Sales – Ozisco.com

Self-care could get you a hat-trick

Last week Monday, I exhausted every means possible to get a hold of a client involved in a deal I was spearheading. I emailed, called, texted, and left a voicemail, but he did not respond.

The next morning, he replied to my text apologizing for being unreachable since he was stuck in back to back meetings. He then suggested we set up a call for 5pm later that day. I asked for an earlier time in the day, but he was firm that he was only available at 5pm. This was a problem. I had a soccer game starting at 5:10pm, and knew our conversation would take at least 30 minutes. There was also a looming deadline, so it was critical we spoke soon. I had to decide whether to take the call at 5pm and risk missing the soccer game or reschedule the meeting to a different day and risk missing the deadline. Playing soccer brings me a lot of joy, and I also thrive on going above and beyond for my customers, so this was a difficult situation.

This dilemma reminded me of a conversation I had a few weeks back with my mentor. He encouraged me to prioritize self-care as part of my daily routine to live a more balanced life. He shared that more than exercising regularly, self-care is any activity that we deliberately do to take care of our mental, emotional, and physical health. According to Forbes, neglecting self-care means not knowing your worth. By making time for self-care, you “maintain a healthy relationship with yourself as it produces positive feelings and boosts your confidence and self-esteem.”

The common challenge with self-care is making adequate time for it. Tchiki Davis, Ph.D, author of Outsmart Your Smartphone, recommends twelve strategies to get started with self-care. To resolve my earlier dilemma, I relied on her “say no to others, and say yes to your self-care” strategy. Below is how she explains it:

Learning to say no is really hard; many of us feel obligated to say yes when someone asks for our time or energy. However, if you’re already stressed or overworked, saying yes to loved ones or coworkers can lead to burnout, anxiety, and irritability. It may take a little practice, but once you learn how to say no politely, you’ll start to feel more empowered, and you’ll have more time for your self-care.

I told the client that 5pm wouldn’t work since I had a soccer game starting at 5:10pm. I suggested we reschedule for the next day, and he accepted. In parallel, I worked to ensure we had enough runway so we could still meet the deadline.

The soccer game started promptly at 5:10pm, and by the end of the first half, my team was down 1 – 4. During the half time break, I encouraged the guys by reminding them we were better than our first-half performance. All we needed was to focus on getting one goal at a time. Within the first 5 minutes of the second half, I scored our second goal, getting us to 2 – 4. We made some technical changes, which allowed our team to score three more quick goals within ten minutes, putting us ahead at 5 – 4. I then added another goal with five minutes left in the game, putting the score at 6 – 4. Our opponents got a quick break and scored a goal with two minutes left, putting the score at 6 – 5. Knowing they would increase the pressure, I reminded the guys that offense is the best defense. Since our opponents committed more of their guys to attack, it left their defense vulnerable. We took advantage, and my teammate provided a perfect through pass. I then dribbled past two defenders before hitting the ball past the goalkeeper on his left side. The score was now 7 – 5, with twenty seconds left in the game. When the referee blew his whistle to signal the end of the game, we had managed to come back from three goals down to win the game 7 – 5. I thought to myself, had I taken the call and missed out on the game, I wouldn’t have been in a position to help my team and be a part of such a memorable comeback story.

The next day, the client asked about the soccer game, and I relived the drama all over again. Even better, we met the deadline, deepened our connection, and progressed our discussions. This experience was a reminder to prioritize self-care because it earns trust with clients and it is good for business.

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Hey, You Have A Cool Accent!

In Dr. Praya Agarwal’s article on Forbes, she cites research that shows it takes less than 30 seconds to linguistically profile a speaker, and make quick decisions on their ethnic origin, socio-economic class, and background. Additionally, we assign values such as pleasantness and prestige but also intelligence based on accents. In Executive Presence: The Missing Link Between Merit and Success, by Sylvia Ann, she found that executive presence rests of three pillars: gravitas, communication, and appearance. In the communication pillar, some of the executives she interviewed cited off-putting accents as an example of a verbal tic that undermines an individual’s ability to have superior speaking skills and ultimately, executive presence. Essentially, accents are part of our identity, whether good or bad.

My family journeyed from a village in Nigeria (Avu) to the United States (Texas) when I was fifteen years old. I immediately enrolled in high school with big dreams and a thick accent. Almost instantaneously, I became the punchline of many name-calling jokes, including the very degrading “African booty scratcher.” Maybe it was bullying, or perhaps it was just high school kids having fun; either way, it made me feel uneasy, unwelcome, and isolated.

One day, I shifted my perspective and made the conscious decision to fully embrace my accent and turn what many labeled as a disadvantage into an advantage. Luckily, my English Teacher acted as a mentor and assured me that with practice I could become as eloquent as a young Sidney Poitier (she thought we resembled each other). Her coaching helped me master my pace, tone, and cadence. These coaching exercises helped me find my voice and ensured I was not only heard but understood.

In my first sales job after college, one of my prospects was convinced I was calling from an “offshore” country during a cold call. My accent was the culprit, again. Granted, he was partly right; the monotony of the job probably caused my mind to wander off to the bustling streets of Lagos with suya in both hands. However, physically, I was definitely in the United States trying to make the almighty dollar. Let’s just say the sale never happened with that prospect.

Over the years, I’ve noticed my accent thickens during big presentations which could be distracting for the audience. So at the start of a big presentation, I often let the audience know that it is okay to interrupt me if my accent hinders their ability to understand me. By saying this, it diffuses tension for me and the audience; they empathize and become invested in my success. I call this reverse accent profiling. Is that a thing? It should be. #LoveAllAccents

So how do you empathize with someone with a thick accent at work?

Resist the desire to make fun of the accent, in private or in public. A mentor once told me when someone makes fun of you with the intent to demoralize and belittle you, what they’re actually doing is projecting their insecurities. Secure people are usually looking for opportunities to uplift others rather than make them feel insignificant.
Reach out and offer to coach and mentor the person. If you’re someone with an accent who thinks it is inhibiting your success, don’t be shy to ask for help. Reach out to colleagues, leaders in your community, senior management, or seek out professional coaching.
For those in leadership, encourage those with thick accents to speak in front of the team or group and provide ongoing feedback, coaching, and mentoring.
Highlight the person when they contribute ideas to team meetings. A brilliant African pharmacist I spoke to described how she would make a suggestion in a meeting but get little acknowledgment. A few minutes later in the same meeting, someone else would suggest her exact idea and get all the admonition and praise. This act happened multiple times until one day she got frustrated and responded to the individual that kept repeating her ideas “I might have said it with an accent, but that’s exactly what I just said.” It stopped happening.
Make a genuine attempt to understand the person with a thick accent, and meet them where they are. It’s fair to say we all have beautiful accents; if they can understand you, why not make an effort to understand them.
Realize that it’s not just an accent, it’s an asset. #MyAccentIsAnAsset

Special thanks to Jennifer Obiyo, AG Ukwa, Beth Fatusin, Emilia Lusia Fomuso, Ale Esposito, Jacob Alao, Stephen Ozoigbo, Garrett Mihelich, David Chau, for their inspiration and contribution.

3 Actions Successful Salespeople Take After Losing A Deal

“Failure is simply the opportunity to begin again, this time more intelligently.” Henry Ford

Salespeople enjoy reliving their victories play by play; in fact, it’s hard to contain their enthusiasm when they get going. However, when talking about a lost deal, the story tends to get abbreviated. I’ve been guilty of this! 😉

Losing is tough, and one could lose twice if no time is spent learning how and why it happened. As such, it’s important to be deliberate about your next moves following a lost deal. Here are three common actions I’ve observed successful salespeople take after losing a deal:

1. They Reflect: Taking a few minutes to reflect and process the events that led up to the loss allows them to draw insights while the event is fresh in their minds. The process of reflection is two-fold:

Self-reflection: The key is to not sulk in the loss. Rather, with self-compassion as guard rails, they jot down their mistakes, trace every step, and commit to refining their approach the next time. This simple act of self-reflection can be the difference between winning sporadically versus winning consistently. An example of the power of self-reflection occurred with a top salesperson I interviewed. After losing a deal she worked hard to win, she felt defeated and decided to do some self-reflection. After reflecting, she realized she didn’t spend as much time as she should have on enabling a key influencer who at the last-minute swayed the decision in favor of her competitor. Following this realization, she committed to creating stakeholder maps to ensure she invested adequate time with all the key decision makers and influencers.

Team reflection: According to research by Alison Reynolds and David Lewis published on HBR, the best problem-solving teams treat mistakes with curiosity and share responsibility for the outcomes. The idea is to be solution-oriented in the reflection instead of pointing fingers. Successful salespeople realize that one should never lose a deal alone. And if a loss does occur, the team collectively comes up with ideas to improve and hold each other accountable.

2. They Research: Successful salespeople connect with customers to understand their decision to go with an alternative solution. These top salespeople are diplomatic in their request and make it a point to understand the perspectives of all the key stakeholders involved in the decision. This process is difficult, but it’s also rewarding, especially when the customer is candid with their feedback. If it’s a product, service, or pricing issue, the salesperson can route the feedback directly to the team responsible which could be the catalyst for change within their organization. Research is especially valuable in technology sales because if a customer decides not to select your solution because of a missing critical feature, the salesperson can work with the product team to influence the product roadmap which could help win back the deal.

“Statistics suggest that when customers complain, business owners and managers (and salespeople) ought to get excited about it. The complaining customer represents a huge opportunity for more business.” – Zig Ziglar

3. They Re-engage: Change is the only constant in business, and if the customer chooses a solution to solve a problem they have today, the successful salesperson anticipates problems the customer could face tomorrow. They re-engage the customer with new business models, industry insights, case studies, and innovative ideas to improve the customer’s business. They add value in their follow-up and follow-through, which often leads to them winning back the business. A good example of this was a Sales Leader who always followed up at least once a month to ask how things were going with the vendor the customer selected. He asked questions such as: are you achieving the goals you intended, is the vendor delivering on what they promised, are you achieving the right business results, is your team happy with the decision, and where / what are the gaps in the current solution. This Sales Leader has won back multiple deals by being persistent and consistent in delivering value even after losing the initial deal. He encourages salespeople not to assume everything is okay with the customer; instead, focus on anticipating challenges and positioning your solution to solve those challenges.

“Our greatest weakness lies in giving up. The most certain way to succeed is to try just one more time.” – Thomas Edison

When next you lose a deal, don’t fret, just remember the three R’s: Reflect, Research, and Re-engage!

I bade thee Godspeed selling! 🙂

F.I.V.E Questions with Ade Adesanya, Co-Founder of Moving Analytics

Multiple studies show that 90% of startups fail. As the co-founder of Moving Analytics, Ade Adesanya takes on this hard truth every day. He calls it “de-risking” his startup. He does this by having a laser focus on solving his customer’s problems while drawing inspiration from the impact his company is having on many lives. I met Ade during a talk about technology and entrepreneurship hosted by the Umu Igbo Unite chapter of Los Angeles. Ade was named a Forbes 30 under 30 and his company has raised $2M in VC funding. We invite you to get into the mind of Ade in this F.I.V.E questions feature:

1. Briefly describe your background and how you got started.

I grew up in Lagos and came to US in 2007 to study Electrical Engineering at the University of Houston. I always had a passion for building things and caught the technology bug early in my college days. In my junior year in college, the Social Network movie detailing Mark Zuckerberg and Facebook’s story came out. The movie inspired me and my friends to find more problems in our community that technology could solve. We agreed to tackle a problem many college students battle with every semester, buying textbooks. We founded a company called Givepals to serve as a marketplace for students to trade textbooks with each other. The idea expanded to other items including, DJ services, cars, boats, and much more. At its peak, Givepals had over 3000 active users at UH; however, the company closed after we graduated and were unable to expand to other campuses due to engineering challenges.

The experience at Givepals inspired me to move to California and immerse myself in an environment where I could learn how to commercialize technologies and improve my project management skills. I enrolled in the Engineering Management program at University of Southern California (USC) and I also got a job at the USC’ Stevens Center for Innovation where I worked with researchers to commercialize their intellectual property into startup companies. Through my job at Stevens, I met my business partner Harsh, who was a postdoctoral fellow who had secured 2 patents for tracking and improving physical activity for chronic disease management. Harsh was looking to commercialize his patent into a commercial product and was looking for some business help in identifying a customer, fundraising and forming a team. Through our research which consisted of interviewing over 200 clinicians, hospital administrators, and non-profits like the American Health Association we discovered a business opportunity in the cardiac rehabilitation industry.

For those lucky to survive a heart attack, cardiac rehabilitation is a program designed to help patients improve their physical fitness, lower blood pressure and cholesterol, quit smoking, and improve other cardiovascular-related risk factors. Research shows patients who do rehab double their 5-year life expectancy and cut their risk of a second heart attack by up to 50%. The challenge is less than 15% of patients enroll in CR programs because there are very few programs which are located far away from people’s home and work. As a result, health systems are also shuttering their brick and mortar CR programs due to the high operating costs and unprofitability. This leads to more cardiac patients dying and getting readmitted within 12 months. Our team realized that there was an enormous opportunity in delivering cardiac rehab digitally through telehealth. This is how we founded the company, Moving Analytics.

2. Flashback and then fast forward to the present, what has surprised you the most about your journey (with Moving Analytics) thus far?

What has surprised me so far is the long sales cycles in healthcare. Our customers are large health systems. When you start, you have this conviction that since you have a solution to such a big problem, they would want to move fast to make something happen. That is unfortunately not the case since our sales cycle takes about a year, and could be longer for more complex agreements. It can be challenging at times because you still need to keep the business going while negotiations are progressing. Managing your expectations for the type of business you are in is important to your long-term success. Activities like the hundreds of demos we used to do when we first started that we thought weren’t working back then are now leading us to get more qualified leads and slowly chip away at the length of the sales cycle.

3. Why is the cause you are pursuing or problem you are solving the most important for this generation?

Cardiovascular disease is a leading cause of death. 1 in 10 people die from heart disease – more people die from heart disease than cancer. However, heart disease doesn’t get as much attention. Our platform and program help reduce the risk of dying from heart disease. As millennials, we live for experiences and want to continue to do that for a long time. If we can solve this problem, it means we would live longer and our parents would live longer. We would spend more time with our loved ones. The fact is there is a benefit to being healthy and there is a cost associated with it as well. Heart disease and heart failure are expensive diseases, and we are committed to fighting and preventing it with our platform.

4. Reflect on all of the key sacrifices and trade-offs you’ve had to make to get to where you are today. Which of these would you say was the most pivotal and why?

Running a startup is a huge commitment of your time, and personal relationships could suffer. We’ve been running the business for 4 years and in those 4 years, I’ve had some special personal relationships that didn’t work out. I’ve had to learn to manage my personal relationships better and realize it’s marathon, not a sprint. I’ve also started paying a lot of attention to my physical and mental health. When it comes to mental health, I try to share what’s going on in my life so my family and friends can help. It’s like you’re bringing them along on the journey.

5. What is the best piece of actionable advice you’ve received that continues to be a source of inspiration in good times and challenging times?

“Don’t build your idea in a vacuum.” Get out of the building and get in front of your customers.

A lot of people have ideas they want to hoard and not talk about for various reasons. The reality is most people do not care about your idea. Knowing this, I always try to socialize my ideas and in the process, I often determine what it is I need help with to take the idea to the next level. It’s interesting because when I share my ideas and where I need help, people would find ways to help me.

For more details, contact Moving Analytics.

3 Things A Startup CEO Looks For Before Taking A Sales Meeting

I had coffee with the CEO/Co-founder of a Silicon Valley based tech startup that has raised well over $50M and asked him:

“What needs to happen before you take a meeting with a salesperson for the first time?”

He said he looks for three things:

1. The salesperson was referred to me by someone I know and trust

2. The salesperson intends to share something new and innovative that could help me accelerate my roadmap

3. The salesperson needs me more than I need them

I was struck by #3, so I probed further.

He went on to explain that it’s always good taking a sales call when you’re not desperate for the solution/service they’re offering. He only takes meetings with salespeople representing something that is a nice to have. He prefers to have ‘must have’ conversations under his explicit control.

Someone on responded to the above post on LinkedIn with the following:

“Interesting…smells of “group think” and “yes men” mentality. Would you like feedback? If there are any sales folks feeling a bit discouraged, here are my thoughts: #1 Um no. I’ve worked directly with C-suite execs for a long long time. They’ve all been open to meeting me for the first time without a personal referral…unless I count some great EA’s who’ve booked us meetings. #3 Wut? A bit creepy. Good thing I’m a sales professional who works with buyers who need solutions, because I’m a horrible co-dependent. Here’s the rub…startups need to do a lot of selling themselves to make good on their funding…most veteran sales professionals will pass on calling a startup based on their employer count (easy to find online). Who “sells” on the first meeting anyway? 🤔 Don’t worry, I’ll wait…😴 That said, Veteran C-suite execs understand #2, because this is where a conversation/dialogue starts to establish whether a solution is worth evaluating.“

Below is my response to their comment.

Thanks for taking time to read this and reply with your thoughts. You make some very good points. I believe one should feel inspired rather than discouraged. Here’s why:

In the book “Selling to the C-Suite” by Nicholas AC Read and Stephen Bistritz, their research confirms that “a full 84% of Executives said they would usually or always grant a meeting with a salesperson who was recommended internally.”

On the other hand, “Cold calling ranked the lowest, with only 20% of participants (Executives) saying they would usually grant a meeting as a result, while 44% said they would never respond to cold calls.”

The idea is not to feel discouraged but to use research to increase your odds of getting a meeting with CEOs. Also, it’s a better experience to work smarter than harder. The #3 point is not about co-dependency; it’s about control. To your point about “who sells on the first meeting anyway?” many have, and many will continue to do so. Every interaction is a “selling” opportunity…you’re selling an idea, a service, a reason for them to take a second meeting…you’re always selling, from the first meeting to the last meeting to the next meeting… 🙂

I’d love to hear your thoughts. Send me an email (ozisco at gmail.com) or a tweet @ozisco

Happy Selling!

F.I.V.E Questions with Jeffrey Manu, CEO of GrowingStartup.com

Jeffrey, CEO of GrowingStartup.com, beams with charisma and passion. A conversation with him is highly engaging and inspiring. I was fortunate to cross paths with him during a networking event organized by the African Technology Foundation at the Google Campus in Mountain View. The event featured talented entrepreneurs from all over Africa and the diaspora pitching their ideas to members of the Black Google Network and other invited guests. After conversing with Jeffrey for a few minutes, I knew I had to feature him on the F.I.V.E Questions project.

1. Briefly describe your background and how you got started. What is the most exciting or rewarding aspect of what you do? What could make it even more exciting or rewarding?

I grew up in Ghana for most of my life. Both of my parents are entrepreneurs so I grew up in a home where the drive to school was peppered with pep talks on how to spot business opportunities. One time my mom came home with some doughnuts and proceeded to say “I bought them for this amount, you should take them to school and sell to your mates.” I was too shy at the time but I wish I’d started my mini-doughnut business at the time.

After high school I worked as a business to business salesman on the streets of London. The compensation was only commission based so I didn’t get paid if I didn’t sell anything after twelve hours of work. That taught me that products are a commodity in most markets but the ability to sell is what defines the success of many entrepreneurs.

I started GrowingStartup.com because I wanted to help entrepreneurs make better decisions and to give them a proven system that attracts customers and increases sales.

The biggest problem for struggling business owners is wisdom. The ability to know and do what is right consistently is what I provide through our apps and content. Within the next decade, we’ll be the destination fight for business owners who want to know how to attract paying customers and boost sales.

What I love about what I do at GrowingStartup.com is that I get to help people turn their ideas into profits. It’s a calling for me almost the same way a pastor sees his ministry. Having hundreds of millions of aspiring and early stage entrepreneurs using our products and services to start and grow profitable businesses would make it even more exciting. We plan on creating other forms of content such as video games and TV shows for entrepreneurs so that’s something else I’m really looking forward to doing.

2. Flash back and then fast forward to the present, what has surprised you the most about the success in your business? What advice do you have for others looking to take a similar path? Is there something you could have done differently to get to where you are quicker?

What has surprised me is the effectiveness of content marketing. Even while I was working as copywriter for an advertising agency, I started out cold calling small businesses that I knew I could help with branding and web design services. As a matter of fact I did not even have a company name or website at the time. I just went and pitched the value of my services and I had over 90 percent conversion rates. What happened afterwards was that I realized consulting did not scale and what many small businesses needed was a system to increase sales and multiply their conversion rates. I started blogging about marketing and sales and that brought in clients from all over the world.

My advice for people who have a job but would want to start their own businesses would be to focus on a need or problem that they can solve better, cheaper or faster than anyone else.

My success would have been accelerated if I had learnt how to market and sell better at the beginning. The second thing is faith. I have learnt that what separates the top performers in business from the others is a mixture of boldness and understanding. Those two pillars are the keys to exponential growth.

3. What is your unfair advantage? What would your colleagues or clients say are the main reasons that make working with you rewarding?

My unfair advantage would be two-fold and that is having the boldness of faith and using love as my business strategy. By God’s grace I don’t believe in impossibilities like most people do. I also know that the less excuses you have the easier it is do what’s necessary.

With regards to love I believe the easiest way to innovate and get paid more is by giving more value to your customers than anyone else in your market. People always buy things at a discounted price to the real value so giving people magnitudes more than they are paying for is good.

I reckon that’s what people will say is rewarding about working with me. For example, the last time I sold an online course, I noticed one of the students needed help. I conducted special consulting sessions for free just to help her. She’s now a lifetime client.

4. Reflect on all of the key sacrifices and trade-offs you’ve had to make to get to where you are today. Which of these would you say was the most pivotal and why?

The most pivotal sacrifice would be how much time I spend reading and imbibing knowledge. Many of the advice out there is tactical. There are a lot of do’s and don’ts that don’t produce results. I found out that understanding how to create the best products and most importantly how to get the right people to buy them makes up for the 50 steps to success that we see and hear all around us.

5. What is the best piece of actionable advice that you’ve received that continues to be source of inspiration in good times and challenging times?

It’s biblical. 1 Corinthians 13:4-8 (amplified version) talks about how to use love in daily life. It’s not the emotional or sexual high the movies paint it out to be. In my business we make it a point to out-give (and out-love) everyone else. That’s invaluable advice.

Love endures long and is patient and kind; love never is envious nor boils over with jealousy, is not boastful or vainglorious, does not display itself haughtily.5 It is not conceited (arrogant and inflated with pride); it is not rude (unmannerly) and does not act unbecomingly. Love (God’s love in us) does not insist on its own rights or its own way, for it is not self-seeking; it is not touchy or fretful or resentful; it takes no account of the evil done to it [it pays no attention to a suffered wrong].6 It does not rejoice at injustice and unrighteousness, but rejoices when right and truth prevail.7 Love bears up under anything and everything that comes, is ever ready to believe the best of every person, its hopes are fadeless under all circumstances, and it endures everything [without weakening].8 Love never fails [never fades out or becomes obsolete or comes to an end]. As for prophecy (the gift of interpreting the divine will and purpose), it will be fulfilled and pass away; as for tongues, they will be destroyed and cease; as for knowledge, it will pass away [it will lose its value and be superseded by truth]. Source: https://www.bible.com/bible/8/1co.13.4-8.amp

Jeffrey Manu’s Bio

Jeffrey A. Manu is a Marketing Strategist and the Founder of Growingstartup.com, a media and technology company. At Growingstartup.com, he builds technology and content that help aspiring and early stage entrepreneurs to start and grow profitable startups.

He enjoys reading business books, biographies, Christian books and watching movies and TV shows. He particularly like shows like The Profit and Billions. Above all else, spending time with my wife is his greatest pleasure. In addition to this, he enjoys playing basketball and reassures himself that he could have played in the NBA league 🙂 #Baller

Connect with Jeffrey on LinkedIn @Jeffrey Manu and Twitter @JeffreyManu

F.I.V.E Questions with David McMenomey, Owner of Redemit 1

I’m excited to launch the “Find Insights Via Engaging™ (F.I.V.E) Questions with an Entrepreneur” series. The series will feature answers to 5 unique questions posed to an entrepreneur. Their answers will enable every reader to learn how they got started in their venture, discover how they mastered their unique set of skills, and gain from any piece of advice that has continued to deliver dividends. It will be fun, insightful, and inspiring. The goal is that you are able to take at least one actionable tip from each conversation.

My first conversation is with David McMenomey, Digital Strategist at Redemit One.

1. Briefly describe how you got started and what is the most exciting or rewarding aspect of what you do?

It was early 2012 and my very pregnant wife was at the store getting groceries for the week. I received a phone call that no one wants to get, the kind of call that stops your heart. “David, I am in the line to check out and none of our credit cards are working. Do you know what is going on?” You see at this point, I had been nursing along a startup that had zero revenue for 8 months, in the heart of the Silicon Valley. Every credit card was maxed and we had a baby on the way in a few short months. To say I was desperate would be an understatement…

The one thing I did right while starting my first company was I focused on the digital side of the business. I knew that growing a business online would be better than going door to door as I had done to start my career. So I started devouring Internet marketing training for hours on end, reprogramming the way I thought about marketing and scalability. The 2 trainers I had been listening to were Jeff Usner and Hans Johnson and you will never guess who called me just about a week after we hit rock bottom financially…Jeff Usner. I had met him a few times at some business training / personal development events but didn’t even know he remembered me. He offered me a job in Texas and I took it.

This was the start of my career in the Internet, but I started at the bottom making almost no money. To me it didn’t matter, anything was better than what I was making with what I was currently doing, and I would get to learn the skill I passionately wanted to learn, Internet Marketing.

I worked with Jeff for 3½ years and created multiple online products, marketing funnels, and web properties that made millions of dollars. I received hands on experience, and built valuable confidence and belief in my abilities to take an idea and bring it to life online.

In October of 2015 I was laid off from my work with Jeff’s company as they moved out of Texas and back east to Pennsylvania. After a few months of consulting for companies, I decided to launch my own agency, Redemit One. It was one consulting client who pushed me over the edge to go from floundering consultant, to full-fledged marketing agency. This client, Manny, was a non-profit who had a vision to help kids coping with cancer feel like rockstars for a day. Manny had some great material on coping with cancer, and wanted me to create a marketing funnel to promote it. So I sat down with him and created a lead generation funnel that could not only help more cancer patients, but also bring in new and reliable donors to fund his charity.

This is the type of work that keeps me going. I love taking an existing business and creating a way for them to have predictable, scalable revenue. There is so much misinformation out there about getting rich on the Internet, and I like going in implementing simple, proven strategies that drive revenue. That is what excites me. Creating something like this for a client, then handing them the keys to the system and letting them run with it. I don’t want to be the company that creates a system that is dependent on Redemit One. I want my clients to be able to walk away from me at any point and continue to grow their vision and company. As short-sighted as that may sound, my client’s businesses were never mine to start with, so why should I hold them ransom just because I help them grow revenue in a new area?

2. Flash back and then fast forward to the present, what has surprised you the most about mastering your unique set of skills and what advice do you have for others looking to learn a similar skill?

I think the most surprising part of looking back at my journey in this business is how simple what I do really is. With all of the complex training and courses out there, it is easy to get bogged down and never actually do anything online. The key to learning this skill set is something Jeff taught me, find what works and copy that. You always want to emulate success. There are other smarter, more patient people out there who have tested and perfected a business model Online, so find out what they are doing and do your best to copy that.

3. What is your unfair advantage?

My clients will tell you that my unfair advantage is that I have already been there. I have done it. I know how it looks to start with an idea and turn it into scalable revenue, so every project I take on, I have the end in mind for the client. I also never sell them on their own idea. Most new prospective client meetings are me telling them why their idea won’t work and how a few minor tweaks in their perspective will make all the difference. To me, if the idea doesn’t produce recurring revenue for the client, I will not take the project. It is not worth it for anyone…

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4. Describe the results a potential client could expect when they do business with you and how do you plan to WOW them?

The result a client will see when they work with Redemit One is a revenue machine will be created. They will get a completed mechanism that brings them new leads and converts those leads into money. Pretty simple really. I specialize in lead generation, and that really is the heartbeat of what makes clients happy. They are flooded with new leads who convert to cash. That will motivate any business owner to refer Redemit One. I think what wows clients is that I am not afraid to walk away from taking their business. If I can see at the start that the project is not going to produce results of the client, I am happy to walk away from the money upfront and point them in a different direction, or to a different company for the work. The only thing worse than no clients, is unsuccessful ones…

5. What is the best advice (or quote or insight) you received that gave you the confidence to launch your business?

The best insight I was given to launch my company came from 2 different clients on the same day. I was waffling between the idea of going back to work for a big company and continuing to hone my skills and the idea of staying on my own. Both clients challenged me and asked, “With the skill set that you have and all that you know how to do, how could you go back to work for anyone knowing they could never pay you what you are worth?” The advice I would give any entrepreneur looking to going out on their own is this, never let your ego get in the way of your journey. You have to be able to take an honest step back and evaluate whether you need to continue developing your skill by working for someone, or if you really have all the right pieces to be your own boss.

“Never let your ego get in the way of your journey.” – David McMenomey

Connect with David on LinkedIn.