Latest / Forge Fire Protocol Podcast / Stop Losing Leads: Fix These 5 Business Problems

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Stop Losing Leads: Fix These 5 Business Problems · Forge Fire Protocol Podcast

0:02
Imagine breaking free from the grind and building a business that lights you up, ignites with purpose, and delivers the ultimate reward.
0:12
Forge Fire Protocol gives ambitious entrepreneurs the proven five-step system to choose the right business, launch it successfully, scale it strategically, and exit on your terms.
0:26
Turning vision into lasting wealth, forged in fire, built for legacy.
0:35
Welcome back to the Forge Fire Protocol Podcast.
0:37
This is episode 15.
0:39
I am Don LaPlume.
0:40
We've got Michael Sullivan here.
0:42
We've got Stephen Moynihan and we have a fantastic episode.
0:46
We're going to be talking about pain, but pain for business owners and how to fix it.
0:51
So Mike, why don't you do the intro on this one?
0:54
Talk about what we're covering here today.
0:57
Sure.
0:58
I mean, as we've spoke about before, we've been doing a lot of outreach and we're reaching out to people, finding out, you know, what's going on inside their businesses.
1:05
We want to hear from the people we're interfacing with.
1:09
And there's five recurring themes that keep on coming back to us.
1:11
Okay.
1:12
And so what we wanted to do is put together this podcast is what are those five things that we're hearing from the field?
1:16
And then what can we do about it?
1:17
Okay.
1:17
How can we fix them or what can we do about it?
1:19
So one of them is the initial contact.
1:22
When someone reaches out to you, can you respond in a timely manner?
1:25
What happens?
1:25
What's that process?
1:27
Okay, that's, it's not operating in an efficient manner for most companies and they're losing a lot of business that doesn't need to get lost.
1:33
That's first and foremost.
1:35
Second is ideal client.
1:37
You and I were talking and Steve, the three of us were talking, but you were elaborating how in a networking session you were in that all these people gave a pitch in their business, but they never told you who their ideal client is.
1:47
Okay, and I, yeah, I believe it's because a lot of them don't know.
1:54
I don't think they have a clue who their real business is.
1:56
Their real client to them right now is someone who's willing to pay them and who has a problem.
2:00
Right.
2:01
But they can't define it.
2:02
And if they can't define it, they don't really know who it is.
2:05
Right.
2:05
And that's, we'll get into it too.
2:07
But this is the reason why we're here is it's different things.
2:10
We're helping people get those answers so they can focus and get better.
2:14
Number three was time drain.
2:16
How many people are inefficient with their time?
2:20
They're spending time in the wrong places.
2:22
They don't have enough hours in the day.
2:25
And you've heard people say that.
2:26
And what someone said to me a long time ago is, Richard Branson runs 400 companies.
2:31
Are you telling me that you need more time than he does?
2:37
Very well put.
2:39
Number four is income-producing activity focus.
2:42
If you have a business that's not making money, you don't have a business.
2:45
You have a hobby.
2:49
Enough said.
2:50
Number five is communication.
2:52
All right.
2:52
So the reason why we bring this up is not just that initial contact that we talked about before, but as your customer being followed up with.
3:02
I had someone the other day in a support call that I had said to me, don't worry, Mr. Sullivan.
3:06
I'm going to take care of this and I'm going to see it through.
3:09
By the way, before we get started, can I please have your phone number to make sure if we get disconnected for any reason, you know that I'm going to call you back.
3:15
By the way, sir, you're going to get a call from a 614 area code.
3:19
That's me.
3:20
so you know it's me what a great intro to start and the call did get disconnected and he did call me right back first person in that company who's done that in five years wow people have said can i have your number but no one's ever called back but he said that and then he gave me his area code to make sure i know to pick it up then after the issue was resolved he's like are you good is everything great i'm i guess everything's all set thank you so much
3:46
That's fantastic.
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I'm leaving this ticket open and I'm going to follow up in an hour before I get off my shift.
3:50
I just want to make sure that everything stays fixed and you don't run into anything new.
3:54
Is that okay if I give you a call?
3:55
I'm going to call from that same 614 number.
3:58
I'm out to dinner with my family verbatim, like an hour later.
4:01
Phone rings.
4:03
Hey, Mike, just want to make sure that everything's still good.
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I'm like, it is.
4:06
I'm out to dinner with my family.
4:07
Sorry to bother you.
4:07
Just wanted to make sure that everything was still good.
4:10
Have a fantastic weekend.
4:13
That's awesome.
4:14
Yeah.
4:14
But that's just basic communication.
4:17
But going forward, my mind right off the bat is I want to hire this guy.
4:20
How can I get this guy on my team?
4:21
Right.
4:21
Here's a real example of that, interrupting Mike, because it just happened to me.
4:28
Just before we started a podcast, I had a phone call and I picked it up.
4:34
And it was a person for information on a program that I wanted to find out about that we can utilize here.
4:40
And I told him, now's not a good time.
4:43
I'm in a meeting.
4:45
And he said, well, okay, I just have a moment.
4:48
And he's ignoring what I just said, which I'm in a meeting, which means just give me who you are and you're going to call back at a certain time later today.
4:58
And they don't get that.
5:00
They think they're, you know, well, I'm just going to take a moment of your time.
5:05
If I can just ask you this.
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I said, no, you didn't understand me.
5:09
I'm in a meeting, but I didn't want to miss your call.
5:13
Right.
5:13
I'll let you know that.
5:14
Yes, you're important to me and I want to speak later.
5:17
So perfect example.
5:19
Yeah.
5:20
And I'll bet everybody that's watching this or listening to this has had that example.
5:25
has had situationally I look I got into a I was doing some stuff with some of my domains and and I've got one in particular where I've got an issue websites up working great email isn't emails up working great when I call support and website isn't it's like one or the other and I'm like why is this I don't have the time to deal with this that's not for me to do right I reached
5:55
And quite frankly, I have to have somebody else call again because...
5:58
I actually have an idea as to what could be causing that for you, but we can talk about that offline.
6:02
Okay, great.
6:03
And that's your billy wig.
6:05
So that was a twofold reason to bring that up.
6:09
But either way, we'll get there, right?
6:11
But that initial contact is key.
6:13
And where this is coming from is we're doing interviews right now from multiple.
6:19
So as we talked about, so we're running multiple different companies.
6:23
And we had a lot of different stuff going on and we are streamlining everything.
6:27
But one of the keys that we have to focus on is who are we, who's our ideal client, right?
6:37
And we're going to get into the ideal client in just a minute.
6:40
But in order to do that, we have to do some research, right?
6:45
So we're reaching out to different contractors.
6:50
We're reaching out to coaches just for different,
6:52
parts of what we do.
6:53
Right.
6:54
And that's where these questions are coming from, because what we're seeing are, are common holes in business.
7:02
And the beautiful thing is when we see these, we're able to fix them or provide solutions.
7:07
And that's the basis of the business.
7:09
Right.
7:09
So from our standpoint, that's what we're looking for.
7:12
But, but here's what, what we want to share with you about this is that if all of these businesses that we're talking to are having these challenges and they're common,
7:21
More than likely your business does, or you know a business that does, right?
7:26
So that's why we want to give you not just what's happening, but also what the fix is.
7:31
How do we fix this?
7:33
I think the other thing too that's important is that we address the importance of listening and learning.
7:39
Anytime I start a new job, anytime I start working with a new company, that initial period, whether it be depending on the scope of the project and the time,
7:46
That could be as short as a day or a week or as long as 30 days.
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But that initial window is just listen.
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Listen and learn what drives them, what's important to them, how you can help.
8:00
But you're going in there with ideas and what you think.
8:03
But I cannot tell you the amount of times that I've gone into somewhere thinking I'm solving A, B, and C. And by just listening, walked out focused on like EFG.
8:14
Yeah.
8:16
completely different than I was focused on, but that's what they needed.
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And that's where it's, that's why it's so important as we gather this information from people in the field and why we have this set up the way we have, but that information is vital.
8:29
And so initial contact.
8:31
Okay.
8:31
So with us talking about that, let's dive into that a little bit.
8:34
We've all seen it.
8:36
Okay.
8:36
And that's why I, I've had it happen so many times to me.
8:42
where someone reaches out and the numbers are staggering.
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We'll get into some of those numbers in a minute.
8:45
But, Don, talk about why, let's say, we talk about what is the problem with initial contact that you're seeing from the communication that you are having, you and Stephen.
8:56
I know you both mentioned.
8:56
Stephen, you mentioned it specifically, actually.
8:58
So I'll start with you, Stephen.
9:00
You mentioned that you're seeing that across the board when you're having conversations.
9:03
So can you elaborate on that?
9:06
Robert Hopkins, Ph.D.: Yeah, a friend of mine who has a commercial plumbing heating contractor, you know, projects that you've been on.
9:13
And he started a residential service side, you know, serving residential customers, you know, for any immediate problems that they have, hot water heaters installed, you know, faucets broken or something in their house.
9:24
And so the marketing he's doing is driving to a phone number and it's answered by a live answering service.
9:30
And I know everyone thinks that that's great and it's perfect,
9:35
There's some stalls in between there because I had experience that when I called him because he uses the same service for both his commercial business and now his residential.
9:46
And there's a delay because they only have so many people on staff and you may get picked up, but you're put on hold.
9:55
And it's like the worst thing to do and happen in that type of service business.
10:00
And I discussed that with him and why he wasn't using a better model.
10:04
And again, it just wasn't his exposure to know that there's something better out there to use.
10:10
And I had two other experiences in that initial contact.
10:15
They're not capitalizing on the immediacy of being able to respond.
10:22
And with the technology that's there today, you can get that response.
10:26
And it doesn't sound robotic.
10:27
It sounds like a human person.
10:29
And you can do that direction.
10:31
Nothing frustrates me more, by the way, than not.
10:34
If I call especially sales for a company, not even a person, if I call sales for a company that could be as big as a thousand people and it goes straight to voicemail, I want to walk down to their office, grab their VP of sales and say, what are you doing?
10:53
Right.
10:55
I have a group and by the way, I'm not knocking them.
10:58
They are phenomenal, right?
11:00
This is a local trade group.
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I won't get into names or anything in this particular case because I want to use it as an illustration, but I'm going to be speaking with them this week about our system, right?
11:13
But they are known for getting back to people.
11:16
Like they answer the phone.
11:17
If they can't answer the phone because they're in the meeting, people know, they'll call us right back, right?
11:23
Well, I happen to know that one of the owners of the company, the one who answers the phone a lot and makes a lot of those phone calls, it's not a big company.
11:32
It's a small trades company.
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But they're doing a lot of business.
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She was really, really ill. She was not going to be answering that phone.
11:42
And so, but I called, and it was the kicker.
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The phone was, not only did it go to voicemail, but voicemail was full.
11:52
Yes.
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And they built a reputation.
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That is their reputation is on communication.
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And they're awesome people.
12:00
I'm not knocking them.
12:01
They really do everything they can.
12:02
Okay.
12:03
But that's an example of, you know, human frailty.
12:09
Right.
12:09
We do have that.
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And it's in every business.
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You have those potential issues.
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Somebody's out.
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Somebody's sick.
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And those tasks that that person is doing is they're not able to be done or not fully covered.
12:23
All right.
12:23
So you can have a business that's firing on all cylinders most of the time that still has those those failures.
12:29
That's actually a two separate issue.
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So, you know what I mean?
12:32
So you have the one issue is, first of all, they've built a reputation or some companies even have it in their name and they don't deliver.
12:40
Right.
12:40
It's literally in their name.
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So if it's in your name, I'm expecting you to be one of the best I've ever talked to about this.
12:48
Because you put it in your name.
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I didn't put it there.
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You put it there.
12:52
The second thing is, and we're not going to go down a rabbit hole on this, but there's contingency planning and resiliency systems that you need to have in place.
13:00
You can't have that.
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If there's one person responsible for anything in your company, there needs to be one person of authority.
13:07
That person, I don't believe having sharing decision is a good thing anywhere.
13:11
I think one person has to have the final say in anything, and there needs to be one authoritative decision maker at the top of that food chain or at the top of that pyramid, whatever you want to call it.
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But you need to have contingency plans.
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So, for example, if the receptionist or the person that typically handles calls is unavailable or going through something,
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Well, you got to know exactly, well, when she goes out, we have a plan in place.
13:36
So now we're going to fail over to this system.
13:38
Right.
13:39
Or to this answering service or whatever it may be.
13:41
But this is the level of communication our clients expect.
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And this is what we're going to exceed.
13:45
Right.
13:46
We're going to do the same, if not better.
13:49
Right.
13:49
A good point, just to point out, that receptionist can be a man as well.
13:54
Yes.
13:54
Yes, it can.
13:56
Very much so.
13:58
It very well could be.
13:59
It doesn't matter who you are, whatever.
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Bottom line is it's a simple thing.
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We're looking at what these common issues are.
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One, because it's important to be thinking about these from the perspective of your own business.
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But it's also important from our perspective that we have a solution.
14:17
All right.
14:17
So we look for these because we create the solutions for those businesses.
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That's what we build in.
14:24
And Don, what is those numbers really quick?
14:26
Okay, just so everyone understands why we're talking about those solutions.
14:30
78% of people buy from the first person to respond.
14:33
Responding within one minute increases your conversions by 391%.
14:37
That's insane.
14:38
391, 39, whatever.
14:41
That's huge.
14:44
Yep.
14:44
And then the other one too that I saw that floored me, was you are 100 times more likely to reach a lead within five minutes than 30 minutes.
14:52
Okay.
14:54
Now think about that because in today's world, 30 minute response time is pretty good.
14:59
It's pretty remarkable.
15:02
But within five minutes, you're a hundred times more likely.
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That's why.
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But with technology, and here's the thing for the people who are not embracing it yet, I'll add an extra person, they'll cover it, they'll take care of it.
15:16
Here's the thing.
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Today, more and more and more companies are using more technology.
15:24
And if they end up having a much better fast response, like you're talking about those, those stats, Mike, those are the people that are going to get the business.
15:35
Even though, yes, you've got, you know, I've got this group of people that they're going to take care of it.
15:41
If they're not as fast, people are going to learn to expect immediacy.
15:46
How many times do we as people now stand in front of the darn microwave and say, hurry up?
15:52
Mm-hmm.
15:53
Right.
15:53
I mean, have you ever done that?
15:55
Right.
15:56
It's like, because we are so, we were so focused on getting things done or getting what we need now that we don't wait around.
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If that, if we can't get what we need, we got to go somewhere else.
16:08
Think about from a contractor standpoint, think about it from a, you know, I got a, I got a, um, a leak in my roof.
16:16
Right.
16:16
And I just had a brand new roof put on my house.
16:19
And I did not have any leaks beforehand, but it needed it.
16:23
But let's say I had a leak in the roof.
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Do you think I'm going to sit and wait around hours or days for somebody to call me back?
16:31
That's insane.
16:32
No, I want an answer now.
16:34
I need this taken care of now.
16:36
So immediacy is key.
16:37
How many have responded to you also?
16:40
Their first response when you have an issue or something along those lines?
16:45
I am really busy right now.
16:47
Let me see what I can do.
16:48
I this, I that.
16:49
If their first response is I when you're in crisis, they just don't get it.
16:54
Right.
16:55
There's that initial contact friction and the ForgeFire protocol bypasses that cold calling, that paralysis by deploying the automated AI intelligence agents and to really scrape those pain points and execute diagnostic outreach.
17:15
And like, what does that mean?
17:16
When that call comes in, say if it's a leak on the roof, right?
17:19
if you have that well-trained automated response, it can ask the specific questions.
17:26
And then based on the answers, it can formulate the next answers to ask.
17:31
So you're getting more specific than actually if a human is trying to diagnose it.
17:37
That's really the amazing part that's there.
17:40
Yeah, and I think we should move on to ideal client and talk about that.
17:44
But what I think we need to state here quickly is that
17:47
We've identified this and this is coming back to us.
17:49
So what do we do?
17:50
How do we fix it?
17:52
Do you want to elaborate on what we did?
17:55
Well, so we were actually in that particular case, we're building out a system where every call will be answered.
18:04
Not only is it answered and answered properly and answered in a very friendly understanding voice that's very conversational.
18:12
So it's all about, it's all about the tone and about the words that are chosen.
18:16
but it's also providing a lot of instant free information for the client and making them feel comfortable while also booking an appointment live.
18:27
All right, so that way the client knows they're taking care of it, it's done.
18:32
And they feel good about it.
18:33
Yep, and then the other thing we have too that we built out was someone fills out a form on your site while the owner or the owners or whoever the people are in that company that you tell us is needed
18:44
Those people have an app on their phone.
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In the minute someone fills out a form, it immediately goes to you, provides you a summary because it's going to ask them a couple of questions in that form.
18:53
It provides a very brief summary of that person, the issue they're having, and it calls them back on your phone.
18:57
You just click call within a minute.
18:59
So within that one minute we talk about, you're on the phone with them.
19:04
A reminder, 391% conversion increase in that scenario.
19:07
That's right.
19:07
So this is what we're doing to help you.
19:09
And this is why.
19:10
And it's a wraparound.
19:12
It's all the way.
19:13
So it's how are people reaching out?
19:15
So if they're reaching out by phone, if they're reaching out from a website, how are they finding you?
19:20
Are they reaching out from social?
19:23
Yeah.
19:24
People have, I learned this years ago, and you're right, we've got to go to Ideal Client.
19:28
We've got to go to the next one.
19:29
But I want to leave it with this, is people have different ways they prefer to communicate.
19:35
I know that about my children.
19:36
I've got five great kids.
19:38
Love them all.
19:39
They're all on their own now.
19:41
But I know that as they were growing up, especially, like some would call.
19:45
Some almost almost by age.
19:48
Right.
19:48
Some wanted the text.
19:50
Some will just send something on Snapchat.
19:52
Right.
19:53
It's like you've got everybody has their way of wanting to communicate.
19:58
You've got to be there.
19:59
You've got to be omnipresent and you've got to be immediate satisfaction for what they need.
20:06
It's done.
20:07
Fast point on that before you move on.
20:10
This shifts that first interaction really from an awkward sales pitch into an authoritative problem-solving consultation that commands immediate respect from the customer.
20:22
That's the key.
20:23
Yeah.
20:24
Professional systems.
20:25
It works.
20:26
So let's go to ideal client because this is one that really bugs me.
20:30
And I was telling you guys this before the meeting, right?
20:32
I was sitting here shaking my pen.
20:33
It's like, it gets me.
20:36
So I've been part of different networking organizations for decades.
20:40
All right.
20:40
I believe in business networking.
20:41
I've grown businesses with networking organizations.
20:45
And I've attended a lot of meetings.
20:48
In these meetings, invariably, if I had 20 people in a room, 30 people, 50 people in a room, I don't care how many, if there are 10 people in the room, at least 10.
20:58
40% of the people in the room, at least 40% of the people in that room are, when they're telling me about their business, who they're looking for, they never tell me who to look for.
21:10
If I'm supposed to find a referral for them or find a connection that I can provide for them, they've never told me.
21:18
40%.
21:21
Sometimes it's higher, but that's an issue because
21:25
How many business owners, and as we're talking with, by the way, talking about interviewing these coaches, as we're interviewing tradespeople for these different verticals that we've got, we're seeing the same thing.
21:41
Right.
21:41
And.
21:43
if you ever so have used HubSpot or use tools such as HubSpot from a marketing perspective, which is a CRM, but it's also a marketing platform.
21:53
So I initially used it because I was looking to drive business to my solar business.
21:57
So I wanted to make sure my content wasn't just being randomly sent out there because I didn't understand what was going on.
22:02
And they had a very simple way to apply,
22:05
marketing information but they made me define my avatar first and they made me niche down to a point that i didn't know because if i'm selling solar residential solar who's my client homeowners no that's the first question homeowners which states why those states what's the biggest problems they're having okay so there's a major issue going on to the northeast and now i'm focused in the northeast now i'm in the northeast
22:32
Is Massachusetts getting hit hardest?
22:34
Is New York?
22:35
Is any of the other states in New England?
22:37
Massachusetts, great.
22:39
Is it everywhere in Massachusetts?
22:41
Or is it national grid clients in Massachusetts?
22:45
That's where you drill down.
22:46
So now I know I'm looking for national grid.
22:49
Now are people at certain age groups or demographics going to be anti?
22:55
So what are the numbers?
22:56
And that's how you drill down into it.
22:58
The numbers on that were staggering, Jimmy, too.
22:59
So for business utilizing documented avatar or ideal customer profiles, they see a 68% higher account win rate drastically.
23:11
68%?
23:11
Yes.
23:13
Think about that.
23:14
And drastically reduced sales cycles.
23:16
So reduced sales cycle, 68% more closings, closed business.
23:22
So let me take that away for a minute.
23:25
What if you're not using those?
23:28
Does that mean you get a longer sales cycle and you have 68% let business closed?
23:33
Yes.
23:34
Yeah.
23:35
And on top of that, you're able to charge more.
23:38
And I'm going to explain this briefly to you.
23:39
So providers that are focused on a dedicated, more narrow niche, they allow providers to charge up to 30% to 50% premium on the pricing.
23:49
Wow.
23:50
Because they're perceived as specialized.
23:51
So think about it like this.
23:53
Okay.
23:54
You are a plumber.
23:58
you receive an advertisement or you're somewhere and someone says to you, I have a solution that can help you get more leads.
24:06
Maybe, maybe I listen, maybe I don't.
24:08
Depends.
24:09
Then another guy comes up to you and says, I know you're in Massachusetts.
24:13
I have the ability to help you get more leads for contractors in Massachusetts.
24:17
Okay.
24:17
Now I'm paying a little bit more attention.
24:19
The next guy walks up to me.
24:20
He's like, listen, these guys, they're not good, but I'm great.
24:23
And here's why.
24:24
Cause I focus on residential plumbers on the South shore.
24:28
of Massachusetts and I can three X their business by getting you clients.
24:33
But now I know they know my business.
24:35
They know my location.
24:36
They know my focus, that guy I'm paying attention to because I believe that they're going to provide results because they have niched down and provided that specific information.
24:44
And that's what we're talking about here.
24:46
You're looking to eliminate that fuzzy ideal client profile.
24:50
And in the forge fire protocol to the 72 hour market test and the seven characteristic scorecard that's built into the protocol, it focuses founders, focuses the business owner, you know, on the target buyers that they're looking for.
25:07
So there's a solution and it works.
25:10
That's, that's the biggest part.
25:13
Well, and we need,
25:14
Everybody needs to understand who their ideal client is.
25:16
Right.
25:17
And will you have different clients?
25:19
People will say, well, yeah, but I don't want to not serve those people.
25:23
It's not what we're talking about.
25:24
Talking about understanding who your ideal client is.
25:26
When you focus on, when you niche down, you just said it, Mike, 30% to 50% more rev, less time to close, higher closing ratio.
25:38
How many more of those people can you serve?
25:42
tons more which means you can be massively more profitable can we agree on that yep yes if you can do that serve all of those people maximize that niche and then once you've done that now you can potentially add another niche another niche doesn't mean you can't serve those people doesn't mean you might not take some of those people in but you every bit of your marketing every bit of your focus should be on your top that that that ideal client
26:11
Right, and because that sales cycle is being shortened, now you're buying back time.
26:14
And that's the third thing that we're seeing across the board too is we're hearing about this time drain.
26:19
Huge time drain.
26:20
And one of the things that just floored me, and less specific to businesses, but for the average person and the average worker, they average about two hours and 53 minutes of actual focused work for every eight-hour day.
26:36
And I think that's high, personally.
26:38
I disagree with that stat.
26:39
I think it's lower.
26:41
And part of that is because we're on our phones and there's notifications.
26:46
I disable notifications.
26:48
I shut off everything.
26:49
When I'm focused in on something, that's the only thing that I'm working on.
26:52
And I had to learn how to do that, by the way.
26:55
But what are you seeing and what are you hearing with regards to time drain?
26:59
Don, I'll start with you, Don.
27:01
I can tell you I'm hearing the same exact thing.
27:04
I don't know the status for us time, how much of it they're actually, that's productive.
27:09
But in reality, people are bounced everywhere.
27:11
And, and that's, that's what I'm seeing and what I'm hearing.
27:16
I'm, I'm, for instance, I'm going to be onsite at a company tomorrow.
27:19
And, uh, and we're going to be going through a lot of different stuff because we're looking at providing some solutions for them.
27:25
Right.
27:25
But I, and I need to be able to observe what their, uh, operations are like, but I know I'm going to find while I'm there, just, just by observing.
27:35
that there's people that are being pulled here, then there, then there, then there.
27:38
And none of those things are IPAs.
27:40
They're not producing activities.
27:42
They're not doing what they were hired to do.
27:47
They're doing something else.
27:50
Knowledge workers also spend about 60% of their time on average on just coordination, statics, updates, and searching for information before they even do the work or so they can do the work.
28:02
This is why...
28:04
You know, we talk about AI and I'm going to bring this up again because it's a it's a hot topic for a lot of people.
28:10
People think of AI or now SI, whatever you want to call it.
28:13
All right.
28:13
Doesn't matter.
28:14
The fact is, there are so many people out there that I don't want to go there.
28:18
I don't want to use that.
28:19
All right.
28:21
But there are tools that are available.
28:24
That can do all of those things for you or for your employees, where you can now simply have them doing
28:33
those ipas you can have them do what they were meant to do what they're best at what they were hired for rather than all the ancillary stuff that they've been doing so instead of that two hours and by the way i my phone most of the time because i'm in meetings and i'm doing other things is on sleep mode it's like it's not taking anything i won't accept calls i don't accept text notifications nothing because i have to stay focused on what i'm
29:02
I couldn't do all the different things I do if I didn't.
29:04
Right.
29:06
But that's not the way it is for most.
29:08
Go ahead.
29:09
It's just too funny because as you were saying that, all I can hear is Jack Nicholson saying from you want the truth, you can't handle it.
29:21
You can't handle the truth.
29:23
So that's what AI is for anyone who's combative or anti-AI right now.
29:27
You want the truth about whether or not you need it.
29:30
Well, you can't handle the truth.
29:31
You're already behind.
29:32
Yeah.
29:35
so it's not about that's like being anti-internet in the mid-90s just doesn't make sense I understand where people are coming from and I fully support them I have family members including one of my daughters who's very anti-AI because of the impact it has on the environment or the impact it has on the power grid the reason why it's having such a major impact on the power grid is because it wasn't planned for properly
30:01
I'm not going to go down that rabbit hole, but bottom line is there's action being taken to help reduce that now.
30:06
And other stuff is Musk putting stuff up in space and Amazon and the others as well.
30:10
There's stuff being done to help resolve these issues.
30:13
But most importantly, you can get back that time.
30:17
And I do more in a day now than I've ever done in my entire life.
30:20
I have bought back so much of that time by leveraging AI and learning how to properly leverage AI that it is absolutely essential.
30:27
And I don't just...
30:28
aimlessly throw stuff in there.
30:29
I'm throwing curated information into there based on what I need.
30:34
And I'm getting weeks worth of information back in minutes, if not seconds.
30:40
Well, and quite frankly, you know, all of those, think about all the different steps that we used to have to take to do whatever process it is, right?
30:49
If we want to generate leads, now you could go and pay a fair amount for leads and maybe you'll get something good, maybe not, depending on where you go.
30:55
And you got to source that.
30:59
I've very easily been able to create bots that will go and search for exactly what I'm looking for, bring back all the information, then it writes all the messaging, right?
31:09
I could have it dialing and calling.
31:11
I can have it do whatever I want it to do, right?
31:15
And it has all the contact.
31:17
I don't have to make those phone calls.
31:18
What I need to do is I need to speak with the people who are ready to talk now that want the solution.
31:24
It's that simple.
31:25
And by the way, that's where the IPAs are.
31:28
That's what I was going to say.
31:29
Yep.
31:29
And what is an IPA?
31:30
Just for anyone.
31:31
Some people, I think, know.
31:32
Some people don't.
31:33
But what are we referring to when we see IPA?
31:34
Are we talking about breweries?
31:36
Or what are we talking about here?
31:38
An income producing activity.
31:43
It's bottom line is where the rubber meets the road.
31:46
It is what matters.
31:49
The single biggest change I made in my life from a business perspective is understanding the importance of that.
31:57
And I'm not.
31:59
even remotely exaggerating the importance of this.
32:05
Understanding and looking at your day and honestly saying to yourself, is what I'm doing in income producing activity.
32:14
If you don't have revenue coming in and supporting your bills, that I can take care of your bills and producing a profit and producing a significant profit.
32:21
Because my guess is you didn't start a business to create a second job.
32:25
You had a purpose here, and it was to get freedom and to make money and to help your family and to help yourself and to live better and help people.
32:34
By focusing on income-producing activity and making sure that is being prioritized, it is an essential first step for anyone looking to get profitables in their business.
32:49
We've each experienced that, you know, individually over the last few months, you know, with Forge Fire Protocol and individually and what we've taken away from it and just our embrace of AI technology and what it can do.
33:02
And then breaking it down so that it's easy to use with someone who wants to, you know.
33:13
you utilize Forge Fire and the tools that are in it.
33:17
So you don't have to be an AI expert because the basics are spelled out for you to get to achieve those goals.
33:24
And the three of us, again, individually and collectively, and document what that's done and how it's changed our business and what we're able to be able to do and produce in a small amount of time.
33:42
Right.
33:42
We've changed.
33:43
Saying no is important.
33:44
We've talked about this a lot in the past, whether it be Moscow Jobs or whoever, but especially Jobs, because there's a lot of evidence about him talking about this.
33:52
There's a lot of stories about him talking about this, the amount of things that he said no to.
33:57
And for a lot of people, no is hard because you want to be the person who helps people.
34:01
You want to be the fixer and you want to be the person who's needed.
34:05
It gives you worth.
34:06
It gives you value.
34:07
But you're also helping people, which feels great.
34:11
So one of the things I had to learn personally was how to say no in a more respectful manner.
34:16
So I didn't get uncomfortable about it.
34:17
So I learned how to say certain phrases.
34:19
So for example, if it's a low stake request or something, something such as, thanks for thinking of me.
34:25
I really appreciate it.
34:26
My plate is really full this week.
34:28
I need to pass, but I hope it really goes well.
34:32
That's a nice way of saying that.
34:34
There's stuff like that.
34:35
And that's not verbatim, but I'm just trying to say, and if it's more high stakes, you can see I gave a real thought.
34:41
I need to pass on this right now because I need to honor my prior commitments, but I wanted to tell you directly because I truly value our relationship.
34:47
You get that to them quickly.
34:48
They're not hesitating, waiting for the back and forth.
34:51
Hopefully he's gonna say yes, he's gonna say yes, we have this.
34:53
You're just hitting it directly, but you're letting them know that they're important.
34:56
Okay, so I'm not gonna go down a lesson on this, but I'm just saying there are ways to understand how to communicate those no's in a very respectful and timely manner to make sure that you're only focused on those important tasks.
35:08
And when you look at your day,
35:12
Your day needs to have priority assigned to those income-producing tasks.
35:16
Now, it might not be number one.
35:17
Often it is.
35:19
But you may have a family requirement or some other priority for the day that takes it there.
35:23
But you've got to have income-producing activities as part of your day.
35:26
I have a requirement now that I created for myself of six hours a day of income-producing activity as a requirement.
35:32
And then I audit myself saying, did I live up to that?
35:34
Honestly, too often I don't.
35:36
I'm right underneath it.
35:36
I feel like I am because I feel like I'm busy.
35:38
But when I go back and I analyze it and I truly say, was that income producing?
35:43
Well, technically, no.
35:45
Technically is not a yes.
35:47
It's a yes or no question.
35:49
That goes to almost generating a productivity score.
35:51
Think about that one.
35:51
Yep, 100%.
35:53
You know, and you think, well, I go to work.
35:56
I'm working eight hours a day, 10 hours a day, 12 hours a day, whatever it is.
35:58
If you're an entrepreneur, it could be 16 hours a day.
36:01
I mean, let's face it, right?
36:03
That's how it can be sometimes.
36:05
It's how much of that time is actually generating what you were there to generate.
36:13
That's what it comes down to.
36:14
But what you just said was a perfect segue to our fifth pain, which is communication.
36:20
Communicate, right?
36:22
So let's close out with that and talk about communication because what I've seen in talking with these people, and I know for instance, when I do that,
36:30
that meeting with that contractor tomorrow and I'm going through their operations, I'm not just looking at how they're communicating up front with clients, but how they're communicating with clients throughout the entire construction project.
36:46
Right.
36:47
And even after how many businesses have you guys just personally think about this one?
36:52
How many businesses have you guys talked to personally where they really didn't have any follow up after?
36:57
or even during, it's like, okay, I'm working.
36:59
You can see I'm working, I'm here, but nobody really knows what's happening.
37:05
Is that making sense?
37:06
Yeah, there's that fragmented communication where they don't have standardized SOPs, standard operating procedures.
37:19
They just don't have it because they don't understand that, what it can do for their business.
37:26
and how that, you know, the other four points that we just spoke about, how that all relates to this.
37:35
You know, and that communication that you can do your automated CRM routing and, you know, or CMN, you know, a lot of businesses don't even, owners don't even know what a CRM is.
37:48
And how do you, and what it could do for them and how that can, you know, create,
37:54
you know, where the communication is routed and there's multiple communication agents that can be created.
38:04
And the guardrails that this does allows the client touch points to all be met because it's automated and you don't miss it.
38:15
And that customer feeling that they have of being taken care of, and that's what Mike has really talked about,
38:23
Yeah, and to me, the two quotes that I heard when I was younger, and I'm going to paraphrase, but Teddy Roosevelt is famous for saying, empathy and connection must always come before information or authority.
38:37
I really thought about that when I first heard that.
38:41
Empathy and connection.
38:42
Empathy and connection must always come before information or authority.
38:48
And then I believe Maya Angelou took it to another level, which is a lot of people I think are even more familiar with this quote, where she said, I've learned that people will forget what you said.
38:56
People forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.
39:01
And the reason why I doubled down on that, and that was a big,
39:06
reason for my comprehension of the importance of communication.
39:10
Because I've worked with, again, I was an athlete my entire life.
39:14
I've played with coaches who are extremely verbally aggressive, some physically aggressive, but most of them are verbally aggressive and would be screaming at you at times, sometimes spit flying from their mouth as they're yelling.
39:30
Again, this is an older school style of coaching.
39:33
But the importance here is I knew how much they cared.
39:38
So I wasn't insulted.
39:40
I wasn't hurt.
39:41
I didn't turn around and call my mom and dad.
39:42
Do you believe what he said to me and how he said it?
39:45
This guy was respected.
39:47
These people were extremely respected coaches who were trying to get the best out of you and their team.
39:51
And that was how they were doing it.
39:53
So because I knew how much they cared, because of all the time they had already invested in me, into the team, and into their career as a coach,
40:01
I understood that that was the format being used by them.
40:05
I've worked in companies that have been very formal and everyone's been nice and sweet and it's great and they're just going to let you go and hopefully everything goes really well.
40:15
But if you don't feel like you matter, I hated those places.
40:21
If I felt important and that I was an important member of this society, this community, this tribe and could help improve things, then I loved it.
40:28
But I've also worked in other environments where it was...
40:30
Crazy, yelling and screaming and just aggressive deadline after regressive deadline and Genesis deadlines is what someone called it to me once from the book of Genesis.
40:39
But they were saying you get these deadlines and it's like, I just need to be done in a week.
40:42
How long does it take to do this?
40:43
It takes about two, three weeks on a month on average to get this done right.
40:46
Good.
40:46
We have a week.
40:47
And then two days later, we actually have three days.
40:51
But because you knew how much the person cared about you, about the company, about the client,
40:58
And that's where the importance of communication comes in.
41:00
If someone knows how much you care and you're communicating with them and they're not left wondering what's going on, you make a mistake, you own it,
41:10
And you fix it.
41:11
And that relationship will stay intact.
41:12
You can't make consistent mistakes over and over again.
41:15
But you're allowed.
41:16
You're given that grace based on the relationship and the communication that you've established.
41:20
And that's why it is such an important part of business.
41:23
And I see people failing left and right.
41:25
And that's the feedback that we're seeing, too, is how do I follow up?
41:28
How do I stay in touch with this?
41:30
And that's why we're doing what we did, helping build in those systems to help people communicate.
41:35
Right.
41:36
And here's the thing, because we're not saying to scream and spit.
41:40
Absolutely not.
41:43
But how are you communicating with clients right now, during, before, during, after the process, whatever it is that you're doing for them?
41:54
How is that communication?
41:56
What about not just right after?
41:58
What about six months after?
42:00
What about a year later?
42:02
Right?
42:04
That matters.
42:05
They know you haven't forgotten about them.
42:07
They know you're checking out.
42:08
Everything's going great.
42:09
or it's not, and if you find out that it's not, then are you addressing it?
42:15
Right, all of that matters.
42:17
So these are the top five agonizing pains.
42:20
We just went through these, right?
42:22
Most businesses have, and we went through different ways to fix those.
42:25
I'm gonna go into all the details of how to, you know, because you're all different.
42:29
But we talked about initial contact.
42:32
We talked about ideal client.
42:33
We talked about time brain, IPA focused, income producing activity focused, and communication, communicating before, during, and after.
42:42
All of those things matter.
42:43
So how are you solving those?
42:46
That's a question for you.
42:47
Yeah.
42:48
And if you don't have an answer, that's normal.
42:51
Because almost everyone we're talking to has these five issues in their business.
42:56
Almost every single person we're speaking to has these five issues.
43:02
And, and which is why we've built some of the solutions we built, right?
43:06
Because we can solve those.
43:07
Right.
43:07
That's, that's, that's a beautiful thing.
43:09
Right.
43:09
And we were talking about this earlier today and I'm going to be very brief with this, but the reason why we made some of these tools initially available by just logging in and understanding who your ideal client is.
43:23
And the reason why we had you validate your business idea before you wasted money.
43:27
We're seeing the number one issue probably across the board in most businesses.
43:30
We're not talking to those business owners because they never started.
43:33
It's still between right ear and left ear.
43:36
Okay, so that's problem number one through 50 is that they haven't started.
43:42
The very next thing we're saying is understanding who that ideal client is and marketing to it.
43:46
We just went through all that, but this is why we're creating the tools we have to help you resolve these issues and help you get an understanding and sequentially start moving through these issues that you're not alone in.
43:58
Everyone has these issues.
44:00
So what are you going to do about it?
44:02
Because I can tell you right now, as Steve says so many times, indecision is a decision.
44:09
Yeah, I'll give you my final comment, really.
44:12
And that comes right where Mike pointed me.
44:17
There is no tomorrow.
44:19
You've got to take command.
44:21
The time to take command is right now.
44:24
And stop allowing cash flow anxiety, the operational overwhelm to rob you of your energy.
44:30
And your vision, your peace of mind.
44:33
And remember that the ultimate law of execution
44:36
And you've heard me say this before, and this was said to me in a life-in-depth situation, it's not making a decision, it's making a decision.
44:46
And when you step into the anvil of the Forgefire Protocol, you cease being a firefighter trapped inside your own company.
44:55
You become the architect of an automated high-margin enterprise, engineered not just to create a profit, but generational wealth.
45:05
And so square your shoulders up, right?
45:08
Walk into the blueprint of the forge fire and do it now.
45:12
Do it now.
45:14
Don, one thing.
45:16
If there's five things we just addressed.
45:18
Yeah.
45:20
Again, 1% better every day.
45:22
Progress, not perfection.
45:23
Start by doing something.
45:26
What we are recommending you do is go to app.forgefireprotocol.com, register your name and email address, and get in there for free and see if this helps you.
45:35
I can guarantee you it's going to help you if you focus because we've done it and we're helping other people do it as well.
45:41
But this is why we created it for free, is to get you started so you can start taking action.
45:48
Okay, so understand the importance of that.
45:50
Make a decision.
45:52
Take action.
45:53
Get started now.
45:54
Go to app.forgefireprotocol.com.
45:56
See if it helps you.
45:57
If it doesn't help you, please let us know what the problem is.
46:01
Please send us an email.
46:03
Send us feedback because that's a major issue.
46:06
We're not seeing that.
46:07
But if we miss something for you specifically, then help us make it better.
46:11
Help us fix it so we can fix that problem for you.
46:15
Yeah, we need to understand those challenges.
46:17
And you beat me to it because that's exactly what I was going to say.
46:20
So well done.
46:21
And by the way, make sure that you like this podcast.
46:25
Share this podcast.
46:26
Favorite this podcast.
46:28
And make sure that you don't miss one.
46:32
That's it for this episode of the Forge Fire Protocol podcast.
46:36
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46:41
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46:43
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46:47
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47:00
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47:08
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47:14
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