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THE ENTREPRENEUR’S RADIO SHOW
Conversations with Self-made Millionaires and High-level Entrepreneurs that Grow Your Business
Copyright © 2012, 2013 The Entrepreneur’s Radio Show Page 1 of 26
Episode 95: Jim Debetta
In this episode, Travis interviews the successful and inspirational mentor and entrepreneur Jim
DeBetta. Jim has been in the business and through time, he has established a multi-million
dollar empire through hard work and dedication to his craft. At present, Jim uses his wealth of
experience and wisdom help others in their path to success as well as helping entrepreneurs
and inventors achieve the true potential of their business as well as products.
Jim and Travis have given so many valuable insights on how determined entrepreneurs
establish their business efficiently and at the same time avoiding the common mistakes that
they could make along the way. Jim also gave his top 5 things entrepreneurs should or
shouldn’t do in their business, namely get a mentor to help give you unbiased advice, avoid
being emotionally too attached to your business, ensuring that you have enough money to get
your business going, having enough time and money for it, and lastly knowing your numbers.
These and so much more are what’s in store in today’s episode of the Entrepreneur’s Radio
Show.
Sales and Marketing Strategies to Grow Your Biz
Travis: Hey, it's Travis Lane Jenkins welcome to episode number 95 of the Entrepreneur's
Radio Show, a production of rockstarentrepreneurnetwork.com. Today, I'm going to introduce
you to Jim DeBetta. Just in case you're new to the show, each and every episode is about
connecting you with rock star entrepreneurs so that you can hear their journey to success, and
also you can learn what they found to be the secret to success. I believe this is critical to fast-
forwarding you in your endeavors as an entrepreneur as well.
Now before we start I want to give you a little bit of a background on Jim. Jim is a rock star for
several reasons. First of all, he's built his own company beyond the $20 million mark, which is a
rare feat in itself. After that he went on to help thousands of investors and start-ups, new
businesses, learn how to scale their business. Jim also heads the retail distribution arm for
Kevin Harrington from the ABC reality hit show Shark Tank. And there's a lot more about Jim,
although we only have an hour, so I'm going to spare you. Just know that Jim is brilliant on
many, many levels. In this interview, Jim will share his top 5 tips for growing your business
along with lots more. So be sure and stay with us, this is going to be a great interview.
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Now, I want to take a minute and start thanking each of you that have taken time to write a
review and rate the show. I recently found an app that allows me to see reviews from all over
the world. So I have reviews that I didn't even know that I had, in iTunes specifically it's strange.
When I go look in iTunes I only see what's been posted in the U.S., not in Canada, or the U.K.,
or anywhere else, so forgive me for that. And so, I want to do a better job of recognizing you
guys that have taken the time to go and rate and review the show that really means a lot to us.
When you rate and review the show, it tells iTunes that it is a valuable show and they will show
it to more people in their searching for new shows related to the topics that we talk about. So,
first and foremost, I'm not going to read the entire review because it would take too long. But
basically, I got a 5 star review rating from Dr. Sabrina that says great insights for entrepreneurs.
Thank you for that Sabrina. I also got a 5 star review or rating I guess, and the review said great
show with an intimate feel. Thanks for that Jim. Another one is a 5 star rating, it says, "sets the
tone for my day". And that looks like it's by the Pat Joel. And so, each and every episode I'm
going to do a better job of personally mentioning each of you that have taken the time to do this
for me because it means so much to me and my team. So thanks a lot for that. Also, one of the
things that I'd like to ask of you is try to hangout with us until the very end because I have some
inspiration, some things that I want to share with you beyond the great interview that we're
going to do with Jim today. Another quick reminder, if you use iTunes, or you have an Android,
or any other type phone that's not iTunes, I have two options for you that will take you directly to
the show. All you have to do is go to rockstarentrepreneurnetwork.com and you click on one of
two things, either iTunes, obviously takes you to iTunes, or Stitcher. Now that's an app that will
allow you, if you have an Android phone or any of the other phones out there to download the
shows and actually stream the shows whenever you're ready to listen to those. So if you'd like
to do that while you're on the go that's going to be a great option for you. Now that we've got all
that stuff out of the way let's go ahead and get down to business. Without further ado, welcome
to the show Jim.
Jim: Hey, thank you for having me here.
Travis: Yeah. I'm so excited I mispronounced show. But listen, I'm super excited to have you
hear. And you've got a really interesting angle, some things that you do. Maybe not an angle,
but the things that you do. And I'm really fascinated in how you got there. So do you mind
sharing that back-story of what brought you to where you are today and how you become this
rock star?
Jim: Yeah. Well, rock star's a strong word, but okay, I'll work with that for today, it sounds nice. I
kind of grew up in retail. My family owned a small chain of retail stores on Long Island in New
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York. And when you grow up in that business you get to see, obviously, the buying side, the
consumer side. So you walk into the store, you see products for sale, and you understand how
people buy it. And then you're on the other side which how to choose products, how to
merchandise them and of course how to sell them to people like you and I. So, grew up around
that business as a kid and through college. And then when I get out of school I got involved in a
start-up, which manufactured sport optics, which are binoculars, and telescopes, and night
vision, you know, fun stuff. And we really didn't know what we were doing but we knew we were
smart enough to get a business going. But we made the proverbial mistakes and spent a lot of
money the wrong way. At the end of the day, in under 10 years we built a near $20 million a
year business selling our products to the likes of Target, and Wal-Mart, and Dick's Sporting
Goods, so many major retailers. And we did it old school. We had to go and see people
because the internet really wasn't much of anything in the mid-90's. We got faxes on, therm
paper fax machines, and today I don't even use a fax anymore. It's really changed but back then
you really had to dig harder than you do today I think.
Travis: Right.
Jim: And from that success, I really got well connected into the world of retail, and the buying
side. I parlayed that into a number of other entrepreneurial opportunities. I started my own
company. I spend a couple of years working with Kevin Harrington who is one of the sharks in
Shark Tank for the first season and a half. And I was selling some his products that he funded
into the major retail chains, and working on the infomercial side of the business. I've always
been in the product business and I'm leaving things out. But the height of it is that I just always
been fascinated by product. There's always something new every day in my world and you
never know who's going to have the next Snuggie, or the next cool thing. So, along the way I'm
helping people develop those products and getting them in front of retailers, and having a lot of
fun with it.
Travis: Right. So let me make sure I have one thing right. In the very beginning, your first job
was with your folks, and what were you all doing?
Jim: I didn't hear the last part, I'm sorry Travis.
Travis: What were you all doing, what type of work?
Jim: Yeah, these were kind of combination stores. You may have these around where you are.
In the winter, the store sold fireplaces, and gas stoves, and gas fireplaces, things of that nature,
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winter home things. And in the summer the store sold outdoor furniture, like very high-end cast
aluminum furniture, like these sets you see for like 2 grand to 3 grand for your patio. And then,
year-round they had hardware, but all high-end hardware like doorknob sets and hinges, and
things for your house, but expensive stuff. So it was kind of a cool business because we're
doing different things seasonally, and my family was very, very successful in this business.
Even when the Home Depot's of the world came along they even did better because they rode
their advertising code tail so to speak. They took advantage of what Home Depot didn't offer as
far as services and products, but Home Depot made businesses like my family's business more
aware to consumers. So it was really a great experience. And my dad still has one store left
today and he's in his 80's, so he's still going at it.
Travis: Wow. You know what's interesting is-- so now I get it. Okay, so you worked in that face-
to-face environment. And I think that's key. Being able to dial things in when you're doing some
face-to-face sales, you can really take things through a cycle, or at least that's what I found.
Because that's some of how I started out also, I did some face-to-face sales. It's a very fast
process. You can tell on people's faces whether they're liking what you're saying, what the
problems are. If you're an outgoing person you can even ask them why they don't buy. You can
dig very deep. And so, even in just kind of this brief outline, going from that environment with
your folks, to the manufacturing, doing that stuff. Even with Kevin Harrington, what I hear you
doing is, is you're building out a marketing funnel almost with Kevin Harrington. Would that be a
fair assessment?
Jim: Well yeah, it was a bunch of things. Look, everybody knows what an infomercial is, you
see all these products being sold on TV. "Get it now. 99 and on will get a second one for free."
That's a huge business in this country, and it seems like everybody that has a product that's
inexpensive wants to use that vehicle to sell their products. But when you do that, when people
call or go online to order or to inquire you're building a list, right? And obviously you're on TV so
millions of people potentially can see your product and then log-on or call to buy it. So, while
you're selling, you're also building a marketing platform. But then you've got a market in order to
sell well. So people kind of break the two apart sometimes and a lot of corporations segregate
sales and marketing inappropriately. And I don't know how one can work without the other
because it's kind of like peanut butter and jelly sandwich, you got to have both. If you have that,
and you're in sync, whether it's the infomercial world or it's the regular selling products to retail
world, you'll be in good shape. Neither one of those can be left out in the equation.
Travis: Right. So, I come from the same era as you. I started with the faxes and all of that other
stuff. And so, something that I've seen transition in my business is for years, marketing was a
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way to get the opportunity to try and sell them something. And now, it's much more of an
integrative thing to where marketing can handle a large majority of the sales process as well, to
where the people have really been conditioned to know, like, and trust you. And you can do all
of the stuff ethically. So do you agree with that? That's my perspective, do you agree with that?
Jim: I do. And I think that there are marketers, you and I both know this, that aren't so ethical if
you will, or they just continue to bombard you when you don't want to be bombarded. Or the
messages send you to a different place than what you expect. But today, even in the retail-
selling world it continues to grow out on the internet side, and the email side, and the texting
side. I have my cell phone on and I'm getting text messages from various retailers with special
offers. As long as they're legit, and they're cool, and they're something that I want, there's no
better way to market because everybody is on their phone. I don't care if you're 5 years old or
you're 95, it seems to be that's where everybody is. So, I do agree with you that, that method
and methodology is important today.
Travis: Well, one of the things, number 1, it's common for people to not feel like they're a rock
star. I don't think the average person walks around, even that has had the level of success that
you've had and say it, "Hey, I'm a rock star", right? You just don't think of yourself that way. But
the important thing is the percentage of people that make it to $20 million in revenue is just
incredibly small. It's probably a thousandth of a percent of business owners that ever reach that
level.
Jim: Yeah, it's a tiny number.
Travis: Yeah, it's a tiny number. Once you found that level of success, and you did that with the
manufacturing business, did you sell that business?
Jim: I left the business, so I didn't purely sell it.
Travis: Right.
Jim: This is still in existence today. At that point I had been travelling almost 100 days a year. I
started having children with my wife, and I just felt like I didn't want to do that amount of work
anymore. I built a business, it was successful. I did all those things that I wanted to do and
more, and I just felt it was time to step aside and to take some time off, and then look for other
opportunities. Because even when I was doing that I was thinking, "What other businesses
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could I be in? What else could I do?" And that's just always the way I've been. So I felt like to
have done it that long was a long time for me.
Travis: Right.
Jim: Yeah. So I moved on and went into a whole other world of all different types of things. And
I'm sure I'll continue to do that. I'm always looking for opportunities and fun, interesting things to
do. I want to make money like everybody else, but I also want to enjoy what I'm doing, and pick
and choose the opportunities.
Travis: Plus your standards, I'm going to assume that me and you think probably very similar on
this. What happens is your standards evolve and your interest evolve, and who you are as a
person evolves. And so, once you conquer something it's no longer a challenge and it's no
longer exciting, or you're no longer willing to put those 80 hours in to manage this thing. It's time
to move on to something that gets your juices going. I'm 48 and I'm making that transition to
where I want to have a better work-life balance. I want to travel more and focus on it. I have
other businesses that I don't work in, right? And I lost the passion for those businesses years
ago. Now, I still care about us doing a good job but I just can't be there on a regular basis to
focus on those businesses because it's not where my passion is. And that's along the lines of
what I hear you saying as well.
Jim: Yeah. It's one of those things where you do. You build something-- I think part of me the
great fun and challenge is in the building of it, the conceiving of it. And then once it matures I
feel like, yeah, I'm getting bored, it's becoming redundant over padded. I want to work on
something new. And you're right, years ago I decided that I wanted to be home more and I didn't
want to be like some of my friends or neighbors that they go into a job for a big corporation, and
they're working. They're driving an hour and half each way to work, and they come home and
they're miserable. They don't even like what they're doing, but it's a paycheck to them. And I get
that and that's okay, there are a lot of good corporations out there. I've never been like that, I'd
never been like a desk jockey or a cubicle guy. I can be a great team player, but I got to be near
the head of the team. I'm not a rank and file guy, and that's how I am and I know that. The
opportunities could be small, it could be anything. It doesn't matter. As long as it's appealing,
and you're right, that work-life balance is critical. I got 4 kids and they're small, and I'm here for
them, I know what they do every day, I see all the time, we eat dinner together most of the time.
I don't miss anything, and not many people can say that, because a lot of people are locked-in
to what they're doing, and they have to keep doing it. And they don't know how else to go about
making money, or you're afraid to take risks. I've never been afraid to take risks. And now, I've
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taken a lot of risk, luckily they paid off because had they not, who knows where I'd be. But you
can't get anywhere greater unless you're willing to take a little bit of a leap.
Travis: Right. And I did the same thing. Fortunately, I made the leap when I was young, and
naive, and had no idea what laid ahead of me.
Jim: Yeah,
Travis: Plus, the bills weren't gigantic at the time so we had a very little overhead. And so for
me at 48, I took my daughter to school this morning, meeting my son after we do this interview
to go look at some stuff, and ride some motorcycles together. And the only way you can do that
is being your own boss, right?
Jim: Yeah, I think so.
Travis: For the most part.
Jim: But people also mistake being your own boss for it being easier. Some of my neighbors
they'll see me, off, whatever, in the afternoon. And they say, "Don't you work, don't you do
anything?"
Travis: I'm like. I probably do more by lunchtime than you guys do all day long. Because I don't
drive that hour and a half to work, then walk into the office and chitchat with people for half hour
about this or that, or what happened with this person, or whatever. And then they get all these
meetings, and half the time the meetings don't even amount to anything for them. And so
maybe they've done like an hour or two worth of work by lunch. I've already worked 4-5 hours,
and concentrated, real good work. My old saying is I'm proactive in the morning and reactive in
the afternoon. So I kind of get all my emails out in the morning, I make my phone calls, I do all
that heavy lifting in the morning, and I'm also a morning person. And then in the afternoon I let
things come to me. So I email you in the morning Travis, and then, "Hey dude, I got this idea."
And then at 3 o'clock you email me back. And now I'm reacting to you, or you call me back, or
whatever. But as your own boss we don't leave in an office, right? We have our phones with us,
iPads, I'm always checking, I'm always working. I'm not an on-call surgeon, right? But, a lot of
people leave the office at 5 or 6 o'clock and they go home and that's that. I'm answering emails
sometimes at 7, 8, 9 at night, or I'm thinking about things. And you’re right if I want to go ride
motorcycles with my kids for a few hours, as long as I don't have some pressing that day, I can
go do that and know that, hey, I'll just make up for it later on or in the morning. And I don't have
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anybody to put pressure on me that it wasn't done. My only pressure is myself to my clients that
I have to do a job for. So, you and I both are doing it right, like you said, we took tons of risks
when we were younger and they paid off. So we're able to do that. So it's been a lot of hard
work, people think it's, oh, it must have been simple. I went crazy for years and years to get to
this point. So, now I get to enjoy it more. I still work hard, put in a lot of good time, but it's not as
wild as it used to be.
Travis: Yeah. It’s common that I have a laptop in my lap 15 minutes after I wake up.
Jim: Yeah.
Travis: Now, I don't say that as drudgery. I don't mind. I had my daughter's babysitter coming in
and she had just come in after I woke up and I had my laptop in my lap. And she's like, "You're
already working?" as if it's a bad thing. And I'm excited to see what's happened overnight.
Jim: Yeah, right. It's like that surprise emails in the morning. You always look forward to that.
And feel like you said, but you know your environment is different. My friends that go to work,
they go to work, they sit in that cubicle, it's like, "Boring, whatever." At least when I get up I'm
having coffee in my den, my kids are around. So I'm not working, but I'm also relevant to where I
want to be in my life. And that's not work, like other people have to work. It's a very, very
different thing. When I need quiet, I get it. A lot of times I get email my kids could be jumping on
me and I can email. But if I need to think or I need quiet I can do that. So, we set our own pace.
But by nature I'm go-getter. I don't need to be inspired, I need people to rah rah me. I get up,
ready to go, I'm like that every day. I have my days like you and everybody else do. And I just
don't really feel like doing a whole lot today. And I don't fight it because I know the next day I'll
come back strong. But we have the privilege of being able to do that, right? We can say we're
going to take a break, or I'm going to go and just go for a jog, or I'm going to go-- I'm going to
watch TV for half hour. Whatever it is you want to do you can do it because you know you
control your own destiny and you write your own checks. You want to work more you'll make
more. If you don't want to work as hard then you'll suffer the financial consequences. So I think
we've got it made Travis, I do. And I always encourage people to-- I know it's not easy to leave
a job in your 40's` or your 30's, but a lot of people moonlight, and they try different things. And I
think it's a good thing to explore, and talk to people like you and I that had been through it, and
understand the pitfalls, and the good parts about it.
Travis: Right. Rather than waiting for the right time, because there's never going to be a right
time. Even when I was 25, it was not the right time.
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Jim: Of course not, and they have kids. And people say, "I'm not ready to have kids, I'm not
ready." You're not going to be ready, your life's going to change. So just have the kids and you'll
go through it. It's like, "What, you're going to wait 'till you're dead?" Because you only have a life
and that's it. So you got to do things, and you got to talk about them all the time. Obviously,
that's not going to make them happen.
Travis: Well, you know, this shift that I got early on, and I know you did too, is we get paid on
productivity rather than paid on time. Most people get paid on their time. And so, they've got 8
hours to put in today as an example. So, they don't necessarily need to be effective with their
time. There was a period where I needed to work 15 hours, and try to get 25 hours worth of
work done in that 15 hours. And it is just what it is. And there's still more times when I need to
put exorbitant amount of time or effort in to get something over a hill or a certain hump. But,
again, as you get older, I get older, and wiser, and grow, and evolve, and just much more
effective with my time. And that's what makes everybody believe that we have nothing but free
time on our hands.
Jim: Of course the technology. Technology has changed. Like you said before and I said, "We
had to do things old school back then." Now, you've got so much technology that enables you to
save time and be more efficient with your hours. The other thing too is like you said, getting
impatient, or I'm not as tolerant about certain things. Year older people always saying, "I just
don't really care anymore. I'm 75, I don't care." But I'm also quicker to say no. When I was
younger like in my 20's I would say yes to almost everything. I felt like I had to grab every
opportunity or else I wouldn't survive. So what changes now I'll say no to something, whereas I
used to-- I feel like I was kind of being too nice to say no. Now, I'll just say, "You know what, it's
not for me, no thank you." 10 years, 15 years ago I may have said, "Yeah, I'll give it shot." And
then I hang up and I'm like, "Oh god, what did I just do?" Now, I'm very quick to just say, "No,
thank you", or, "No, but I know somebody who's good at that." And sometimes it's the people I
work with. Sometimes I get somebody on the phone and I feel like we have to manage their
expectations, or they might be difficult to work with. And so I just say, listen I just don't think this
is the project for me and you get like quite an experience you get to feel those things out you
learn and you figure out your sweet spot and I think I know what mine is and I go with it. I don't
challenge it in my own mind, I just kind of work, do things that I feel are right and comfortable
and everybody wins and I'm happy.
Travis: Right. There's a less wasting time, a maybe to a commitment, waste a lot of your time
and their time.
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Jim: Yeah, it's true.
Travis: Where even in sales, with the-- my first company that was started is a home
improvement company. And my guys always explain to the client will take a no as gracefully as
we'll take a yes. But a maybe is not serving either one of us. And so, great wisdom there. Hey,
walk me down the path. So, I'd mentioned earlier that one of the things that you do is you coach
inventors and consumer product start-up companies and stuff. I'm assuming based on all of
your background that's kind of how you transitioned into that. Am I correct?
Jim: Yes.
Travis: And so how did that come to fruition? And then also teach me or take me down the path
of what you teach those people to do to scale their business and get it up and running quickly.
Jim: Well, I kind of fell into helping inventors. And the reason why was because I was
successful in my business. And as you mentioned, a very small percentage of people achieve
the amount of revenue and profit success that we achieve. And so, when you do that people
want to talk to you. They want to ask you how did you do it, what were your secrets and what
were the tricks, and all that good stuff. And so, when I finally left the business and went into--
Hey, I think I want to help start-ups. And I created a website, got my name out there a little bit, I
would get emails. People would say, "Hey, I've got this product idea and I don't know what to do
next." I started getting a lot of that. And I started talking to some people, and I said, "You know
what, I should help people do exactly what I did, except help them to avoid the massive
expense mistakes, and the pain, and save them some time." And this kind of evolved over a
year or two where I started formalizing a business platform on helping inventors, because that's
the business I was in now, I was in the product business. And inventors invent products, and
ultimately what do they want to do with them? They want to sell them to retailers, that's where
you make your money. So, I developed over a number of years with various platforms, coaching
platforms, step-by-step instructional videos, and all types of collateral and coaching pieces. So
basically take somebody through the process no matter where they are. So you can say, "Hey
Jim, you know what, I just thought of something. I was outside, I was on motorcycle, and I
thought it would be really cool if I had this widget that I can add to my motorcycle to make it go
quicker", whatever it is. But you have no idea what do? Like what's a pattern, what's a
trademark, how did you get a prototype made, how do you find a factory to make it, all these
things. And there's a lot of pieces to that puzzle. So I have formalized a process to help people
understand what to do, so this way there's a clarity. They say, "Okay, I know what to do." And
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then of course they say, what's it going to cost? And I try to help them align the cost of taking
that idea and then commercializing it down the road. And then when the products rolled on I
help them sell them into retail chains. I do that with a team of people and/or myself. So, it's one
of those things where the business evolved from repeated requests. And then I used to do a lot
of speaking engagements. And then after those engagements people would email me or call
me, and say, "Hey, I saw you and I need your help." And so, it just developed over time.
Travis: So basically, a lot of investors or start-ups don't have very much money, unless they
have financial backers, right? And so, are you typically dealing with bootstraps, or VC-backed
companies, or what?
Jim: Most of the time it's boots trappers. But it used to be always like that years ago. But over
time, while I've developed deeper inroads with VC's and angel investors, and other various
entities, like athletes, and celebrities, and their agents. And so, my business used to be 100%
boots trappers, now it's probably like 60, maybe 70% boots trappers, and the rest are very well-
funded, whether personally, or they have angel or seed dollars that are available to them,
whether that's friends and family, or it's just a true angel that comes along and says, "Here's a
quarter a million dollars, good luck." It's a mix, but it's still-- the vast majority of my emails come
from people who say they have no money and they wonder how they could make their invention
successful. Or they've got very limited funds and they wonder how to best use them.
Travis: And so I find-- now I speak to a lot of business owners, startups, and existing, thriving
businesses. I have found that there's a lot of people that believe in this myth of build a great
product, and get some organic traffic, and wala, you've got a business. I was fortunate enough
to be on the front-end of SEO , to where I made a fortune off of with my company because it
was brand new. But those days are over.
Jim: Yeah, build it and they will not come, I can deal with that. You know you got to market.
Travis: Yeah.
Jim: Almost every business you're in. I don't care if it's a restaurant, I don't care if it's a service
business, product business, the best market is usually when. And that's just a fact, it's a sad
reality. A lot of people will make great products that are useful, that are helpful, they'll never
make a penny, because they can't get the word out correctly, to the right audience, through the
right channels. If you can't do that or find somebody that can help you do that, your chances go
from small already to almost nothing.
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Travis: Right. And it takes money to do that. So even these videos that the people see that
have millions of hits, there's normally marketing behind that. Most people don't know that. And
so, do you have a platform to where basically you have such a high level of recognition, traffic,
and connections to where if you really believe in a product that you can help it get into this
stream of recognition? Or do you work with them to setup funnels to where the sales funnel
basically has to arbitrage?
Jim: Kind of both. I work with a number of talented people. I know a couple of really strong, very
successful internet marketers. And depending on what the product is, what the price point is,
what sector of retail it's at, I will reach out to those people to work with me, to get that product
marketed. Today, a lot of people still believe that the path to success is to sell the major chains,
and more and more and more, the path of least resistance and least cost is to sell the products
on your own, either through your own website or through other people's websites. And also to
build affiliate programs, and membership clubs, and a lot of these which is still traditional
marketing concepts but they're just quicker to reach people today. Because again, you can
reach people on their phones, in their laptops, and stuff like that. But creating funnels for certain
products, and then letting it build out from there and building lists is certainly one method. But
other times it's a PR effort. It's just, hey, listen. If a celebrity uses your product, or sees your
product, or is seen holding your product, that's a huge boom. If you're on the Dr. or Dr. Oz, or
The Today's Show, or Good Morning America. All of a sudden you get your 15 minutes of fame,
and then it's how you parlaying that into something sustainable. So marketing as you know
comes in many different formats, and I kind of look at each product opportunity, and I say,
"What's the best path for this? What cost the least?" And you could definitely market on the
internet for less money than traditional market like print ads and things of that nature. So, that's
an advantage for people today. But like you said, people are going to spend money, I don't care
what business it is. You need money to start a business you need money to make money.
There's no free lunch, free ride, very rarely if I ever seen anybody with little or no money make
money.
Travis: Right. So, what I seen, or the way I would look at that is a PR using one of the
examples where someone famous is using your product, that can be used as an initial spike to
get a lot of attention. But it's not something that will help you sustain growth or business. I'd
found that until you can pay to acquire a customer, you really don't have a business. What do
you think about that?
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Jim: Yeah, I agree. And to your point about a celebrity, you're right, there's no one thing that is
going to make your business successful. People say if I can only do one thing to mark my
product, what would you do? And I would say, there isn't one thing, it's going to be a culmination
of a lot of things. And so, whether that's through the internet, or it's through a PR effort, or
grassroots marketing. In order to be sustainable you've got to take each opportunity, expose it,
and then parlay it. So if a celebrity is wearing your clothing line, well great. You'll get a bump in
sales, maybe you'll get a huge boost for a few months. But then, what do you do from there?
How do you reach out to other celebrities to get more people on board? You get yourself on TV
shows, strike while the iron is hot. Do you try to build customer lists and a marketing database
from the crush of emails that you get? And then can you sell them something else once you
have that customer. So, people are just looking for that one thing, that one technique. And I
don't think that there is, I think you got to mix a whole bunch of different marketing techniques to
get sustainable, long-term results in any business.
Travis: Right. And so, there's several other topics that we're talking about, really go much
deeper than we're even talking about. So just so that we're not leaving anybody behind,
arbitrage is if you sell something for a dollar as an example and you start marketing to try and
get that new client, then ultimately you need to at least make more than what you spend to sell
that product. So, if you spend a dollar to get that customer and you can get a dollar ten then
you've reached a point of arbitrage, that's a simplified way of explaining it, right?
Jim: Exactly right. And that’s the thing, some people can't understand how to quantify what it
would cost to acquire a customer. And there's ways to do that without getting into any detail.
But, let's say you rent a list. If you rent a clean list, a list that where people that buy pet products
for their cats. Well, if you get a list of 5 million people that have purchased pet products for their
cats in the past 6 or 9 months, and you spend $10,000 at least, and you get $4,000 in sales,
guess what, not a great use of your dollars, or like you said, you haven't reached arbitrage. But
if you go and clean up past your 11, 12 grand, you've hit that point. But if you get 20 or $30,000
worth of business from that, "Hey, you're in good shape." And then you've acquired that
customer and have their permission to continue to market to them, and if you have other
products or services that you can sell them, hey, that's great, because as the old saying goes,
"The easiest customer to sell is the one you already have."
Travis: That's right.
Jim: So, what you have and you got to try to make more of those opportunities because we've
got a dedicated customer now, so you got their ear. What else can you do for them? I was just
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trying to sell the one thing and they don't think about what else they can do. It's the old, "Would
you like fries with that?"
Travis: Right.
Jim: And then, "Hey, how about a drink? How about a dessert?" Before you know it, that
customer that was going to spend 5 bucks is spending 15 bucks.
Travis: Right.
Jim: And they love you for it. So, it's all good.
Travis: Yeah, so now what you're explain is cross-selling, upselling, things like that, front end,
back in. You may get somebody even on a line today with information products that really cost
nothing to deliver, right? There's people out there that have a dollar offer. And they're not going
to make really much of anything off the dollar offer other than they're converting the list from a
list of people that are just consuming their free information to a buyer's list. And so, traditionally
there's an upsell. So you may buy the book. I know Perry Marshall is doing something like this
right now and the guy's brilliant. So, he's selling his book for a dollar. Plus you pay his shipping
and handling. And now, I hadn't been through his funnel, but at the same time, as soon as you
buy that there's an upsell into a $30 a month continuity program I believe.
Jim: Of course there is, and that's all planned out, and that's what people don't realize, they
think that all of that stuff just occurs but it's planned before that first dollar offer comes out. They
know that they've get in to swath of people. Here's the top of the funnel, which is very wide, and
then it trickles down. And then a certain percentage of those people are going to buy, join a
membership club, or get into some kind of continuity situation where they're buying something
every month. And then from there there's going to be-- and that the price points tend to go
higher and higher. So it's a dollar offer in their business $30 club, and then there's a $300
special program or product at the bottom of the funnel where it's narrow, where people look--
the least amount of people are going to buy, but you're capturing higher dollar. So all that stuff is
written out, drawn out, white boarded, planned out before that first email ever comes down. And
smart marketers will do that and use that lost lead if you will, that first product that doesn't really
make him any money but it gets your attention, it's a great offer. And if you like it, you're very
likely to buy something else from that person, either immediately or shortly thereafter.
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Travis: Right. That reminds of the story-- now I think this is where it came from and you might
be able to confirm this. But I want to say the 70's or 80's, it was a Congressman or someone
that was wanting to put signs in people's front yards. So "Vote for Congressman XYZ". And they
had a large number of people that just said no, they weren't comfortable with placing this large
yard sign in their yard. And so they did a test and the test was they asked a thousand people,
could we put a credit card sized sign in your from window that said Vote for Congressman XYZ?
And a large number of people, something like 20% said yes, where originally they were only
getting 1%. They were saying yes to the yard sign, right? And then, they came back to
everybody that said yes to the credit card sized sign in the window and asked them 2 weeks
later, would you mind if we put a sign in the yard? And something like 40 or 50% of them said
yes.
Jim: Yeah. I heard about this too, and it's amazing how people can react to things. There's a lot
smart people out there with good ideas. It's the same old thing Travis, there's so many good
minds and concepts, it's just knowing how to put it all together, and talking to people that done it
over and over and over again. And more importantly they know what doesn't work. And that's a
key avoidance thing. When you're spending your own money, your bootstrapping, the last thing
you need to do is, "Hey, I've got 5, or 10, or 15, or 20 grand--" or whatever it is, and you just
lose it all in one silly mistake that you just talked to one person for 20 minutes, you could've
avoided it. And I see that a lot, a lot of people come to me after they've burned through
everything they have, and I just shake my head and go, "Oh, if you would've just found me
sooner, or if you would've just talked to some--" Because people get very emotionally attached
to their business ideas, and they take it personally. So they don't hear the noise outside of their
own mind. They think that their product or service is the best, everyone's going to buy it, nothing
will go wrong. And without any information or knowledge they go at it, and then they go, "Wow,
it's not working, I'm not selling anything, or I'm not succeeding." And it's because they just don't
know. And that's the thing, they don't want to acknowledge what they don't know, instead they
think, because they like what they're doing that everything's just going to-- the stars are going to
align and everything's just going to work for them. It doesn't, it's a business, it's cut throat. So
people have to understand that.
Travis: Well, you know what it is Jim, I have found that those people are more focused on being
right than being accurate.
Jim: Yeah.
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Travis: And we were talking about Harv Eker. And Harv Eker has a great saying that comes to
mind. He says, “You can either be right or you can be rich.”
Jim: Harv Eker, he's been around the block, he's been around forever.
Travis: Yeah. And so, you need to remove yourself and what you personally want, step aside,
and let the people that are pulling out their wallet say what's right or what's wrong. So, I want to
double back and I want to reinforce what you said, because I've seen it a lot too. So, a person is
brand new and they've developed something. And they go to an expert like you and you say,
"It's going to cost $15,000 for us to test this, for us to do all of the things that get you to where
you need to go." And they shy away, because $15,000 that's just too much. And a year and a
half later they've exhausted 18 months, and they've spend probably $18,000 slowly, a couple of
thousand here, 5,000 on this. And they still not made any progress. It's insane if you ever get a
chance to work with an expert that knows what he or she is doing, jump on it.
Jim: Yeah.
Travis: The 18 months, you'll never get it back.
Jim: Plus you're going to spend another X amount of months doing it over. And that's the other
thing, you won't get the time back, but now you're going to lose more time because had you just
started with the right information, month 1, day 1. In 6 months you could be where you should
be instead of 18 months. And basically to do over. It's like watching the movie twice. Why do
that? It's just not necessary. It doesn't have to happen. And today, there's so much information
available to people, it's almost inexcusable to spend that kind of money. People go out and they
go look for pair of jeans, or they'll shop for a new computer. They'll just spend something that
only cost a few hundred dollars, and they'll spend weeks researching, price shopping, and
comparing. And yet they'll go out and spend tens of thousands on developing businesses with 0
research and knowledge. Some people spend time researching but they don't know what they're
researching. Just talk to people who know what they're doing and who have done it before. And
more often than not they're going to be in a good spot.
Travis: Yeah. What you're talking about is veracity. So what's missing when they're going it
alone is the veracity. And most businesses die on the vine. There's an extremely high failure
rate, something like 94% failure rate for businesses past the 10-year mark. And a lot of it is due
to veracity and lack of experience and knowledge. And so, having that expert like you get them
through there-- Getting a business up to a start-up is kind of like getting an airplane to take
flight, right?
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Jim: Yeah, it's a good analogy.
Travis: And if you're pedaling 20 miles an hour, you're never going to take flight no matter how
big your wings are, you need to get it up to a certain speed. And so, an expert can give you that
veracity that cuts through all the things that are getting in the way, and get you up and running,
and taking flight. So it's super, super important. I'm going to just randomly-- I like to do this, just
pull a number out of the sky. Can you give me like the top 6 things that someone should do to
quickly scale a business? And no, I'm not recommending they need to figure it out on their own,
but what are top 6 mistakes or things that they should do, whichever path you want to go down.
Jim: Well, it could be a combination of both. I think the first thing that somebody should do is
not spend a dime until they talk to somebody like an expert, or someone who's experienced for
all the reasons we just talked about. You don't want to spend money the wrong way, and spend
your life and time doing things without knowledge, because it's only going to put you in that 94%
failure group. So that's number 1. Talk to people who know what they're doing before you jump
in the pool. Second of all, when you're going to spend money on any business and in my world
in the invention business or the product business, you have to remove the emotional connection
from yourself for the business. In other words, you can't cry or jump up and down with your idea
or your concept. I'm not telling people to not be passionate. You should be passionate about
what you're doing. But passion is different than pure emotion in that regard. In other words, you
got to emotionally detach yourself from your product. If you invent a new product and you think
it's awesome, you love it, or it's a baby product or pet product, who cares. At the end of the day
it's a product. People are either going to buy it or sell it, it's going to be all about business. And
the retailers and everybody else look at it that way. It's not an emotional thing, it's a business
thing. It's all about sales, and numbers, and profit. So you got to emotionally check yourself as
you get into your business, or you're going to fail very quickly. Another thing that always comes
to mind with me when people reach out to me is they speak of things, and they don't take
actions. So they'll say, "Well, this is good, this is great. These are all great ideas. And then they
go home and they don't act on anything. Now I know you don't want to, again, just go jump
without thinking. But you have to take action. Inaction is worst, because A, you're just going to
sit there and stew on it and you're not going to get anywhere. But you have to ultimately take
action, you have to take steps and you have to move forward. You have to look back each day,
a week, a month, and say, "You know what, I've went from stage A, to stage B or C." If you're
still stuck-- I talked to a lot of inventors say, "I've been working on this idea for 17 years, or 10
years--" I'm like "What? How could you have nothing in your hand after 10 years?" Well, they
didn't want to take a chance, or a risk, or they were afraid. You know what, get informed, learn
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what you're doing, and then talk to people who can help you. And then either do it or don't do it.
If you're not going to do it don't do it. It's a business, it's not a hobby. So you got to take steps.
The next other big thing that people have to have or [Unintelligible 00:50:43] you do have to
have time and money to invest in your business. There's no easy way about that. You're not
going to get a product to market for free. Even if you license a product, which is basically you
own the patent rights to a product and you give the rights to that product away to a company
that can make the product for you and sell it for you, still, you got to make prototypes, and you
got to file for patents, and it's thousands of dollars. So, don't start a business unless you either
you have money or have the capacity to get money. Whether it's from family, or friends, or
investors of some sort. Don't start a business without having money or cash, because you're
going to use it, you're going to spend it, and you're not going to make anything the first number
of months because you don't have anything to sell. So I think what people say is people go into
it and don't have the ability to pay for things down the road. And then the other thing is
understand what the cost of the business is going to be. So this is .5 that ties into this point.
People think, "I only thought it's going to cost me $5,000 to open a restaurant?" Yeah, come on.
So, before you go half way down building the restaurant, and then run out of money, understand
your cost and then add like 20% to that. And then decide if you can either come up with that
money in the time frame it takes to build that restaurant, or wait until you have that money.
Money is a big thing with people, especially boots trappers. A lot of times they can come up with
the money or get it over time, but they just don't know how much they really need. So you got to
know your number, but you got to understand what it's going to take for you to get there.
Travis: I'm taking notes as we go here.
Jim: Yeah. There's lots of other points. I think those are big keys, just note stuff, get informed,
get knowledgeable. Take steps, take a little bit of a risk, it doesn't have to be a huge leap. Just
dig in there and make things happen, and understand your risks. Know that you got to not get
emotionally attached to everything, it's really important.
Travis: Right. So let me double back, okay?
Jim: Yeah.
Travis: Just to make sure that we help drive all of this in. So, don't spend a dime until you
speak with a pro. So, that doesn't even need to be a large sum of money. Sometimes some
battles are won by never entering them, right? And so sometimes a pro. And so I want to
preface something I think it's important that you seek advice from a pro that doesn't need your
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money to pay his rent. Or, what's a better way of saying that. His advice is not hinging on future
sales.
Jim: Right.
Travis: You need somebody-- I'll give you an example. I see people selling advertising, yet they
don't use the same advertising that they're selling to market their own business. That's a red
flag, right? And so, there's experts out there who want to give expert advice although they've
never built a successful business. Now, bless their heart, they want to help people, but you do a
more of a disservice if you don't know what you're doing when you give the advise. And so,
what I want to point out is that expert that you're talking about, make sure that they've had
success in business and have a deep understanding. And they're going to be fine if you do or
don't do this, right? So they're very impartial. Does that make sense?
Jim: Right. And for example, part what I've done always is instead of just always coaching or
taking on clients, people can just pay me by the hour just to talk, kind of the way we're talking
now. And you know what, for a few hundred dollars you can find out a lot about what you need
to know to potentially get in the business, learn about some of the risks, the pitfalls, the pluses.
But at least when you hang up, whether it's learning something about what you need to do or it's
just affirming what you already thought, that's huge. It's like going to the doctor. You have a
cold, but you think maybe you don't just have a cold. You go to the doctor, you pay hundred fifty
bucks, they check you out and the doctor says, "You know what Travis, you have a cold. Go
home, hangout, rest, eat some chicken soup, you're good." Don't you feel better when the
doctor just said you have a cold?
Travis: Yes.
Jim: Because it's not knowing that makes you worry, or makes you think. That's upon itself. So
just getting that confirmation on something is worth it. So, hey, spend a few hundred dollars or
whatever, to get information and talk to somebody who does something every day of their lives
and can give you clarity. And there are times I've told people, I don't think you should go into
this business, or I don't think we should do this, or based on what you've told me. And they're
like what do you mean? I'm impartial here. I would love to tell you to go into business because
maybe you'll use me and I'll make money. But I don't think based on what you're telling me
you're fit to go into business right now.
Travis: Right.
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Jim: Well, you know what, that's as impartial as it gets. I'm being objective, I'm being paid to
give you advice. It doesn't matter if ever talk to you again or I wind up working with you for the
next 3 years, this is what I think and that's where it's at. And then I hang up, and that's that.
Travis: Right. I do a swat analysis, and although I'm always kind of considerate when I speak
with people, I can say this stuff that nobody else in the company and their family members can't
say.
Jim: Right. Your mother loves you right? And that's how it is in the product business. Nobody
wants to tell somebody that their product idea is not good, or it doesn't look nice, or it's too
expensive. I'm happy to do that for you, right? But you don't want to hurt people's feelings, you
want to acknowledge that they've spent a lot of time, and given it a lot of thought. But at the end
of the day what's going to hurt more? I hurt their feelings a little now, or they spend their life
savings and really cry later? So, sometimes I think we're doing a huge service by letting people
know that based on what you know that they shouldn't be doing what they're about to do. Or
they should do it this way or that way, just consider the alternatives.
Travis: Exactly. Okay, so number 2, remove the emotion. So, I've seen people that are so
convinced that their XYZ product is going to change the world. And I love that naiveté element
at times but they've drank their own Kool Aid and they're not completely in touch with reality.
And that's what comes to mind for me when you say remove the emotion is becoming impartial.
Step back and look at something and say, "Am I seeing this clearly?" And try to look at it
through a lens of a consumer rather than just being so irrationally head over heels with it. Now,
it's still hard to completely be disconnected. Sometimes it’s losses are painful and hurt because
you put all the time in it. But that's what comes to mind for me is dial that down and focus on
being accurate rather than being right, correct?
Jim: Exactly. I always tell people, "Look, are you in this to make money?" "Yes." "Well, if you
are here's the reality." If it's just a hobby then let's play with it. But you're right, you're human,
you're not going to be a robot, you're not going to not have emotion. But you got to dial it down
from a 10 to like a 2 when you're trying to decide should you spend your hard-earned money on
moving forward.
Travis: Right. And so, take action. I have seen people several times that have been perfecting
something for 8 years. And now that's way too long. You've got to get out there. The best
information and feedback that you'll ever get is with people, and whether they get their wallets
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out, and how they react to things. What they do do, what they don't. Empirical, tangible
evidence is the best educator, rather than sitting in your garage perfecting this. There's just very
little is learned inside there. Now, there's a fine line. I took something. Almost 18 months before
I started marketing my show, because I wanted to get it to a level that I felt like was pretty dang
good. I'll never be perfect, and I don't always say precisely what I want to say, but that's also
authentically who I am at the same time. And really even 18 months was probably too long. So
there's kind of a fine balance there. As with most things there's contradictions on different levels.
Have you found that and do you agree?
Jim: Yeah, I do. I think most people that have been working on something for 18 months or 18
years, they know they're in it too long, they know they have to make decisions. They just don't
want to take the risk and they don't want to spend money, and a lot of people in my world are
just hoping that somebody-- the product gods are going to swoop down, and scoop them up,
and pay them millions for their idea. There's a lot of that illusional type stuff that does happen
unfortunately. It's not easy. It's easy for us to say now, but you and I both have gone through
this, and I just think you have to, like you said, whether it's a SWOT analysis, strengths and
weaknesses, or sometimes you just have to say what am I willing to risk? And if you're not it's
okay, not everybody's built to be an entrepreneur, not everybody has to create a business or
start a business. It's okay to work for companies and that’s life, millions of people do. But if
you're going to go at it you've got to set the time limit and say, "I need 6 months, and I'm going
to talk to experts and I'm going to do some research, and I'm going to feel things out, and I'm
going to test a few things." But you have to take a step on regular basis. You can't look back
and say 3 months and say, "Wow, I was going to call Travis 3 months ago, step 1, I haven't
even done that. That's a problem. If you can't get past that you've got some things to work
through. But you've got to be making forward steps, even if they're small steps, to decide if
you're going to really get into something. And you could be a perfectionist to some degree, and
you should do your homework. But at some point you've got to pull the trigger.
Travis: Time to pull the trigger.
Jim: Otherwise, you're wasting your life away. And in my business with product, products
change so often, and if you just sit on an idea for 3-4 years, chances are by the time it comes to
fruition, somebody's already done it already, or it's outdated. So you've got to be timely in your
thinking.
THE ENTREPRENEUR’S RADIO SHOW
Conversations with Self-made Millionaires and High-level Entrepreneurs that Grow Your Business
Copyright © 2012, 2013 The Entrepreneur’s Radio Show Page 22 of 26
Travis: Yeah, completely agree. Now, number 4 is pretty self-explanatory. You need time and
money. There's a lot of people that start businesses and don't have the time and don't have the
money.
Jim: You know what, and you just can't do it, bottom-line.
Travis: Yeah. So save yourself the headache and the money, if you don't have the time and
money. And then number 5, know your numbers. There's an incredible number of people out
there Jim that don't know what COGS are, cost of a good sold. And so, they don't know what
fixed overhead expenses are, they don't know what selling cost is. You got to know those
things.
Jim: Yeah, and they're easy to learn. It's easy for people like you and I to explain those things
to people. Here are the things you have to watch out for, here are your major expenses. There's
always going to be little things that crop up, but it's an old, probably, 90-10 rule. 90% of your
cost are going to be 10% of these items, which are major things. It's overhead, it's rent, it's cost
of goods sold, it's land and property, it's whatever it is. And in my world it's easy for me to
explain, "These are the top cost you're going to incur, and based on what you've told me this is
about what it's going to wind up costing you." Done. And you what, if something else comes
along-- I don't count making business cards as part of my plan. You can get business cards
made for $20. I'm not worried about that, I'm worried about the things that cost either hundreds
or more importantly thousands that, you can't go, "Oops, I forgot that a factory is going to make
your order", and so it pushed you $20,000 to make it. That's at the top of my list, right? But little
things-- if you need to go buy pens, that's not in my checklist of you got to be worried about stuff
like that.
Travis: Yeah, good point. Listen, I've run you a little bit long. What do you say we segway into
the lightning round. I've got those 3 questions that I sent you, are you ready for that?
Jim: Yeah man, I'm ready.
Travis: Cool. So what book or program made an impact on you related to business that you'd
recommend and why?
Jim: You know what's funny, people are surprised to hear to this. I'm not a big book reader.
When I want my information I get it in periodicals, or I'll read a magazine, or I'll watch something
on T.V. But like anybody, I've read various business books. And I think this book that a lot of
THE ENTREPRENEUR’S RADIO SHOW
Conversations with Self-made Millionaires and High-level Entrepreneurs that Grow Your Business
Copyright © 2012, 2013 The Entrepreneur’s Radio Show Page 23 of 26
people know it, it's by William Stanley, The Millionaire Next Door. I think that's a great book not
only for entrepreneurs but just for people in general, because, without getting into any detail, the
book explains how the average millionaire lives and how the average millionaire lives is not like
celebrities and athletes we see on T.V. They're people that drive Toyota's and they have
modest homes, and they go on basic vacations. They splurge on certain things that mean
something to them. But by learning how people think and understanding that a lot of the
millionaires don't live in excess. That's why they're millionaires, they clip coupons, they double
check things, and they're very pro-active. And it sounds a little self-serving but they'll spend
$500 to talk to an expert, instead of just throwing $5,000 at something and not know what
they're doing. They're very methodical, and thoughtful, and they take their time but they make
their moves. And ultimately, those are the people that make a lot of money. So, The Millionaire
Next Door is I think a good, general read for anybody that wants to understand business or
finance.
Travis: Yeah, I agree. Well said. What's one of your favorite tools or pieces of technology that
you've recently discovered if any, that you'd recommend to other business owners and why?
Jim: I thought I love this question because it's-- I was thinking, “What things are great and what
one thing could've changed how I work?” But you know what I really find a lot that really helps
me are apps. I got an iPhone, and I use apps like TurboScan to like scan documents, and send
them to people. There's an app called SignNow where-- hey, somebody sends me an
agreement or a contract. I don't have to go sit on my computer and do all those things, I could
just simply, from my phone, read something, sign it, and send it back. I think all these business
apps that make my time more useful, and there's just thousands of them. I think that's the best,
that's that one technology piece but I think that whole area of using apps on your iPad or iPhone
to make my day simpler, and I can do things from a beach as you will, is the best, cheapest
pieces of technology. Some of these apps are free. Some of them are like just 2 or 3 bucks, 5
bucks, and yet they save me collective hours of time, a week or a month. Talking about
spending money wisely, right?
Travis: Right. You don't have to go plug-in the fax anymore, right?
Jim: Yeah. Or I could print right from my-- I could be here on the phone with you. While I'm
talking to you I could sign a document and send it to somebody. Obviously, I would be paying
attention to you. But I could do this, right, I could multi-task. Then I could print something on my
printer from my phone, and I could scan a document and send it to somebody. All the while I
could do 10 things at once if I wanted to. And I could just do it from a chair. That's the best
THE ENTREPRENEUR’S RADIO SHOW
Conversations with Self-made Millionaires and High-level Entrepreneurs that Grow Your Business
Copyright © 2012, 2013 The Entrepreneur’s Radio Show Page 24 of 26
technology pieces that I think people should do is look at these apps, little productivity apps that
helps them get through their day quicker.
Travis: Yeah, I completely agree with you. Hey, what famous quote would best summarize your
belief or your attitude in business? It really doesn't even have to be famous.
Jim: Well, I'm a big fan of Benjamin Franklin, and not because he was an inventor, but because
this guy was like that ultra businessman. This guy ran how many different businesses, he was
Head of State, that kind of thing. Really smart guy, and he has this one quote that really plays
into what you and I do in this world which is, "An investment in knowledge pays the best
interest," right? We've been talking about that the whole hour. Invest in learning a little bit. And
down the road it's going to really help you a lot. It truly does pay the best interest down the road.
So I always like that one from Ben Franklin.
Travis: Yeah, excellent. I haven't heard that one, I definitely like it. How do people connect with
you?
Jim: Well, people can go to my website, which is my name jimdebetta.com, and click on
Contact Jim and they can reach me there. That's really the best way. Or my email which is
jim@jimdebetta.com, either way that's how people tend to connect with me, and I respond to
everybody ultimately, and I don't ignore anybody or anything. I try to be very respectful that
people spend the time to reach out and I want to reach back out.
End of Interview
Travis: Excellent. Thank you for that. Remember guys that you can find all the links to the
books and the resources mentioned in the show in the show notes. Just go to
rockstarentrepreneurnetwork.com, it's a fairly new site that we've been building out that's
focused on giving you the resources to help grow your business. Before I close the show today I
want to remind you that building a profitable business is a series of formulas, and as you apply
those formulas to your business your profits become very predictable and start building a long-
term wealth. This is what moves you into a position to help other, which I believe is part of our
responsibilities as an entrepreneur. Now, if you haven't reached that level of consistency yet
with your business, we've put a free program together called the Business Breakthrough
Sweepstakes, where we focus on teaching some of the formulas, in a simple step-by-step
format, share some of my personal story along the way, things that we don't really have time to
THE ENTREPRENEUR’S RADIO SHOW
Conversations with Self-made Millionaires and High-level Entrepreneurs that Grow Your Business
Copyright © 2012, 2013 The Entrepreneur’s Radio Show Page 25 of 26
share during the show. And also, to add a little fun and excitement to the whole thing. If you join
the sweepstakes and stay engaged, you'll have a chance to win $73,000 in cash and prizes,
where I'll personally mentor you and your business. Plus you've have a chance to win my
personal Lamborghini. So for more information just go to rockstarentrepreneurnetwork.com, and
click on the sweepstakes promotion. Now, my quote for today comes from Napoleon Hill, and it
reads, "Cherish your visions and your dreams as they are the children of your soul, and the
blueprints of your ultimate achievements." This is Travis Lane Jenkins signing off for now. To
your incredible success my friend, take care.
THE ENTREPRENEUR’S RADIO SHOW
Conversations with Self-made Millionaires and High-level Entrepreneurs that Grow Your Business
Copyright © 2012, 2013 The Entrepreneur’s Radio Show Page 26 of 26
How We Can Help You
We know that finding someone that you can trust online today is hard and that so many “so
called gurus” are self-‐appointed and have never really even done what they teach you to
do. That’s exactly why we created the Double Your Profits Business Accelerator. This is an
exclusive offer for our fans at a fraction of its normal cost.
Here's what to expect. We'll Schedule a 'One on One' private session, where we'll take the time
to dive deep into your business and tell you what is missing, so that you can have your best
year ever!
We'll do this by performing a S.W.O.T. Analysis. This tells us your Strengths, Weaknesses,
Opportunities and Threats within your business.
This will be an eye opener for YOU, for several reasons, however some of the most common
reasons are.
As the 'Business Owner' it’s difficult to see the big picture of your own business because you’re
in the middle of a daily management.
And you are too emotionally involved to completely impartial.
This is a common problem for EVERY business owner. It doesn’t matter if you are a one-man
army, or an army of 150, the problem is still the same.
Travis Lane Jenkins
Business Mentor-Turn Around Specialist
Radio Host of The Entrepreneurs Radio Show
“Conversations with Self-made Millionaires and High-level Entrepreneurs That Grow Your
Business"

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The Entrepreneurs Radio Show 095 Jim DeBetta

  • 1. THE ENTREPRENEUR’S RADIO SHOW Conversations with Self-made Millionaires and High-level Entrepreneurs that Grow Your Business Copyright © 2012, 2013 The Entrepreneur’s Radio Show Page 1 of 26 Episode 95: Jim Debetta In this episode, Travis interviews the successful and inspirational mentor and entrepreneur Jim DeBetta. Jim has been in the business and through time, he has established a multi-million dollar empire through hard work and dedication to his craft. At present, Jim uses his wealth of experience and wisdom help others in their path to success as well as helping entrepreneurs and inventors achieve the true potential of their business as well as products. Jim and Travis have given so many valuable insights on how determined entrepreneurs establish their business efficiently and at the same time avoiding the common mistakes that they could make along the way. Jim also gave his top 5 things entrepreneurs should or shouldn’t do in their business, namely get a mentor to help give you unbiased advice, avoid being emotionally too attached to your business, ensuring that you have enough money to get your business going, having enough time and money for it, and lastly knowing your numbers. These and so much more are what’s in store in today’s episode of the Entrepreneur’s Radio Show. Sales and Marketing Strategies to Grow Your Biz Travis: Hey, it's Travis Lane Jenkins welcome to episode number 95 of the Entrepreneur's Radio Show, a production of rockstarentrepreneurnetwork.com. Today, I'm going to introduce you to Jim DeBetta. Just in case you're new to the show, each and every episode is about connecting you with rock star entrepreneurs so that you can hear their journey to success, and also you can learn what they found to be the secret to success. I believe this is critical to fast- forwarding you in your endeavors as an entrepreneur as well. Now before we start I want to give you a little bit of a background on Jim. Jim is a rock star for several reasons. First of all, he's built his own company beyond the $20 million mark, which is a rare feat in itself. After that he went on to help thousands of investors and start-ups, new businesses, learn how to scale their business. Jim also heads the retail distribution arm for Kevin Harrington from the ABC reality hit show Shark Tank. And there's a lot more about Jim, although we only have an hour, so I'm going to spare you. Just know that Jim is brilliant on many, many levels. In this interview, Jim will share his top 5 tips for growing your business along with lots more. So be sure and stay with us, this is going to be a great interview.
  • 2. THE ENTREPRENEUR’S RADIO SHOW Conversations with Self-made Millionaires and High-level Entrepreneurs that Grow Your Business Copyright © 2012, 2013 The Entrepreneur’s Radio Show Page 2 of 26 Now, I want to take a minute and start thanking each of you that have taken time to write a review and rate the show. I recently found an app that allows me to see reviews from all over the world. So I have reviews that I didn't even know that I had, in iTunes specifically it's strange. When I go look in iTunes I only see what's been posted in the U.S., not in Canada, or the U.K., or anywhere else, so forgive me for that. And so, I want to do a better job of recognizing you guys that have taken the time to go and rate and review the show that really means a lot to us. When you rate and review the show, it tells iTunes that it is a valuable show and they will show it to more people in their searching for new shows related to the topics that we talk about. So, first and foremost, I'm not going to read the entire review because it would take too long. But basically, I got a 5 star review rating from Dr. Sabrina that says great insights for entrepreneurs. Thank you for that Sabrina. I also got a 5 star review or rating I guess, and the review said great show with an intimate feel. Thanks for that Jim. Another one is a 5 star rating, it says, "sets the tone for my day". And that looks like it's by the Pat Joel. And so, each and every episode I'm going to do a better job of personally mentioning each of you that have taken the time to do this for me because it means so much to me and my team. So thanks a lot for that. Also, one of the things that I'd like to ask of you is try to hangout with us until the very end because I have some inspiration, some things that I want to share with you beyond the great interview that we're going to do with Jim today. Another quick reminder, if you use iTunes, or you have an Android, or any other type phone that's not iTunes, I have two options for you that will take you directly to the show. All you have to do is go to rockstarentrepreneurnetwork.com and you click on one of two things, either iTunes, obviously takes you to iTunes, or Stitcher. Now that's an app that will allow you, if you have an Android phone or any of the other phones out there to download the shows and actually stream the shows whenever you're ready to listen to those. So if you'd like to do that while you're on the go that's going to be a great option for you. Now that we've got all that stuff out of the way let's go ahead and get down to business. Without further ado, welcome to the show Jim. Jim: Hey, thank you for having me here. Travis: Yeah. I'm so excited I mispronounced show. But listen, I'm super excited to have you hear. And you've got a really interesting angle, some things that you do. Maybe not an angle, but the things that you do. And I'm really fascinated in how you got there. So do you mind sharing that back-story of what brought you to where you are today and how you become this rock star? Jim: Yeah. Well, rock star's a strong word, but okay, I'll work with that for today, it sounds nice. I kind of grew up in retail. My family owned a small chain of retail stores on Long Island in New
  • 3. THE ENTREPRENEUR’S RADIO SHOW Conversations with Self-made Millionaires and High-level Entrepreneurs that Grow Your Business Copyright © 2012, 2013 The Entrepreneur’s Radio Show Page 3 of 26 York. And when you grow up in that business you get to see, obviously, the buying side, the consumer side. So you walk into the store, you see products for sale, and you understand how people buy it. And then you're on the other side which how to choose products, how to merchandise them and of course how to sell them to people like you and I. So, grew up around that business as a kid and through college. And then when I get out of school I got involved in a start-up, which manufactured sport optics, which are binoculars, and telescopes, and night vision, you know, fun stuff. And we really didn't know what we were doing but we knew we were smart enough to get a business going. But we made the proverbial mistakes and spent a lot of money the wrong way. At the end of the day, in under 10 years we built a near $20 million a year business selling our products to the likes of Target, and Wal-Mart, and Dick's Sporting Goods, so many major retailers. And we did it old school. We had to go and see people because the internet really wasn't much of anything in the mid-90's. We got faxes on, therm paper fax machines, and today I don't even use a fax anymore. It's really changed but back then you really had to dig harder than you do today I think. Travis: Right. Jim: And from that success, I really got well connected into the world of retail, and the buying side. I parlayed that into a number of other entrepreneurial opportunities. I started my own company. I spend a couple of years working with Kevin Harrington who is one of the sharks in Shark Tank for the first season and a half. And I was selling some his products that he funded into the major retail chains, and working on the infomercial side of the business. I've always been in the product business and I'm leaving things out. But the height of it is that I just always been fascinated by product. There's always something new every day in my world and you never know who's going to have the next Snuggie, or the next cool thing. So, along the way I'm helping people develop those products and getting them in front of retailers, and having a lot of fun with it. Travis: Right. So let me make sure I have one thing right. In the very beginning, your first job was with your folks, and what were you all doing? Jim: I didn't hear the last part, I'm sorry Travis. Travis: What were you all doing, what type of work? Jim: Yeah, these were kind of combination stores. You may have these around where you are. In the winter, the store sold fireplaces, and gas stoves, and gas fireplaces, things of that nature,
  • 4. THE ENTREPRENEUR’S RADIO SHOW Conversations with Self-made Millionaires and High-level Entrepreneurs that Grow Your Business Copyright © 2012, 2013 The Entrepreneur’s Radio Show Page 4 of 26 winter home things. And in the summer the store sold outdoor furniture, like very high-end cast aluminum furniture, like these sets you see for like 2 grand to 3 grand for your patio. And then, year-round they had hardware, but all high-end hardware like doorknob sets and hinges, and things for your house, but expensive stuff. So it was kind of a cool business because we're doing different things seasonally, and my family was very, very successful in this business. Even when the Home Depot's of the world came along they even did better because they rode their advertising code tail so to speak. They took advantage of what Home Depot didn't offer as far as services and products, but Home Depot made businesses like my family's business more aware to consumers. So it was really a great experience. And my dad still has one store left today and he's in his 80's, so he's still going at it. Travis: Wow. You know what's interesting is-- so now I get it. Okay, so you worked in that face- to-face environment. And I think that's key. Being able to dial things in when you're doing some face-to-face sales, you can really take things through a cycle, or at least that's what I found. Because that's some of how I started out also, I did some face-to-face sales. It's a very fast process. You can tell on people's faces whether they're liking what you're saying, what the problems are. If you're an outgoing person you can even ask them why they don't buy. You can dig very deep. And so, even in just kind of this brief outline, going from that environment with your folks, to the manufacturing, doing that stuff. Even with Kevin Harrington, what I hear you doing is, is you're building out a marketing funnel almost with Kevin Harrington. Would that be a fair assessment? Jim: Well yeah, it was a bunch of things. Look, everybody knows what an infomercial is, you see all these products being sold on TV. "Get it now. 99 and on will get a second one for free." That's a huge business in this country, and it seems like everybody that has a product that's inexpensive wants to use that vehicle to sell their products. But when you do that, when people call or go online to order or to inquire you're building a list, right? And obviously you're on TV so millions of people potentially can see your product and then log-on or call to buy it. So, while you're selling, you're also building a marketing platform. But then you've got a market in order to sell well. So people kind of break the two apart sometimes and a lot of corporations segregate sales and marketing inappropriately. And I don't know how one can work without the other because it's kind of like peanut butter and jelly sandwich, you got to have both. If you have that, and you're in sync, whether it's the infomercial world or it's the regular selling products to retail world, you'll be in good shape. Neither one of those can be left out in the equation. Travis: Right. So, I come from the same era as you. I started with the faxes and all of that other stuff. And so, something that I've seen transition in my business is for years, marketing was a
  • 5. THE ENTREPRENEUR’S RADIO SHOW Conversations with Self-made Millionaires and High-level Entrepreneurs that Grow Your Business Copyright © 2012, 2013 The Entrepreneur’s Radio Show Page 5 of 26 way to get the opportunity to try and sell them something. And now, it's much more of an integrative thing to where marketing can handle a large majority of the sales process as well, to where the people have really been conditioned to know, like, and trust you. And you can do all of the stuff ethically. So do you agree with that? That's my perspective, do you agree with that? Jim: I do. And I think that there are marketers, you and I both know this, that aren't so ethical if you will, or they just continue to bombard you when you don't want to be bombarded. Or the messages send you to a different place than what you expect. But today, even in the retail- selling world it continues to grow out on the internet side, and the email side, and the texting side. I have my cell phone on and I'm getting text messages from various retailers with special offers. As long as they're legit, and they're cool, and they're something that I want, there's no better way to market because everybody is on their phone. I don't care if you're 5 years old or you're 95, it seems to be that's where everybody is. So, I do agree with you that, that method and methodology is important today. Travis: Well, one of the things, number 1, it's common for people to not feel like they're a rock star. I don't think the average person walks around, even that has had the level of success that you've had and say it, "Hey, I'm a rock star", right? You just don't think of yourself that way. But the important thing is the percentage of people that make it to $20 million in revenue is just incredibly small. It's probably a thousandth of a percent of business owners that ever reach that level. Jim: Yeah, it's a tiny number. Travis: Yeah, it's a tiny number. Once you found that level of success, and you did that with the manufacturing business, did you sell that business? Jim: I left the business, so I didn't purely sell it. Travis: Right. Jim: This is still in existence today. At that point I had been travelling almost 100 days a year. I started having children with my wife, and I just felt like I didn't want to do that amount of work anymore. I built a business, it was successful. I did all those things that I wanted to do and more, and I just felt it was time to step aside and to take some time off, and then look for other opportunities. Because even when I was doing that I was thinking, "What other businesses
  • 6. THE ENTREPRENEUR’S RADIO SHOW Conversations with Self-made Millionaires and High-level Entrepreneurs that Grow Your Business Copyright © 2012, 2013 The Entrepreneur’s Radio Show Page 6 of 26 could I be in? What else could I do?" And that's just always the way I've been. So I felt like to have done it that long was a long time for me. Travis: Right. Jim: Yeah. So I moved on and went into a whole other world of all different types of things. And I'm sure I'll continue to do that. I'm always looking for opportunities and fun, interesting things to do. I want to make money like everybody else, but I also want to enjoy what I'm doing, and pick and choose the opportunities. Travis: Plus your standards, I'm going to assume that me and you think probably very similar on this. What happens is your standards evolve and your interest evolve, and who you are as a person evolves. And so, once you conquer something it's no longer a challenge and it's no longer exciting, or you're no longer willing to put those 80 hours in to manage this thing. It's time to move on to something that gets your juices going. I'm 48 and I'm making that transition to where I want to have a better work-life balance. I want to travel more and focus on it. I have other businesses that I don't work in, right? And I lost the passion for those businesses years ago. Now, I still care about us doing a good job but I just can't be there on a regular basis to focus on those businesses because it's not where my passion is. And that's along the lines of what I hear you saying as well. Jim: Yeah. It's one of those things where you do. You build something-- I think part of me the great fun and challenge is in the building of it, the conceiving of it. And then once it matures I feel like, yeah, I'm getting bored, it's becoming redundant over padded. I want to work on something new. And you're right, years ago I decided that I wanted to be home more and I didn't want to be like some of my friends or neighbors that they go into a job for a big corporation, and they're working. They're driving an hour and half each way to work, and they come home and they're miserable. They don't even like what they're doing, but it's a paycheck to them. And I get that and that's okay, there are a lot of good corporations out there. I've never been like that, I'd never been like a desk jockey or a cubicle guy. I can be a great team player, but I got to be near the head of the team. I'm not a rank and file guy, and that's how I am and I know that. The opportunities could be small, it could be anything. It doesn't matter. As long as it's appealing, and you're right, that work-life balance is critical. I got 4 kids and they're small, and I'm here for them, I know what they do every day, I see all the time, we eat dinner together most of the time. I don't miss anything, and not many people can say that, because a lot of people are locked-in to what they're doing, and they have to keep doing it. And they don't know how else to go about making money, or you're afraid to take risks. I've never been afraid to take risks. And now, I've
  • 7. THE ENTREPRENEUR’S RADIO SHOW Conversations with Self-made Millionaires and High-level Entrepreneurs that Grow Your Business Copyright © 2012, 2013 The Entrepreneur’s Radio Show Page 7 of 26 taken a lot of risk, luckily they paid off because had they not, who knows where I'd be. But you can't get anywhere greater unless you're willing to take a little bit of a leap. Travis: Right. And I did the same thing. Fortunately, I made the leap when I was young, and naive, and had no idea what laid ahead of me. Jim: Yeah, Travis: Plus, the bills weren't gigantic at the time so we had a very little overhead. And so for me at 48, I took my daughter to school this morning, meeting my son after we do this interview to go look at some stuff, and ride some motorcycles together. And the only way you can do that is being your own boss, right? Jim: Yeah, I think so. Travis: For the most part. Jim: But people also mistake being your own boss for it being easier. Some of my neighbors they'll see me, off, whatever, in the afternoon. And they say, "Don't you work, don't you do anything?" Travis: I'm like. I probably do more by lunchtime than you guys do all day long. Because I don't drive that hour and a half to work, then walk into the office and chitchat with people for half hour about this or that, or what happened with this person, or whatever. And then they get all these meetings, and half the time the meetings don't even amount to anything for them. And so maybe they've done like an hour or two worth of work by lunch. I've already worked 4-5 hours, and concentrated, real good work. My old saying is I'm proactive in the morning and reactive in the afternoon. So I kind of get all my emails out in the morning, I make my phone calls, I do all that heavy lifting in the morning, and I'm also a morning person. And then in the afternoon I let things come to me. So I email you in the morning Travis, and then, "Hey dude, I got this idea." And then at 3 o'clock you email me back. And now I'm reacting to you, or you call me back, or whatever. But as your own boss we don't leave in an office, right? We have our phones with us, iPads, I'm always checking, I'm always working. I'm not an on-call surgeon, right? But, a lot of people leave the office at 5 or 6 o'clock and they go home and that's that. I'm answering emails sometimes at 7, 8, 9 at night, or I'm thinking about things. And you’re right if I want to go ride motorcycles with my kids for a few hours, as long as I don't have some pressing that day, I can go do that and know that, hey, I'll just make up for it later on or in the morning. And I don't have
  • 8. THE ENTREPRENEUR’S RADIO SHOW Conversations with Self-made Millionaires and High-level Entrepreneurs that Grow Your Business Copyright © 2012, 2013 The Entrepreneur’s Radio Show Page 8 of 26 anybody to put pressure on me that it wasn't done. My only pressure is myself to my clients that I have to do a job for. So, you and I both are doing it right, like you said, we took tons of risks when we were younger and they paid off. So we're able to do that. So it's been a lot of hard work, people think it's, oh, it must have been simple. I went crazy for years and years to get to this point. So, now I get to enjoy it more. I still work hard, put in a lot of good time, but it's not as wild as it used to be. Travis: Yeah. It’s common that I have a laptop in my lap 15 minutes after I wake up. Jim: Yeah. Travis: Now, I don't say that as drudgery. I don't mind. I had my daughter's babysitter coming in and she had just come in after I woke up and I had my laptop in my lap. And she's like, "You're already working?" as if it's a bad thing. And I'm excited to see what's happened overnight. Jim: Yeah, right. It's like that surprise emails in the morning. You always look forward to that. And feel like you said, but you know your environment is different. My friends that go to work, they go to work, they sit in that cubicle, it's like, "Boring, whatever." At least when I get up I'm having coffee in my den, my kids are around. So I'm not working, but I'm also relevant to where I want to be in my life. And that's not work, like other people have to work. It's a very, very different thing. When I need quiet, I get it. A lot of times I get email my kids could be jumping on me and I can email. But if I need to think or I need quiet I can do that. So, we set our own pace. But by nature I'm go-getter. I don't need to be inspired, I need people to rah rah me. I get up, ready to go, I'm like that every day. I have my days like you and everybody else do. And I just don't really feel like doing a whole lot today. And I don't fight it because I know the next day I'll come back strong. But we have the privilege of being able to do that, right? We can say we're going to take a break, or I'm going to go and just go for a jog, or I'm going to go-- I'm going to watch TV for half hour. Whatever it is you want to do you can do it because you know you control your own destiny and you write your own checks. You want to work more you'll make more. If you don't want to work as hard then you'll suffer the financial consequences. So I think we've got it made Travis, I do. And I always encourage people to-- I know it's not easy to leave a job in your 40's` or your 30's, but a lot of people moonlight, and they try different things. And I think it's a good thing to explore, and talk to people like you and I that had been through it, and understand the pitfalls, and the good parts about it. Travis: Right. Rather than waiting for the right time, because there's never going to be a right time. Even when I was 25, it was not the right time.
  • 9. THE ENTREPRENEUR’S RADIO SHOW Conversations with Self-made Millionaires and High-level Entrepreneurs that Grow Your Business Copyright © 2012, 2013 The Entrepreneur’s Radio Show Page 9 of 26 Jim: Of course not, and they have kids. And people say, "I'm not ready to have kids, I'm not ready." You're not going to be ready, your life's going to change. So just have the kids and you'll go through it. It's like, "What, you're going to wait 'till you're dead?" Because you only have a life and that's it. So you got to do things, and you got to talk about them all the time. Obviously, that's not going to make them happen. Travis: Well, you know, this shift that I got early on, and I know you did too, is we get paid on productivity rather than paid on time. Most people get paid on their time. And so, they've got 8 hours to put in today as an example. So, they don't necessarily need to be effective with their time. There was a period where I needed to work 15 hours, and try to get 25 hours worth of work done in that 15 hours. And it is just what it is. And there's still more times when I need to put exorbitant amount of time or effort in to get something over a hill or a certain hump. But, again, as you get older, I get older, and wiser, and grow, and evolve, and just much more effective with my time. And that's what makes everybody believe that we have nothing but free time on our hands. Jim: Of course the technology. Technology has changed. Like you said before and I said, "We had to do things old school back then." Now, you've got so much technology that enables you to save time and be more efficient with your hours. The other thing too is like you said, getting impatient, or I'm not as tolerant about certain things. Year older people always saying, "I just don't really care anymore. I'm 75, I don't care." But I'm also quicker to say no. When I was younger like in my 20's I would say yes to almost everything. I felt like I had to grab every opportunity or else I wouldn't survive. So what changes now I'll say no to something, whereas I used to-- I feel like I was kind of being too nice to say no. Now, I'll just say, "You know what, it's not for me, no thank you." 10 years, 15 years ago I may have said, "Yeah, I'll give it shot." And then I hang up and I'm like, "Oh god, what did I just do?" Now, I'm very quick to just say, "No, thank you", or, "No, but I know somebody who's good at that." And sometimes it's the people I work with. Sometimes I get somebody on the phone and I feel like we have to manage their expectations, or they might be difficult to work with. And so I just say, listen I just don't think this is the project for me and you get like quite an experience you get to feel those things out you learn and you figure out your sweet spot and I think I know what mine is and I go with it. I don't challenge it in my own mind, I just kind of work, do things that I feel are right and comfortable and everybody wins and I'm happy. Travis: Right. There's a less wasting time, a maybe to a commitment, waste a lot of your time and their time.
  • 10. THE ENTREPRENEUR’S RADIO SHOW Conversations with Self-made Millionaires and High-level Entrepreneurs that Grow Your Business Copyright © 2012, 2013 The Entrepreneur’s Radio Show Page 10 of 26 Jim: Yeah, it's true. Travis: Where even in sales, with the-- my first company that was started is a home improvement company. And my guys always explain to the client will take a no as gracefully as we'll take a yes. But a maybe is not serving either one of us. And so, great wisdom there. Hey, walk me down the path. So, I'd mentioned earlier that one of the things that you do is you coach inventors and consumer product start-up companies and stuff. I'm assuming based on all of your background that's kind of how you transitioned into that. Am I correct? Jim: Yes. Travis: And so how did that come to fruition? And then also teach me or take me down the path of what you teach those people to do to scale their business and get it up and running quickly. Jim: Well, I kind of fell into helping inventors. And the reason why was because I was successful in my business. And as you mentioned, a very small percentage of people achieve the amount of revenue and profit success that we achieve. And so, when you do that people want to talk to you. They want to ask you how did you do it, what were your secrets and what were the tricks, and all that good stuff. And so, when I finally left the business and went into-- Hey, I think I want to help start-ups. And I created a website, got my name out there a little bit, I would get emails. People would say, "Hey, I've got this product idea and I don't know what to do next." I started getting a lot of that. And I started talking to some people, and I said, "You know what, I should help people do exactly what I did, except help them to avoid the massive expense mistakes, and the pain, and save them some time." And this kind of evolved over a year or two where I started formalizing a business platform on helping inventors, because that's the business I was in now, I was in the product business. And inventors invent products, and ultimately what do they want to do with them? They want to sell them to retailers, that's where you make your money. So, I developed over a number of years with various platforms, coaching platforms, step-by-step instructional videos, and all types of collateral and coaching pieces. So basically take somebody through the process no matter where they are. So you can say, "Hey Jim, you know what, I just thought of something. I was outside, I was on motorcycle, and I thought it would be really cool if I had this widget that I can add to my motorcycle to make it go quicker", whatever it is. But you have no idea what do? Like what's a pattern, what's a trademark, how did you get a prototype made, how do you find a factory to make it, all these things. And there's a lot of pieces to that puzzle. So I have formalized a process to help people understand what to do, so this way there's a clarity. They say, "Okay, I know what to do." And
  • 11. THE ENTREPRENEUR’S RADIO SHOW Conversations with Self-made Millionaires and High-level Entrepreneurs that Grow Your Business Copyright © 2012, 2013 The Entrepreneur’s Radio Show Page 11 of 26 then of course they say, what's it going to cost? And I try to help them align the cost of taking that idea and then commercializing it down the road. And then when the products rolled on I help them sell them into retail chains. I do that with a team of people and/or myself. So, it's one of those things where the business evolved from repeated requests. And then I used to do a lot of speaking engagements. And then after those engagements people would email me or call me, and say, "Hey, I saw you and I need your help." And so, it just developed over time. Travis: So basically, a lot of investors or start-ups don't have very much money, unless they have financial backers, right? And so, are you typically dealing with bootstraps, or VC-backed companies, or what? Jim: Most of the time it's boots trappers. But it used to be always like that years ago. But over time, while I've developed deeper inroads with VC's and angel investors, and other various entities, like athletes, and celebrities, and their agents. And so, my business used to be 100% boots trappers, now it's probably like 60, maybe 70% boots trappers, and the rest are very well- funded, whether personally, or they have angel or seed dollars that are available to them, whether that's friends and family, or it's just a true angel that comes along and says, "Here's a quarter a million dollars, good luck." It's a mix, but it's still-- the vast majority of my emails come from people who say they have no money and they wonder how they could make their invention successful. Or they've got very limited funds and they wonder how to best use them. Travis: And so I find-- now I speak to a lot of business owners, startups, and existing, thriving businesses. I have found that there's a lot of people that believe in this myth of build a great product, and get some organic traffic, and wala, you've got a business. I was fortunate enough to be on the front-end of SEO , to where I made a fortune off of with my company because it was brand new. But those days are over. Jim: Yeah, build it and they will not come, I can deal with that. You know you got to market. Travis: Yeah. Jim: Almost every business you're in. I don't care if it's a restaurant, I don't care if it's a service business, product business, the best market is usually when. And that's just a fact, it's a sad reality. A lot of people will make great products that are useful, that are helpful, they'll never make a penny, because they can't get the word out correctly, to the right audience, through the right channels. If you can't do that or find somebody that can help you do that, your chances go from small already to almost nothing.
  • 12. THE ENTREPRENEUR’S RADIO SHOW Conversations with Self-made Millionaires and High-level Entrepreneurs that Grow Your Business Copyright © 2012, 2013 The Entrepreneur’s Radio Show Page 12 of 26 Travis: Right. And it takes money to do that. So even these videos that the people see that have millions of hits, there's normally marketing behind that. Most people don't know that. And so, do you have a platform to where basically you have such a high level of recognition, traffic, and connections to where if you really believe in a product that you can help it get into this stream of recognition? Or do you work with them to setup funnels to where the sales funnel basically has to arbitrage? Jim: Kind of both. I work with a number of talented people. I know a couple of really strong, very successful internet marketers. And depending on what the product is, what the price point is, what sector of retail it's at, I will reach out to those people to work with me, to get that product marketed. Today, a lot of people still believe that the path to success is to sell the major chains, and more and more and more, the path of least resistance and least cost is to sell the products on your own, either through your own website or through other people's websites. And also to build affiliate programs, and membership clubs, and a lot of these which is still traditional marketing concepts but they're just quicker to reach people today. Because again, you can reach people on their phones, in their laptops, and stuff like that. But creating funnels for certain products, and then letting it build out from there and building lists is certainly one method. But other times it's a PR effort. It's just, hey, listen. If a celebrity uses your product, or sees your product, or is seen holding your product, that's a huge boom. If you're on the Dr. or Dr. Oz, or The Today's Show, or Good Morning America. All of a sudden you get your 15 minutes of fame, and then it's how you parlaying that into something sustainable. So marketing as you know comes in many different formats, and I kind of look at each product opportunity, and I say, "What's the best path for this? What cost the least?" And you could definitely market on the internet for less money than traditional market like print ads and things of that nature. So, that's an advantage for people today. But like you said, people are going to spend money, I don't care what business it is. You need money to start a business you need money to make money. There's no free lunch, free ride, very rarely if I ever seen anybody with little or no money make money. Travis: Right. So, what I seen, or the way I would look at that is a PR using one of the examples where someone famous is using your product, that can be used as an initial spike to get a lot of attention. But it's not something that will help you sustain growth or business. I'd found that until you can pay to acquire a customer, you really don't have a business. What do you think about that?
  • 13. THE ENTREPRENEUR’S RADIO SHOW Conversations with Self-made Millionaires and High-level Entrepreneurs that Grow Your Business Copyright © 2012, 2013 The Entrepreneur’s Radio Show Page 13 of 26 Jim: Yeah, I agree. And to your point about a celebrity, you're right, there's no one thing that is going to make your business successful. People say if I can only do one thing to mark my product, what would you do? And I would say, there isn't one thing, it's going to be a culmination of a lot of things. And so, whether that's through the internet, or it's through a PR effort, or grassroots marketing. In order to be sustainable you've got to take each opportunity, expose it, and then parlay it. So if a celebrity is wearing your clothing line, well great. You'll get a bump in sales, maybe you'll get a huge boost for a few months. But then, what do you do from there? How do you reach out to other celebrities to get more people on board? You get yourself on TV shows, strike while the iron is hot. Do you try to build customer lists and a marketing database from the crush of emails that you get? And then can you sell them something else once you have that customer. So, people are just looking for that one thing, that one technique. And I don't think that there is, I think you got to mix a whole bunch of different marketing techniques to get sustainable, long-term results in any business. Travis: Right. And so, there's several other topics that we're talking about, really go much deeper than we're even talking about. So just so that we're not leaving anybody behind, arbitrage is if you sell something for a dollar as an example and you start marketing to try and get that new client, then ultimately you need to at least make more than what you spend to sell that product. So, if you spend a dollar to get that customer and you can get a dollar ten then you've reached a point of arbitrage, that's a simplified way of explaining it, right? Jim: Exactly right. And that’s the thing, some people can't understand how to quantify what it would cost to acquire a customer. And there's ways to do that without getting into any detail. But, let's say you rent a list. If you rent a clean list, a list that where people that buy pet products for their cats. Well, if you get a list of 5 million people that have purchased pet products for their cats in the past 6 or 9 months, and you spend $10,000 at least, and you get $4,000 in sales, guess what, not a great use of your dollars, or like you said, you haven't reached arbitrage. But if you go and clean up past your 11, 12 grand, you've hit that point. But if you get 20 or $30,000 worth of business from that, "Hey, you're in good shape." And then you've acquired that customer and have their permission to continue to market to them, and if you have other products or services that you can sell them, hey, that's great, because as the old saying goes, "The easiest customer to sell is the one you already have." Travis: That's right. Jim: So, what you have and you got to try to make more of those opportunities because we've got a dedicated customer now, so you got their ear. What else can you do for them? I was just
  • 14. THE ENTREPRENEUR’S RADIO SHOW Conversations with Self-made Millionaires and High-level Entrepreneurs that Grow Your Business Copyright © 2012, 2013 The Entrepreneur’s Radio Show Page 14 of 26 trying to sell the one thing and they don't think about what else they can do. It's the old, "Would you like fries with that?" Travis: Right. Jim: And then, "Hey, how about a drink? How about a dessert?" Before you know it, that customer that was going to spend 5 bucks is spending 15 bucks. Travis: Right. Jim: And they love you for it. So, it's all good. Travis: Yeah, so now what you're explain is cross-selling, upselling, things like that, front end, back in. You may get somebody even on a line today with information products that really cost nothing to deliver, right? There's people out there that have a dollar offer. And they're not going to make really much of anything off the dollar offer other than they're converting the list from a list of people that are just consuming their free information to a buyer's list. And so, traditionally there's an upsell. So you may buy the book. I know Perry Marshall is doing something like this right now and the guy's brilliant. So, he's selling his book for a dollar. Plus you pay his shipping and handling. And now, I hadn't been through his funnel, but at the same time, as soon as you buy that there's an upsell into a $30 a month continuity program I believe. Jim: Of course there is, and that's all planned out, and that's what people don't realize, they think that all of that stuff just occurs but it's planned before that first dollar offer comes out. They know that they've get in to swath of people. Here's the top of the funnel, which is very wide, and then it trickles down. And then a certain percentage of those people are going to buy, join a membership club, or get into some kind of continuity situation where they're buying something every month. And then from there there's going to be-- and that the price points tend to go higher and higher. So it's a dollar offer in their business $30 club, and then there's a $300 special program or product at the bottom of the funnel where it's narrow, where people look-- the least amount of people are going to buy, but you're capturing higher dollar. So all that stuff is written out, drawn out, white boarded, planned out before that first email ever comes down. And smart marketers will do that and use that lost lead if you will, that first product that doesn't really make him any money but it gets your attention, it's a great offer. And if you like it, you're very likely to buy something else from that person, either immediately or shortly thereafter.
  • 15. THE ENTREPRENEUR’S RADIO SHOW Conversations with Self-made Millionaires and High-level Entrepreneurs that Grow Your Business Copyright © 2012, 2013 The Entrepreneur’s Radio Show Page 15 of 26 Travis: Right. That reminds of the story-- now I think this is where it came from and you might be able to confirm this. But I want to say the 70's or 80's, it was a Congressman or someone that was wanting to put signs in people's front yards. So "Vote for Congressman XYZ". And they had a large number of people that just said no, they weren't comfortable with placing this large yard sign in their yard. And so they did a test and the test was they asked a thousand people, could we put a credit card sized sign in your from window that said Vote for Congressman XYZ? And a large number of people, something like 20% said yes, where originally they were only getting 1%. They were saying yes to the yard sign, right? And then, they came back to everybody that said yes to the credit card sized sign in the window and asked them 2 weeks later, would you mind if we put a sign in the yard? And something like 40 or 50% of them said yes. Jim: Yeah. I heard about this too, and it's amazing how people can react to things. There's a lot smart people out there with good ideas. It's the same old thing Travis, there's so many good minds and concepts, it's just knowing how to put it all together, and talking to people that done it over and over and over again. And more importantly they know what doesn't work. And that's a key avoidance thing. When you're spending your own money, your bootstrapping, the last thing you need to do is, "Hey, I've got 5, or 10, or 15, or 20 grand--" or whatever it is, and you just lose it all in one silly mistake that you just talked to one person for 20 minutes, you could've avoided it. And I see that a lot, a lot of people come to me after they've burned through everything they have, and I just shake my head and go, "Oh, if you would've just found me sooner, or if you would've just talked to some--" Because people get very emotionally attached to their business ideas, and they take it personally. So they don't hear the noise outside of their own mind. They think that their product or service is the best, everyone's going to buy it, nothing will go wrong. And without any information or knowledge they go at it, and then they go, "Wow, it's not working, I'm not selling anything, or I'm not succeeding." And it's because they just don't know. And that's the thing, they don't want to acknowledge what they don't know, instead they think, because they like what they're doing that everything's just going to-- the stars are going to align and everything's just going to work for them. It doesn't, it's a business, it's cut throat. So people have to understand that. Travis: Well, you know what it is Jim, I have found that those people are more focused on being right than being accurate. Jim: Yeah.
  • 16. THE ENTREPRENEUR’S RADIO SHOW Conversations with Self-made Millionaires and High-level Entrepreneurs that Grow Your Business Copyright © 2012, 2013 The Entrepreneur’s Radio Show Page 16 of 26 Travis: And we were talking about Harv Eker. And Harv Eker has a great saying that comes to mind. He says, “You can either be right or you can be rich.” Jim: Harv Eker, he's been around the block, he's been around forever. Travis: Yeah. And so, you need to remove yourself and what you personally want, step aside, and let the people that are pulling out their wallet say what's right or what's wrong. So, I want to double back and I want to reinforce what you said, because I've seen it a lot too. So, a person is brand new and they've developed something. And they go to an expert like you and you say, "It's going to cost $15,000 for us to test this, for us to do all of the things that get you to where you need to go." And they shy away, because $15,000 that's just too much. And a year and a half later they've exhausted 18 months, and they've spend probably $18,000 slowly, a couple of thousand here, 5,000 on this. And they still not made any progress. It's insane if you ever get a chance to work with an expert that knows what he or she is doing, jump on it. Jim: Yeah. Travis: The 18 months, you'll never get it back. Jim: Plus you're going to spend another X amount of months doing it over. And that's the other thing, you won't get the time back, but now you're going to lose more time because had you just started with the right information, month 1, day 1. In 6 months you could be where you should be instead of 18 months. And basically to do over. It's like watching the movie twice. Why do that? It's just not necessary. It doesn't have to happen. And today, there's so much information available to people, it's almost inexcusable to spend that kind of money. People go out and they go look for pair of jeans, or they'll shop for a new computer. They'll just spend something that only cost a few hundred dollars, and they'll spend weeks researching, price shopping, and comparing. And yet they'll go out and spend tens of thousands on developing businesses with 0 research and knowledge. Some people spend time researching but they don't know what they're researching. Just talk to people who know what they're doing and who have done it before. And more often than not they're going to be in a good spot. Travis: Yeah. What you're talking about is veracity. So what's missing when they're going it alone is the veracity. And most businesses die on the vine. There's an extremely high failure rate, something like 94% failure rate for businesses past the 10-year mark. And a lot of it is due to veracity and lack of experience and knowledge. And so, having that expert like you get them through there-- Getting a business up to a start-up is kind of like getting an airplane to take flight, right?
  • 17. THE ENTREPRENEUR’S RADIO SHOW Conversations with Self-made Millionaires and High-level Entrepreneurs that Grow Your Business Copyright © 2012, 2013 The Entrepreneur’s Radio Show Page 17 of 26 Jim: Yeah, it's a good analogy. Travis: And if you're pedaling 20 miles an hour, you're never going to take flight no matter how big your wings are, you need to get it up to a certain speed. And so, an expert can give you that veracity that cuts through all the things that are getting in the way, and get you up and running, and taking flight. So it's super, super important. I'm going to just randomly-- I like to do this, just pull a number out of the sky. Can you give me like the top 6 things that someone should do to quickly scale a business? And no, I'm not recommending they need to figure it out on their own, but what are top 6 mistakes or things that they should do, whichever path you want to go down. Jim: Well, it could be a combination of both. I think the first thing that somebody should do is not spend a dime until they talk to somebody like an expert, or someone who's experienced for all the reasons we just talked about. You don't want to spend money the wrong way, and spend your life and time doing things without knowledge, because it's only going to put you in that 94% failure group. So that's number 1. Talk to people who know what they're doing before you jump in the pool. Second of all, when you're going to spend money on any business and in my world in the invention business or the product business, you have to remove the emotional connection from yourself for the business. In other words, you can't cry or jump up and down with your idea or your concept. I'm not telling people to not be passionate. You should be passionate about what you're doing. But passion is different than pure emotion in that regard. In other words, you got to emotionally detach yourself from your product. If you invent a new product and you think it's awesome, you love it, or it's a baby product or pet product, who cares. At the end of the day it's a product. People are either going to buy it or sell it, it's going to be all about business. And the retailers and everybody else look at it that way. It's not an emotional thing, it's a business thing. It's all about sales, and numbers, and profit. So you got to emotionally check yourself as you get into your business, or you're going to fail very quickly. Another thing that always comes to mind with me when people reach out to me is they speak of things, and they don't take actions. So they'll say, "Well, this is good, this is great. These are all great ideas. And then they go home and they don't act on anything. Now I know you don't want to, again, just go jump without thinking. But you have to take action. Inaction is worst, because A, you're just going to sit there and stew on it and you're not going to get anywhere. But you have to ultimately take action, you have to take steps and you have to move forward. You have to look back each day, a week, a month, and say, "You know what, I've went from stage A, to stage B or C." If you're still stuck-- I talked to a lot of inventors say, "I've been working on this idea for 17 years, or 10 years--" I'm like "What? How could you have nothing in your hand after 10 years?" Well, they didn't want to take a chance, or a risk, or they were afraid. You know what, get informed, learn
  • 18. THE ENTREPRENEUR’S RADIO SHOW Conversations with Self-made Millionaires and High-level Entrepreneurs that Grow Your Business Copyright © 2012, 2013 The Entrepreneur’s Radio Show Page 18 of 26 what you're doing, and then talk to people who can help you. And then either do it or don't do it. If you're not going to do it don't do it. It's a business, it's not a hobby. So you got to take steps. The next other big thing that people have to have or [Unintelligible 00:50:43] you do have to have time and money to invest in your business. There's no easy way about that. You're not going to get a product to market for free. Even if you license a product, which is basically you own the patent rights to a product and you give the rights to that product away to a company that can make the product for you and sell it for you, still, you got to make prototypes, and you got to file for patents, and it's thousands of dollars. So, don't start a business unless you either you have money or have the capacity to get money. Whether it's from family, or friends, or investors of some sort. Don't start a business without having money or cash, because you're going to use it, you're going to spend it, and you're not going to make anything the first number of months because you don't have anything to sell. So I think what people say is people go into it and don't have the ability to pay for things down the road. And then the other thing is understand what the cost of the business is going to be. So this is .5 that ties into this point. People think, "I only thought it's going to cost me $5,000 to open a restaurant?" Yeah, come on. So, before you go half way down building the restaurant, and then run out of money, understand your cost and then add like 20% to that. And then decide if you can either come up with that money in the time frame it takes to build that restaurant, or wait until you have that money. Money is a big thing with people, especially boots trappers. A lot of times they can come up with the money or get it over time, but they just don't know how much they really need. So you got to know your number, but you got to understand what it's going to take for you to get there. Travis: I'm taking notes as we go here. Jim: Yeah. There's lots of other points. I think those are big keys, just note stuff, get informed, get knowledgeable. Take steps, take a little bit of a risk, it doesn't have to be a huge leap. Just dig in there and make things happen, and understand your risks. Know that you got to not get emotionally attached to everything, it's really important. Travis: Right. So let me double back, okay? Jim: Yeah. Travis: Just to make sure that we help drive all of this in. So, don't spend a dime until you speak with a pro. So, that doesn't even need to be a large sum of money. Sometimes some battles are won by never entering them, right? And so sometimes a pro. And so I want to preface something I think it's important that you seek advice from a pro that doesn't need your
  • 19. THE ENTREPRENEUR’S RADIO SHOW Conversations with Self-made Millionaires and High-level Entrepreneurs that Grow Your Business Copyright © 2012, 2013 The Entrepreneur’s Radio Show Page 19 of 26 money to pay his rent. Or, what's a better way of saying that. His advice is not hinging on future sales. Jim: Right. Travis: You need somebody-- I'll give you an example. I see people selling advertising, yet they don't use the same advertising that they're selling to market their own business. That's a red flag, right? And so, there's experts out there who want to give expert advice although they've never built a successful business. Now, bless their heart, they want to help people, but you do a more of a disservice if you don't know what you're doing when you give the advise. And so, what I want to point out is that expert that you're talking about, make sure that they've had success in business and have a deep understanding. And they're going to be fine if you do or don't do this, right? So they're very impartial. Does that make sense? Jim: Right. And for example, part what I've done always is instead of just always coaching or taking on clients, people can just pay me by the hour just to talk, kind of the way we're talking now. And you know what, for a few hundred dollars you can find out a lot about what you need to know to potentially get in the business, learn about some of the risks, the pitfalls, the pluses. But at least when you hang up, whether it's learning something about what you need to do or it's just affirming what you already thought, that's huge. It's like going to the doctor. You have a cold, but you think maybe you don't just have a cold. You go to the doctor, you pay hundred fifty bucks, they check you out and the doctor says, "You know what Travis, you have a cold. Go home, hangout, rest, eat some chicken soup, you're good." Don't you feel better when the doctor just said you have a cold? Travis: Yes. Jim: Because it's not knowing that makes you worry, or makes you think. That's upon itself. So just getting that confirmation on something is worth it. So, hey, spend a few hundred dollars or whatever, to get information and talk to somebody who does something every day of their lives and can give you clarity. And there are times I've told people, I don't think you should go into this business, or I don't think we should do this, or based on what you've told me. And they're like what do you mean? I'm impartial here. I would love to tell you to go into business because maybe you'll use me and I'll make money. But I don't think based on what you're telling me you're fit to go into business right now. Travis: Right.
  • 20. THE ENTREPRENEUR’S RADIO SHOW Conversations with Self-made Millionaires and High-level Entrepreneurs that Grow Your Business Copyright © 2012, 2013 The Entrepreneur’s Radio Show Page 20 of 26 Jim: Well, you know what, that's as impartial as it gets. I'm being objective, I'm being paid to give you advice. It doesn't matter if ever talk to you again or I wind up working with you for the next 3 years, this is what I think and that's where it's at. And then I hang up, and that's that. Travis: Right. I do a swat analysis, and although I'm always kind of considerate when I speak with people, I can say this stuff that nobody else in the company and their family members can't say. Jim: Right. Your mother loves you right? And that's how it is in the product business. Nobody wants to tell somebody that their product idea is not good, or it doesn't look nice, or it's too expensive. I'm happy to do that for you, right? But you don't want to hurt people's feelings, you want to acknowledge that they've spent a lot of time, and given it a lot of thought. But at the end of the day what's going to hurt more? I hurt their feelings a little now, or they spend their life savings and really cry later? So, sometimes I think we're doing a huge service by letting people know that based on what you know that they shouldn't be doing what they're about to do. Or they should do it this way or that way, just consider the alternatives. Travis: Exactly. Okay, so number 2, remove the emotion. So, I've seen people that are so convinced that their XYZ product is going to change the world. And I love that naiveté element at times but they've drank their own Kool Aid and they're not completely in touch with reality. And that's what comes to mind for me when you say remove the emotion is becoming impartial. Step back and look at something and say, "Am I seeing this clearly?" And try to look at it through a lens of a consumer rather than just being so irrationally head over heels with it. Now, it's still hard to completely be disconnected. Sometimes it’s losses are painful and hurt because you put all the time in it. But that's what comes to mind for me is dial that down and focus on being accurate rather than being right, correct? Jim: Exactly. I always tell people, "Look, are you in this to make money?" "Yes." "Well, if you are here's the reality." If it's just a hobby then let's play with it. But you're right, you're human, you're not going to be a robot, you're not going to not have emotion. But you got to dial it down from a 10 to like a 2 when you're trying to decide should you spend your hard-earned money on moving forward. Travis: Right. And so, take action. I have seen people several times that have been perfecting something for 8 years. And now that's way too long. You've got to get out there. The best information and feedback that you'll ever get is with people, and whether they get their wallets
  • 21. THE ENTREPRENEUR’S RADIO SHOW Conversations with Self-made Millionaires and High-level Entrepreneurs that Grow Your Business Copyright © 2012, 2013 The Entrepreneur’s Radio Show Page 21 of 26 out, and how they react to things. What they do do, what they don't. Empirical, tangible evidence is the best educator, rather than sitting in your garage perfecting this. There's just very little is learned inside there. Now, there's a fine line. I took something. Almost 18 months before I started marketing my show, because I wanted to get it to a level that I felt like was pretty dang good. I'll never be perfect, and I don't always say precisely what I want to say, but that's also authentically who I am at the same time. And really even 18 months was probably too long. So there's kind of a fine balance there. As with most things there's contradictions on different levels. Have you found that and do you agree? Jim: Yeah, I do. I think most people that have been working on something for 18 months or 18 years, they know they're in it too long, they know they have to make decisions. They just don't want to take the risk and they don't want to spend money, and a lot of people in my world are just hoping that somebody-- the product gods are going to swoop down, and scoop them up, and pay them millions for their idea. There's a lot of that illusional type stuff that does happen unfortunately. It's not easy. It's easy for us to say now, but you and I both have gone through this, and I just think you have to, like you said, whether it's a SWOT analysis, strengths and weaknesses, or sometimes you just have to say what am I willing to risk? And if you're not it's okay, not everybody's built to be an entrepreneur, not everybody has to create a business or start a business. It's okay to work for companies and that’s life, millions of people do. But if you're going to go at it you've got to set the time limit and say, "I need 6 months, and I'm going to talk to experts and I'm going to do some research, and I'm going to feel things out, and I'm going to test a few things." But you have to take a step on regular basis. You can't look back and say 3 months and say, "Wow, I was going to call Travis 3 months ago, step 1, I haven't even done that. That's a problem. If you can't get past that you've got some things to work through. But you've got to be making forward steps, even if they're small steps, to decide if you're going to really get into something. And you could be a perfectionist to some degree, and you should do your homework. But at some point you've got to pull the trigger. Travis: Time to pull the trigger. Jim: Otherwise, you're wasting your life away. And in my business with product, products change so often, and if you just sit on an idea for 3-4 years, chances are by the time it comes to fruition, somebody's already done it already, or it's outdated. So you've got to be timely in your thinking.
  • 22. THE ENTREPRENEUR’S RADIO SHOW Conversations with Self-made Millionaires and High-level Entrepreneurs that Grow Your Business Copyright © 2012, 2013 The Entrepreneur’s Radio Show Page 22 of 26 Travis: Yeah, completely agree. Now, number 4 is pretty self-explanatory. You need time and money. There's a lot of people that start businesses and don't have the time and don't have the money. Jim: You know what, and you just can't do it, bottom-line. Travis: Yeah. So save yourself the headache and the money, if you don't have the time and money. And then number 5, know your numbers. There's an incredible number of people out there Jim that don't know what COGS are, cost of a good sold. And so, they don't know what fixed overhead expenses are, they don't know what selling cost is. You got to know those things. Jim: Yeah, and they're easy to learn. It's easy for people like you and I to explain those things to people. Here are the things you have to watch out for, here are your major expenses. There's always going to be little things that crop up, but it's an old, probably, 90-10 rule. 90% of your cost are going to be 10% of these items, which are major things. It's overhead, it's rent, it's cost of goods sold, it's land and property, it's whatever it is. And in my world it's easy for me to explain, "These are the top cost you're going to incur, and based on what you've told me this is about what it's going to wind up costing you." Done. And you what, if something else comes along-- I don't count making business cards as part of my plan. You can get business cards made for $20. I'm not worried about that, I'm worried about the things that cost either hundreds or more importantly thousands that, you can't go, "Oops, I forgot that a factory is going to make your order", and so it pushed you $20,000 to make it. That's at the top of my list, right? But little things-- if you need to go buy pens, that's not in my checklist of you got to be worried about stuff like that. Travis: Yeah, good point. Listen, I've run you a little bit long. What do you say we segway into the lightning round. I've got those 3 questions that I sent you, are you ready for that? Jim: Yeah man, I'm ready. Travis: Cool. So what book or program made an impact on you related to business that you'd recommend and why? Jim: You know what's funny, people are surprised to hear to this. I'm not a big book reader. When I want my information I get it in periodicals, or I'll read a magazine, or I'll watch something on T.V. But like anybody, I've read various business books. And I think this book that a lot of
  • 23. THE ENTREPRENEUR’S RADIO SHOW Conversations with Self-made Millionaires and High-level Entrepreneurs that Grow Your Business Copyright © 2012, 2013 The Entrepreneur’s Radio Show Page 23 of 26 people know it, it's by William Stanley, The Millionaire Next Door. I think that's a great book not only for entrepreneurs but just for people in general, because, without getting into any detail, the book explains how the average millionaire lives and how the average millionaire lives is not like celebrities and athletes we see on T.V. They're people that drive Toyota's and they have modest homes, and they go on basic vacations. They splurge on certain things that mean something to them. But by learning how people think and understanding that a lot of the millionaires don't live in excess. That's why they're millionaires, they clip coupons, they double check things, and they're very pro-active. And it sounds a little self-serving but they'll spend $500 to talk to an expert, instead of just throwing $5,000 at something and not know what they're doing. They're very methodical, and thoughtful, and they take their time but they make their moves. And ultimately, those are the people that make a lot of money. So, The Millionaire Next Door is I think a good, general read for anybody that wants to understand business or finance. Travis: Yeah, I agree. Well said. What's one of your favorite tools or pieces of technology that you've recently discovered if any, that you'd recommend to other business owners and why? Jim: I thought I love this question because it's-- I was thinking, “What things are great and what one thing could've changed how I work?” But you know what I really find a lot that really helps me are apps. I got an iPhone, and I use apps like TurboScan to like scan documents, and send them to people. There's an app called SignNow where-- hey, somebody sends me an agreement or a contract. I don't have to go sit on my computer and do all those things, I could just simply, from my phone, read something, sign it, and send it back. I think all these business apps that make my time more useful, and there's just thousands of them. I think that's the best, that's that one technology piece but I think that whole area of using apps on your iPad or iPhone to make my day simpler, and I can do things from a beach as you will, is the best, cheapest pieces of technology. Some of these apps are free. Some of them are like just 2 or 3 bucks, 5 bucks, and yet they save me collective hours of time, a week or a month. Talking about spending money wisely, right? Travis: Right. You don't have to go plug-in the fax anymore, right? Jim: Yeah. Or I could print right from my-- I could be here on the phone with you. While I'm talking to you I could sign a document and send it to somebody. Obviously, I would be paying attention to you. But I could do this, right, I could multi-task. Then I could print something on my printer from my phone, and I could scan a document and send it to somebody. All the while I could do 10 things at once if I wanted to. And I could just do it from a chair. That's the best
  • 24. THE ENTREPRENEUR’S RADIO SHOW Conversations with Self-made Millionaires and High-level Entrepreneurs that Grow Your Business Copyright © 2012, 2013 The Entrepreneur’s Radio Show Page 24 of 26 technology pieces that I think people should do is look at these apps, little productivity apps that helps them get through their day quicker. Travis: Yeah, I completely agree with you. Hey, what famous quote would best summarize your belief or your attitude in business? It really doesn't even have to be famous. Jim: Well, I'm a big fan of Benjamin Franklin, and not because he was an inventor, but because this guy was like that ultra businessman. This guy ran how many different businesses, he was Head of State, that kind of thing. Really smart guy, and he has this one quote that really plays into what you and I do in this world which is, "An investment in knowledge pays the best interest," right? We've been talking about that the whole hour. Invest in learning a little bit. And down the road it's going to really help you a lot. It truly does pay the best interest down the road. So I always like that one from Ben Franklin. Travis: Yeah, excellent. I haven't heard that one, I definitely like it. How do people connect with you? Jim: Well, people can go to my website, which is my name jimdebetta.com, and click on Contact Jim and they can reach me there. That's really the best way. Or my email which is jim@jimdebetta.com, either way that's how people tend to connect with me, and I respond to everybody ultimately, and I don't ignore anybody or anything. I try to be very respectful that people spend the time to reach out and I want to reach back out. End of Interview Travis: Excellent. Thank you for that. Remember guys that you can find all the links to the books and the resources mentioned in the show in the show notes. Just go to rockstarentrepreneurnetwork.com, it's a fairly new site that we've been building out that's focused on giving you the resources to help grow your business. Before I close the show today I want to remind you that building a profitable business is a series of formulas, and as you apply those formulas to your business your profits become very predictable and start building a long- term wealth. This is what moves you into a position to help other, which I believe is part of our responsibilities as an entrepreneur. Now, if you haven't reached that level of consistency yet with your business, we've put a free program together called the Business Breakthrough Sweepstakes, where we focus on teaching some of the formulas, in a simple step-by-step format, share some of my personal story along the way, things that we don't really have time to
  • 25. THE ENTREPRENEUR’S RADIO SHOW Conversations with Self-made Millionaires and High-level Entrepreneurs that Grow Your Business Copyright © 2012, 2013 The Entrepreneur’s Radio Show Page 25 of 26 share during the show. And also, to add a little fun and excitement to the whole thing. If you join the sweepstakes and stay engaged, you'll have a chance to win $73,000 in cash and prizes, where I'll personally mentor you and your business. Plus you've have a chance to win my personal Lamborghini. So for more information just go to rockstarentrepreneurnetwork.com, and click on the sweepstakes promotion. Now, my quote for today comes from Napoleon Hill, and it reads, "Cherish your visions and your dreams as they are the children of your soul, and the blueprints of your ultimate achievements." This is Travis Lane Jenkins signing off for now. To your incredible success my friend, take care.
  • 26. THE ENTREPRENEUR’S RADIO SHOW Conversations with Self-made Millionaires and High-level Entrepreneurs that Grow Your Business Copyright © 2012, 2013 The Entrepreneur’s Radio Show Page 26 of 26 How We Can Help You We know that finding someone that you can trust online today is hard and that so many “so called gurus” are self-‐appointed and have never really even done what they teach you to do. That’s exactly why we created the Double Your Profits Business Accelerator. This is an exclusive offer for our fans at a fraction of its normal cost. Here's what to expect. We'll Schedule a 'One on One' private session, where we'll take the time to dive deep into your business and tell you what is missing, so that you can have your best year ever! We'll do this by performing a S.W.O.T. Analysis. This tells us your Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats within your business. This will be an eye opener for YOU, for several reasons, however some of the most common reasons are. As the 'Business Owner' it’s difficult to see the big picture of your own business because you’re in the middle of a daily management. And you are too emotionally involved to completely impartial. This is a common problem for EVERY business owner. It doesn’t matter if you are a one-man army, or an army of 150, the problem is still the same. Travis Lane Jenkins Business Mentor-Turn Around Specialist Radio Host of The Entrepreneurs Radio Show “Conversations with Self-made Millionaires and High-level Entrepreneurs That Grow Your Business"