaker 1: just always wanted to try to be out on my own.
• 13:47
  Speaker 1: And I did that for a year or so on
• 13:50
  Speaker 1: my own. Then I joined a management consulting firm. And
• 13:54
  Speaker 1: became a partner there. And I happened to be doing
• 13:59
  Speaker 1: some work for a company that I knew pretty well,
• 14:04
  Speaker 1: because I had been a customer of theirs like several
• 14:09
  Speaker 1: corporations ago. And they were local to me in the
• 14:11
  Speaker 1: Philadelphia area. And I was doing some work for them
• 14:16
  Speaker 1: as a consultant. Then the CEO called me up one
• 14:19
  Speaker 1: day and said, hey, would you be interested in coming
• 14:21
  Speaker 1: in and joining us full time as our partner? Chief
• 14:24
  Speaker 1: Marketing Officer, we really want to get the company. He
• 14:27
  Speaker 1: was very upfront about it. He's like, I'm trying to
• 14:29
  Speaker 1: sell within 12 to 18 months. So I knew it
• 14:33
  Speaker 1: was a short term assignment, right. But I had a
• 14:39
  Speaker 1: great time, you know, we ended up selling the company
• 14:42
  Speaker 1: within nine months. So for a really good, you know,
• 14:47
  Speaker 1: multiple strategic buyer, And I kind of caught the bug
• 14:53
  Speaker 1: from that experience, just helping them to get to an exit,
• 14:57
  Speaker 1: being part of that exit, and just the sense of
• 15:02
  Speaker 1: accomplishment that the entire team had at that event. That
• 15:06
  Speaker 1: was pretty special. So that's how I kind of got
• 15:09
  Speaker 1: the bug. And that's one of the reasons why I
• 15:12
  Speaker 1: do what I do today. I firmly believe that the
• 15:18
  Speaker 1: act of entrepreneurship, that creative spark, you know, the bringing
• 15:25
  Speaker 1: a new organization to life, a new product or a service,
• 15:31
  Speaker 1: that activity drives our entire economy. And it also drives the, like,
• 15:38
  Speaker 1: just improvements in human quality of life. I want those
• 15:44
  Speaker 1: new medical devices to be on the market. So I
• 15:47
  Speaker 1: want to help the people that are doing those things
• 15:51
  Speaker 1: because selfishly, as a consumer, I want them. I want
• 15:55
  Speaker 1: the good stuff to exist. And I want those new
• 15:58
  Speaker 1: jobs created. And I want people to build companies and
• 16:02
  Speaker 1: sell them for a big number because that fuels just
• 16:07
  Speaker 1: growth across the entire economy, which fuels everything. advancements in
• 16:12
  Speaker 1: our standard of living. Absolutely.
• 16:14
  Speaker 2: Now, can you share a client success story of someone
• 16:17
  Speaker 2: that's worked with you in the past?
• 16:19
  Speaker 1: Yeah. One of my early clients happened to be in
• 16:23
  Speaker 1: the behavioral health space. When I started working with them,
• 16:27
  Speaker 1: they had one location in New Jersey. It was outpatient only,
• 16:31
  Speaker 1: and it was out of network for insurance. It was
• 16:35
  Speaker 1: doing well, but it was just very small. And over...
• 16:40
  Speaker 1: course of a few years, I worked with them, started
• 16:44
  Speaker 1: working with them as their interim CMO, just helped them
• 16:50
  Speaker 1: retool their marketing, website, messaging, all of those things, as
• 16:54
  Speaker 1: well as their kind of go to market and sales process.
• 16:58
  Speaker 1: And so we got that facility doing really well. And
• 17:02
  Speaker 1: then we began to expand. Eventually, we hired more marketing staff.
• 17:09
  Speaker 1: I didn't need to be the CMO anymore. I became
• 17:12
  Speaker 1: a board member and helped to advise the company as
• 17:16
  Speaker 1: a board member. They eventually added mental health in addition
• 17:21
  Speaker 1: to substance use, two licenses. multiple locations, expanded into neighboring states, Pennsylvania, Delaware,
• 17:30
  Speaker 1: and they got to a nine-figure exit about a year
• 17:35
  Speaker 1: and a half ago. So that was another really, really
• 17:38
  Speaker 1: good experience to see it go from one location, small
• 17:42
  Speaker 1: operation in, frankly, middle of nowhere, southern Jersey, to getting
• 17:49
  Speaker 1: a really, really big impact.
• 17:51
  Speaker 2: Yeah, it sounds like a great story. As a CMO,
• 17:54
  Speaker 2: when you come into a business, what is the first
• 17:58
  Speaker 2: step that you take? And how long does it take
• 18:01
  Speaker 2: before you provide the action steps for them?
• 18:03
  Speaker 1: Yeah, really good question. The very first step for me,
• 18:10
  Speaker 1: and I've had seven CMO roles in the last 25 years.
• 18:17
  Speaker 1: First step for me is to go on a sales
• 18:21
  Speaker 1: call or walk the sales floor. sit down with a rep. And,
• 18:26
  Speaker 1: you know, if you're in a B2C environment, you know,
• 18:29
  Speaker 1: call center environment, you know, we used to have headsets,
• 18:32
  Speaker 1: you just plug in next to the other person, or,
• 18:34
  Speaker 1: you know, sometimes there are digital listening rooms, etc. But
• 18:38
  Speaker 1: what I want to do is I want to hear
• 18:40
  Speaker 1: what customers and consumers are saying. And I can let
• 18:44
  Speaker 1: other people tell me what they're saying. And I get
• 18:47
  Speaker 1: that information as well. And whatever research is, you know,
• 18:50
  Speaker 1: but there's just no substitute for listening to a sales
• 18:54
  Speaker 1: call and B2B world, be in the conference room, you know,
• 18:58
  Speaker 1: be a part of the presentation, be on the Zoom call, right?
• 19:01
  Speaker 1: You're just another person from the organization there. You don't
• 19:04
  Speaker 1: have to say anything necessarily, but, you know, just hearing
• 19:08
  Speaker 1: from customers and prospects directly is, is invaluable. So that
• 19:13
  Speaker 1: that would always be the first place I would start.
• 19:16
  Speaker 1: And then after that is talk, you know, talk to
• 19:18
  Speaker 1: your own people. And these don't necessarily have to happen
• 19:21
  Speaker 1: one and then the other, they can, you can work
• 19:23
  Speaker 1: in parallel. But yeah, talk to your people, ask them, what,
• 19:28
  Speaker 1: what do you think we should be doing? Usually, you know,
• 19:32
  Speaker 1: they will have strong opinions about that. Maybe not always accurate,
• 19:37
  Speaker 1: but Either way, you want, as a leader, you want
• 19:41
  Speaker 1: to know that and you want people to feel like
• 19:44
  Speaker 1: they have a voice with you. And you're not doing that.
• 19:49
  Speaker 1: I don't mean to do that anonymously. a disingenuous way.
• 19:51
  Speaker 1: I mean, like, genuinely, you should be interested in what
• 19:54
  Speaker 1: they have to say, and you should take it into account.
• 19:57
  Speaker 1: You won't always do it may not always be the
• 20:00
  Speaker 1: right call. But I tend to find that when people
• 20:03
  Speaker 1: feel like they have a voice, Even if you choose
• 20:07
  Speaker 1: to go in a different direction, they will embrace what
• 20:11
  Speaker 1: they're being asked to do and will be more enthusiastic
• 20:16
  Speaker 1: about it and feel like they're part of the team
• 20:19
  Speaker 1: because they're heard and seen, right? And so I think
• 20:24
  Speaker 1: that's very important too.
• 20:25
  Speaker 2: It's a true buy-in for sure. Now, who should be
• 20:30
  Speaker 2: contacting you right now?
• 20:32
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I'd say any founder. who has gotten to the
• 20:37
  Speaker 1: point where, you know, they've got traction in the marketplace.
• 20:40
  Speaker 1: They've gotten from zero to one, but they're struggling getting
• 20:44
  Speaker 1: one to 10 or 10 to 100. And they find
• 20:49
  Speaker 1: themselves involved in every sales call. They found themselves involved
• 20:54
  Speaker 1: in solving customer service problems. They find themselves involved in
• 21:00
  Speaker 1: every HR decision, every invoice that's sent out, right? And
• 21:06
  Speaker 1: part of it is just, you know, a natural fear
• 21:09
  Speaker 1: of giving up control. I think that keeps people stuck there.
• 21:13
  Speaker 1: Another is just feeling like, well, you know, we can't
• 21:17
  Speaker 1: afford to do X, Y, Z, right? We can't afford
• 21:20
  Speaker 1: to scale these things up. And you have to challenge
• 21:23
  Speaker 1: those assumptions. And so I'd say if you find yourself
• 21:27
  Speaker 1: in that situation, you know, you've gotten out there in
• 21:30
  Speaker 1: the market, you've got people that are buying your product,
• 21:32
  Speaker 1: but you just can't scale. That's when you should call me.
• 21:36
  Speaker 2: What is the single most important takeaway that you want
• 21:40
  Speaker 2: our listeners to remember from this conversation?
• 21:42
  Speaker 1: I think we hit on some really important things, you know,
• 21:46
  Speaker 1: and I'll go back to your question about, you know,
• 21:50
  Speaker 1: what should you look for first? Or what's kind of
• 21:52
  Speaker 1: the first questions that you ask? And I would encourage
• 21:56
  Speaker 1: people to take away from this. Your messaging and your
• 22:01
  Speaker 1: communication is, needs to be written in the language of you, your.
• 22:05
  Speaker 1: It's written for your audience and not for yourself. So
• 22:11
  Speaker 1: to the extent that you see, and I don't care
• 22:14
  Speaker 1: what it is, your website, an email, your sales deck,
• 22:17
  Speaker 1: an investor pitch deck, it all has to be written
• 22:20
  Speaker 1: from the perspective of what's in it for the reader,
• 22:25
  Speaker 1: not what's in it for you. And it's just way
• 22:29
  Speaker 1: too easy. You know, you see it over and over again.
• 22:32
  Speaker 1: I mean, I can go down my LinkedIn feed and
• 22:34
  Speaker 1: I'm sure right now I will have multiple posts on
• 22:37
  Speaker 1: LinkedIn with someone saying, I'm attending such and such a conference.
• 22:42
  Speaker 1: Come set up an appointment with me. Okay, well, that
• 22:45
  Speaker 1: last thing I want is another meeting, right? I'm like,
• 22:48
  Speaker 1: I'm a corporate, you know, B2B. I'm a buyer for
• 22:51
  Speaker 1: a corporation. I'm an executive. The last thing I want
• 22:54
  Speaker 1: is another meeting. So if you're not giving me a reason,
• 22:58
  Speaker 1: Why I would want, like, what's in it for me
• 23:00
  Speaker 1: as your audience, right? So you have to flip all
• 23:04
  Speaker 1: of that messaging to be from the perspective of what's
• 23:08
  Speaker 1: in it for the reader.
• 23:09
  Speaker 2: These are great takeaways. Now, Rich, where can people connect
• 23:13
  Speaker 2: with you, find out more about your work and continue
• 23:16
  Speaker 2: this conversation?
• 23:18
  Speaker 1: The easiest place to find me is on my website.
• 23:21
  Speaker 1: It's just richmsmith.com. I also have a podcast called Revenue Science.
• 23:27
  Speaker 1: You can find that on my website as well as
• 23:31
  Speaker 1: all the major outlets. And I'm pretty easy to find
• 23:34
  Speaker 1: on LinkedIn as well. Rich, thank you so much for
• 23:37
  Speaker 1: joining us today and for the value you shared. Yeah,
• 23:40
  Speaker 1: thanks for having me on, Joe. I enjoyed the conversation.
• 23:43
  Speaker 2: Likewise. If this episode inspired you, make sure you share
• 23:46
  Speaker 2: it with someone. And don't forget to follow the Globalizer
• 23:49
  Speaker 2: podcast for more conversations that make an impact. Till the
• 23:52
  Speaker 2: next time.