Creating Opportunities in Crisis

Hey, Opportunity Makers. Welcome back to the podcast. Thanks so much for being here. And I promise I'll make it worth your time. So I'm really excited that you're here with us. We're going to spend a little bit of time today, sharing a little bit more on some examples and insights about opportunity making in the past, as it pertained to specifically have something I'm gonna share about some some examples from the 2008 financial crisis, because it's relevant relative to you know, what we're doing now in the world. But I want to really want to encourage you, because now that we're here, we've been here for a few episodes and, and you've, you know, God Willing been listening to stuff here, and you're still showing up. So that's fantastic. And if this is your first time, that's okay, I highly encourage you to go back to the beginning and get a little bit more of the story and get involved. But it's but it's not necessary. Here's the key opportunity makers, opportunity makers, right, we are a group, a people, a leader ship community, it says more about your identity and who you are my objective here, Jim pedia with gain edge is to inspire you to step into all the opportunities that exist around you and be able to so you can see them as if they're raining from the sky, because they are, especially in a time such as this, you know, in 2023, as we've come through COVID, and we are in a place where there's everything from inflation, to increase pricing, groceries, increase in gas, wars, happening, all kinds of crazy stuff happening in the world. But at the end of the day, business still has to move on, business moves forward, you still have bills to pay, you still have life to live, and you still have people to serve. And I don't want you to be so stuck in the transaction of business, we have another podcast called sales team ready. And that's all about sales and scaling. It's about specifics of sales tasks and opportunities. Go check that out if that's the main focus. This is more for exponential thinkers.

This is more about advanced level thinking and opportunities, about seeing how their everything that you look around can be you're literally one step away from a powerful business opportunity, your one transaction one introduction, one connection, one business away one, contract away from a business opportunity that can literally change the trajectory of your business, and move the arc of your of your story and start literally changing, you know, putting a new fork in your family tree, as they say. And so that's that's a lot of what we're gonna talk about. And so I'm gonna spend, you know, I'm gonna spend some time today, over the last episode, we talked about some of the internal objections to what keeps people from really stepping in to exponential growth and opportunities. And today, I'm gonna talk a little bit about the external objections, right, like, what are, what market forces do we tend to think are actually that are, are creating stoppage and blockage in what we do when it's not really true? First, you know, as an opportunity maker, right? I've seen my fair share of ups and downs in the marketplace. Right? One story that comes to my mind, from my times, you know, marketing during the 2008 financial crisis, is that, you know, during that time, many businesses were struggling, right to stay afloat, and marketing budgets were being slashed left and right. But instead of letting the tough times defeat me, right, I saw it as an opportunity to get creative and find new ways to reach customers. Right? So instead of just doing what everybody tells me, right, have you done that? If you've been victim to that, you're looking for all the gurus and the experts to tell you what's up. And here's the thing. I'm part of that, you know, part of that tribe. Anything that I share with you from strategy perspective, the only thing you know for sure, is that it worked for me under the circumstances in which I shared, right, this is the thing we all get caught up to many times we start listening to experts and gurus when, when somebody says, This is how it always works. Yeah, that's the first person you should probably be very skeptical of, because nothing works for everybody all the time in every circumstance, right? So when things aren't working, the only thing you know, is if you try to strategy, I had this with a client today, she was saying they're just struggling with our team, because our team is getting frustrated, because they're like, we've tried that before and it didn't work. Well, all you know, is it didn't work that time. Under those circumstances, at that price with that offer in the marketplace that you were putting in it, it has zero evidence that it doesn't work anywhere else. And matter of fact, I would dare say it probably works in many other places. If you just put if you under if you assess what you did make some pivots, make changes and put it in the right spot. Here's here's my answer that drives a lot of people crazy. When it comes to marketing and sales, everything works.

And everything doesn't work. It's all about circumstances, timing, critical opportunities that show up. Hey, so you always have to be looking at how can this the wrong bait? Or is this the right bait in the wrong pond? Right Do I need to be in freshwater instead of saltwater? Do I need to be on a river do I need to be in a stream? Right you there's so many variables. And so you constantly have to be asking and re evaluating and looking for those right opportunities as they show up. Hey. So one of the tactics that I use back then was to to move from traditional advertising to content marketing. That's the first time I started getting involved with content marketing. Because before then I thought advertising was billboards. Right was commercials about airtime at radio stations and TV. And that's what advertising was, I didn't know. Right. And then I started recognizing there's, there's a number of ways to start getting involved in getting in front of people, right, so we started creating valuable and informative content that would help my target audience navigate the challenging economic landscape. By doing so we're able to build trust and credibility with potential customers, and which ultimately lead to more business for our clients. Hey, and you're in the same spot, same situation today, right? The Marketplace, they're looking for solutions, they're looking for leaders, they're looking for opportunity makers are looking for people to show them the way and you can show more than one person that way, you can show an entire entire section of the marketplace. The way right just like my my vision here on this podcast, is to create a tribe of opportunity makers, we're here to show you the way we're here to show you that there's exponential opportunities all around you, you do not have to be transactional thinking, keep doing transactions, to make daily things happen so that you can put money in your bank account. But know that that's not what's going to serve you long term, we got to start getting you to be able to add revenue streams add leverage, as scale, right and put opportunities in place. So our our mission here is to grow your business, grow your mission and your movement, add zeros to your bottom line, right so that you are able to be a business owner a mover and shaker somebody who is at choice. And it doesn't mean you got to make billions, right? Doesn't matter what the revenue goal is, you know, it's just a matter of you being in control of your environment, you being in control of the opportunities that come your way, and that you are not at the mercy of the marketplace, but that you're the one who creates the marketplace. Okay, you're a creator, not a consumer, you're somebody who makes a difference everywhere you go.

Okay, another strategy we've employed back that time was to capitalize on the increased competition in the market. As more businesses were in the market, here's the reality, understand that the 8020 rule applies to everything in life. And when I am always puzzled when people talk about market saturation, oh my god, there's more coaches in the business than I've ever been. There's more marketing companies than there have ever been, when I was in mortgage back in 2008. More mortgage, more real estate agents than they've ever been. All that told me was that the 8020 rule was still in play. So if there was 1000, new, compact competitors every week, I knew for a fact that 800 of them sucked and didn't know what they're doing. So there was two great things about it. Number one, they couldn't compete with me, because I'm good at what I do, to 80% of those businesses needed help in being able to reach more businesses. So as more of them came into the marketplace, they there's more people who needed you in what you do and your services. So as more problems and more struggling businesses, more struggling relationships, marriages, people come into the marketplace. All that means is more opportunity for you to solve problems, because most of those people aren't going to be able to do the things that they want to do, or wish they could do, or would used to be able to do. And they need somebody who can show up as that beacon of light and that hope and lead them to the promised land. And you don't have to have it all figured out. You just have to know the path. You just have to have the competence and the certainty and the clarity to say, this way.

Let's go. So join us here in the opportunity makers, podcast and help us create a powerful change in the world. Okay, are you and natural opportunity maker? You know, I know I'm making an argument and, you know, to, for people to start thinking themselves that way you start seeing themselves as an opportunity maker. Are you already one, you're the kind of person who sees yourself as an opportunity maker, are you the person that creates opportunity, and we'll give you a little bit more definition I'm always going to be unpacking this opportunity maker is somebody who leans in to the market, who leans into troubles and challenges and comes out with solutions. And ideally, you're creating things you're creating opportunities as an opportunity maker, you're creating environments and circumstances that serve you and serve others and ideally create cycles and habits. So when you're creating something, it's empowering other people to create and empowering them to empower other people to create is not just transactional living is creating business cycles that serve more than one group of people and more than one layer deep and it's not as complicated as you think. Okay, and we'll be unpacking some of those more more specifically, but it's most of this comes down to your perspective and mindset because quite honestly, you know your market better than I do. You know Know your clients better than I do. And I know for a fact if we get on a conversation, give me an hour, I'll once I know what your, your core story is what you're doing, I will help you find opportunities, I'm really good. I don't need to know what you do in order to help you do it better. But you know, all of those answers are those solutions, the goal is, start asking yourself better questions, start seeking the right opportunities, most of the time, we just have to pull yourself back a little bit, because we're so busy trying to figure out where's the next deal coming from that we're not seeing all of the different ways we can impact the marketplace and impact the clients that we serve. So as an opportunity maker, again, you thrive on challenges, and have a passion for creating new possibilities. And that's the exact kind of mindset that we're looking for looking to create. Because the more opportunity makers we have in the world in the marketplace, the more problems are getting solved more exponentially faster, at deeper levels, and we start literally changing the world. We can't rely on government, we can't rely on corporate America, we can't rely on anybody get this done except us, it's going to be on the backs of entrepreneurs who are living out their purpose, who are seeking exponential opportunities. Because again, you now have the opportunity to help far more than one person at a time, and I want to get you to start doing it. So again, it's not just about scaling is part of the game growth is other and it's all it's part of it's all married into the process. Okay. So connect with like minded individuals who share your vision for creating a better future you're in in your home, you're here.

Okay, opportunity makers are the ones who shape the future. And are you ready to make that work? Right, our company is seeking opportunity makers, as clients as partners as colleagues, right. And as just people to be in the community, people we can grow with people, we can lean on people, we can support, encourage, right, and we want to be able to create real impact and make a difference in your community and in ours. Hey, so I want to touch on, as I mentioned a little bit from the in the beginning, that we talked yesterday about the objection to this. And so I want to just, you know, I wish I could sit down with you. But absent that, I just want to challenge you with this right now. What are the external market conditions that are giving you concerns or resistance that this is something you can do, this is a way you can live, this is where you can you can step up and stand and stand out in the marketplace. A one common external objection story that opportunities often face is the belief that outside forces such as market conditions, competition, lack of resources, are preventing you from successfully executing exponential strategies. That was a mouthful, I get it. But this false belief can particularly be challenging to overcome. Because everywhere you look, unless you are doing others who are looking right in front of you and evaluating the situations as they come, your only input is coming from the media is coming from social media, it's coming from people who are complaining and people who are scared, who are who are worried about where it's gonna go and people who are circling the wagons, and again, the people who circle the wagons, you what you're doing is you're immediately cutting yourself off from life. When you circle the wagons, you're saying, here's how much life I've got left, and we're just gonna hang on to it. And you don't grow resources by holding tight your resources by opening up and surrendering and connecting. And so you have to be willing to say, Okay, I'm going to lean in, I'm gonna give, I'm gonna take I'm gonna see what kind of where's the balance? How can I create a nice symbiotic movement, of give and take of solutions and resources so that I'm somebody who people need, and I'm somebody who's pouring into others. And I am being I mean, tapped in, right? I'm drinking from the source, and it's filling me up so much out of my excess, I overflow onto other people. And that's when true opportunity making starts happening. Okay, so to overcome this objection story, it's important to reframe it again as a temporary setback versus a fixed obstacle. Don't look around and go, Man, all these businesses are closing, these people are going out of business, or people don't have resources, they can't invest and all of this, that stuff doesn't exist in an opportunity makers mind. It just doesn't you don't you don't have the luxury of that because everybody else already is dealing with that. You know, it's not a reality, you know, that there's opportunity around every corner. And the more prepared you are for them, the better you're going to be a outside forces may certainly present challenges and limitations. Sometimes there are resistance, the other things we have to do to adjust and pivot grow. You can't just lean into the stuff you've always done. You have to be willing to create a new offering, create a new product, create a new alignment with his with his teaching partner to lean into new technology and learn some new things. Hey, but opportunity makers can take a proactive approach by identifying the potential solutions and workarounds. So when you look at an average problem that your average customer or somebody in the marketplace sees as a big problem, you have the mindset to be able to look at and go that's not as big a problem as they think. And here's an overcome mobile solution. And here's a way that we can provide for this and it can be something that you know how to do. But I want to start encouraging you to think of okay, how can you implement that solution with your hands in your pockets, with your hands, your pockets.

Now, here's something I tell my my leadership team a lot, especially my wife, because he loves to fix that he loves to do stuff because she's extremely talented and capable. And but she gets herself in a jam sometimes, because she starts doing it all, all of a sudden, everybody has to depend on her to do it. So I challenge our leaders all the time. How can you put your hands in your pockets, if you're listening right now, wherever you're at, put your hands in your pockets. If you're on the treadmill, or whatever, put your hands on the handlebars on whatever you're doing. But put your hands in a place where they can't be used. And then now solve a problem. Write an email, send a proposal, create a contract, find a deal, find a company to acquire, look for a new revenue stream, find a solution? And now how would you implement that solution? How would you take advantage of that opportunity, if your hands are in your pockets, it means you need to rely on other people, you gotta tap into your network, you got to look for other opportunity makers, other people who can fill in the gaps that you have, you don't need to do everything, you just need to do the thing that you do best, or the thing that you most want to do. And let everything else happen as a natural flow. In order of business landscape in the business world. There's a book that I've read several times reminded of it's the sitting on our coffee table, my wife's reading it. And it's business secrets from the Bible. And this isn't about, you know, you being biblical and your perspective and worldview and business. But it's understanding is written by a rabbi. And he has a very interesting perspective. And he talks about the Jewish community, and how people in the doing business in the Jewish community don't do everything, they don't even intend to do everything. What they do is the one thing that they do best, and then they allow the community to do their work. So if you are in a Jewish community, it then you you do the thing you do, and then you hire somebody else to mow your lawn, somebody else to fix your car, somebody else to clean your chimney, somebody else to babysit the kids or do the other things that you're going to do. But what happens is in the Jewish community, the dollar typically circulates 17 times before it leaves the community. Right.

Whereas if you go by culture, I don't want to get into political topic here. But in most people at the further you get down, the lowest level is three and a half times there are communities in our in American culture, where the dollar goes one and a half times to three and a half times around us. It's his community before it leaves. And if you think about that, you're you're literally leading the Jewish community example. That dollar is being spent in so many different ways. And it's allowed to serve so many different people is creating all kinds of opportunities, and everybody's getting maximum value out of the dollar, before it goes away into the commercial environment. Like they shop among themselves, they shop with each other, they spend money with each other, they lean into each other. Most communities, that's not what happens, you get your money, and then you go, it goes straight to Nike, or it goes straight to Amazon or go straight to corporate America, it leaves your neighborhood immediately, and your dollar your opportunities shrink your opportunities to serve other people shrink, right? You're literally living in a transactional world when we start doing that. So we always want to look for other ways to make dollars, make more dollars and make more dollars to create opportunities for yourself and for others before your dollars leave. Again, these are cases a lot of this is a mindset shift. Some of you are doing this automatically, without even thinking about it. I want you to do it intentionally and with strategy. And that's the stuff that we're going to be talking about today. So as an external objection to, I can't see myself doing this, or I don't have the kind of money yet or I'm not a mover and shaker on that level. Or I'm already doing this great. Again, I know a lot of you are I want this to be done. I want you to be able to replicate this. So it's done intentionally and all the time so you can maximize the opportunities, not just stumble into them. Okay?

Another strategy for overcoming external objections is building resilience and adaptability by recognizing the external factors, often outside of their control, right? There are things that happen, prices go up, you can't control that, right, the more inflation happens, gas prices go up all that stuff you can control but you can, you can make and develop resilience and flexibility needed to adapt and change to the changing circumstances. How can you provide and how can you make sure that you're increasing whether it's prices, units sold, opportunities taken advantage of so that you're always staying ahead of the curve with inflation, and creating other opportunities right, we talked about previous episode about being like Joseph in the Bible, where you are able to, you see ahead of curves you start seeing what's coming because you're not so buried so deep in the transactions of your day to day business that you have a chance to understand what the market forces are doing and start anticipating it, start building opportunities, start creating more automated sales opportunities, start creating things credit, you're creating opportunities to sell things that you don't have to deliver and pay for, we have a lot of products that we sell, but then we have to pay out a lot of our team. We also have other products that we sell, where it's 100% profits that come straight to us. So we use those to be able to pour into other assets and other opportunities. So that we're prepared for ways to be able to serve and get, we don't ever want to be at a place where needs come. And we can't, we can't meet those needs, in the market, in the community, in our church or whatever, right. And so you want to be thinking, if you're thinking about that far enough ahead, then you're always going to be building those opportunities as they come, right. So that you're that the market forces don't ever limit you, or cripple you. And often don't even surprise you, because you were thinking about it ahead of time, or you were paying attention, or you had the ability to pull your head out of the sand because you're not buried so deep in the day to day that you can react to it, when you see it coming instead of after it's knocked you off, off off track, like a lot of people. Okay. Additionally, opportunity makers, leverage the power of collaboration, and partnerships to overcome external challenges. Okay, very important part of a partnership is one of our core values in our company, we do everything in the vein of partnership, because people are the one thing you can always count on. People are also the thing that will let you down the most, we're humans, that's the part of the game. That's the good and the bad, the yin and the yang, that's how it works. But you can count on people, especially if you understand them and build relationships with them, you know, when they thrive and when they don't, and under which circumstances that you can count on them and set them up for success or where they can they can you can integrate into each other's journey, and not just in a transactional manner in your business. But how do you grow networks together so that you're providing resource to each other in the right seasons, and doesn't mean every day, it means as needed, right. And a true partnership is where people are coming together for the benefit of the of each other and the people that we serve, it's not about a you know, measuring your your relationship with a calculator, you know, it just means you give and serve to the degree that you need to to support your partners and help them win. And the same thing happens in return. And it's a whole different way to do business and strategy. Okay, so it puts, you know, by seeking out, you know, strategic partnerships with other businesses and organizations with alignment and vision and goals and values, right, opportunity makers can pool resources, and expertise to overcome obstacles and create new opportunities.

In years past, this has always been an advantage, I've always seen my ability to partner with companies and see partnership opportunities and create partnership opportunities as an advantage. And now as as times change, and as in the coming marketplace that we're stepping into, I no longer see it as an advantage, I see it as a necessity. Right, I remember there was a time when learning to type gave you an advantage. And now if you can't type, you're crippled, right. And same thing with partnerships. If you don't understand how to work together with other companies in synergy, you're going to be so far behind the eight ball that you will always be struggling to get up that mountaintop. And we want to eliminate that for you. So opportunities, opportunity makers know how to seize all of that, and make the best out of those situations. Because you're never, you're never taking all of the risk on your own. You're subsidizing it, you're spreading it out, you're collaborating with people so that you're getting again, that 1% of 100 people's efforts, instead of 1% or 100% of 1%. For one person's efforts, I don't want you to be stuck having 100% of your own efforts and the reward, I want you to start seeing more ways. So that as other people when you win automatically, because that's the way the network was designed this way or your business was designed for you creating your world. And we're here to help you on that journey. So opportunity maker, go make a difference, start seeing it now, to sit back, look at the business opportunities around you just look in your local neighborhood, even outside of what you traditionally do for business, you've been growing, you are an exponential thinker, you know how to solve problems. So look for ways in your marketplace to be a solution provider, to be a lightning rod, to be a gatherer of people and be the solution because so many people are needing that they're clamoring, they're trying to figure this out on their own, and many people just aren't capable, or they can't get out of the panic and the fear and the anxiety, or the hopelessness to be able to make any common sense decisions for them. You can come in, be the white knight right in on that horse, be the hero for them and make a difference, because that's what opportunity makers do.