Just The Tips, with James P. Friel and Dean Holland James P. Friel and Dean Holland

Something magical happens when you get the right business partner. Plus getting it right can add a lot of zeros to your bank account and eliminate a ton of stress.
 
But getting that RIGHT person is not as easy as it sounds, because this topic isn’t discussed enough.
 
This week’s guest, Damian Lanfranchi, is Todd Brown’s business partner, and they’ve been business partners for over seven years. Tune in to hear what makes their partnership successful and profitable as well as long-standing; and how to find the right business partner for you.
Outline of This Episode 4:29 The first try (and why it didn’t work) 11:14 The glue that holds it all together 18:58 How to tell whether you should have a business partner 26:15 The visionary and the integrator 31:14 Who’s who in the partnership? 46:47 Successful implementation 51:57 Don’t get “married” on day one What holds it all together? This might sound a little fluffy, but according to Damian, a business partnership cannot succeed without trust. Nobody’s perfect, and you may not always agree with your partner, but you’ve got to be able to trust them to do right by you and have your back. Damian and Todd have bumped heads during their partnership, but there was never any doubt they had each other’s backs.
Don’t fill the same roles as your partner One top cause of conflicts between business partners is both of them trying to fulfill the same roles. It’s super awkward and inefficient, and leads straight to conflict. Clearly defining the roles and responsibilities of each partner eliminates a lot of head butting; and of one partner feeling like they’re doing all the work. Tune in for an example of how this aspect of a successful business partnership works in Damian and Todd’s case.
When NOT to bring on a partner Sometimes people bring on a business partner because they don’t want to do it alone. “It’s more fun to get lost in the woods with a buddy than to get lost in the woods with yourself,” as Damian says on the episode. But basing your business partnership on insecurity or loneliness isn’t a healthy reason to work with a business partner. Tune in to hear more on this, plus other bad reasons to team up with a business partner.
Be strategic, not desperate When Damian and Todd teamed up for their second crack at a business partnership--the one that succeeded--it was strategic. Both were running their own businesses, and found they each had a need for the other person’s gifts. The partnership was strategic, not desperate, and definitely not based on insecurity or loneliness. A business partnership that doesn’t make sense, strategically, is unlikely to go well.
Who’s the visionary and who’s the integrator? Damian can function as both visionary and integrator. But since Todd is pure visionary, Damian serves as the integrator in their partnership. Todd sends him ideas, Damian helps bring them to life. The most successful partnerships operate like this, because it’s unlikely two pure visionaries (unless they have identical visions) or two pure integrators will do well in a partnership together. In the case of two visionaries, what if one wants to sell marketing funnels and the other wants to sell sweaters to cats? The company’s unlikely to get far in that situation. If you want a business partner, look at partnering with someone who’s your opposite in this area.
Resources & People Mentioned ToddBrown.me https://www.instagram.com/toddbrown/ https://www.facebook.com/ToddBrownMarketing/ https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCWlIIwel956xVecFuBC80BA The Marketer’s Mind Podcast Music for “Just The Tips” is titled, “Happy Happy Game Show” by Kevin MacLeod (http://incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License
Connect With James and Dean James P. Friel:
CEO Quickstart: https://jamespfriel.com/ceo-quickstart/ Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/hustledetox/ Facebook Group (Bull

“How do I scale my business?” is a question on many entrepreneurs’ minds, but there’s a lot more to scaling your business than most entrepreneurs realize.
 
It’s not just about whether your business is growing and successful. It’s also about whether your business has all the pieces in place to scale without collapsing. 
 
In this episode, James and Dean share some telltale signs your business is ready to scale. They also reveal how to avoid the many potential pitfalls of trying to scale before you’re ready, and what being “ready” to scale actually means. (It’s not what most people think.)
Outline of This Episode 6:30 What does it actually mean to scale? 10:15 Growth and scaling are not the same thing 16:25 You’ve got a winner - what’s next? 21:01 Find out what breaks 25:02 Get your ducks in a row FIRST 30:55 Scaling for the first time in a new business or industry 33:59 The most dangerous traffic source Growing is not the same as scaling The word growing is often used interchangeably with scaling, but they aren’t the same thing. Growth is about getting traction in your business, creating predictable results from your sales, marketing, delivery, operations, and finances, and creating the infrastructure your business needs to be able to scale. Scaling is about adding more volume to what’s already there. Some overlap is expected, but don’t make the mistake of confusing growth with scaling.
Success doesn’t mean you’re ready to scale Another mistake many entrepreneurs make is thinking that because their business is successful, it’s ready to scale, but there’s a lot more to being ready to scale than being successful. Scaling even a successful business without the right infrastructure in place is like putting up the walls of a house with no foundation under them. It’s only a matter of time before everything comes crashing down. Tune into the episode to hear how to identify which areas of your business still need that infrastructure before you’re ready to scale.
Find the breaking points Odds are excellent that if you tried to scale right now, some parts of your business would “break” because they’re not structured in a way that supports scaling. Before you try to scale, identify the breaking points, and a way to fix them. For example, if you’re getting 100 orders a day now, and want to scale to 500 orders a day, could you keep up with inventory and delivery, or would something break? If you’re a service-based business, do you have enough support and systems in place to serve all the people who want to work with you? These are the questions that have to be addressed BEFORE you try to scale.
Beware scaling with one traffic source In light of the war between Apple and Facebook over who gets access to what data, along with other changes Facebook has made, business owners who depend on Facebook ads as their only source of traffic are experiencing rising ad costs and lower profit margins. The Google “slap” from years ago also illustrates the danger of depending on one traffic source. As you look to scale your business, make sure your plan includes additional sources of traffic.
Simplicity equals scalability The simpler you structure every facet of your business, the easier it will be to scale. Look for ways you can make things simpler instead of more complicated. What that looks like for your business depends entirely on what you do and where you’re at. It could be you need more software, or it could mean you need LESS software. It could mean you need another team member, or it could mean you have too many because you’ve overcomplicated the way your business is set up. Look for ways you can simplify.
Resources & People Mentioned Music for “Just The Tips” is titled, “Happy Happy Game Show” by Kevin MacLeod (http://incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License
Connect With James and Dean James P. Friel:
CEO Quickstart: https

Freedom, time, and the ability to make more money are the top three reasons most entrepreneurs will give as their reasons for becoming entrepreneurs.
 
So how is it that so many entrepreneurs find themselves stuck in the hustle and grind, with LESS time and freedom than they want, instead of more?
 
That’s exactly what James and Dean are diving into in this week’s episode. 
 
Whether you’re a solo entrepreneur or already have a team, tune into this week’s episode to hear how to detox from the hustle by turning your business into an asset that works for you (instead of the other way around).
Outline of This Episode 2:54 Do you HAVE to “kill yourself” to grow your business? 6:06 Busy is not the same as productive 11:32 Unintended consequences of success 19:31 Where to focus to get results 23:59 Take action on the right things 28:40 The efficiency trap 35:47 Spread super thin You’re not doing it right A false perception has taken hold of the entrepreneurial space--that you HAVE to hustle and grind 24/7, lose sleep, alienate your loved ones, and destroy your health. If you’re not doing all those things, you’re not “doing it right” and you don’t want success badly enough. It’s true that hustling has a place, especially when you’re in a growth phase, but not how your business has to always and forever operate in order for you to become and stay successful.
Think like a CEO, not like an employee Many entrepreneurs, without realizing it, think like an employee instead of like a CEO. It’s a huge part of why they end up shackled to their business, instead of their business becoming a vehicle to freedom, time, and unlimited income potential. Growing and scaling your business without 24/7 hustling and grinding requires making intelligent decisions at a high level, and that comes from thinking like an effective CEO.
Productivity vs. activity A lot of people mislabel activity as productivity. Activity is “being busy,” which may or may not grow your business. Productivity is focusing on what will move your business forward NOW. If you’re active without being productive, you end up stuck in the grind with nothing to show for it. Make sure what you’re working on is the next best step to help your business grow.
Focus, then execute Step one is to identify where your focus needs to be right NOW. Where that is depends on your business and how far into it you are. Once you’ve identified where to focus, step two is to execute...but not just on any old thing. It has to be focused. Mediocre execution focused on the right thing is always better than perfect action focused on the wrong thing. When things that are proven to work don’t work, always assume it’s because there’s a flaw in your execution. Then work on finding and removing that flaw.
Are you efficiently doing the wrong things? Efficiency is not about doing more, better. It’s about doing the right things better. A mistake a lot of people make when trying to systematize their business is efficiently doing things that don’t need to be done at all. The quickest path to a more efficient business is to remove tasks that don’t need to be there.
 
Music for “Just The Tips” is titled, “Happy Happy Game Show” by Kevin MacLeod (http://incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License
Connect With James and Dean James P. Friel:
CEO Quickstart: https://jamespfriel.com/ceo-quickstart/ Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/hustledetox/ Facebook Group (BulletProof Business): https://www.facebook.com/groups/1107362546297055/ Site: www.jamespfriel.com Interested in being a guest on the show? Dean Holland:
Blog: www.DeanHolland.com FB Page: https://www.facebook.com/DeanHollandHQ Billion Dollar Project: https://www.facebook.com/groups/BillionDollarProject/ JTT Facebook Page - https://www.facebook.com/justthetipsshow/
JTT Listeners Free Portal: www.JTTShow.com

Most people think of persuasion as selling a product or service. That’s one use for persuasion, but there’s so many more. If you’re a parent, you’re persuading your kids to take a bath and eat their vegetables. If you and a group of friends are deciding where to go to dinner, you may want to persuade them to choose your favorite restaurant.
 
Plus law enforcement officers need to persuade people out of hurting themselves or other people. Doctors may need to persuade a patient to participate in a scary but life-saving surgery. The art of persuasion is not limited to selling something in your business. 
 
In this episode, persuasion master Kenrick Cleveland joins James and Dean to reveal his secrets to persuading people in a way that feels good to them--and to you--instead of resorting to outdated tactics like problem-agitate-solution and grinding away at pain points.
 
Kenrick is known worldwide for his charismatic teachings in sales, including what’s known as conversational persuasion. If you want to get to Yes more often in your communications with other people--including your customers and clients--tune in to hear how to master the art of persuasion.
Outline of This Episode 4:20 How to use persuasion for good 8:01 Why problem-agitate-solution is garbage 14:23 You don’t have to grind people’s pain points 18:24 What to do instead of “bring the pain” 25:17 Leverage without negativity 30:32 Help them realize it for themselves 38:09 How to inspire people to buy in a way they feel good about Persuasion Is Not Evil, It’s Misused Like any tool, persuasion can be used for good or evil. Fire in the hands of an arsonist is dangerous, but to someone dying of hypothermia, fire is life-saving. A scalpel in the wrong hands can hurt people, but in the hands of a surgeon bypassing a clogged artery, it may allow you or a loved one to live for several more years. Use persuasion for good, and you can help a lot of people who might otherwise continue to suffer.
Sooner Or Later, Pain Points Backfire In Kenrick’s extensive work with a neuroscientist, he discovered that when you get people into a negative, depressed state, their ability to see solutions shuts down. If someone’s not in a state to see or believe a solution exists, they’re not going to buy. Even if someone does buy while they’re in pain, they’re only motivated long enough to get away from pain. When avoiding that pain is no longer motivating, you’ll have to hit them with more to get them to stay. Eventually they’ll tire of being around someone who’s constantly reminding them of pain and suffering, and cut you (and your solutions) loose. Any way you slice it, grinding away at pain points will cost you the sale - either up front or in the long run.
Ask The Right Questions Asking questions is a powerful way to persuade, but only if it’s done the way Kenrick teaches. A lot of salespeople ask irrelevant or obnoxious questions that make them seem disconnected, pushy, or both. For multiple examples of how to ask the right questions at the right time, in a way that leads to YES, tune into this episode. (Do this part right, and in most cases you won’t even need to close the sale, because your prospect is already persuaded.)
Ditch The Scripts One of the worst examples of persuasion you’ll ever encounter is someone reading off a cookie cutter script. Companies often hand their employees a “sales script” and instruct them to follow it. If you’ve ever been on the receiving end of a sales call where someone’s reading from a script, you know how cringe-worthy it is. You don’t feel heard or understood, and you definitely aren’t inspired to buy. Ditch the sales scripts and instead do when Kenrick talks about in this episode.
From Nice Guy To Creep One of the worst things you can do in persuasion is get needy and desperate. In this episode Kenrick shares a classic example of a guy trying to ask a girl out. The girl says no, she

Four years and 200 episodes later, Just The Tips has moved from “arguably” the best business podcast in the entire world to THE best business podcast in the entire world (at least, according to its “humble” co-hosts).
 
Seriously, Just The Tips was born after James P. Friel and Dean Holland met in the same mastermind and decided to host a podcast together. Both agreed that building a business could be fun AND profitable, and decided to bring that same mentality to a podcast. 
 
Tune into this 200th anniversary episode for the guys’ favorite tips, lessons, and insights from the past 200 episodes (along with plenty of jokes at each other’s expense...because it wouldn’t be a Just The Tips episode without them!).
Outline of This Episode 7:20 Why James and Dean created Just The Tips 11:06 The difference between marketing and selling 15:16 The $300,000 decision 21:49 When thinking things through backfires (and what to do instead) 25:27 How to make your social media ads more effective 35:47 Why network marketing has such a bad rap 38:10 Always this before you start a business Business Can Be Fun Somewhere along the line it was decided business had to be “serious.” A lot of misery and burnout have resulted from business owners being afraid or unable to enjoy the business they’ve created. All this was a factor in why James and Dean created Just The Tips. They wanted to show their fellow entrepreneurs and business owners that business can be profitable AND fun.
Stop Mistreating Your Audience One of the guys’ favorite insights in 200 episodes came from direct response marketing master Brian Kurtz. Before email and the Internet, businesses had to mail their leads, and that cost a lot of money. For that reason, the most successful businesses put a lot of thought into every single piece of communication they sent out. To do otherwise was to lose six figures, easily. In today’s world, you can post on a social platform and send an email for a fraction of that. As a result, a lot of business owners take their leads for granted, and easily forget they’re talking to real people. Just because communication is on the Internet doesn’t mean you’ve stopped talking to human beings.
Just Do The Thing One of James and Dean’s favorite mindset tips came from a guest who exploded his online presence over the last few years. There’s value in thinking things through, but thinking about things can also backfire. If there’s something you know you’ve got to do in your life, don’t think about it. Instead, just do it. Whether it’s pushups, making a sales call, writing and sending that email, just do it.
It’s A Scrolling Platform Every social media platform is designed for a specific user experience. YouTube, for example, wants people to stay and watch. Facebook, on the other hand, wants people to stay and scroll. The mistake a lot of business owners make is taking a piece of content that does well on one platform and repurposing it to another, without taking that platform’s unique user experience into consideration. To get the most bang for your content buck on any given platform, take the platform’s specific user experience into account.
Network Marketing’s Bad Rap There are people making millions of dollars in network marketing, and there are people going about it all wrong and giving network marketing a bad rap. Several networking marketing companies encourage them to do so! It’s a shame, because networking marketing can not only be insanely profitable, it can help you develop foundational business and relationship skills...IF you learn it from the right people doing it the right way. Tune into the episode to learn about network marketing from a guest who does it the right way.
Music for “Just The Tips” is titled, “Happy Happy Game Show” by Kevin MacLeod (http://incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License
Connect With James and Dean James P. Friel:

This episode was SO good, we’re re-airing it for you this week! If you’re ready to scale your company fast, tune in to hear how Brandon and Kaelin Poulin took LadyBoss Weight Loss from a startup to a company with 350,000 customers in just a few short years. 
 
Don’t miss this in-depth, behind-the-scenes look at what it takes to grow and scale a successful company like LadyBoss, which helps women lose weight, transform their health, and love themselves and was named number 4 on the Inc. 5000 list of the fastest-growing privately-held companies in the United States in 2019, in a few years instead of a few decades.
 
The strategies, the mindsets, the vision, the customer relationships--you’ll hear it all.
Everything you do starts with you Brandon and Kaelin started in network marketing separately, before they ever met, and both found their way into weight loss, health, and fitness. Network marketing taught them how important developing and maintaining relationships are to success. It taught them how to listen and find out what people really want. It also taught them how to face rejection, over and over and over. Finally, it taught them about personal development, something they now know is critical to both their early success and their ongoing success. Everything you do starts with you, and if you’re tripping over the same issues within yourself, it’ll trip up everything you try to do.
Dig in and do it When Brandon and Kaelin were ready to start their own company, it wasn’t the ideal time to pull away from the company they’d been with for five years. They were two months behind on rent, on their car payment - basically everything - and in danger of sinking even further into a financial black hole. With their backs against the wall, they locked themselves away from the outside world for two straight months, and worked around the clock to launch their company. It didn’t take stars aligning, or a fairy godmother waving a magic wand. All it took was the commitment to dig in and do it.
How to get off the shiny penny highway With no shortage of tools, training, and strategies available in the world, Brandon and Kaelin often found themselves cruising along the shiny penny highway. Look, another awesome software we need! Look, another “new” marketing strategy we have to try! There was always something new to try. To avoid getting stuck on the shiny penny highway, Brandon and Kaelin developed a litmus test to help them decide whether “the next thing” was worth their time and energy: Was it what their customers and their company needed at that exact time? If not, they steered clear, because it was a distraction, not a step on the path to fulfilling their vision. Saying no to what didn’t align with their vision also allowed them to simplify, while simultaneously (and quickly) growing their company and better serving their customers.
Don’t neglect the customer relationships A lot of companies fall into the trap of being cool and aloof with their customers. Brandon and Kaelin’s experience in network marketing helps them see it differently. They know, from years of experience, how crucial the customer relationship is to their success, so rather than shut their customers out, they encourage communication with their customers. Without customers, you don’t have a business. Don’t neglect them.
A must-have mindset for all business owners Once your success reaches a certain level, it’s all other people see. But Brandon and Kaelin have been kicked in the teeth, made mistakes, and have had to get very resourceful to make it where they are. And it’s likely to continue to be that way, because that’s just the nature of business. Brandon and Kaelin are successful not because they haven’t faced challenges, but because they know they have the power, always, to overcome any challenge. Believing and accepting that no matter what comes your way, you have the power to deal with it and find another way f