580 – From Firefighter to Digital Marketer: Tom interviews Steven Lentz

Episode 580 – Steven Lentz
[00:00:09] Welcome to Screw the Commute. The entrepreneurial podcast dedicated to getting you out of the car and into the money, with your host, lifelong entrepreneur and multimillionaire, Tom Antion.

[00:00:24] Hey, everybody, it's Tom here with episode 580 of Screw the Commute podcast. I'm here with Steven Lentz, and this guy is has been been around. He's been a firefighter, he's a top business coach, and he's got some great tips on getting more leads and conversions and business coaching if you're thinking about doing that and so forth. So we'll bring him on in a minute. Now make sure you grab a copy of our automation e-book. You can grab your copy at screwthecommute.com/automatefree. See, I want to make sure that you are handling customers and prospects and not fighting with your computer. And if you would just take a little bit of time to learn some of these automation techniques which save you literally hundreds of hours into the future, we estimated just one of the tips in the book has saved me seven and one half million keystrokes. So download this book at screwthecommute.com/automatefree. While you're at it, pick up a copy of our podcast app. It's screwthecommute.com/app. You can put us on your cell phone and tablet, take us with you on the road. And it's not one of those apps where, you know, they just give it to you and you have to figure it out, like what to do? No, we have screen capture videos and we have just regular screen captures and instructions.

[00:01:45] So you can take advantage of all these great features. And again, it's kind of an automation thing. So you you can use it on your cell phone tablet and like if a phone call comes in, it'll pause the podcast and then pick it up after you hang up, you know, just stuff like that. All right. So pick that up now. Make sure you check out our program that we're doing to help persons with disabilities. Really proud of this. We're helping people. We have three people in the program right now. We're shooting for five that and two of them are blind and they're getting Internet and digital marketing certificates so that they can get hired and or start their own business and work from home and legitimately learn from home. So check out IMTCVA.org/disabilities and you can see their Go Fund Me campaign they're shooting videos I mean unbelievably inspirational. So you can see something be proud to be involved in.

[00:02:52] All right. Let's get to the main event. Steven Lentz is here. He's worked a multitude of jobs. You know, that word job is a cussing around here. Screw the commute. As well as being a business owner. He has also recently ended a ten plus year career as a firefighter EMT. Steven's a platinum level business coach with LPW, he'll tell us about that later, and has his own digital marketing agency and Steven's coaching helps businesses to stop competing on price and grow their profits and scale their businesses. And his digital marketing agency helps businesses become omnipresent. And you see a lot of that term nowadays where you show up everywhere. And that's really important when people go to check you out and you can also dominate the organic rankings and the map pack, if you know what that is. So Steven also hosts his own podcast. I was really pleased to be on it. Subject to change, I think he has to change it since I was on there. So he gets bad feedback and he interviews business owners and entrepreneurs. So, Steve and are you ready to screw? The commute?

[00:04:09] You got me.

[00:04:12] So how are you doing, man?

[00:04:14] Good. I am excited to be chatting with you again. I had a blast talking to you just a couple of days ago on my show and honestly talk with you is like talking with a dose of this guy.

[00:04:23] Like the most interesting man in the world.

[00:04:25] Yeah, yeah. There's like I said, these one. This one guy kept calling me the OG and I thought, Oh, guy, that's not really nice. I mean, I take a joke as good as anybody. And he kept calling me OG and then I found out it was original gangster. I didn't even know.

[00:04:41] That's.

[00:04:41] How original I am. But yeah, so, so glad to have you on. And also, if I happen to have a heart attack, you can you're an EMT, you can maybe give me some tips on how to save myself.

[00:04:53] I don't know.

[00:04:54] Right. So first thing I tell you, you call 911, you.

[00:04:56] Go get help. Yeah. All right.

[00:04:59] So. So tell everybody what you're doing now, and then we'll take you back in and talk about some of those jobs and and firefighting stuff.

[00:05:09] Yeah, you did a great job. Listen, off the bio there, that's pretty comprehensive. So LTP is a coaching, I guess. Coaching coaches and they teach us how to help other business owners do better with competing on value instead of price. One thing that I talk with my clients is that customers only shop price when that's the only value proposition that you give them.

[00:05:35] Mm hmm.

[00:05:36] So to put it into a real life example, the only reason that Tony Robbins can sell a $10,000 group coaching membership is because of his value proposition. It doesn't necessarily that my coaching is any less valuable. It's that I haven't been able to prove my value proposition is as good as Tony Robbins. So if you feel like you have to compete on price, there's a reason for that. It's not because of necessarily what you're selling. It's because of how you position yourself to your clients. So that's that's like one of the things that we work on so that how to increase conversions, how to increase the number of sales you get, not just making that sale, but repeat sales, profits, all the stuff. So yeah, it's a great it's a great company. It gives us as coaches lots of great skills to help our own clients and just the platform to be able to do that.

[00:06:24] So what do you think business owners are some of their biggest mistakes that they're making when they talk to prospects?

[00:06:34] Yeah.

[00:06:34] The the thing that I find most with business owners is that most business owners, like the vast majority when I say most, is that they're in business by default and not by design. And what I mean by that is that, say you're really good at fixing sinks or you make great tables, right? You go into that business feeling, Hey, I can do this, and you get so far leveraging your network, your family, your friends, your social media, that kind of stuff. And eventually you're going to run into a bottleneck of what's the next step. And the thing that I find with a lot of these clients is that what really gets in their way is their mindset. The. I have to do everything myself to make it right. I can't outsource this. I'm not ready to let go of this responsibility, whether it's hiring a VA or hiring someone to help them with their marketing or whatever it is, that old mentality of if it's done right, I have to do it myself. And the pride, right? There's a lot of pride with your baby because that's what a business is to these people. It's their baby. You know, you've you've grown it, you've raised it, you've fed it your blood, sweat and tears and all that stress that goes into it. And so releasing some of that, I feel like, is the biggest obstacle that most business owners face is letting go.

[00:07:45] Yeah, they want to be employee of the month every month.

[00:07:48] Yeah.

[00:07:49] There's they have like 12 pictures of themselves up.

[00:07:52] On the wall.

[00:07:56] You're absolutely right. I think that's the biggest mistake that you can say is the vast generality. Right. Everyone has other mistakes, like not asking for the sale or having a poor sales problem or a web page. The Web page thing gets me every time. So when we talk marketing and this is separate from the digital marketing aspect, this is marketing from coaching side is that. There's a conversion equation that happens with it. So there's four steps. There's the interrupting gauge, educate and offer and interrupts that first headline, right? And it's supposed to be meeting. It's supposed to address the problem they have. They don't want followed by the solution they want. They don't have an education because anyone who comes to your website. I'm a big numbers guy. I'm going to start throwing out numbers here. So see, you have a hundred people that come to the website. 1 to 3% are now buyers. The vast majority are on this buyer's journey of wanting information. And so your irresistible offer isn't a call me or book or free consultation, because all that means to today's buyers is Let me sell you. Your irresistible offer needs to be something that has more value and more education, because that's what they really want. And the reason that you give that instead of the sell me or let me sell you is because all this traffic that comes your site, once they leave, how do you market to that? You've lost all contact. So you need to exchange information. You need to get their email address that we can create a direct campaign and stay with them. So that's what the offer is. And I'd say that is the biggest mistake that most people make, whether it's a dentist or a doctor or a plumber. Right. Everyone says book a call, call us, let us consult whatever it is. And it's just to let me sell you instead of let me exchange information so we can market to you and nurture you as a customer. So when you're finally ready to buy that, we're top of mind and we've built trust and credibility.

[00:09:48] Yeah. And an email say still to this day, even with its downfalls and the spam filters and the free places like Yahoo and Hotmail and all that really suck. But still, it's where the money is. I send an email out, money pours in my front door. Now you can, you know, you can kind of find visitors and reach them again if you pixel them. But still you don't really know who they are and you can't target, you know, directly to them. And you have to have enough of them to even be able to do an advertisement to that pixel or that group. So so there's, it's nothing like email, giving them something, getting the email. And then now what we've done a lot of times to get a better email address is to do an E.

[00:10:35] Course.

[00:10:36] And we tell them, Hey, put your best email address in here. So you get each part of the course and they're thinking, Oh man, if I put my crappy email in there that I never check, I won't get the course. So that's a little trick. Trick there.

[00:10:49] Now I.

[00:10:51] I saw something that was in another bio I saw about you. It says going. So you were a firefighter? Emt Yep. So it says, going into people's homes for over ten years has taught me how to talk with people and how to carry a conversation.

[00:11:08] So I'm thinking, all right.

[00:11:10] The guys say, I'm having a heart attack. My chest is hurting. Well, have you thought about being a business coach? You know, Opw is really great.

[00:11:19] It's funny you.

[00:11:20] Say your heart hurts because I'm looking in your fridge and this is just really bad.

[00:11:23] For you.

[00:11:24] Exactly. This is cholesterol. There's something bad could happen to you.

[00:11:29] That.

[00:11:30] There comes a point in time, like, you know what work needs to be done before we start talking.

[00:11:36] So so let's talk about that that that ten years of your life for a little bit. Is there any particular saves that you did in that amount of time or is anything in for funny things or crazy things that happened? I'm sure. Sure. There was.

[00:11:52] The.

[00:11:55] Tom. Yeah.

[00:11:57] That's a that's a can of worms.

[00:11:59] I mean, just oh my gosh. Just overwhelming. Like I've got silly stories. I've got tragic stories. I can drive down the road and the town that I worked in and be like, I remember when the guy died in that corner. Like, I remember crushing that squishy chest, trying to do CPR or, you know, there was a car that flipped over here with three teens in a6am in the morning. And they were probably out there for three or 4 hours before the homeowners woke up and found him and called it in. And like, we cut them out of the car. Like, I've got tons of those stories or like, just. Gross Right. Like, you walk in like this house is poop matted in the floor and like, cobwebs all, like, just disgusting. Yeah, body out of here. So, I.

[00:12:36] Mean.

[00:12:37] What's some funny ones.

[00:12:40] Right? Like, so early on in my career, just the first year, we got a call at 7 a.m., our shift is 8 to 8, and so 7 a.m. I'm going off that day. And the power had gone out for a lot of places and PSC had gone out like fat like 3 hours before and PSC goes out there and they call.

[00:13:02] That's the power place in your.

[00:13:05] There's a power substation.

[00:13:07] On.

[00:13:08] The trestle track like the big rocks that are all over the ground there and the little towers with all the wires and stuff. So power had gone out. Something happened. A substation PC gets out there couple hours later and calls 911. So we're out. We run out there and there's this lady just spread eagle laying on the ground there and she was stripping the copper wiring for meth. And so, yeah, so she is just burnt to a crisp, like black and sooty. And I mean, it looks like a straight out of a movie, right? Tattered clothes and the whole the whole nine yards. So she had climbed up like five, six, seven.

[00:13:40] This is your funny story.

[00:13:42] It gets there. It gets there.

[00:13:44] Because.

[00:13:46] I used to not have a very refined sense of dark humor.

[00:13:49] And that's that's how we go.

[00:13:52] But we we get out there and you introduce ourselves. You say, Hey, fire department, I'm Steven. Can I help you? I get consent, whatever. And so we walk up and it's my patient and I go, Hey. Fire Department. Steven, how can I help you? And she goes, and she just sounds like.

[00:14:06] I thought she was burnt there. Chris dead.

[00:14:09] She's burnt to a crisp. She's not.

[00:14:10] Dead. Okay.

[00:14:13] Fire department. Can I help you? And she looks at me. I mean, she can't really move, but she, you know, twist over and she goes.

[00:14:18] Do you bitches? I'm a felon.

[00:14:23] And and that was the first time that I ever laughed out loud at a patient.

[00:14:26] It was she can't can't move. Right.

[00:14:32] Those are the first words out of her mouth. I say, hey, can I help you? Just just crazy.

[00:14:39] I mean, do you ever rescue any cats out of trees and all this typical stuff?

[00:14:43] A couple of times. Pull the cat out of tree, pulled a cat off a roof. It just drives me crazy. Like, you know, you never see a cat carcass up in a tree like they always come down.

[00:14:53] Well.

[00:14:53] What are we doing here?

[00:14:57] And and now? Don't they have to send in some areas police back up to first responders because danger.

[00:15:07] Oh yeah.

[00:15:07] Yeah I call them the the blue canaries.

[00:15:10] Luke.

[00:15:12] Are you familiar with canaries and miners?

[00:15:13] Yeah, of course. Yeah. So.

[00:15:17] Yeah. So for everyone who's listening, who doesn't know the story, miners would go down into the mines. They take canaries with them in cages. So if there was poisonous gas that they didn't know about, that the Canaries would die and be like, Oh, crap, we've got to get out of here. So the police are blue canaries, right? You know, we have like a domestic violence or some weird thing going on, like, hey, you know, I don't have I don't have this vest. I'm not packing weapons. I don't want to fight anyone. We'll send them in. We'll take care of that.

[00:15:41] So those those fire axes are pretty tough. If somebody got hit with one of them, it probably hurt.

[00:15:48] Oh, man. Yeah. I mean, I'm ready for the zombie apocalypse, right? I'm going straight to the ladder truck. We got some chainsaws. Got some axes.

[00:15:54] Yeah. Oh, yeah. You got all kinds of good stuff. The jaws of death.

[00:15:58] Things like a tank. Just drive right over him.

[00:16:02] Really?

[00:16:02] There's. Yeah, those fire trucks. I mean, they're worth, what, hundreds of thousands of dollars, right?

[00:16:08] In some cases, millions.

[00:16:09] Oh, my goodness. Millions of dollars.

[00:16:11] Wow.

[00:16:11] Yeah, we.

[00:16:12] We purchased two trucks. They were like the demo versions that came out. And so they get driven around from town to town and they're pretty basic. And we got both of them for super discount for like 500,000. Wow. But if you order, if you spec out a custom ladder truck, easily $1,000,000.

[00:16:31] Wow, wow, wow.

[00:16:32] Easily.

[00:16:32] All right. So what other jobs that you have? You said you had a multitude of jobs.

[00:16:36] Oh, jeez. Yeah.

[00:16:38] Yeah. The. I've raked sand traps at a golf course. I worked at a dry dock as a forklift operator. I sold vacuum cleaners door to door for a hot minute. That's insurance over the phone. I've done fix and flip real estate. They've done some slight construction stuff. I mean, you name it. And there's a very good chance that I've done something somewhere with it. It's my resume is like 12 pages long and I'm like, no.

[00:17:05] So. So after you got out of firefighting, how did you start? Did you just go right to hell.

[00:17:13] For.

[00:17:14] Training or how did you get into that coaching arena?

[00:17:17] That is a great question. So convoluted back story, right? I did everything I could and this is going to be a theme that whoever you are, if you're an entrepreneurship or business or looking to be in it and you take any course from anyone, they're going to tell you, take massive action. Massive action trumps learning every day of the week because getting stuff done is better than perfect.

[00:17:40] Well, I saw a quote of yours. Perfectionism is fancy procrastination.

[00:17:45] And absolutely is like, I have.

[00:17:47] To get it just right now. You're just procrastinating. Let's call it what it is. You know, someone gets hung up on, Oh, I need a logo. And I'm like, No, you don't. You're not Pepsi or no one cares.

[00:17:58] Yeah, that's true.

[00:18:00] Slap something up there. And if you don't like it in five years and you're doing well, rebrand it like Pepsi did that. No, it looks very similar, but they still redid their logo. Are you better than Pepsi? No. Go get a client. Like, what are we doing here?

[00:18:12] Yeah, yeah. Make money. Yeah. So many people brand themselves right into the poorhouse, you know, worrying about that stuff. I had people wanting to match their brochure colors to their website colors, and you'd say, okay, well, what's wrong with that? Well, the thing is, is and they really obsessed on it. If you went down to Best Buy and opened their website on ten different laptops, it's going to look every color is different laptops. So it was just crazy to try to do such a thing when they should be out there trying to get customers.

[00:18:45] Sure. But do you want to know the secret?

[00:18:48] Just buy one laptop.

[00:18:50] I don't know. No.

[00:18:51] The secret is because it feels good. It's mental match. It's mental masturbation.

[00:18:57] Yeah. That's what they're doing. Yeah. Instead of making.

[00:18:59] Absolutely. Yeah.

[00:19:00] It makes me feel good. They feel productive, they feel busy, they're working on their business. I'm throwing in air quotes because no one can see this, right? You're working for your business and you feel like you're making progress even though you're not you're not doing anything that moves the needle. And so that's like the big trap, especially with. Immediate first time business owners. You do all these things, you have all these preconceived notions of, oh, you need this and this and this and you need to be successful. I have to have a cool logo and a catchphrase and a nice website and it's like, Man, go, go leverage your network. Like, go join a meeting, go do a meetup, go talk to someone, because that's the activity that's going to move the needle and actually get you a client. No one's going to be a client of yours because you have a nice look and logo.

[00:19:43] Unless. Unless they sell logos and then they want to change yours.

[00:19:48] Sure.

[00:19:48] Right. Maybe. Maybe you're on Fiverr and you sell logos and that's what you're doing.

[00:19:51] Yeah. Cool.

[00:19:52] That makes sense. Like create a crap ton of logos.

[00:19:55] But yeah.

[00:19:57] But no getting into LP. So I took massive action. Like being a being a business coach wasn't on the forefront of my mind ever. I never like, Hey, I'm going to do much things to be a business coach. It was to be a firefighter. And I, you know, I slept on a sidewalk for an application. I put myself through EMT. I did everything I could. I volunteered at a department just for the chance to get that job. And I finally got the job. And then three years into it, I was let go because the department didn't have enough money for me and another guy. So of my group of six I got hired me, you know, like I got let go. And that shook to my core, my idea of security and safety.

[00:20:31] You would think fire and police. You know, back in those days, you never think about getting laid off. You know, that was just forever job. But nowadays. Wow.

[00:20:43] Yeah, you're exactly right. Right. And so I had this idea of like, hey, this pseudo government job with a pension that's going to be there for forever for me, you know, and everyone's just like he said, three years. But before he said, well, yes, I got back into firefighting and I was out of a job for about two months and I got hired on with another department. And then eventually my department was like, Hey, we have money again. You want to come back? And I came back and that's of course of ten years, but and this like back and forth of departments and stuff, there was some spans of unemployment and like again that security being gone. I said I need to take charge of my life because I'm not a victim. Right. And if I'm going to get results, it's on my own shoulders. I've got a family to feed, I've got a wife, I've got kids, and I'm going to make it happen now. And that's how I ended up selling vacuums door to door and selling insurance over the phone, like I was going to do everything I could to improve my situation. And so part of that was like, I'm working a bunch of really crappy, shitty jobs. Can I say shit on this podcast?

[00:21:42] It's too late. You did. You said something worse.

[00:21:46] Earlier, so don't worry about it.

[00:21:51] So I think it's funny to say it and then ask if I can say it.

[00:21:55] So.

[00:21:57] But no, I worked a ton of just crap jobs, right? And I was like, I need to take charge of my own life. And so I got into fortune builders and clever investor of fix and flip real estate, and I did a couple of deals and was like, You know what? I really don't like that. Like, yeah, I'm taking charge and I'm like making some money, but this is not what I enjoy and like. And it doesn't feed my soul like I need. I need something else that gives meaning and pleasure to myself other than, like, some soul sucking thing that I've just created. So. I started trying some other businesses and I realized that you can have the best party in the world, but if you don't get the invites out, no one's going to come, i.e. marketing. So I was like, I need to get really good at marketing. Like, really good at it because this is ridiculous. So I started taking every course I could, and I took courses from Billie Jean about like YouTube and email. I took Jerry Kramer, Tim Tarango, like, you name it. I've probably taken a course and went through it and have gotten really good at marketing, regardless of whether it's affiliate or email or whatever it is. And so finally came across some other people. I was like, Hey, I actually like the service. I use it as a white label in my own digital marketing agency. Another story for another time, but started getting there and I was like, I like this. And then I have always been a teacher. I've always enjoyed teaching people. I've always enjoyed the guidance, the mentorship role.

[00:23:19] And my wife. I'd been toying the idea round of business coaching for a while. I'm back in the fire service again, but I know that my priorities have changed. As a young man going into the fire service, it's like, This is awesome. Like, I'm going to be in this brotherhood. I'm going to be there for 30 years, maybe the firehouse family, and it's going to be awesome. And then I was like, You know what? Firefighters don't live long after retirement. Like they're 50 with five types of cancer. Wow. And they die like 5 to 10 years after retirement. I was like, that's not the life that I want to live. I've got two kids, and now my values have shifted to I want to be around. I want to have grandkids and great grandkids and I want to be present and healthy. And so I started looking at how we can work myself out of the fire service. So within that, that's how I came to LP is again, like I like helping people, I like guiding people. I always enjoyed teaching the volunteers. I enjoyed teaching my peers on the fireground when it would be time for doing different drills. And I was like, You know, what can I do? And that's why I went into a fire service, not like police or military. It's like, I don't want to have to fight someone or shoot a gun or someone like I don't want to necessarily hurt someone. Like, I like it when people are happy to see me, let me fix their problems and they can.

[00:24:28] Accept that one.

[00:24:29] Lady Yeah, right. You can't please everyone. Right. Tom Like so I got into EPW and again, it's like this. This is right. Like they're giving me all the skills that I need to boost my business acumen and my knowledge to help other people. And it's great. And the ongoing training and teaching and because I mean, no one pops out of the womb like I'm a great business coach and I can tell you how to do stuff. It's you get good by practice and experience and learning.

[00:25:00] And how'd you start your your own agency out of that? So you do both, right?

[00:25:05] Yeah, I do both. So I'm my own independent business coach and affiliated through LPs because I use some of their software and services and their trains. And then just my own agency, I use other services again started my own just I have a team of like ten plus writers and Vas and as we get clients, I'm actually talking with a home building client in the Midwest who's got like 90 sub franchisees, sub franchisees, franchisees. I don't even know how to say the word like sub sub people.

[00:25:37] They're they're less than people.

[00:25:41] Their own.

[00:25:41] Contractors with their own businesses that do like construction but use this company's.

[00:25:47] Right.

[00:25:48] Brand.

[00:25:48] Yeah. Yeah. Brand and stuff. So. I'm actually meeting with them here back like an hour or so, and we're going to go over like what their what campaigns look like for them moving forward. But yeah, so I do that and it's being omnipresent. So we create content, whether it's news articles, press releases, blog posts, we do some video, we do some audio, podcast directories and infographics, and then we also have the distribution side of that. So whenever we do a campaign that gets blasted out to 400 plus guaranteed placements in the media as well as all the other places that we've just listed.

[00:26:22] So for a company like that, what what social media would you slant towards? I mean, there's so many out there or would you do the research to find where their customers are first and then slant them towards that direction or what?

[00:26:36] That's a great question. So everyone is obsessed with figuring out the Google algorithm, right.

[00:26:44] But you are.

[00:26:47] There's always an exception.

[00:26:48] To the case. Right.

[00:26:50] But like the vast majority, if you go on any any someone's like, oh, SEO this and other than that. Right. And what happens is that everyone thinks that you need to have the best onsite SEO, which is ridiculously expensive for what it is, because at the end of the day, what it looks like is you're patting yourself on the back, right? Because Google is like Amazon. Amazon doesn't create jeans and t shirts and shoes, they curate it. And Google is the same as that. They curate content. And so if you ask how old's the queen Google's and say, hey, these are the top sites that I trust, these are the ones that answer the question the best and it ranks them in order, right? Unless you're a paid ad, which then you're up on top. And so going back to the numbers, 97% of people who go to Google for question, they skip the paid ads because they know that you're patting yourself on the back and they go to what they think. Google. Gives you the most trusted, credible answer. So when we create this content, we distribute it. We're leveraging Yahoo Finance's trust and credibility with Google. We're leveraging CNN's trust. We're less relevant, leveraging Fox's trust. And so you have all these people patting yourself on the back or patting you on the back, not yourself, and saying, Hey, Steven makes good shoes. So then when you're looking for shoes, all of a sudden I'm up on top because I have all this trust and credible leverage from everyone else when it comes to social media, you don't get.

[00:28:07] That.

[00:28:08] Right. Facebook is if you have a Facebook LinkedIn post that ranks on a Google search that's super low hanging fruit, that means there's no competition for it because Google doesn't care about social media. Google wants the content and Google doesn't trust Facebook.

[00:28:25] Yeah.

[00:28:26] You can say anything you want, but Google trust. Yahoo! Finance.

[00:28:29] Mm hmm. Right.

[00:28:30] So that's that's what we do is we do that content to gain that visibility. So when people start and we focus it on the problems and solutions that buyers intent and we liken it to if I was to shop for jeans, I'm not going to go online and say blue jeans and put that in the search result. I'm not a serious buyer, but if I say size 34 black, skinny, distressed bootcut jeans, I'm a serious buyer looking for that product.

[00:28:54] So if you put it on the end of that search term that Tom Antion could never fit in since he was in first grade.

[00:29:01] Right. Hey.

[00:29:02] Long tail.

[00:29:03] Keyword search. Right.

[00:29:05] Big, big tail.

[00:29:08] And so here's the key for everyone who's, like doing pay per click and stuff like that. The high value clicks and everyone tries to rank for us, like best doctor or best dentist or best whatever. And that's the smallest search percentage with the highest cost per click. And 70% of traffic comes from these longtail like buyer intent, keyword searches, and 15% of every Google of Google searches every day are brand new. They've never been searched before, which is bananas when you think about the billions of people using Google. So that's that's how we do it is we take the problems and solutions from our clients. Whether you're a dentist, you want to do like Invisalign with Medicaid insurance, right? We'll create the content about that and that's what it gets pushed out and that's how you rank and how you outdo your competition. So that's the tip and trick, right? All right.

[00:29:57] So we've got to take a brief sponsor break. And when we come back, we're going to ask Steve and what's a typical day look like for him? I know when I was on his podcast, I got a visit from Vivienne.

[00:30:07] And Drew and.

[00:30:09] She stopped by. It was a lot of fun. So. So folks are about 24, 25 years ago, it kind of turned the Internet guru world on its head and that people at my level were charging 50 or 100 grand up front to help you do the your business coaching. But I knew a lot of these people and they'd be, you know, you give them that money up front, you'd never see them again. So so I said, you know, that's too risky for a small business. So I said, I'm going to charge like an entry fee and then I'm going to tie my success to your success. So for me to get my 50,000, you have to make to net 200,000. Well, people love this. In 1700 students later, it's still I mean, I kind of lost track a couple of years ago, I don't know, more than 1700, but it's still going strong. And it's the longest running, most unique, most successful Internet and digital marketing mentor program ever. And I always triple dog dare anybody to put their program up against mine because nobody will.

[00:31:11] Because.

[00:31:12] There's no way they can match the the benefits that we give, you know. So it's all one on one with me and my entire staff. You don't you're not lumped in in any groups. You have an immersion weekend at the Great Internet Marketing Retreat Center in Virginia Beach, actually live in the state with me for an immersion weekend. You get to take advantage of our TV studio where we shoot your marketing videos for you, you know, give them, put the graphics on, edit them, send them to you. When you get home, you get a scholarship to the school that I was talking about earlier that's got the program for the persons with disabilities. You can either use it yourself or gift it. And there's just tons of other unique things that nobody else you see. I'm a fanatic. I threw a class on Thanksgiving one day because I forgot it was Thanksgiving. That's how beautiful I am. But. But you. Yeah. It's good to have a fanatic on your team, folks, because, I mean, I'm answering questions in the middle of the night for people at all kinds of stuff. So check it out at greatInternetmarketingtraining.com. And we'll see about your future online.

[00:32:26] All right. Let's get back to the main event. Steven Lentz is here and he's had a variety of jobs. He's got a beautiful family now and he just didn't want to end up being a retired dead firefighter. So it's pretty accurate. Yeah. So he got into other stuff. So what's the typical day look like for you, Steven?

[00:32:48] No, I appreciate that. And you know what? I feel great. You call me the main event that's I'm going to start throwing that on the tagline.

[00:32:54] Yeah, you're the main event.

[00:32:55] Feel good out.

[00:32:56] Of 570 80.

[00:32:58] Episodes.

[00:32:59] Here. The main event for this one.

[00:33:01] That's right. Like a broken clock. I'm right at least twice a day.

[00:33:03] Right. There you go.

[00:33:05] Yeah. So. So do you have a morning routine? Do you get up early? Do you work out? What do you do? What do you do?

[00:33:12] Yeah. So I've I have a hard time sometimes with necessarily morning routine consistency. I'm not a morning person. That's always been one of my struggles. I can stay up all hours of the night, but getting up early has been difficult for me. But I get up decently early. I have two kids. They don't let me sleep in, but I'll get up and I go. I make myself some tea and I have some family time right off the bat in the morning. And so that's about the first hour of some family time and just a little bit of meditation. Get my get my mind right.

[00:33:39] And you work at your home, right?

[00:33:41] Yeah. I'm working work out of my house through the commute.

[00:33:43] All right.

[00:33:44] That's right. The the tell you what, traffic from the bedroom to the kitchen is insane.

[00:33:51] Yeah. You know, you don't have. Now, just for nostalgia, do you have, like, a fire pole in your. In your house?

[00:33:59] No, no.

[00:34:00] People would have a pole dancing thing.

[00:34:03] I mean, I've offered my wife to get one. She she shot that down pretty quick now. But no, it's I have I have some morning, some family time and then I schedule podcast guesting for the morning if I'm going to do that and kind of those morning meetings. So like I said, I have a client meeting here coming up in just a little bit and then the afternoons is when I have people on my podcast from doing that and then other depending on the severity of need, all schedule, different activities, whether it's some coaching outreach or getting with current clients or reaching out and doing digital marketing stuff and getting with the team. So the mornings are kind of like me time and getting focused and planning and prepping and taking care of other outside stuff. And then the afternoons are inside work.

[00:34:49] And how are the kids?

[00:34:51] Five and seven.

[00:34:52] Well, are they in the business yet? Because, you know, they probably know more about computers than we do.

[00:35:00] My seven year old, I got him a coding program. So he's he's enjoying that. He's learning how to do some coding stuff. But now they're not doing anything in the business yet. But they're I mean, they're around it. They talk about, oh, when I'm older, I'm going to have a tire shop business and I'll do this. It's awesome.

[00:35:13] But how about your wife? Is she part of the business?

[00:35:16] She is not. She actually has her own zero eight grocery store in Kirkland.

[00:35:20] What's it called?

[00:35:21] It's called Scoop Marketplace.

[00:35:23] No, but you said zero. What?

[00:35:25] Oh, zero waste.

[00:35:26] Oh, yes. You mean I could have a smaller waste if I ate there?

[00:35:31] Yeah.

[00:35:31] All the way down to zero.

[00:35:32] Yeah. So.

[00:35:36] So what does that mean? So they're able to donate stuff that's not sold or what?

[00:35:41] So her passion project is helping the planet be healthier. You have all the microplastics in the ocean and garbage going to the dumps and stuff. And so her goal is to help reduce the footprint of garbage. So instead of going to Fred Meyer or Costco and everything's in individually packed stuff scoop everything is bulk goods. So you're you're scooping out rice and beans into your own containers. So she buys the stuff in bulk from the suppliers and huge £50 bags of oats and stuff like that. And then people can be like, Hey, I need two cups of rice for dinner. And they can come down and they can get two cups of rice. So just eliminating all the the vast majority of the consumer waste that goes into food and home care.

[00:36:26] Right. Right, right. But but does everything that she have not have a shelf life? Like if she doesn't sell stuff, can it be donated or is that against health rules?

[00:36:39] She doesn't have any perishable stuff in the store right now.

[00:36:42] Okay. No. No waste.

[00:36:44] Zero waste.

[00:36:45] Zero waste. Now it's really cool. And other like home good stuff too. Like soaps and shampoos and lotion and like, toothpastes and toothbrushes and stuff. So all those different home care grocery.

[00:36:58] How many square feet is the store?

[00:36:59] And I want to say it's like 2000 square feet.

[00:37:06] 16,000.

[00:37:07] Is it open? Seven days?

[00:37:09] It is open. I do want to say it's seven days. It's while I'm part owner. It is not. I'm not in it.

[00:37:17] Yeah.

[00:37:18] It's her project. It's her thing. When she sent it up, she's like, I'm kind of nervous. It's like, Sure, I'll put my name on it. And that's how I ended up being like part owner. But I mean, I am.

[00:37:26] Not.

[00:37:27] Very involved.

[00:37:27] She go there seven days or you have a big staff or what she has.

[00:37:31] She has her own staff and personal assistant and they run the store. So she does everything from home and mostly is working on like vendor relations and goods and the money and like the back end office running the business. So she's yeah she has people that it's in their, you know, way in weighing the goods and checking people out and stuff like that.

[00:37:51] I would never she'd fire me in 5 minutes because I could never be in a food business because I had one food business and I ate up all the profits, you know. And so she come in and I have my head stuck in a bin or something and just eating out of bed.

[00:38:07] I mean, it's not there's nothing that's perishable. So, I mean, you'd be chomping on like dried rice and dried beans.

[00:38:13] I would lose weight.

[00:38:14] I think you'd be just fine.

[00:38:17] So. So how do people get ahold of you?

[00:38:20] Yeah, so you can go to my website. StevenLentzcoaching.com.

[00:38:26] That's my middle name is PH Stephen.

[00:38:29] Oh we're going to fight.

[00:38:31] Well you can have it. Yeah. I don't go.

[00:38:33] By it.

[00:38:35] Unless it's lentils and is a Nancy it's and toms and zebra so StevenLentzcoaching.com and then in the show notes there'll be a calendar link for a ten minute call want to chat more about becoming a business coach or using business coach services or talking about digital marketing stuff? Always happy to chat, but you can find me at StevenLentzcoaching.com and I have a free e-book there as well about marketing for you. You can grab that.

[00:38:56] Awesome, awesome, awesome. Well, thanks so much for for at least your ten years of saving people and saving homes. And and, you know, it's good in many cases for a coach to have gone through all the crap you went through with those jobs and and then a good job with the fire fighting because that's experience. What I hate is when somebody wants to be your life coach and they never did a damn thing.

[00:39:23] In their whole life. You know.

[00:39:26] They want to be your life coach. So, so good for you, man. So thanks so much for coming on.

[00:39:32] Now, Tom, I had a I had a blast. Thank you so much for having me.

[00:39:34] Yeah. Go, go land those clients, man.

[00:39:37] Now I'm going to do it.

[00:39:39] All right, do it. All right. Don't procrastinate. Perfectionism is fancy. Procrastination. That's a good design.

[00:39:46] Done is better than perfect. You're out there and move the needle.

[00:39:49] All right, man. We'll get you later. Thanks, everybody. We'll see you. Thanks.