books

102 Jill Lublin on Publicity and Kindness

If you prefer the video…

When you’re a small business (especially a solo business), getting people to even know you exist is often the biggest problem.

But you don’t have a ton of money for marketing. In this episode, Jill Lublin teaches you how you can harness the power of publicity and PR (public relations) to have other people share your story. (Jill’s story starts with her wanting to be a lawyer until she got to law school, which she hated.)

When it comes to publicity, remember that journalists and editors don’t care about helping you– they want to help their readers.

Tie into conversations they are already having (use National Day Calendar to see how your story might dovetail with a piece reporters are already writing).

Naturally, this all starts with getting very clear on your audience, then identifying the journalists who report for that audience. Nurture relationships with them– don’t just spam them stories. When you have the relationship, it’s much easier for you to offer stories that appeal to their audience.

The benefits of PR go beyond just the one-time bump from the story– you now (hopefully) have a link or two to improve your SEO, and it makes it easier to get featured again in the future, since you have the credibility of the initial story.

And remember to be kind– it’s the currency the world needs (and it’s more likely to lead to publicity).

And if you’re a solo professional, looking to craft a compelling set of stories (don’t forget your origin story and your “secret”), nurture relationships with journalists, partners, clients, and prospects, check out Mimiran, an “anti-CRM” designed for all this, instead of for a VP of sales to keep track of a sales team.

The Wine

We have no adult beverages because we had to do this in the morning! (I’m drinking coffee.)

Where to find Jill

LinkedIn
JillLublin.com/guide — get free publicity guide
Book: The Profit of Kindness (and check out Jill’s other books while you’re there)

listen-on-apple-podcasts-sales-for-nerds

Where to find Reuben

@Sales4Nerds, @Mimiran, Mimiran.com.You can also listen on Overcast, or Subscribe on Android, or Player.fm.

Want a way to make sales and marketing fun, without being “salesy”? Try Mimiran, the CRM for elite solo consultants who love serving clients but who hate “selling”.

Unlike CRMs built for the VP of sales to keep track of a sales team, where contacts are just statistics, Mimiran is built for relationships, networking, and referrals.

(In Mimiran, every contact has an “Ideal Client Profile” and “Ideal Partner Profile”, so it’s easier to make connections for others. You can also track your referrals, and what business resulted. Make follow-up a breeze, and more, with Mimiran’s emphasis on the Relationship part of CRM.)

Get alerted when there are new episodes (1x/month):

098 Kristin Zhivago on Selling the Way Your Customers Buy

If you prefer the video…

In this episode, veteran marketer Kristin Zhivago (and author of Roadmap to Revenue: How to Sell the Way Your Customers Want to Buy) discusses how you can uncover your best customers’ buying behaviors so you can align your marketing to attract your best customers, and then make it easy for them to buy from you.

Kristin was always a tomboy, into mechanical things, and as a teen, she started selling machine shop tools for Pratt & Whitney, but her miniskirt (her description, not mine) didn’t get her the sale when she couldn’t explain why one drill bit was better than another. She realized she was going to have to get a lot more knowledgeable about sales and marketing, which led to her opening an ad agency in Silicon Valley in the late 70s, but the Mac came along and she realized that companies were going to start bringing marketing in house.

In 2017, she started her latest agency, Zhivago Partners for companies that struggle with marketing after some initial success.

Kristin found that it’s easier to teach engineers marketing than marketers engineering. But you still need to teach them, otherwise you get:

“Dead Chicken Marketing”

In other words, you don’t sell KFC as “Dead Chicken Cooked in Oil at X Degrees”. You sell it as “finger lickin’ good”.

Kristin’s Approach

It’s not rocket science: Interview customers and reverse-engineer the buying process.

People are using AI to build personas… but we can’t figure out their mindset that makes them want to buy. We need to understand:

Their desires
Their concerns
Their questions

You probably only need to talk to 5-7 people.

Who do you talk to? Not your friends… they trust you already. Interview happy customers who represent customers you would like to work with. They are going to be happy to help.

Here are some questions you should ask:

How was it?
How do you feel about it?
What brought you to us?
What else did you look at?
What were you looking for?
If you were the CEO of our company, what would you change or fix tomorrow?
What trends do you see in the industry?
What’s your biggest problem?
What phrase would you use if you were searching for a solution to this problem today?
Is there anything I should have asked you, that I didn’t?

(Sometimes you can skip quesitons if people have already answered them.)

Whoever is interviewing needs to be tuned in. If you detect doubt or subtle nuances, dig in. It’s easier to have a third party do these interview– people are more willing to open up– but you can do it yourself, if you want.

Interviews generally take 30 minutes or less.

Record them (with permission).
Don’t use machine transcription– use Rev.com for human transcription. Edit the transcript to clean it up (and anonymize if you’re using a third party).
You could use a Virtual Assistant who really knows your business, and can do interviews well.
Be honest if you don’t know something.
AI may not be great at exact transcriptions, but it is very good at summarizing findings.

(In Mimiran, plug the right words back into the Mission & Positioning screen.)

Do this, and you can start selling the way your customers want to buy making sales (and marketing) so much easier.

The Wine

Reuben is having a glass of Edict Russian River Valley Pinot Noir.

Where to find Kristin

Google Kristin Zhivago.

ZhivagoPartners.com

Kristin recommends buying the hardcover because there are maps in there that display better in print than on Kindle (let alone audiobook).

Where to find Reuben

@Sales4Nerds, @Mimiran, Mimiran.com.You can also listen on Overcast, or Subscribe on Android, or Player.fm.

Want a way to make sales and marketing fun, without being “salesy”? Try Mimiran, the CRM for elite solo consultants who love serving clients but who hate “selling”.

Unlike CRMs built for the VP of sales to keep track of a sales team, where contacts are just statistics, Mimiran is built for relationships, networking, and referrals. (See one way Mimiran makes it easier to make introductions along the lines Steve suggests.)

Get alerted when there are new episodes (1x/month):

093 Alistair McDermott on becoming a Recognized Authority

If you prefer the video…

Alistair’s first job out of school was writing assembly code for IBM mainframes, then went to Sun Microsystems to work on their Solaris operating system. (He may be the nerdiest guest we’ve had.)

He didn’t like working for someone else, and started an SEO (Search Engine Optimization) business. (He started a couple of projects on the side, before he quit his job.)

He also took a course on starting a business, and reached out to the teacher, who gave him a hook up for a cheap trade show booth, because another business had backed out at the last minute.

He got a lot of leads at the tradeshow, but didn’t know what to do with them. So he asked for help again, and learned to create offers. (Some of the leads needed SEO, and some needed a website.)

Alistair ended up calling this business Website Doctor (a brand he still uses).

However, he realized he had no specialization. Every project was different. Everything required word-of-mouth.

He started planning a podcast in July 2014 and he launched in April 2021. He didn’t know what audience he was trying to target.

Alistair groups business development strategies for consultants into 3 buckets:

Referrals (how most consultants operate)
Outbound sales (yuck)
Inbound (the Holy Grail for Alistair)

Alistair has worked with a lot of coaches, but Philip Morgan, author of The Positioning Manual for Indie Consultants (great book, btw, and I need to have Philip come) was a key influence that Alistair reached out to ask for help. Phillip helped him niche down, from “Marketing for Consultants” to “the Recognized Authority”.

If you’re a local brand, you don’t need as much differentiation, because you only have local competition. But if you want to compete globally, you need to niche down and become the “recognized authority” in that niche. “If you’re everything to everybody, you’re nothing to nobody.”

If you pick the right niche, there are more than enough clients.

When you niche down, you can become known for what you do, unlike being a generalist. You avoid the blandness of generic content. You avoid the constant learning curve of being a generalist. As a specialist, you can go beyond the surface level, and the people in your tribe, know that you get them and their issue(s). You want to be like the doctor or lawyer who deals with your particular problem all day, every day.

(Don’t like the idea of “niching down”, try “niching up”, the great turn of phrase from podcast guest Ellen Melko Moore.)

Most common specializations are horizontal (problem-based) and vertical (industry-based). Ideally, you do both.

David C. Baker says you should have at least 200 businesses in the market you’re targeting.

Note that you can experiment with your positioning with test campaigns or even just testing when you speak to people.

List your past projects. What was the client’s ability to pay? How much did I like working on the project? What patterns emerge? This is how Alistair figured out how to zero in on consultants.

Alistair’s 5 Steps for better Positioning:

Past Client Analysis
Skills & Interests Assessment
Small Scale Research to validate ideas
Craft Test Positioning (“I help these people solve this problem” or some variation on that, but keep it simple. This also makes it easy to keep a history of your evolving positioning)
Validate and Iterate. Every time someone asks, “what do you do?”, you get a chance to do this.

Then create content, in whatever format you like, aimed at helping your niche solve the big problem you help them solve. This is a great way to market for an introvert, and it lets people arrive “pre-sold”.

The Wine Whiskey

Alistair enjoys some Jameson Crested Irish whiskey (quite a solid pour, I might add, although I didn’t really give him a chance to drink it during the episode).

Reuben has a glass of Rokkosan 12 year old Japanese whisky.

Where to find Alistair

Catch Alistair’s The Recognized Authority Podcast (and check out this episode on Creating Stress-free Consulting Proposals, with yours truly)

LinkedIn.

Where to find Reuben

@Sales4Nerds, @Mimiran, Mimiran.com.You can also listen on Overcast, or Subscribe on Android, or Player.fm.

Want a way to make sales and marketing fun, without being “salesy”? Try Mimiran, the CRM for elite solo consultants who love serving clients but who hate “selling”.

It also has a “mad-libs” style wizard to help you lay our your mission and positioning, including your origin story and customer stories so you can hone and share your unique perspective. Plus, Mimiran makes follow-up a breeze, so staying on top of those busy editors is easy. And lead magnets let you convert your exposure into leads and conversations.

Get alerted when there are new episodes (1x/month):

088 Bridget Hom on hiring and firing the right mental team

“When you’re feeling out of your mind, you’re probably in somebody else’s. And when you’re in someone else’s mind, you’re out of your own.”
Bridget Hom

Bridget Hom’s mom was in public relations, her dad was in sales, and they had scheduled family meetings every Sunday, so you might think she was destined for entrepeneurship.

But she started her career as a journalist. And then got a masters in theology, planning on going into the ministry. She realized later that journalism, ministry, and marketing all share a similar theme.

In her twenties, she lived a self-described “bougie” lifestyle with 3 nannies, house cleaners and traveled the world as a stay-at-home mom (“domestic engineer”).

But she got Zoom-divorced and moved into a small apartment with her 3 boys.

She got certified as a coach and met a man while salsa dancing who became her business partner in a placement agency, but that dried up with the pandemic.

Fortunately, that dance partner gave her the best advice she ever receieved:

“Wherever you go, just be you.”

In this episode, learn:

How Bridget showed up and started her “Bridge to Freedom Coaching Program” and how you can apply her techniques to your program(s).
Why being “Stuck on Ready” (the title of her book, btw) is so important for an entrepreneur. In other words, always be ready to take (imperfect) action, instead of waiting for perfection.
To hire and fire the right mental team, before you try to sell your prospects your own limiting beliefs.
Why feelings aren’t your friends– action is your friend.
How to create empowered referral partners. (Hint, it has a lot to do with some of the core concepts about referrals and conversations in Mimiran.)
Why having an ideal client profile is important, but why you shouldn’t get wrapped up in that idea when you start. (And how to figure it out. Hint, it’s really easy, especially with the right (anti)CRM.)
Why you need to look and feel “the part”.
How to stay accountable and on track (and why a 1% deviation from your course will lead you miles astray). (You do have a destination and a course, right?)
To make sure your actions are moving you towards your destination.
To address your headspace every single day. Be intentional. Brain dump. Hire and fire the right mental team. (See video below that Bridget mentions.) “As entrepreneurs we’re typically in relationships with our thoughts about people, versus people themselves.”
Why if you have an endless todo list, if it’s not digestible each day, you’re going to think you’re a failure every day. Set a 2 minute timer and write for 2 minutes (pen & paper). Then hire & fire the right mental team. Shift negative ideas to positive, with action. For example, if you’ve hired “resentment” on your team, fire that and hire “motivation” or “serenity” and then do something in line with that team member.
How to know if and when to actually change course.

Why you need to keep having conversations.

“As entrepreneurs we’re typically in relationships with our thoughts about people, versus people themselves.”

What do you think I do? Let people tell you…

Look at your day– do your actions line up with revenue– clients, prospects, prospecting, and content creation.

Is there an even exchange of energy? Especially with collaboration partners. If you’re not talking about profit in your collaborations, you’re not being serious.

Put that energy into your business development.

Be problem aware and solution seeking. Be aware of anything that keeps your from limitless potential. A lot of entrepreneurs have the wrong mental and they don’t reach out to anyone.

Here’s the Juggling with the Jenkins– if my brain had a morning meeting video.

The Book

Stuck on Ready: Master the Entrepreneur Mindset, Break Free from Self-Sabotage, and Access Your Limitless Potential

The Coffee & Tea

Bridget is in recovery so we’re not drinking alcohol today. Bridget has some coffee, and Reuben having already had his coffee, has moved on to tea.

Which brings us to Bridget’s version of the Serenity Prayer:

“Give me the courage to accept the people I cannot change… the courage to change the people I can, and the wisdom to know that that’s me.”

Where to find Bridget

BridgeToFreedomCoaching.com

LinkedIn.

Brigethom.me (direct calendar link)

https://www.bridgetofreedomcoaching.com/about-4

Where to find Reuben

@Sales4Nerds, @Mimiran, Mimiran.com.You can also listen on Overcast, or Subscribe on Android, or Player.fm.

Want a way to make sales and marketing fun, without being “salesy”? Try Mimiran, the CRM for elite solo consultants who love serving clients but who hate “selling”.

It also has a “mad-libs” style wizard to help you lay our your mission and positioning, including your origin story and customer stories. And great ways to help you have more conversations, as Bridget recommends.

Get alerted when there are new episodes (1x/month):

083 Wayne Mullins on Full Circle Marketing

Wayne is the founder of Ugly Mug Marketing and author of Full Circle Marketing: Transform Your Marketing & Turn Customers Into Evangelists.

Wayne’s parents got him some Zig Ziglar CDs (he still needs to ask his parents why they got him this gift) and wanted to get into sales, but wasn’t very good at it. But he realized that sales provided instant feedback, if you could separate the emotional response. He got better at sales by focusing on the prospect’s perspective, rather than his own.

As he got better at sales, he decided to start his own firm, in the only other skill he had: lawn care.

His lawn care clients started to ask him for marketing help because they were impressed with his growth. When he sold the lawn care business, this turned into Ugly Mug Marketing.

The Ugly Mug name comes from David Oglivy, who said, “I would rather you show me an ad that’s ugly and effective over one that’s beautiful but isn’t.” Wayne wanted the ultimate goal to be client results, not beautiful ads or creativity awards.

His first clients were clients of his landscaping company, who wanted to know how we was growing so fast.

Here are some of his tips:

He started by creating a Top 100 prospect list by driving around town.
Then he brought dozens of boxes of donuts to those businesses about once per month. When the manager would complain about the lawn, the staff would refer Wayne’s company. (He had a big sticker with his business info on the top of the boxes.)
He picked up the phone and called. Don’t hide behind your inbox. The best way to connect with humans is face-to-face, then video, then phone.
Don’t think of marketing and advertising as the same thing. Advertising is a part of marketing. So is the way your lawn looks, the way you answer the phone, etc.
What are you doing to create raving fans for your business? Buying donuts and birthday gifts created evangelists. Taking care of your customers and ignoring the fads is much more cost-effective than trying to get new customers.
Your customers carry a contact database and social media access in their pockets. What are you doing to encourage them to use that on your behalf?
Create great experiences for your customers. (Wayne does this for clients based on not only their direct spending with his firm, but their referrals and referral potential.) The idea is to make people feel special.
Educate your customers to help them succeed in adjacent spaces. (One client would send a single email follow-up to leads that included phone numbers.)
Focus on the problem, not just the demographics of “who”? If we focus too much on “who” instead of the problem, we sometimes target the wrong people. What problem does your offering solve?
Magic Journal Exercise… you should know your ideal customer so well that you can write the journal entries for them.
Full Circle Marketing: move strangers to friends to clients to evangelists.
Opportunities in print and direct mail, if you can personalize it.
Eugene Schwartz: “enter the conversation that is already taking place in the mind of the prospect.” Look for places to tie your messaging to what they are already doing. (Breakthrough Advertising: https://breakthroughadvertisingbook.com/)
How do we turn customers into evangelists? What does a reasonable person have the right to expect. Expectation Litmus Test. On the left, right down all the steps someone goes through doing business with you. What should a reasonable person expect during each step. What does it look like if we don’t meet expectations? Now you can test if you’re actually meeting expectations.
Bain surveyed 4,000 small businesses and 92% of the owners said they provided the highest level of services. Then Bain surveyed the customers. Only 8% of the customers agreed with that assessment.
You have to hit those expectations, at a minimum, to turn customers into evangelists.
Call those evangelists and ask them if they know other people who are dealing with the same problem you helped them fix.

The Wine

Reuben enjoys Para Maria Syrah/Petit Verdot blend from Santa Barbara county.

Wayne is sipping on his trusty water bottle.

Where to find Wayne

Where to find Reuben

@Sales4Nerds, @Mimiran, Mimiran.com.You can also listen on Overcast, or Subscribe on Android, or Player.fm.

Want a way to make sales and marketing fun, without being “salesy”? Try Mimiran, the CRM for elite solo consultants who love serving clients but who hate “selling”. (It also tracks referrals and how much business you get from them and makes it easy to follow up and have conversations, just like Wayne suggests.)

Get alerted when there are new episodes (1x/month):

079 Mark Firth on YouTube video marketing

Mark Firth is a traveler of both virtual and physical worlds, moving from London to Bogota and now on to Florida. In Colombia, he realized his Spanish wasn’t good enough for local business, and his attempts to teach English were getting commoditized by the web.

He started a remote digital marketing firm, focused on LinkedIn. Initial results were good, but as the platform got flooded with spam (and LinkedIn services became more commoditized), Mark realized he needed to have more control over this destiny.

In this episode, learn how:

The YouTube algorithm is different from other social media sites
To get started producing video, without fancy equipment
To combine online video and your existing mailing list
Be patient and “find your voice”
To grow beyond the control of anyone else’s platform
The best way to show that you can help people

Of course, we had to put the YouTube video here. 😉

The Wine

Reuben enjoys some Devil’s Corner Tasmanian Pinot Noir (never tried wine from Tasmania before– quite nice– a lot of cranberry), while Mark has some cold green tea.

Where to find Mark

And the book Mark mentioned: The YouTube Formula: How Anyone Can Unlock the Algorithm to Drive Views, Build an Audience, and Grow Revenue, by Derral Eves.

Where to find Reuben

@Sales4Nerds, @Mimiran, Mimiran.com.You can also listen on Overcast, or Subscribe on Android, or Player.fm.

Want a way to make sales and marketing fun, without being “salesy”? Try Mimiran, the CRM for elite solo consultants who love serving clients but who hate “selling”. It tracks referrals and helps you grow and nurture your network. Plus, the “Mission and Positioning” screen will help you refine your message, and give you lots of ideas for videos.

Get alerted when there are new episodes (1x/month):

078 Michael Buzinski on Doubling Your Business with the Rule of 26

Michael Buzinski didn’t take your typical path to digital marketing. He was a professional jazz trombonist at age 13. He realized he could go as far as he needed in sales without a college degree, but not in marketing, so he joined the air force. He started a recording studio in 2005, but realized that starving musicians were not great business prospects, so he pivoted to serving business owners.

He grew a multimillion dollar agency, with hundreds of clients. Yet growth and scaling are two different things, and the rapid growth caused more problems than it solved, especially because they weren’t charging enough.

So Michael created a new virtual agency, helping small businesses grow beyond word-of-mouth. Michael is the author of The Rule of 26, which shows how a 26% increase in 3 key metrics leads to a doubling of revenue.

(The math is straightforward: 1 x 1.26 x 1.26 x 1.26 = 2.00. This is the magic of compounding.)

Listen to the episode for more details, but here are the 3 KPIs:

Average revenue per client
Conversion rate
Traffic

In this episode, learn:

Why you want to start with average revenue, then work your way to conversion rate, and then traffic.
How to get pricing advice from your best clients.
How to make your website better at converting visitors (and why most websites are not set up to do this).
And much more…

The Wine & Rum

Michael has some Kona spiced Hawaiian rum. And I’ve got some Brave Cellars pinot noir from Willamette Valley Oregon.

The Rule of 26 For Service-Based Businesses: Three Steps to Doubling Website Revenue, by Michael.

Where to find Michael Buzinski

Where to find Reuben

@Sales4Nerds, @Mimiran, Mimiran.com.You can also listen on Overcast, or Subscribe on Android, or Player.fm.

Want a way to make sales and marketing fun, without being “salesy”? Try Mimiran, the CRM for elite solo consultants who love serving clients but who hate “selling”.

It tracks referrals and helps you grow and nurture your network. And it can help you implement Michael’s ideas about converting visitors to leads and conversations. (Get a list of 25 Lead Magnet ideas here.)

Get alerted when there are new episodes (1x/month):

077 Jonathan Stark on Ditching Hourly Billing

Jonathan Stark is a former software developer turned consultant who hates hourly billing and helps people “ditch hourly” and do value-based pricing.

And somehow, I didn’t know about him until recently. (Jonathan made the observation that we’re climbing up the same mountain from different sides.)

If you’ve ever stressed about pricing a project proposal, don’t miss this episode, where Jonathan shares:

How he had an epiphany when he worked for a consulting firm about why hourly billing had to go. He spent weeks trying to figure out why his “best” consultant was the least profitable.
Why the problem was hourly billing.
How he started his own firm because he needed to get rid of hourly billing, and made more money in his first year.
How hourly billing transforms your client relationships.
Why hourly billing goes sideways (and why it tends to start sideways, because you ask different questions in the initial meeting)
How to do things in the right order– figure out the value first, including the success criteria (and can you even satisfy them?), then the price, then scope.
How to let people unburden themselves– let them brain dump, then ask the structured questions, as needed, to fill in the details.
How do paid roadmapping sessions to gather information
How to get 100% payment upfront (and what to do if you can’t)
Fixed price is not the same as cost-plus
How do deal with unknown scopes (and the real scopes are always unknown), v
How to use explicit guarantees to reduce risk for the buyer, without changing how you operate.
How to ask questions like a doctor. (Doctors don’t tell you to jump on the operating table when they first meet you.)

The Wine

It’s a California Pinot Noir kind of episode, with Jonathan enjoying some La Cream and Reuben having a glass of Grevino.

Books

Hourly Billing Is Nuts, by Jonathan.

Value-Based Fees: How to Charge and Get What You’re Worth, by Alan Weiss. (Catch Alan’s Sales for Nerds interview here.)

Where to find Jonathan Stark

LinkedIn (he doesn’t really do LinkedIn)
valuepricingbootcamp.com— 6 day free email course
JonathanStark.com (by the way– check out this website not just for the awesome info, but the awesome example of how to create a great consulting website.)

Where to find Reuben

@Sales4Nerds, @Mimiran, Mimiran.com.You can also listen on Overcast, or Subscribe on Android, or Player.fm.

Want a way to make sales and marketing fun, without being “salesy”? Try Mimiran, the CRM for elite solo consultants who love serving clients but who hate “selling”. It tracks referrals and helps you grow and nurture your network. And it can help you implement Jonathan’s ideas about offering different options, crafting a value-based story in your proposal (you can get a free proposal template, too).

Get alerted when there are new episodes (1x/month):

075 Julie Brown on networking the right way

“Networking” evokes thoughts of small talk and getting stabbed in the eye with business cards, at least for some of us. But it’s essential to so many relationship-based businesses. How can we grow and nurture an awesome, helpful, fun network without feeling icky?

In this episode, Julie Brown, author of This Shit Works: A No-Nonsense Guide to Networking Your Way to More Friends, More Adventures, and More Success (and host of the This Shit Works podcast), teaches you how to grow a great network while having fun and staying true to yourself, including:

You can build a big network– over time, not over night.
How Julie treats friends and colleagues
The “shortcut” to meeting lots of the right people.
How Julie’s network helped her husband launch his architecture firm, amidst the 2008 crash, how it helped Julie launch her business, and how you can apply it your business.
Why traditional icebreaker questions are terrible, and what to ask instead.
How to handle follow up.
Whether we should be happy and/or sad about the Celtics season (OK, that’s a bit of a tangent).

The Wine

Julie enjoys some “cougar juice” (how have I not heard this term before?), in other words, some buttery chardonnay, while I have some Nine Hats Pinot Gris from Washington (it’s over 100 in Texas, and I’m drinking white).

Where to find Julie

LinkedIn (make sure you listen to the episode before connecting).
YouTube Channel
JulieBrownBd.com
Amazon

Where to find Reuben

@Sales4Nerds, @Mimiran, Mimiran.com.You can also listen on Overcast, or Subscribe on Android, or Player.fm.

(Including the more powerful than ever Free Edition.) Mimiran can help you implement a lot of Shaily’s ideas not only more efficiently, but more effectively, including telling your Origin Story, coming up with your Superhero Name so you’re unforgettable and more referrable, and much more.

Get alerted when there are new episodes (1x/month):

072 Rick Terrien on starting a business at any age

Rick Terrien started his first business in college, but he believes that people can (and should) start businesses at any age, particularly later in life. He started the Center for Ageless Entrepreneurs, and wrote Ageless Startup: Start a Business at Any Age.

He comes on Sales for Nerds to share his story, and tips for taking control of your destiny later in life, to work on things that are meaningful to you, including:

What you should be doing around 40, 45, and 50 to launch your business.
How to set yourself up for success.
How Rick looks at markets to find promising niches.
How he found his latest inspiration to help older entrepreneurs.
Why you should be thinking about a “lifestyle business” as a positive, not an insult.

(This episode, like Melisa Liberman’s, also builds on Liz Steblay’s wonderful advice on leaving the corporate world for independent consulting in episode 70.)

Books

Ageless Startup: Start a Business at Any Age

The Wine (& Beer)

Reuben is enjoying some Bergevin Lane Moonspell Cabernet Sauvignon fro Washington State.

Rick is having a Yuengling (the oldest brewery in the country– started in 1829) Black and Tan.

Where to find Rick

Where to find Reuben

@Sales4Nerds, @Mimiran, Mimiran.com.You can also listen on Overcast, or Subscribe on Android, or Player.fm.

Note, speaking of stories, a good proposal is a story, not a brochure– get your “Fill in the Blank” Consulting Proposal Template.

Want a way to make sales and marketing fun, without being “salesy”? Try Mimiran, the CRM for elite solo consultants who love serving clients but who hate “selling”. (Including the more powerful than ever Free Edition.) Mimiran can help you implement a lot of Shaily’s ideas not only more efficiently, but more effectively, including telling your Origin Story, coming up with your Superhero Name so you’re unforgettable and more referrable, and much more.

Get alerted when there are new episodes (1x/month):