Entrepreneurship, Marketing, and Sales with Mike Weiss | MDIDS2E39

Welcome, welcome. Welcome everyone. This is Paul Finck The Maverick Millionaire and this is Mavericks Do It Different podcast, absolutely share, like and follow all around the world because we are looking to do it different by being different, thinking different and creating a difference in our world every step of the way. What does that difference mean for you, it means you are actually going to go in and look at what's going on in your business and how you can improve it, how you can engage it, how you can create it at a whole new level. And that's what we love to talk about every day. With that being said, our guest here does come at it from a new angle and a different angle, which is why he's here to empower you with some new information. He is CEO of cloud selling, a company that helps executives and business owners achieve that the goals through innovative solutions. Mike has over 35 years of experience in financial and digital marketing, personally raised over 100. And this is not not 100, not 100,000 $100 million, and successfully established multiple companies, including hedge fund wealth management firm investment advisory company. All of this as part of his background in 36 years, however, it goes even deeper. Started off in 1994, Mike helped green track, an innovative company that streamlined investment accounts of super rich, tracking and producing accounting records for over $26 billion dollars in assets, sold the company to a public company in 2000 to 2008. He and his mentor John Astor off and a lot of you know him, founded neuro Jim. And John actually took that over and bought, bought Mike out of neuro gym. Then in 2012, he was chosen as the top Infusionsoft internet marketer of the year, four out of 400 global companies that were up for that nomination, and 2016 he founded and this is where it gets real. The client engagement Academy company that is revolutionizing the online education industry with completion rates of 40 to 80%. In an industry, which is typically only three to 12 of pain learners in finishing their courses actually finishing actually accomplishing actually doing, and this is where my engagement of Mike started, is I got involved with him with the Client Engagement Academy. So yes, I'm a client of Mike's and proud of it with everything that he's been working with us. And then he founded in 2020, clout selling, which has generated over and get this 310 million views for their clients on LinkedIn, and converted them into sales through their program. Please, please welcome to the stage, if you will, Mike, why is such a pleasure to have you here, CEO of cloud selling. And with all that you do. Tell us? What's your journey been like outside of what I just read as all the great stats?

Well, Paul, thank you for having me on. Thanks to everyone that's watching. You know, we do business together, but I consider you also a friend. And you know, because we have also our client mastermind and meeting on the Thursday as a mentor as well. We all learn from each other. So thanks for having me. You know, you read off a lot of stuff. And you know, it seems like a lot of stuff. But I've been, you know, around for a long time. I started in 87. So it's a it's been a series of journeys.

You know, you and I think we must be the same. The same age. Because yeah, I've been 36 years right out of college went into that entrepreneurial space. Yeah. And so same journey, and it everyone looks at our resumes going wow. And we're like we just been around a lot a while. Right?

Yeah. So it's a long time. I laugh I mean, I laugh at my, the first version of myself. You know, it was it was embarrassing because I had I matured very late in life, which is a gift now because I look young for my age, but I had a higher pitched voice so when I was just in training, doing 350 cold calls a day Um, I 10% of the time, they would be like, what's your name, ma'am? It was, it was disheartening, but you know, you have to, you know, push push through. So, yeah, there have been a lot of, you know, mostly good stories, but some things that were just in the best way to look at it as some things that were just outright bad and wrong. At the time, when it happens, you know, a lot of times, it's easy to go into the oh, you know, shit, why me. But if you are able to understand that, you know, everything is happening for a reason, the reason post, the emotional state of that, you know, usually reveals itself. And so I've been led, you know, down a bunch of these paths, some by, you know, proactive choice, and somebody's like, Alright, I just can't take it anymore. You know, and I'm sure most everyone in business, bad business partnerships are your like, marriages, you know, marriages end up 50% in divorce, that's a tough stats. And business partnerships are probably more more than that end up in divorce. So that's problematic. You know, most people are liked to be and build things in communion community. So we do like to take on, you know, partners. But there's no school of partnership that, you know, teaches you the number one value of partnership, which is communication. So it's been, it's been great, it's been fun. Wait on money, lost a lot of money.

Anybody that's been an entrepreneur for a long period of time as, as one experienced partnerships that that were not what they thought they were, just put it that way, too, is that they've experienced that up, down and sideways, which is part of that entrepreneurial journey. And the ones who do it right, have a guiding light to a future to where they're going. They're aiming towards that lighthouse, if you will, what, what you what motivates you, what's motivated you on this journey?

Well, in the beginning, I would say, my pre consciousness states, what motivated me was, was, you know, just being competitive and money. And I hit all my money targets early, right? I made a lot of money on Wall Street, and I busted my ass. It's not nothing came easy. You know, I, I I'm a big fan of Gary Vaynerchuk. Gary Vaynerchuk is the reason why I built the LinkedIn agency. And he comes from an immigrant family. And, you know, he's dad busted his ass. And Gary Vaynerchuk buses ass. And then I see a lot of people out there that so the, the, the opposite argument that no, you don't need to bust your ass to make it be successful. And, you know, the four hour workweek is, I mean, it's great. It's not literal. It is a great, it's great, because it shows you how to create leverage. But in my world, I haven't figured it out. If I don't, you know, really bust ass I'm not accomplishing a lot.

I will say and this may be controversial out there. However, when you analyze Tim Ferriss, who's the author of four hour workweek, yeah, he's not working only four hours a week. So you know, when he was launching the book, and I was watching his promotions, I was like, just going on one of those talk shows was four hours because of the travel there the prep time getting on the coordination of it, those more than four hours right there.

So use that as four hours for the week. Yeah, that one

hour, 20 minutes on on the air. And so you go all right, so that's BS. You know, the one thing you want to learn from Tim Ferriss is how to market that was a good lesson and the understanding of leverage like you said, it's not a literal four hours.

Yeah. Yeah. So you know that it's so the first part was just really by sheer will and busting ass. I was a good salesman, I wasn't the best. So you know you're in a room I was in the World Financial Center and down on Wall Street down by the, the pier right but cross street from the Twin Towers, and it was the largest broker Each floor in the world, it was the size of a football field with all these brokers and back in that day was mostly old guys, there were women that were like assistants. And I mean, there were women there. But it was like a dog fight in there. And, you know, not being the most gifted salesperson. Because there were people that would spend less time and make an open more accounts per month, then you have to figure out okay, well, how, how can I still be the best. And it's, if it's a numbers game, and you know, that person is gifted, and they're getting 10 accounts a month, because they only have to open two accounts, two leads per day, and you need to open three leads per day, then you just need to reverse engineer and figure out okay, if they're leaving at five, I'm working till seven, and I'm working every Saturday for the first year. Yeah, you know, so that was all grit, and it was money driven. And then September 11, I lost a lot of friends. I went to like 12 funerals, I lost one of my really good friends Matt O'Mahony, Matt wall. Glen wall, like two of those guys were very close with and other guys I knew around that circle, and also some other folks as well. And I'm not going to go into the like, we need to, you know, we need to just to show and spirituality to go into this whole thing. But let's just say after that not right after that, months, after that, I hadn't, you know, crazy experience on a massage table that was direction change. The I begged the guy for some books, he gave me some books I just started reading about you know, what the more of the meaning of life, let's just say, you know, and then I entered in to start studying Kabbalah, which is, you know, the spiritual interpretation of the Old Testament. So it kind of gives you a really cool foundational rules to like, you know, an understanding the reason why behind things and how to connect with different energies. And, you know, and work towards fulfillment. So with that, I ended up making, you know, some changes, because I really was focused more now of getting out of the financial business and more of just a different business that financial business is like, it's a, it's, it's 100%, win loss. And even when you win, you don't even get accolades from your clients, because you just expect it to win so that it's a tough business and,

and they're your competition all at the same time. And so then they're jealous of you want to tear you down all at the same time that they're like, Yeah, that's so great. Congratulations. And all that goes on, I also cut my teeth cold calling in midtown Manhattan, in the medical field, high level, high competition, high pressure type component, and I was straight commission. And so we're building my own distribution company. So really understand that place. And, and at one point, everyone that I know that as created sustainable success, has gone through that the the awakening, if you will, and the realization that there's that. And so P is so many people, they they get them to the place of it's an either or. And I'm not a firm believer in that I'm believe that you can have it all, is just you got to understand that your there needs to be a focus of it all. And you got to focus in one category.

Yeah. And they all I mean, look, it's, you know, I, I also have an amazing mentor. That is, that is the head of Center for integral wisdom. I'm on the board. And, you know, it's all about changing conscious consciousness. And his name is Mark Gaffney. And you know, he's teaching newer frameworks that we can sort of live into. But you know, the Win, win lose framework in a business is just an outdated model. And the one that works well, and everyone wins, and you can also win financially is the win win win. It's not even the win win. And I call it the Win Win win, because the Win Win is like if you and I are going to do some business together, we both want to win. But the Win Win Win takes it one step further. And it's actually a we need to understand the outcome of the people that would be buying our services and make sure they win. And that's crucial. Because if you can actually get committed to the success of the end user, the client, that experience then you have it's just you live a different life because you're in the accumulation of clients. versus the churning of clients and customers, and you can talk about Sass companies. And, you know, it's across every spectrum. You're here, you know, so that was a big change for me. And you know, it's nothing, it's, it's a journey. It's not like, Oh, I got there, it's just a journey. But if you're committed to the win, win, win, like our company, now we've got like, 50 Something people, you know, all the people that are in our organization, I'm the only one in the US. And so I have a lot of different cultures. And I have Nigeria and Pakistan and Costa Rica, and the Philippines, and India, and forgetting the country, randomly, Ukraine, Costa lover something anyway. But our number one like word, like we have words that are kind of our words is care. And adjust. Like, if if the people actually care about our clients, then we're gonna make it. It's when you don't, you're just doing your job and you don't care, you're care less, then you're not going to last very long with our organization.

And I would argue, in most organizations in this day and age is that win win win has got to be in place these days. And I, and I'm right there with you. We've got a couple people that are commenting in the chat, and I'll just share a couple and Darren says, Hi, great to see two amazing entrepreneurs on my feeds love that. It's exciting to learn from both of you, Lisa, shout out. And Darren, and then the comments about the Win Win Win from Abby. Higher Consciousness, deeper roots for maximum win expansion. And so key. And we talked about this, and I'm in the same way in my my major wins, or when my clients win, when my clients really engaged. And and I gotta tell you, I don't randomly pick people to come on board and to go live with me. I picked you, Mike to be here, because I know that you've got a value service, you've got value company, that you really care about your clients, and that you deliver a great service. And I gotta tell you through the test of time in this industry, that's not always the case. And you and I have talked about this. Man, there's a lot of stuff out there that that isn't quality, and that people just bring to the market to make a buck. And it's not where I play, and it's not where you play. And it's why I wanted to have you on and talk to you because this idea of that of really caring and making sure that it's a win win. Valuable.

Yeah, you know, I'll tell you a story. I'm not going to name any names. But, you know, I was partnering with John Astor off, and we the company has now neuro gym. He's had I was there in 2008, we started in his backyard, we grew it for his lady bought me out. And, you know, we, we did some things amazingly well in the beginning, like sales and marketing. And but we had a problem with in the beginning with the the percentage of people that were buying or finishing the coursework. And it it really pissed us both off a lot. And it was early, that was like 2010 1112 online education. You know, Tech was not there, the online universe, he was still trying to figure it out. So we, I mean, we tried to figure it out with tech stuff, then, but we just hired more humans, and we created like this customer, wow team to, you know, just get humans on, to make sure that people sort of went in and got through. And anyway, I got bought out and I went back to digital marketing, and then the CTO, got bought out, wrote some software. And then, you know, he his solutions, a software solution, I took that, and I looked at the global space for online education is a perfect example. The data is only three to 12% of the people finish courses that they pay for online. That means 88 to 97% of the people are failing, like literally are paying money. And then I even finish it. And that wasn't okay. When I was partying with John, I was just like, this is just it's just so broken. So whatever I created a tech stack and, you know, we get 40 to 80% completion rates. And as it turns out, even like today, fast forward to today, it's not it, that part of my business has been overtaken by what we're doing on LinkedIn, which is very interesting. But i i Once you know, and so like Digital Marketer Ryan Deiss, all their certification programs I designed and built and ran with them. And these are people that are current Just and they, they really wanted to uplevel what they were doing to create better outcomes, because they had 40,000 people paying $4 a month in their membership, which was the digital marketing labs. Right? It's great. But it's all little short stuff. They're like, we want to do something more impactful. And they cared. I literally sat with a guru. And I gotta name the name. And I was like, dude, you've got you have such a huge following, and your stuff is so good. But you're on like, just a terrible platform. And I'm like, I only have to go do the homework to find out that you're in the three to 12% range, no question. I said, let me help you. And he literally said to me, he's like, look, Mike, you know, I'm in the world of creating content. And then my job is to market and sell these grown up people. And if they take out the credit card to buy it, whether they get the results, that's their problem. So I understand what you're saying, and it sounds good, but I have no interest. And I just walked away, there's nothing I can say, because I don't even want to do business with someone like that. Because they don't value what I do. They'll look at, you know, the 20 or 30 grand, we've charged to do all this just see as an expense, don't don't never understand that it's one of the greatest ROI you could ever make. So I don't take clients like that at all, which is also a very good lesson for everyone listening. Yes, life gets so much easier when you decide and you get to a place where you can understand a good client from a potential bad client and don't take them. Oh my gosh,

yes. Because it'll give you you know, there's the 8020 rule, then that's the 20%. That gives you 80% of the headaches. Worse, clients worse. Yeah, so so a couple of things that we've heard so far one is great work ethic, absolutely put in the work to create the results. Two is that you can absolutely have both the the personal, the spiritual, the contribution, the win, win, win and have financial abundance, that it is possible to have all that these are just the messages that I'm in complete congruence with you on. And then of course, be choosy as to how you develop your life, because the people that you let into it, which is one of your clients, your clients are a part of that will either determine the greatness of your life or the lack thereof.

And it circles back to the initial thing you said about partners too. You know, it's one of the things you know, it's the difference between knowledge and wisdom is that you get wisdom after you have enough experience to make the mistakes, understand, you know, from the knowledge, what works and what doesn't. So, um, one of the most important things is just to really get good at, you know, your under listening to your gut when it comes to people. And it's an innate thing that I had. They have, I've always had it, but I literally never listened to it for the first 20 to 35. I mean, I heard it, and I was all ego closed. That's not gonna happen, you know, nothing, whatever, any whatever it was, never listened to it.

Yeah, I went through that same journey in those first 2015 to 20 years, was with blinders on, had an agenda, sell, sell, sell. And then I realized there was there was a whole new world, and part of it was I built a family and built children and all that good stuff. And that definitely created a new focus for me.

Yeah, yeah. We

all and so I want to make sure that we absolutely talk about what you do for people, because what you're doing now is been intrical, and what we're doing and our focus and is helpful on multiple different levels. Tell us a little bit about what you do with LinkedIn and all that journey.

Yeah. So what we do is we're done for you LinkedIn and content marketing agency, we help clients get more activity and more sales on LinkedIn. But that's, like, that's what we do. What we really do is work with subject matter experts who can be pre existing thought leaders like you, you've got like 1000 bucks and you've been doing this you're like a pro. And but we also take people that are subject matter experts for 10 or 20 years that haven't, like broke out yet. And the interesting thing about LinkedIn and though methodology of what we do is that we're able to take someone, and even if it's someone that that that has thought leadership. In other, say verticals like on TV, we have some clients that are on TV, or on their, you know, tremendous at email marketing, and these are all different vertical channels, or Facebook or Instagram, it's very rare that I ever end up in a conversation. That's the that is just someone that's really mastered LinkedIn. And it's its own channel. And the beautiful thing about LinkedIn is that whether you're, it doesn't matter if you've got it figured out anywhere else, or you don't like we've got the ability to work with you. And the breakdown is, is one, really understand your ideal customer. And this is crucial. I do it a little differently. There's a lot of very smart people that go through the whole process, your customer hangs out and read these magazines and this blogs and all that kind of stuff. And but that's not the that's not how I do I actually work with the customer. Now we're using live chat CPT on consultative sales. I mean, first first call, and we really need to understand the person that's buying your shit. Like, who is that person that is buying it? And more importantly, where are they completely stuck? Or what do they want to accelerate, because if you think about most services, you're you're buying something because I want to get better, or I want to buy something to accelerate. That's what, you know, Software as a Service SaaS, right, I'm, I'm addicted to new technology. But every time I see something, I'm like, wow, it's just that's gonna help me do something better. Right. So that's, so every SAS is in that, that realm, it's something that's going to do something better. So you better really understand that that who your buyer is, and like, what's screwed up, or not effective or efficient, and be able to explain what their world looks like in that route. Because if you started a SaaS company, like you are the entrepreneur, the idea keeps you awake at night, so much so that you rerouted your entire life, you raise money, you're probably working on your personal monies, and you've gotten friends and family money, like you are totally freaking committed. It's not for like, some light idea. Right? It's like, there's something that you believe in, it's big. So you got to be able to understand who stuck, why are they stuck? How are they not optimized? And then okay, what does that feel like, and then be able to communicate from that perspective? Oh, here's the things that can help you get there. And by the way, the last thing he talked about is like, Oh, and this is some of the things that we do that can help you it's not about you not selling, like what you sell, and what I sell is not what you should be talking about, you should be talking about the transformation, we're in the business of creating a transformation from here, wherever it is, to here. Right. So people don't think I would a tech company that like any of this applies, but it totally applies. And, of course, if you're a service based company, like us, attorneys and lawyers, and accountants and CFO, you know, part time CFOs or leadership or anything like that, then of course it applies. So that's the really, the one big thing is really getting clear on that. And then we have

the clarity and to, to pause there the understanding that we are in a position to solve challenges to bring a solution to their pain. And, and that's, that's really key. And so to talk about, one of the biggest challenges that people have is that either they don't know where their pain is coming from. So they just kind of ate but they don't, they've never identified it. Or they believe that, that that even if they did identify it, there's no solution to it. You're just meant to live in pain for the rest of your life. Yeah, and to really bring it down to the core. And so our job and a lot of people that are listening to this, their job is to identify what it is that the pain is that your client is feeling. And and to tell them, they don't have to feel that way for the rest of their life that there is a solution out there. Come over here. Let me show you.

Yeah. Yeah, I mean, what you're saying is 100% true. And people try to like sell a solution where and just go over the top of somebody. And you know, I think grant Ain't CARDONE is great, because, you know, how can you argue what he built, but I'm just not a fan of any of the sales methodology that he teaches because it's from 25 years ago. Like, it's not like you can't say like, you know, in a discussion with someone and they can't make a decision and say, who wears the pants in the family anymore? Like this, this type of high pressured sales tactics, you know, trying to get objection, reject himself. So you're boxing someone in so you're trying to pressure them to say yes. That to me, is an outdated model. We're talking about outdated models. The win lose model, that's a win, that's win lose framework. I win, you lose. I get the sale.

Yeah. Yeah, ascribe the the alternative. And we tapped on it, of course with a win win win. What's the alternative approach? When with what and how you approach your, your prospects? Yeah,

you know, I see a lot of it today, out there by a lot of people's teaching sales training. And I'm happy about it. One of my really dear friends, Paul Vitti that I met in New York City 30 years ago, and he's like a brother and a mentor. He was lucky enough to not lucky enough. I mean, he came out of college. And he said, I'm going to Xerox his sales training program. It's the number one sales training program of any organization globally. Like it wasn't like he, he went there, because he knew it. And they, they they had I mean, it's kind of ironic that like, the Xerox is like, you know, it's not around anymore, because, you know, everything is digital. But anyway, they had invented a methodology. It's called SPIN Selling. And there's their book. So I, I happened to come upon this early on, because I am. And once again, I'm not, you know, I'm more of a, I'm a decent sales guy, I'm not a great sales guy, there's a few that really have, you know, the gift that they all the words always come out perfect. And they know exactly when to say what when I'm not like that. So, you know, to me, I have to like, really, you know, practice and get get into that. So one was that, and I'll go into what that's been selling. It's a consultative sales approach. But equally as important in my career was a guy by the name of Bill good, who's still alive, I think, and I hope, and he was the number one, sales trainer to financial reps, back in 87, and 90, and this is before the internet, and he taught everyone the value of drip marketing. It's really direct mail, get a qualified lead, send him one piece of mail your color photo in the corner, every month, with a few paragraphs with the market, it doesn't matter what you say, as long as your color photo is there, and you send it until either they turn into a jerk or die. And I mean, this is drip marketing. The idea is that you just want to own front of mind. Because when something changes, no, now, it's just to know now it's I don't know, forever, when something changes, you just want to be the person I like, I've been getting your things for three years. And you know, I just left my company have a 401k there that I want to turn into IRA, like, What the hell do I do, and thanks for sending me, you know, 9 million letters. That's it like, so let's just break those two things down. So one,

and talk about Ben so that they understand what that is.

You're the one, we have the perfect storm, because on LinkedIn now, you can effectively do this drip marketing on LinkedIn and have LinkedIn propel your message and your face through this ever growing the number one network in the world and it will continue to grow. They went from 800 million to 900 million, and Microsoft said they got to 2 billion. So we're in the right place. You get the distribution, do you drip marketing there? Oh my God, I don't have two folding machines. And now I don't remember to stamp costs. But it's very expensive. So while you've got that, when you're doing drip marketing, and people sort of know you, then that makes the first phone call. And this is also you want to you want to actually be someone that is showing up. You don't have to be a pro. I don't recommend anyone uses any graphics on any year, your LinkedIn stuff you want to teach on LinkedIn, you want to be authentic. Because when people get on the first meeting with you, you just want to beat your of course yourself and they'll be like, Oh, you want to match what they see on your videos and your trainings. So that's all works up to SPIN Selling SPIN Selling is really a consultative sales approach. So what that means is basically figure out what's broken, figure out why it's broken, and listen and understand where they're at. And then basically share what you do and see if there's a reason to go forward and have a conversation. The thing I don't like about SPIN Selling, some of the newer trainings that are out there is they're like, A, they're like robots. And they have a formula and like, you've been on the sales calls and like, Hey, Paul, how are you doing? Like, what? What brought you on this call today? I wanted to check out your service. Oh, great. Like, what else? Have you checked? What else? Have you checked out? Oh, nothing. I just found you're in it. Okay, great. And what kind of pain are you in right now? Mike? Well, not really in pain, because I wanted to see if I could do something better. So they completely missed it. Because they're just, you know, and like, Oh, you want to do something better? So you must be in a little bit of pain. Tell me about that pain. Okay, great. And then how long you've been in that pain? Okay, great. And what's the impact of that pain? Great. And what's the impact emotionally? Has it affect you and your family and your financial situation? Okay, great. And if you projected that pain out for five or 10 years, what would your life look like then? You know, they're just trained to, like, stir up the emotions, and really put people in a place of like, pain, so that they will be able to close the gap to the solution. And like, that's manipulation. You know, so SPIN Selling, get the original stuff from Xerox. They have what's box?

Yeah, hang me up to I don't necessarily Well, in the way you framed it as manipulation because of intentionality.

Oh, yeah, because you don't actually care, right?

Because you can go through that same process and not be manipulation on a percent. And I want people to hear like that differential, that there's definitely Oh, sometimes it's manipulation. Sometimes it's not, it has nothing to do with the process, it's the intention of Do they just want to get you to take an action that has nothing to do with servicing you. Like I can be I can be directive and and even mean to somebody like in the gym, to get them to do a few more rotations, that will build up what they wanted as far as their muscle tone, or anything else. And that's not being manipulative. In that framework, the biggest challenges is that people get into this rut of doing the same thing every time. And they don't know how to, to really think on their feet, or to customize it, paying attention to who's in front of them. You know, every every, every whiteboard is a canvas that they're going to just paint the same picture on.

You're 100%. Right. And particularly on LinkedIn. Because if you're doing LinkedIn, right, you're going to be getting on with some pretty fantastic people. Yes. So like,

tell us some of the stats. And so for some people here like that, oh, man, I like my instagram or, you know, so tell us the power of LinkedIn, because I found in talking to people that sometimes they, they they discredit the power there and not because they haven't played in that arena yet.

Yeah. So LinkedIn is for you, if your customer is on LinkedIn, and you're selling a product or service that's like, you know, 5000 to $5 million, lifetime value of the customer. So let me break down. I'm gonna throw that word in. Because some people know what that means. Does it mean that your first sale is $5,000, if you have a 300 hour a month software service, and you keep someone for 10 months, that's three grand. So you it's, so that's who LinkedIn is for LinkedIn is not a place at all. If you're selling inexpensive widgets, and you think you're going to get volume on LinkedIn, truthfully, the what you should think about in terms of okay, will this make an impact in my business, if you can get you can gather up, you can, if you do LinkedIn, probably you should be able to get anywhere from three to 15 new sales a month. So that's great. If those sales are meaningful, and it doesn't necessarily mean again, that your first sale doesn't have to be your only sale, relationships grow. They grow into other things, you know, there's so much if you combine that, think about that. That's, that's a good number. Say it's even five a month, that's 60 new clients for the year and you're fulfilling on the outcome for them. You're always gonna have churn, but if you can keep adding, you know, net 40 clients a year and you have a business that's fulfilling on what you're supposed to be fulfilling. You'll be in great shape, because you're also going to get referrals and you know, this is This is the more mature way to look at business versus I just want to get to six figures in a fast amount of time and do whatever it takes. Which what you do when you're younger, because you're just metric focused, and you just, that's what I did. I mean, that's what I did, you know, I look back. And if I kept if I was able to keep, like, you know, even some crazy number, even 20% of my clients, when I was in the financial markets, more than the ones I lost, I would have been running like a billion dollars, like some crazy number, because

if you don't, one of the things that I appreciate about all that you bring to the table is that you've systematized the the framework of communication without scripting, what each of what we say. And there's a there's a slight differentiation of scripting, and so that we all like we're engaging in and teach us how to engage on LinkedIn, so that we attract who's going to be perfect for us, without making us all sound the same, which then would turn LinkedIn into a platform of ah, can't, shouldn't, shouldn't be there. And with that, we've been able to play and customize, and create just a greatness of engagement, that we then can all be playing together to which you build a great community as well. And really appreciate that. Talk a little bit about those two.

Yeah, well, it comes from, you know, when I was I got I didn't know anything. Well, it's kind of funny. Actually. I shouldn't say that. Yeah, I look back. When I was on Wall Street. I worked on Wall Street, it was pretty cool. was managing money. So I was basically the clients. Were all getting the same transactions throughout the month. And then I was where I was partnering with a guy that was really amazing, you know, one of the top money managers of all time, so he was giving us that our trading desks, the ideas, and we were executing an average price across the board for everyone, but he was trading a lot. So I was like, what, how, you know, Tim Ferriss, like, how can I gain leverage, I can't keep taking all the client calls to update him because everyone's got the same thing. So this is really early on. I started shooting video once a month. So I would say the money manager with my team, we'd interview them to figure out why do the things he did because I had no idea and then we would actually do that make some charts and this is the transparent part. We short like five wins for the best wins for the month. And I will show you know two or three of the of the worst losses. And then I would go on front of Wall Street there's a like a old federal bank right across from Wall Street I'd stand on this step piece that stuck out and I would I would have filmed it and if the weather wasn't good, I would film it in the conference room but we had you know lights that were from Home Depot that with the halogen lights and literally at five o'clock in your buildings in New York City they turn the air conditioning down like you can only film after everyone was gone. So I remember just so many times being in that literally sweat dripping down my back in a suit with a tie with two sets of Home Depot halogen lights, and back then no teleprompter anything. We made a board out of cardboard like this. That was big. And then we cut a hole in the middle of the lens went and taped it because it was I didn't I couldn't remember any stocks and names and things. Oh, you're

right back to my old days too.

Right. Oh, question. Yeah. So then I met John and then I built the company with John and John's like a freakin Pro. You know, John's been on Larry King like eight times. We were doing all the shooting for the stuff and Brian Tracy's studio, like, you know, two camera 4k, like real videography people their setup and lights, you know. And then after I started going back on my own, I did buy a teleprompter. It just took so long to be to be good at it. And in fact, I, I, I abandon it because even when you're good at it, it's it's very difficult and it does look always Can you see the eyes going back and forth. So part of what you asked and I'm sharing is that I feel it's ultra important to be able to have people have a few bullet points that they can focus on and you can tape it to your camera or your your laptop. You can tape it there because it's just bullet points and then create a framework work that people can learn. And the bullet points really remind you of your like your talking points. So that's why I spent so much time trying to put together what we call Pixar squared, which is our framework is problem, empathy, cost of inaction solution results in a rebound question. So this is like, become second nature, everyone, you're walking your dog in the morning, you think about a client problem or challenge like, oh, Pixar square problem and be the cause of action solution results rebound. And for that, if you're going to do eight of them, which you need them for the month, you can shoot him in an hour. And then you can just make index cards with you. Let's just have to say problem. Empathy can work out the cost of inaction is and then solution, bullets. 333 or four words. So that's what you were referring to. That's what we believe in. What's amazing is our clients like you and other clients are so talented, many way more talented than me in front of video, and you make it your own? No, why do we start with problem? And why should people start with problem because it's very tough to get people's attention in this world. And on every video, we have what we call drop off rates, and this is something we worked on so hard with John, but it no matter what you do, you're gonna get like within the first 20% of a video 50% drop off. We did, we did crazy bribes. Like we're gonna stay tuned on this training, because at the end, we're gonna give you like, $5,000 50% drop off. At the end, you go get to have dinner with John, at the nicest restaurant in San Diego 50% drop off. So, I mean, I know it's the data. So well, we leave with problem. Because either someone's have some has the prom, which is ideal, or had the prom or thinks they're gonna have the prom. So you kind of lead with something that's very interesting with any not only wishy washy stuff up front,

you definitely want to want to hook them how long statistically do we have on LinkedIn, for instance, on it, to help them to get them interested to stay?

Well, I think it's the same data for like a web page. It's like you got you know, I don't know, it's like, either five seconds to make an impression or seven seconds. It's like, Yeah, and like 60% of the stuffs being consumed now on mobile, so and then you can swipe, like, maybe it's even faster than that, because you don't have to click a mouse or start scrolling down, you can swipe pretty fast. So it's, it's close to what three to five seconds, you know,

at best. You're right, I think the stats that we're quoting, and maybe even old now can considering how much things have moved and changed over the last even the last year, a little in the last six months. Yeah. And so keeping up with that, it's one of the reasons why I know for me as a company over the last several years, I've done a deep dive in social media in video engagement and in creating that kind of connection with my audience because things are moving so fast unless you're actually grab it. And when I say deep dive, I mean, grabbing hold of great outsource material, support collaborative work with people like yourself, because there's, there's no, there's no way to do it yourself these days, and to be an independent solopreneur out there just doing the thing without support like from your company. I just don't find it even possible. You've got to get that team of people that really had can can be there for you that you can do a deep dive and bring new information to doorstep.

Yeah, look, you can buy more courses but we know that you know for for like our our market, we service business owners, partners C suite. Executives do busy people like you, right? So look, it's fine to go take a course and learn but our clients aren't going to do that. You sit

down in the back to the course completion as well. percent. Yeah. Give capabilities they don't do it.

Yeah. You know, the other person. I absolutely love them. I'm happy to share the name on the internet is Aaron Fletcher. So Aaron Fletcher, the Fletcher method, you know, he cares. And, you know, he tells people that if you're going to create a online course you got to make it a hybrid. So it's a course with coaching because the coach pitching component. One is accountability. But people always have questions. And if you care, and you can coach, you're going to help them get outcomes. And he also says charge a lot more because of that component. And it allows you to be terrible at marketing and still be able to, and still be a grow business. Because if we charge more, you can be average marketer and still make it, but you have more to invest into the, into getting the results. And if you really care, then you're gonna end up with clients because of the coaching that you're able to get them through. So that's another option. We actually do that because every Thursday at noon, Eastern, we meet with our group, and I've turned it more into like, I don't want me to be the talking head unless there's something specific that LinkedIn has released, which happens like once a month now, but we're inclusive and, you know, we we have some of our clients that are launching a new product, and they had, you know, they're launching their mastermind, so they, they practice, they spent, you know, the entire time doing a consultative sales call for everybody. It's great. And then we were able to give feedback, you know, so, so that part of it is important. But I always defer to and what you were just talking about earlier is that you know, the done for you. And the reason why is if you're a busy executive, the challenge we all have, I'm guilty of it a lot because I love technology is is focusing your highest income producing tasks or activities. So, learning of the Idiocracy is Idiocracy idiosyncrasies of LinkedIn theocracies, a lot of these little things are idiotic, but you have to do them or you know, you got to do all these little synchronicities to get LinkedIn humming, that's not the your highest income producing activity, you, you can find someone that can do that. And then of course, you're going to, you're going to positively trade your time. And for you know, if you're for money, you're going to pay money to preserve your time, you got to pay the money to preserve your time. So then focus on the highest income producing tasks that you should keep pushing up. And for most people like us by increasing taxes, innovation, in content, and then sales, and the strategic partnerships, stuff like that, what you're doing now, big win

creative endeavors. And that's what most people are, don't realize when they're building a business, that all those different things that they're doing day to day, they need to eliminate those from their day to day activity by delegating them and moving them past their platform on to someone else's to do so that they can really grow a business. And it's one of the methods one of the messages that I deliver every day is you got to start building a team from day one.

Yeah, you're right. It's you know, I was just speaking to someone earlier today and they're in another friend of ours Jeff Walker is doing a launch and and Jeff So amazing guy, right. He's like one of the sought really heart of the soul for guys and his stuffs good. But they're an overwhelmed because, I mean, you need lead magnet, you need a landing page and email opt in nurture that to that you got to do a a launch Jeff Walker launches four pages with for nearly a free and ended videos. And of course, they gotta be good because it's getting you to the launch, you need an order form. And if anything breaks down along the way, the whole launch is screwed. I mean, that's a lot.

So I know we could talk for days, let alone just hours here. And to give everyone respect that they can they can leave us we need to leave them. And so ask what is it one message you want to deliver as far as for all the people that we have out there would be a closing words of wisdom.

I'm going to I'm going to steal it from my mentor Mark F and the world is filled with outrageous pain. And the only solution is outrageous love.

Awesome. How can they how can they find you and reach you?

LinkedIn? Mike Weis on LinkedIn plot selling and I think that will when this gets someplace else, we'll put a link down there where they can actually

be absolutely well.

Yeah, we have. I think we have nine different ebooks and lead magnets. We give a lot of stuff away for free. So Well, absolutely

and and one of the things I want all of you to get when you go and find Mike, Mike wise on LinkedIn CEO cloud selling you'll find them easily is that when you look at his page, you'll see how he lays it all out, that alone is a lesson worth looking at. Because that's how he has, he doesn't have to give a URL here. He doesn't have to do anything else. He's got everything. Within a second of getting on his page, you'll be able to find it, click on it and create magic with him. And that's part of the lesson right there. So absolutely. I encourage everyone go find Mike Weis CEO cloud selling will absolutely have your links, even passive. So we will still have a link in all the places that this will be throughout the podcast world and beyond on social media. So absolutely. Just a pleasure hanging out and talking to you. And we talked about so much worthwhile components of how to live life, how to be an entrepreneur, how to sell how to engage. Just a real pleasure talking to you, Mike, as always,

oh, thank you. It's been a lot of fun. I love these. When I'm with the right people and you aren't one of the right people. You're great. So thank you for everything that you do.

I do appreciate that. For everyone here. This has been Mavericks Do It Different podcast. Thank you so much for being here with this. And continue to watch this episode. Last episode, next week's episode, share, like follow subscribe, continue to be part of this journey because we're getting the message out there so many levels on how to live life to its greatest and how to keep building abundance for everyone in the world. And as Mike said, build it with love. Thank you so much. My real pleasure. Thank you