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CFO Secrets and Sweet Success with Michael Barbarita · The Heart-Led Business Show

• 0:01
  Speaker: Welcome to The Heart-Led Business Show, where compassion meets commerce and leaders lead with love.
• 0:09
  Speaker: Join your host, Tom Jackobs, as he delves into the insightful conversations with visionary business leaders who defy the status quo, putting humanity first and profit second.
• 0:20
  Speaker: From heartfelt strategies to inspiring stories, this podcast is your compass in the world of conscious capitalism.
• 0:29
  Speaker: So buckle up and let your heart guide your business journey.
• 0:36
  Tom Jackobs: Well, welcome back to the heart-led business show.
• 0:38
  Tom Jackobs: We are about to surf the sweet waves of entrepreneurship with our guest today, Michael Barbarita.
• 0:45
  Tom Jackobs: This visionary has been steering the ship of retail and manufacturing for four decades from growing ski town USA to a whopping$8 million in turnover.
• 0:57
  Tom Jackobs: I mean, that's some serious slope of success.
• 1:00
  Tom Jackobs: Plus he's even concocted those delightful cookies to scoop, which made a splash on QVC.
• 1:07
  Tom Jackobs: And let's not forget about the cookie loving kudos he received in the Bay State back in 1997.
• 1:13
  Tom Jackobs: So get ready to dive into the heart of business brilliance.
• 1:16
  Tom Jackobs: Michael, welcome to the show.
• 1:18
  Michael Barbarita: Thank you very much, Tom.
• 1:19
  Michael Barbarita: Thanks for having me.
• 1:20
  Michael Barbarita: Appreciate it.
• 1:21
  Tom Jackobs: I am super excited for this conversation today because we don't often have somebody with manufacturing and retail experience on the show, and I think that's gonna be important to have that discussion as well.
• 1:33
  Tom Jackobs: But of course, the first question I always like to ask is, what's your definition of a heart-led business?
• 1:40
  Michael Barbarita: Great question.
• 1:41
  Michael Barbarita: For me it's number one, getting the mission clear, meaning and the vision.
• 1:48
  Michael Barbarita: And what do I mean by that?
• 1:50
  Michael Barbarita: The way I define that is what is the world gonna look like when you're done?
• 1:55
  Michael Barbarita: So what is the world gonna look like when I'm done?
• 1:58
  Michael Barbarita: So that's how I see I set the tone, and then with that vision and mission comes the passion.
• 2:08
  Michael Barbarita: That nothing is gonna stop you from accomplishing that.
• 2:12
  Michael Barbarita: And that's where the heart-led component really comes in.
• 2:15
  Michael Barbarita: And it's, on a 1 to 10 scale, with one being, it would be nice if this would happen and up to 10 where nothing is gonna stop me from achieving this.
• 2:25
  Michael Barbarita: You have to be at that 10 because if you're not at that 10, you're gonna get the heart is gonna get weak, so to speak.
• 2:33
  Michael Barbarita: And it's just that because there's just so many pitfalls and road roadblocks in your journey that if the heart isn't in it, um, the, it's just you're gonna quit.
• 2:48
  Michael Barbarita: You're gonna quit.
• 2:48
  Michael Barbarita: That's my definition.
• 2:49
  Michael Barbarita: It starts with the vision and mission and it's, it really starts with the question, what is the world gonna look like when you're done?
• 2:56
  Tom Jackobs: Yeah.
• 2:57
  Tom Jackobs: I love that.
• 2:58
  Michael Barbarita: Yeah, that's really where it starts.
• 3:00
  Michael Barbarita: And then, once you've determine that clearly enough now you determine whether your heart is in that vision mission.
• 3:10
  Michael Barbarita: then once it is, then on a scale of one to then you ask yourself on a scale of 1 to 10, one being it would be nice and 10 being nothing's gonna stop me, then that's a heart to me, that's a heart-led business.
• 3:25
  Tom Jackobs: I love that.
• 3:26
  Tom Jackobs: I would guess that if we pulled a hundred entrepreneurs in their business that there would probably be 10%, maybe that are tens and the rest are gonna be nine and below.
• 3:41
  Tom Jackobs: What do you think?
• 3:43
  Michael Barbarita: I think that's true, but I think it's the way you frame the question.
• 3:46
  Michael Barbarita: I ask that in all of the people that I bring, that I work with.
• 3:52
  Michael Barbarita: That's one of the first questions that I ask on a scale of 1 to 10, how driven are you to do this?
• 3:58
  Michael Barbarita: How important is it to achieve that vision and mission?
• 4:02
  Michael Barbarita: And I say it just like I said it to you one being, it would be okay, 10 being I, nothing's gonna stop me.
• 4:09
  Michael Barbarita: And that, and that's when they finally understand it.
• 4:11
  Michael Barbarita: Because if I just say on a scale of 1 to 10 where do you stand?
• 4:16
  Michael Barbarita: I'll hear the sevens and eights, and then I'll say, you're only 70% committed.
• 4:19
  Michael Barbarita: If they say a seven, I said there's only 70% committed.
• 4:23
  Michael Barbarita: And that's, oh no.
• 4:25
  Michael Barbarita: So it depends how you frame it.
• 4:28
  Michael Barbarita: Yes.
• 4:29
  Michael Barbarita: That's a C, right?
• 4:31
  Michael Barbarita: C minus.
• 4:33
  Tom Jackobs: C minus, right?
• 4:34
  Tom Jackobs: Yeah.
• 4:36
  Michael Barbarita: Yeah, so it, you have to frame it right for them to answer it correctly.
• 4:42
  Michael Barbarita: All right.
• 4:42
  Michael Barbarita: Because otherwise they're gonna just think that, nothing is because to some people nothing is a 10.
• 4:49
  Tom Jackobs: Yeah.
• 4:51
  Tom Jackobs: And for some people they have 12.
• 4:53
  Michael Barbarita: That's right.
• 4:54
  Michael Barbarita: That's right too.
• 4:55
  Michael Barbarita: Yeah.
• 4:55
  Michael Barbarita: I get that as well.
• 4:56
  Michael Barbarita: Absolutely.
• 4:57
  Michael Barbarita: Yeah.
• 4:58
  Tom Jackobs: Yeah.
• 4:58
  Tom Jackobs: And I think, and I've had guests on here before that, were part of kind of profit led businesses at first and then moved into their own heart-led business.
• 5:07
  Tom Jackobs: And they said that when they were working in profit, and people were just thinking about profit, and then there was a bump in the road.
• 5:14
  Tom Jackobs: It's just easy to bail because then it's just your heart's not in it.
• 5:17
  Tom Jackobs: It's, you're just looking for the money.
• 5:19
  Tom Jackobs: And that's sad.
• 5:20
  Tom Jackobs: I don't, I dunno, like to work like that.
• 5:23
  Michael Barbarita: Yeah it is, I think it happens to a lot of us because, sometimes we go in first with the money.
• 5:29
  Michael Barbarita: What I found is that if you go in with the mission and the vision and you're committed to it, all of that happens by itself.
• 5:37
  Michael Barbarita: rest of it happens by itself.
• 5:39
  Michael Barbarita: The money, the opportunity, the comradery with a team.
• 5:42
  Michael Barbarita: All of that happens by osmosis automatically.
• 5:46
  Michael Barbarita: It just happens.
• 5:48
  Michael Barbarita: Because of your desire.
• 5:50
  Michael Barbarita: That's how I see it.
• 5:51
  Michael Barbarita: That's how, and that's how I've seen it.
• 5:54
  Michael Barbarita: I started out Profit Motive.
• 5:56
  Michael Barbarita: I started out that way.
• 5:58
  Michael Barbarita: Yeah.
• 5:58
  Tom Jackobs: Tell us about business journey.
• 6:01
  Michael Barbarita: Okay.
• 6:02
  Michael Barbarita: So back in 1999 I sold my second business successfully.
• 6:07
  Michael Barbarita: My first business sold for multiple seven figures, and at that point, I just felt I could do no wrong.
• 6:15
  Michael Barbarita: And having yeah, and having sold two business successfully, I I thought I had the keys to the business kingdom, to be honest with you, and I could succeed at anything.
• 6:24
  Michael Barbarita: So in all of my glory, I started an outpatient rehabilitation facility called Freedom Therapy Center.
• 6:30
  Michael Barbarita: So in addition to manufacturing, I was also involved in service.
• 6:34
  Michael Barbarita: And what I found is that in the successful businesses I owned, because I fell on my face in the outpatient rehabilitation facility.
• 6:43
  Michael Barbarita: What I found is that in the successful businesses I owned, I always implemented, business and financial strategies that my competition wasn't doing.
• 6:53
  Michael Barbarita: And for some reason, and I don't know the reason, and it took the failure to be able for me to analyze this, but for whatever reason, I did everything that my competition was doing in the outpatient rehabilitation facility.
• 7:10
  Michael Barbarita: I copied them.
• 7:12
  Michael Barbarita: I did everything that they were doing.
• 7:14
  Michael Barbarita: I didn't do anything.
• 7:15
  Michael Barbarita: Just to give you an example, when I was in the ski business, one of the problems that the customer had was that they didn't know if the ski, they were being sold by some hot shot ski salesperson that would flex the ski in their face was the right ski for them until they got it up on the mountain and tried it out.
• 7:33
  Michael Barbarita: So what we did is we implemented what we call the ski guarantee.
• 7:37
  Michael Barbarita: Ski the ski three times, you don't like it, bring it back for a brand new pair and keep bringing it back until we get it right now, as you probably know, and as your audience probably knows, if you ski on a ski, it depreciates substantially.
• 7:49
  Michael Barbarita: So my managers and employees thought I was nuts because it was so contrary to what was happening.
• 7:58
  Michael Barbarita: I knew two things.
• 7:59
  Michael Barbarita: Number one, I knew my competition wouldn't do it in a million years.
• 8:04
  Michael Barbarita: And two, the second thing I knew is that all the customer really wanted was a great ski experience because there's nothing worse in the world that to spend all the money and all the time to go to the mountain and then have a terrible experience'cause my skis aren't working properly, or my skis don't feel right to me.
• 8:26
  Michael Barbarita: So there's nothing worse in the world.
• 8:27
  Michael Barbarita: So that's all the customer really wanted was a great ski experience.
• 8:31
  Michael Barbarita: The first year we implemented, we sold 8,000 pair of skis, a 25% increase, and only eight came back.
• 8:39
  Michael Barbarita: And my employees right?
• 8:41
  Michael Barbarita: My employees thought thousands of pair of skis were gonna come back and then we're gonna lose a ton of money.
• 8:46
  Tom Jackobs: Of course they did.
• 8:47
  Michael Barbarita: Right?
• 8:48
  Michael Barbarita: You know this, so this is where, where your
• 8:50
  Tom Jackobs: the way your mission and vision comes in.
• 8:52
  Michael Barbarita: And you have to really fight off even your team members at times.
• 8:59
  Michael Barbarita: Okay?
• 9:00
  Michael Barbarita: Because, yeah.
• 9:01
  Michael Barbarita: And that was a great example of that.
• 9:04
  Michael Barbarita: Uh, another thing that we did in the ski business is everybody and his brother had ski packages, skis, bindings, poles.
• 9:12
  Michael Barbarita: Even skis bindings, poles and boots.
• 9:14
  Michael Barbarita: Everybody.
• 9:14
  Michael Barbarita: Everybody.
• 9:15
  Michael Barbarita: Every competitor, everyone.
• 9:17
  Michael Barbarita: But what we did is we took the most popular ski graphics, okay.
• 9:21
  Michael Barbarita: The skis that sold the most and the coloration that was on there.
• 9:25
  Michael Barbarita: And we went to the clothing department and we put together matching, parker, pant, hat, and sweater, and packaged it up.
• 9:36
  Michael Barbarita: And we sold a ton of'em.
• 9:38
  Michael Barbarita: After we sold the skis, we just brought'em over to the clothing department and showed them the matching package.
• 9:44
  Michael Barbarita: Clothing package.
• 9:47
  Tom Jackobs: Talk about contrarian.
• 9:48
  Tom Jackobs: So what's coming to mind right now is you are listening to your customer and doing things differently than your competitors, which to me is brilliant.
• 9:58
  Tom Jackobs: Because if you do the same thing that everybody else is doing, you become a commodity and then it's a race to the floor versus being unique and different.
• 10:08
  Tom Jackobs: There is no downside.
• 10:09
  Tom Jackobs: There's only upside.
• 10:10
  Michael Barbarita: Absolutely.
• 10:11
  Michael Barbarita: And
• 10:12
  Tom Jackobs: In the rehab business, did you listen to your customers?
• 10:16
  Michael Barbarita: No,
• 10:18
  Tom Jackobs: Okay.
• 10:19
  Tom Jackobs: You didn't listen to your customers.
• 10:20
  Michael Barbarita: No.
• 10:21
  Michael Barbarita: I just followed, I followed the crowd.
• 10:23
  Michael Barbarita: In other words, I call it.
• 10:24
  Michael Barbarita: I hope so marketing.
• 10:26
  Michael Barbarita: Let, lemme explain that concept Tom, when somebody says great service, highest quality, been in business for 2000 years great location.
• 10:37
  Michael Barbarita: We're honest and sincere.
• 10:40
  Michael Barbarita: All of that.
• 10:42
  Michael Barbarita: The customer is saying to themselves, I hope so.
• 10:44
  Michael Barbarita: I hope you have high quality.
• 10:46
  Michael Barbarita: I hope you have great experience.
• 10:47
  Michael Barbarita: Why would I do something with business with somebody who doesn't have high quality and great experience?
• 10:51
  Michael Barbarita: And why would I do business with someone who isn't honest and sincere?
• 10:56
  Tom Jackobs: Right.
• 10:56
  Michael Barbarita: And by the way, Al Capone thought he was honest and sincere, so I,
• 11:02
  Tom Jackobs: That's
• 11:03
  Michael Barbarita: I call it, I hope so, marketing, because if you look at your website and your competitor's website, I bet you they're saying very similar things.
• 11:12
  Tom Jackobs: mm-hmm.
• 11:12
  Michael Barbarita: So you have to break that mold.
• 11:16
  Tom Jackobs: Yep.
• 11:16
  Michael Barbarita: What I was doing when I was in the rehab businesses, I was just copying my competitors and I was doing the all I hope so.
• 11:24
  Michael Barbarita: We have great service.
• 11:25
  Michael Barbarita: We have the best physical therapists.
• 11:28
  Michael Barbarita: We're honest.
• 11:29
  Michael Barbarita: We're, we are fair with the reimbursement, all of that, all of it doesn't work.
• 11:35
  Tom Jackobs: Nope.
• 11:35
  Tom Jackobs: You must have seen my first advertising in my fitness business.
• 11:39
  Tom Jackobs: 'cause that was exactly the same message that I had.
• 11:43
  Tom Jackobs: Great parking, convenient hours.
• 11:46
  Michael Barbarita: Yeah.
• 11:46
  Michael Barbarita: I like the parking thing too.
• 11:48
  Michael Barbarita: Yeah.
• 11:49
  Michael Barbarita: Yeah.
• 11:49
  Tom Jackobs: Like Really?
• 11:50
  Michael Barbarita: And yeah, and I didn't realize it until I completely fell on my face.
• 11:55
  Tom Jackobs: Yeah.
• 11:56
  Michael Barbarita: Then I said, why did I fall on my face?
• 11:58
  Michael Barbarita: Because I had the keys to the business kingdom.
• 12:00
  Michael Barbarita: Remember earlier I said that?
• 12:02
  Tom Jackobs: Yeah.
• 12:03
  Michael Barbarita: Yeah.
• 12:03
  Michael Barbarita: And when I analyzed it, it is because I did exactly what my competition was doing, and you can't.
• 12:10
  Michael Barbarita: And the reason why those packages work so well too is not only because they matched the skis, but packaging and bundling products and services together can separate you from your competition as well, because in all likelihood, they don't have the same package and bundle.
• 12:25
  Michael Barbarita: And my competitors, even after it worked, by the way, which is weird, but even after at work did not copy me on either the ski guarantee or the packaging of the clothing.
• 12:37
  Tom Jackobs: That's interesting.
• 12:37
  Tom Jackobs: There must, they must have been fearful of what your employees were fearful of.
• 12:42
  Tom Jackobs: A lot of returns.
• 12:43
  Michael Barbarita: And that's why, and that's how they wrote it off.
• 12:45
  Michael Barbarita: It's, oh, he's getting hamed on that.
• 12:47
  Tom Jackobs: Costco does the same thing.
• 12:48
  Tom Jackobs: They have the free lifetime return guarantee if you're not completely satisfied.
• 12:53
  Tom Jackobs: And I'm sure some people take advantage of it.
• 12:57
  Tom Jackobs: Guilty as charged, but.
• 12:59
  Michael Barbarita: absolutely.
• 13:01
  Tom Jackobs: But at the end of the day, like it's a great business model because obviously because they're, grown so fast, so quickly and it's clearly not impacting their bottom line that much.
• 13:13
  Michael Barbarita: Yeah.
• 13:13
  Michael Barbarita: And what I found, it's part of the five components of a compelling offer, or it's called a risk reversal.
• 13:19
  Michael Barbarita: When you can
• 13:20
  Tom Jackobs: Yeah.
• 13:20
  Michael Barbarita: a risk and when you could do an effective risk reversal, especially if you're solving a problem.
• 13:24
  Michael Barbarita: At the same time, if you recall, I said the problem the customer had was they didn't the ski they were being sold.
• 13:30
  Michael Barbarita: They didn't know if it was the right ski for them until they tried it out.
• 13:33
  Michael Barbarita: But, and the other thing is people don't wanna look foolish Tom and a reversal eliminates that, especially to their spouse or, to their friends.
• 13:44
  Michael Barbarita: They don't wanna look like a fool.
• 13:46
  Michael Barbarita: So when they make a purchase, they wanna make sure that it's right for them, and the guarantee ensures that.
• 13:54
  Michael Barbarita: And so that's why a risk reversal is so compelling and should be part of every business owner's offer.
• 14:00
  Tom Jackobs: Yeah.
• 14:01
  Tom Jackobs: Yeah.
• 14:01
  Tom Jackobs: I for my signature program Selling With Heart, I offer a full money back guarantee if we don't help them double their sales in six months.
• 14:09
  Michael Barbarita: That's awesome.
• 14:11
  Tom Jackobs: Okay.
• 14:11
  Michael Barbarita: Yeah.
• 14:12
  Michael Barbarita: That, that, that's a phenomenal guarantee.
• 14:14
  Michael Barbarita: Phenomenal.
• 14:15
  Tom Jackobs: Yeah, and it's nerve wracking, but again, it puts our feet to the fire in terms of delivering on that service.
• 14:22
  Tom Jackobs: But also, like you said, making it easy for the prospect to buy because now they're like if it doesn't work out, then I can get my money back.
• 14:31
  Michael Barbarita: Right, absolutely.
• 14:33
  Tom Jackobs: And when the business owner gives a guarantee that you're showing really strong confidence in your product and your service.
• 14:41
  Tom Jackobs: Yeah, And if you have the heart in, in, in the business, then of course that's, you're gonna be successful with that.
• 14:48
  Michael Barbarita: Absolutely.
• 14:49
  Michael Barbarita: Because nothing's gonna stop you.
• 14:52
  Michael Barbarita: Because nothing's gonna stop you.
• 14:56
  Tom Jackobs: and then I just killed my camera.
• 14:57
  Tom Jackobs: I must have a loose wire.
• 14:59
  Tom Jackobs: My desk.
• 15:02
  Tom Jackobs: You must have a really strong desk if you have to like,
• 15:05
  Michael Barbarita: yes I do.
• 15:05
  Michael Barbarita: I got very powerful desk.
• 15:07
  Michael Barbarita: That's right.
• 15:07
  Michael Barbarita: We can handle anything.
• 15:09
  Tom Jackobs: That's awesome.
• 15:11
  Tom Jackobs: So let's take, let's go back to your businesses and what is, how did you transition then into the heart-led business model?
• 15:20
  Michael Barbarita: The way I did that is, is in the business I'm in now.
• 15:23
  Michael Barbarita: Next Step CFO.
• 15:24
  Michael Barbarita: For the most part money driven, if you will, if that's what you wanna call it.
• 15:29
  Michael Barbarita: And what I saw when I got into this business, and I got into it 30 days after I closed Freedom Therapy Center.
• 15:37
  Michael Barbarita: So I got into it right away because the hardest step in life to take is the step after the fall, the Next Step.
• 15:43
  Tom Jackobs: Yeah.
• 15:43
  Michael Barbarita: That's why I named my company Next Step CFO.
• 15:47
  Tom Jackobs: Huh?
• 15:47
  Michael Barbarita: The hardest because I fell in my face.
• 15:49
  Michael Barbarita: And the hardest step to take is this next, is the step after the fall, that Next Step.
• 15:54
  Michael Barbarita: And as, and like I said, as I reflected, I said, maybe just maybe profit motivation isn't all of it.
• 16:05
  Michael Barbarita: And I, what I saw was overwhelmed business owners.
• 16:09
  Michael Barbarita: And I was I was coming off of an overwhelming situation, so that's what made me feel like, okay, I was overwhelmed in that situation.
• 16:18
  Michael Barbarita: I thought I was hot shot city, right?
• 16:20
  Michael Barbarita: Going into it, I thought I was the, the bees, the knees bees, knees or whatever it's called, right?
• 16:28
  Michael Barbarita: And then coming out of it, after falling on my face.
• 16:32
  Michael Barbarita: I'm saying to myself, maybe it's not all about profit.
• 16:35
  Michael Barbarita: And seeing that I was totally overwhelmed.
• 16:38
  Michael Barbarita: And then ha having interviewed some small business owners, they seemed very overwhelmed and none of them had time freedom, which is what their expectation was when they started their business.
• 16:51
  Michael Barbarita: They thought they were gonna have time freedom and consistent profit.
• 16:55
  Michael Barbarita: As we all know, the journey is, a little wavy on the graph.
• 17:03
  Michael Barbarita: That's what drove the transition for me.
• 17:05
  Michael Barbarita: It's my, it was my own experience.
• 17:07
  Michael Barbarita: When you think about it, it was my own experience.
• 17:09
  Michael Barbarita: It was me just falling down being overwhelmed and recognizing that overwhelm and time freedom.
• 17:18
  Michael Barbarita: Needs to be something that business owners have to achieve because that's what their intent was when starting their business in the first place.
• 17:26
  Michael Barbarita: And so that began the hot lead component.
• 17:31
  Tom Jackobs: And then within that component of the heart-led what are some of the principles that you stand by then that really solidify that heart-led piece.
• 17:40
  Michael Barbarita: The way the world is gonna look like for me, uh, when I'm done.
• 17:43
  Tom Jackobs: Oh, I love that.
• 17:43
  Tom Jackobs: Yeah.
• 17:44
  Michael Barbarita: Is that overwhelmed business owners will achieve to ensure that overwhelmed business owners achieve consistent profits.
• 17:51
  Michael Barbarita: That leads to time freedom to build a legacy and the life they desire.
• 17:56
  Michael Barbarita: That's really to me, what it, what, that's my heart.
• 17:59
  Michael Barbarita: That's what's in my heart.
• 18:01
  Tom Jackobs: Okay.
• 18:02
  Michael Barbarita: Because that's what I felt when I fell down.
• 18:06
  Michael Barbarita: I, I, like I said, I was overwhelmed.
• 18:09
  Michael Barbarita: I was working 80 hours a week.
• 18:11
  Michael Barbarita: Nothing was working,,right, the employees were leaving, they saw a sinking ship.
• 18:16
  Michael Barbarita: I was waking up in the middle of the night with cold sweats, worried about cash flow and all the customers I was losing.
• 18:22
  Michael Barbarita: I want to build a legacy.
• 18:25
  Michael Barbarita: In my particular case and I wanted to lead the life that I desired.
• 18:31
  Michael Barbarita: And that's what, and so that's why my, that's my vision, that's my passion, and that's what converted me.
• 18:39
  Michael Barbarita: My failing converted me is really what happened.
• 18:43
  Tom Jackobs: Yeah, and I see that quite a bit as well.
• 18:45
  Tom Jackobs: And that, that's definitely happened to me.
• 18:47
  Tom Jackobs: Also is when any of the businesses that I've been involved in, if I was just focused on the money side of it, it never went really well.
• 18:56
  Tom Jackobs: But when I got focused on just serving the client and really just falling in love with the client and understanding what their needs and their desires were, and are then solving those problems, then the money comes.
• 19:13
  Tom Jackobs: And it usually will come very well.
• 19:16
  Tom Jackobs: Now on the caveat for that though, is a lot of heart-led business owners feel fear charging what they are worth.
• 19:25
  Tom Jackobs: What type of advice would you give to those heart-led business owners?
• 19:29
  Tom Jackobs: Who and I was one at one point.
• 19:32
  Tom Jackobs: I still am a little bit I think I undercharged a lot of my stuff, but what type of advice would you give them?
• 19:39
  Michael Barbarita: You have to add, you have to, first of all, you have to believe in your product or service.
• 19:43
  Michael Barbarita: That's number one, that core belief.
• 19:44
  Michael Barbarita: The second thing is you have to add more value.
• 19:46
  Michael Barbarita: You have to continuously add more value and improve, and it's based on what you said earlier.
• 19:51
  Michael Barbarita: If your if your business is heart-led, you're in constant improvement mode,
• 19:57
  Tom Jackobs: Yeah.
• 19:57
  Michael Barbarita: Right?
• 19:58
  Michael Barbarita: You're in constant improvement mode, so on that basis alone.
• 20:05
  Michael Barbarita: That you're gonna, you're gonna be able to to, to understand and focus better.
• 20:11
  Michael Barbarita: Now with respect lemme say this too.
• 20:15
  Michael Barbarita: Let me give you an example of adding more value, okay?
• 20:17
  Michael Barbarita: 'cause this is a nuts, so thing, when I was in the frozen cookie dough business, okay?
• 20:21
  Michael Barbarita: The problem the customer had, and as you'll notice I always go there, you have to identify the problem that the customer has.
• 20:28
  Tom Jackobs: Yeah.
• 20:28
  Michael Barbarita: The customer had was they didn't wanna, they wanted to sell cookies as an add-on sale.
• 20:34
  Michael Barbarita: They wanted to do that.
• 20:35
  Michael Barbarita: Okay.
• 20:36
  Michael Barbarita: But the problem they had is they didn't wanna waste valuable oven space baking cookies.
• 20:43
  Michael Barbarita: If you're a pizza parlor, You didn't wanna put cookies in the oven, you wanna put pizza in the oven.
• 20:49
  Michael Barbarita: Okay?
• 20:49
  Michael Barbarita: You're a sub shop.
• 20:50
  Michael Barbarita: You wanted to put warm up subs and put subs in the oven.
• 20:54
  Michael Barbarita: Okay?
• 20:54
  Tom Jackobs: Right?
• 20:56
  Michael Barbarita: There were two things that happened that made me do what I'm about to say.
• 21:00
  Michael Barbarita: Number one is I really understood the long-term value of a customer and I actually, I believed in my product.
• 21:08
  Michael Barbarita: I believed in my product, and the second thing is I understood the long-term value of a customer.
• 21:13
  Michael Barbarita: Because my average opening order was$50, but I gave away a free convection oven with every opening order that cost me$200.
• 21:24
  Tom Jackobs: Oh my gosh.
• 21:25
  Michael Barbarita: So I would lose money on every opening order, but I solved the problem that they had and I got in more doors.
• 21:31
  Tom Jackobs: Yeah.
• 21:32
  Michael Barbarita: Because of that.
• 21:34
  Tom Jackobs: Love it.
• 21:35
  Michael Barbarita: And the long-term value of a customer was five grand.
• 21:39
  Tom Jackobs: Oh my gosh.
• 21:40
  Michael Barbarita: Now, if I didn't believe in my product, Okay, then I wouldn't, I would never do that in a million years.
• 21:46
  Michael Barbarita: 'cause I'd be exchanging$50 for 200.
• 21:50
  Michael Barbarita: The other thing too, Tom, that gets in the way sometimes is business owners hate the numbers and the data, but you have to understand the story of financial state get putting the CFO hat on here.
• 22:02
  Tom Jackobs: Right.
• 22:02
  Michael Barbarita: You have to understand the story that the financial statements are telling you.
• 22:07
  Michael Barbarita: Okay.
• 22:07
  Tom Jackobs: Yeah.
• 22:09
  Michael Barbarita: A lot of business owners don't like that at all.
• 22:13
  Tom Jackobs: That, or they put their head in the sand.
• 22:14
  Tom Jackobs: I've done that so much, I know the numbers are bad.
• 22:17
  Tom Jackobs: I don't wanna reconcile my, I don't wanna look at those.
• 22:20
  Tom Jackobs: I don't wanna see the story.
• 22:21
  Michael Barbarita: That's the other component of it.
• 22:23
  Michael Barbarita: And we,'cause we talk about the heartfelt, but we still have to involve the story that the financial statements are telling here that it's not something we can avoid.
• 22:32
  Michael Barbarita: And a lot of business owners choose to.
• 22:35
  Tom Jackobs: Yeah, that's unfortunate.
• 22:37
  Tom Jackobs: But yeah, it's so important.
• 22:39
  Tom Jackobs: That's one thing that I, when, especially when I do the sales coaching, is knowing those numbers.
• 22:43
  Tom Jackobs: Because with those numbers.
• 22:45
  Tom Jackobs: Like you said, they tell a story, but also give you an opportunity to then improve what you need to improve.
• 22:53
  Michael Barbarita: Absolutely.
• 22:54
  Michael Barbarita: I'd be out of business if that wasn't the equation.
• 22:57
  Michael Barbarita: Because I, I'm both a CFO and strategic implementation specialist.
• 23:01
  Michael Barbarita: So I combine the financial with the strategic.
• 23:05
  Michael Barbarita: And if I if that wasn't true, that you do have to understand the story, that your financial statements are telling you, then I would be out.
• 23:13
  Michael Barbarita: At least didn't half of my business.
• 23:17
  Tom Jackobs: Awesome.
• 23:17
  Tom Jackobs: While we're on that topic, why don't you tell us a little bit about your business and how people can get ahold of you and potentially work with you.
• 23:24
  Michael Barbarita: So we are fractional CFOs and strategic implementation specialists.
• 23:29
  Michael Barbarita: We do, we combine the financial with the strategic so that the business owner can be comfortable that they know that financially, the strategies that we present work, because we show it in like a in a business and casual forecast where they can change the numbers and adjust the forecast any way they want and it's dynamic so that they're able to, see what it looks like if they're 20% off.
• 23:53
  Michael Barbarita: If they're 20% up, if some expense like insurance, which has been unbelievable with my clients in terms of how it's increased, um, goes up dramatically and what that impact would look like.
• 24:06
  Michael Barbarita: And then we also give them the strategy.
• 24:10
  Michael Barbarita: So that they, they have a path on how to get there.
• 24:14
  Michael Barbarita: So we just don't tell'em, you gotta do 3 million in sales.
• 24:17
  Michael Barbarita: We show them how to get to 3 million in sales.
• 24:21
  Michael Barbarita: Okay.
• 24:22
  Michael Barbarita: And but what I do is I have a book called Powerful Business Strategies that I give away on my website, and you just come to my website and get the book.
• 24:29
  Michael Barbarita: But I also do book interviews and because I'm always updating the book.
• 24:36
  Michael Barbarita: Reason is business is always changing and because business is always changing, I wanna make sure the strategies in the book still work in different industries.
• 24:45
  Michael Barbarita: I interview business owners and essentially the interview goes like this, it's 60 minutes on Zoom.
• 24:52
  Michael Barbarita: I present strategies from my book, and then I ask if what the impact the strategy would have if a business owner were to implement it in your industry.
• 25:01
  Michael Barbarita: And then I document it for the book.
• 25:03
  Michael Barbarita: And that's it.
• 25:03
  Michael Barbarita: It's 60 minutes.
• 25:05
  Michael Barbarita: The way to get a book interview is you just go to nextstepcfo.net, hit the contact button, fill out the contact form, and in the message sent section, just put the word book interview and I'll take it from there.
• 25:20
  Tom Jackobs: Oh that's great.
• 25:20
  Tom Jackobs: That's wonderful.
• 25:21
  Tom Jackobs: Yeah.
• 25:22
  Tom Jackobs: Thanks.
• 25:22
  Tom Jackobs: Thanks for doing that for the audience.
• 25:24
  Tom Jackobs: I'm sure they will certainly appreciate that as well.
• 25:28
  Tom Jackobs: Michael, thank you so much for spending your time with us today and sharing your insights of, four decades of being in business and having some great success and some failures as well.
• 25:38
  Michael Barbarita: That's right.
• 25:39
  Tom Jackobs: Love those stories.
• 25:40
  Tom Jackobs: So that's amazing.
• 25:41
  Tom Jackobs: So thank you very much for sharing your wisdom with.
• 25:43
  Michael Barbarita: Really always fun.
• 25:45
  Tom Jackobs: And thank you listeners for tuning in today because I really appreciate you guys, and I know Michael appreciates you here as well.
• 25:53
  Tom Jackobs: Make sure that you're checking out everything that he is doing.
• 25:55
  Tom Jackobs: We're gonna provide all of those links down in the show notes, so it makes it very easy for you to grab all that information.
• 26:01
  Tom Jackobs: While you're down there in the show notes, there might be a review button and I'd really love it if you could give a, give the show a rating and a review because it just helps spread the word about the heart-led business show and help those that might be struggling a little bit in their business.
• 26:15
  Tom Jackobs: So, until next time, lead with your heart.
• 26:19
  Speaker 2: You've been listening to The Heart-Led Business Show, hosted by Tom Jackobs.
• 26:24
  Speaker 2: Join us next time for another inspiring journey into the heart of business.