84 – The “Art” of smart calling: Tom interviews Art Sobczak

Episode 084 – Art Sobczak
[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 84 of screw the commute podcast. We've got a longtime buddy of mine. His name is Art Sobczak and you don't even think about trying to spell it but he's a guy who is the greatest. He's the greatest at something I absolutely hate so very interested to hear what he has to say about it today. I hope you didn't miss last episode 83 with Carla Rieger. Carla grew up in a in a family with absolutely zero humor zero tolerance and she switched her whole life around. She went to improv classes and now she she has Mindstory Academy so she teaches you how to really change your your mindset using the stories of your life. Now we want you to download the new podcast app we have it makes it really great to listen on your tablets and your mobile devices than it even has on all kinds of cool features like if you're if you're in the car and the phone rings it'll pause the podcast and then start playing after you hang up. So all these kinds of things we even have instructions on how to use all the advanced features you can check that out at screwthecommute.com/app. Now we are starting a monthly youth episode where I highlight a young person that's doing great entrepreneurial things so you can email me at orders@antion.com and that will be in the show notes for details on how a young person can apply to be featured in our our first young person was Tiffani Hockings who's the young girl helping other young girls. So check out her episode. Now our sponsor this week. Hey it's me again. Big surprise right. And the Internet Marketing retreat and joint venture program where myself and my staff work with you for a year to either get you started in an Internet business or to use the Internet to take your existing business to the next level. I'll tell you more about that later. And the details will be at greatinternetmarketingtraining.com. And of course they'll be in the show notes.

[00:02:49] All right let's get to the main event over the past 30 years. Art Sobczak has helped sales people worldwide say the right things to get through get in and sell primarily using the phone. He's the speaker trainer author and marketer of his training products his flagship book smart calling how to eliminate the fear of failure and rejection from cold calling hit number one in Amazon's sales category in the very first day. Art are you ready to screw, the commute.

[00:03:29] That's a heck of a place for a comma Tom. Yes. Yes I am. Thank you so much for having me.

[00:03:38] It's my pleasure man. It's been a while you've been. You've been to the house before and it's been a long time since we've had a chance to talk. But tell everybody watch what you actually do right now.

[00:03:50] Well what would I do. What I've been doing for my entire career is helping sales people and those who don't necessarily have sales in their title but nevertheless need to sell which is most business people. What I do is I help them use the right words to get through get in and sell more effectively without this thing called rejection. I'm using air quotes right there and I do that through a variety of different means as you have mentioned in the in the introduction I'm a speaker and trainer but also have a lot of information available online both free and things that people can can invest in as well in a variety of different mediums.

[00:04:33] Now you heard me say you probably run into a lot of people like me that just can't stand it. What would you say to people about the benefits of getting over that hurdle of hating this this type of marketing.

[00:04:50] Well are you talking about sales in general or just calling on the phone.

[00:04:55] Cold calling.

[00:04:56] Right. Right. Well it's funny Tom because so so many things in sales have negative labels attached to them and then they have over the years which I think perpetuates the negative image of sales people and the negative experience that a lot of sales people have. But really when you think about it selling professionally is is nothing more than than helping people helping people buy by engaging in a conversation about what somebody wants and what somebody needs and and really helping them sell themselves. So so when people look at it from that perspective and they do it in that way and they they do it conversationally and professionally then then they don't have the negative experience and they're not looking at it in a negative way. But if if someone does cold calling and again cold as in in quotations here I define cold as somebody calling someone they don't know who doesn't know them and they're not expecting their call and they're just giving them this pitch where they're they're talking about what they want to sell as opposed to what somebody might be interested in. And further they don't know anything about them and everybody's getting the same pitch. Yeah there's no wonder why people hate to place those calls and people hate to receive those calls. So that's why a long time ago I and I've been again training for for over 30 plus years and I've been teaching this as long as as actually I've been in business but more formally about ten years ago we made it a brand and that was the name of the book and that's smart calling which is you get this or you're sitting down knowing something about the people you call before you call them so that you can have a relevant message that is going to resonate with them as opposed to be perceived as this fast talking cold caller.

[00:06:50] Right. And so right there reframes that a little bit for me because I just had such a negative thought about it. To me it felt like begging for work. And. And so you're saying to really research the person and have a conversation that that hits it from the get go rather than having to try to do that on the phone with them right.

[00:07:17] Well I mean as you know as an expert marketer and copywriter what what you're trying to do and I do the same thing as a marketer is that we try to talk to one person out there we try to talk to our audience what is it that they want. What are they looking for. What was going to resonate with them what's relevant for them. And that's exactly what we want to do when we're making a phone call. Gone are the days when somebody can just smile and dial and throw a pitch out there and have people say Oh yeah sure. I'll meet with you. We're we're inundated with. I mean the latest number I saw was around 3,000 messages per day through a variety of different means and we're ignoring all but just a few of them. And the only way a salesperson is going to have the chance to have their message have any impact at all is if it appeals to that person right at that point in time. And it's got to be personalized it's got to be customized and it's got to relate to something that's going on in their world or in their mind so that they're going to stop what they're doing lean in and say OK there might be something here for me.

[00:08:30] Ok. So all right you're you're warming me up a little bit here. But let's let's get back to that a little later and I want to take you back because this of course is an entrepreneurial podcast. Where did you get started. Did you have jobs and work for a living in the beginning.

[00:08:48] I did actually. I had all kinds of jobs just about every job that you could think of in in high school and in college most of them were sales jobs. I was I was actually a deejay for my four years of college. So I played about 400 wedding reception and parties which was which was a great job which actually was great training for for what I do now. Both speaking in the sales part.

[00:09:12] You get a lot of drunk people coming up to you.

[00:09:20] I can't tell you how many times people came up and said Dude can you play Free Bird. Which you know is not a great dance song. And my favorite line is you know I'll see if I can get to it. Except one guy came up to me and this was in the I think it was in 1980 and he came up to me with three hundred dollars and said Can you play Free Bird. And I said I will get that right on for you sir. But anyway to answer your question I was always entrepreneurial. I was reading Entrepreneur Magazine and Inc magazine. When when I was in college and in those magazines both go back that far and I always knew I wanted to do my own deal. But by the same token when I graduated from college I also got married the week after I graduated and I thought you know I let's go out there get some experience and let's get a let's get a little bit of money coming in. So I had a number of job offers and I took one that was attractive mainly because it took me to Kansas City and I'm a big Royals fan so I took a job with the old AT&T in sales and as it turns out I was working at their their flagship. They didn't use a term call center then they called it The Bell System sales center which was a telemarketing center. They were selling telemarketing which wasn't a bad word at the time and essentially we're showing businesses how they could how they could use the phone to get more business. That's how they could. That's how they could sell more of their services. And from from the first day I was trying to figure out how can I go out and do this on my own. Well it only took about eight months before I left and I actually left with a partner who had the same idea and we left out we left and I was at the ripe old age of 23 and started a consulting firm a telemarketing consulting firm showing companies how they could use a phone.

[00:11:17] Hold on hold on. So that you got the idea. And you said it took about eight months. Were you planning your exit or you just one day say I'm gone. Did you save up some money. How did you make that transition from the corporate paycheck to going out on your own.

[00:11:36] Yes to a couple of your questions I was planning my exit the entire time because I'm always thinking OK how how am I going to be able to do this on my own. So we were consulting with clients again over the phone how they could implement an inside sales department at this but by at the same time I'm honing my skills on and of course getting some great education in how to do that. And in the meantime I'm planning. OK how we're going to make our break what are we going to do. But also here's a great lesson for the audience. I also made a huge mistake in that we didn't have clients in hand with with revenue from day one and then we also made the mistake of going out and renting an office and buying office furniture. So. So that's not recommended.

[00:12:25] Yeah I think I bought all the stuff that you got rid of. I went to Craigslist. I furnished my entire school 4000 square foot building with gorgeous Cherry desks and everything. For fifteen hundred dollars. And any one of them would it cost fifteen hundred dollars. But you know some other business made that mistake and then they had they went out of business because they bought all this stuff and didn't have the revenue. So it was in a warehouse the guy couldn't wait to get rid of it for any amount of money.

[00:12:59] And I did the same thing later on in life. But at that point that was that was called tuition.

[00:13:08] Liquidated damages I call it. So you made the transition now. Tell us about the partner you had a partner right. Because I'm very skeptical of partnerships. So how did that work out and how did you decide to have a partner instead of just going right on your own.

[00:13:27] As you should be skeptical I shouldn't say skeptical I should say a careful. And when we both left of course we were both cocky and talented and he he was not married at the time I was and I had a wife bringing in some revenue and we weren't bringing in a lot of revenue right at the beginning as most small businesses don't. We were bringing in just enough to pay some bills and just enough for him to pay his bills. So because I had money coming here I had money coming in through my wife and he didn't. Of course he was he was taking his salary and then and as sometimes partnerships play out. One person does a lot more work than the other one and you might guess who that one was. And that was me and and the way it ended up is that he decided he didn't want to be in business. He wanted to go to law school which he did. So I say at least one of us still has a reputable profession. No no insults to the attorneys out there. He did eventually leave. And it ended. There was some resentment there because he left owing the company a lot of money which which of course was never was never paid back. But the thing here I mean the lesson for future entrepreneurs is if you're going to go into a partnership make sure your roles are pretty well defined as to who's going to do what and who's going to be compensated for what. Which we didn't have in place.

[00:15:00] Ok. So yeah I know it's easy to get into a partnership but I mean really anybody that's even considering that should get an attorney and look at all the the possibilities because it's easy to get in. It's getting out that can cause enormous trouble. You need to know what if some one person becomes incapacitated. What if they just want to leave. What's the buyout. You have insurance on each other. You know all of these kinds of things can affect that. Nobody thinks about that when they're all starry eyed about getting started in business but it can really tear you up and on the back end.

[00:15:38] Yes exactly. Great point. And we we didn't have that type of agreement. Plus I was the one who put in pretty much all of the money.

[00:15:49] So all those things yeah. Have to be have to be written out equitably and if and if somebody won't sign it. That's the first person that will screw you. So really going through that process can can show a lot about the other person that you may not realize when you're all excited about getting started in business. All right so. So let's get back to your your expertise and how it could help a business. Give us some tips on on smart calling. I was gonna say cold calling but I changed my mind and said smart calling.

[00:16:22] Well I'm glad that's that's the first step in the process. Well again it's a relatively simple concept and that is if you desire to do business with someone and if you're an entrepreneur if you're a small business let let's face it the fastest and least expensive way to enter a sales conversation with somebody who who doesn't know you and you've never had a relationship with and who isn't going to call you first is to pick up the phone and try to reach them. Now the problem is too many people don't know how to do it and they call and they start talking about their thing which is one of my favorite sayings. Don't talk about your thing. People don't buy your thing they. They only buy a potential result. So what we should do instead is go through this process where we really want to understand first of all why would someone be interested in what I have to sell. And then I really need to do some research on what's going on in that person's world. And again why would they be a prospect for me. And is there anything that might make them a better prospect for me. Maybe there's some kind of trigger event. Maybe there's something going on in their world. So for example if I'm selling used an example if I'm selling security software of some type and I know that a company just had a breach. Now of course that's a huge trigger event that's going to make them a more plausible prospect for for what I have but I probably just wouldn't want to stop at that.

[00:18:10] I'd want to know something more about what's going on in their department what do they have in place. What are some of the implications. So in addition to doing the research that is available to everyone which is the online research and there's a lot of different places we could go of course that the free Biggie would be Google and LinkedIn and all those things and there's other search engines out there that aggregate that type of information as well as social media information. There's also this thing called social engineering which is used pretty widely by computer hackers but we're using it for reputable purposes social engineering as simply calling into a company and asking questions of someone other than your decision maker to get some more sales intelligence about what might be going on so that we can now tailor a message that is going to resonate more with that individual. So let's say for example I find out from somebody else in the I.T. department that they they have this initiative in place where they're looking at again not being technical I'm just kind of making this up. But but there's something that they're working on so now I'm going to craft my message using a proven process that we use and that message would go something like this. Hey Tom art Sobchak here with security software and I understand you're you're probably getting a lot of calls from people that want to talk to you about your security.

[00:19:34] I also understand that something you're working on right now very specifically is that I would mention this. Well we've been successful in working with other I.T. departments in the manufacturing space in helping them too. And and again you'd fill in the blank there with your possible benefit. And then I would end with a simple look to ask you a couple questions see if we might have the basis for for a further conversation. So. So what I've done there is I've related that I know something about you. I've talked about some possible value and within that possible value I've mentioned some social proof. So I've worked with others doing that and those I haven't talked about the thing I haven't talked about the software. I also didn't ask for a decision which so many sales people do today. They call up and you probably get these calls a time when I'd like to do is to you know take 15 minutes your time or schedule a meeting with your teacher on a Web demo. It's like you know it's way too early for that. The biggest decision we want them to make at this point is to stay on the phone with you for another 15 20 30 seconds and then we continue earning the right to stay on the phone with them. Now your goal at this point could be an appointment or it might be just to engage in right there and a further conversation. But all I want to do here is get them to simply say yes sure. OK. What do you want to know.

[00:20:57] The only flaw I see in that in that example that you made up is that the FBI knocks on your door. How did you know about this software.

[00:21:11] Well here's the funny thing is that when I teach this in workshops and seminars if people aren't doing it and if they have a little bit of resistance they're going to say people are busy. Yeah. Are they going to answer questions or they're not going to answer questions. And my response to that is just try it. People are conditioned to answer questions if you ask them. I mean we've been answering questions our entire lives. Now I also have a process where we give a reason for asking.

[00:21:44] So for example if I call into I mean in our case we'll call it a sales departments and we'll talk to sales people because of course we're selling sales training and we all know sales people like to talk. Right. We'll go to the sales department get a salesperson on the phone and say yeah. Hey Tom Art Sobczak here with business by phone. Here's why I want to let you know I'm not a prospect for you but I'm going to be speaking to your V.P. of sales and before I do there's probably some information you could help me with I want to make sure I'm prepared. So tell me I see that you guys are doing cold calling there and then I go into the questions. So. So what I did there was I gave a reason. And what this does is that this actually follows Cialdini's principle of the because. Anytime you make a request if you give a reason for it as as minimal or as or as stupid as it might be it is proven that people will give you more and better information.

[00:22:40] Yeah. Let's stop for a second and tell him about the Robert Cialdini's book. It's called influence the psychology of persuasion. I probably read it seven times and everybody I know that makes a lot of money has. So that's what he's talking about with Cialdini.

[00:22:57] So again if if you're a salesperson and you're not even a salesperson person but you need to sell the more information that you get and the more you're able to tailor your initial opening and your benefit statement I actually call it your possible value proposition. The more conversations you're going to enter into because now people are talking about their favorite subject which is themselves.

[00:23:23] I think you're your first name is perfect because these to me there's an art to this.

[00:23:32] That's a that's that's actually the name of my podcast The art of sales.

[00:23:35] There you go. Perfect.

[00:23:38] But actually it is Tom. It's part art. No pun intended but it's part science as well.

[00:23:45] Yeah. So anybody can learn to do this. That doesn't mean it's not like you have to be a Michelangelo painter to really do well with this. I mean I'm sure some people do better than others but you can learn these skills right.

[00:24:00] Oh absolutely. I mean I always suggest that there's no born sales people any more than there are born airline pilots. Right. So there is an art and a science. The science part most definitely can be learned by looking at the process and the words and the mechanics and then the art part is the performance part and the performance part comes from applying the the scientific part learning all we can. But then it's a matter of doing it but doing the right things in the right way. Yeah it's it's kind of like golf. Sometimes people will say oh jeez I. I'd be better if I just played more. I mean I was playing with a guy we got got hooked up with with a single and a guy was absolutely awful and he'd spray his drives out out of bounds and you just say man if I if I just got to play more I'd be better I'm taking myself. No you wouldn't you just be better at being bad because you're not doing the right thing. That's a swing was horrible. So if if somebody knows the right things to do and then they they practice it and then they learn from their mistakes it's like anything else. Yeah. You can be great at some of the best salespeople I've ever been around I've been around some very wealthy sales people. They weren't what you would call naturals but you know what they. They worked harder than almost anybody else and they had the desire to be better.

[00:25:31] So anything crazy funny bizarre ever happen when these calls or during your career.

[00:25:38] Well yeah actually it wasn't necessarily on a call me there was a lot of stuff that that's that's happened on calls. But let me share an experience being a speaker and you know this because I know you you were on the road for a while and I certainly put my time in with over a million miles and you know my share of hotel meeting rooms. So this is probably about 15 years ago I had a client that a lot of people might be familiar with. It's a Vitamix. You know the blender. And I had done a program for them and they called me maybe Two years later and said hey we're ready for a refresher. Can you come out. You pretty much repeat the same thing you did a couple of years ago. That's awesome. So we set the date it was a couple months in the future and at the time I was using a travel agency. So I called up the travel agency I said Hey I need to book a trip to Atlanta for these days this time. That is a done deal. So day comes I get on the flight like I normally do get my rental car I get out on the Beltway and you're probably familiar with Atlanta right. You don't get out of the airport you got that Beltway there. We've got the interstate. So I'm driving down the interstate and I'm going You know this actually doesn't look familiar. And then I'm thinking wait a minute Vitamix is in Cleveland. Not Atlanta. Now I mean come on give me a break here. Outside the airport of Cleveland in Atlanta you kind of got the little Beltway industrial OK. Maybe not. Luckily I was able to rush back to the rental car place dump the car off. I just screamed at him saying don't need it. Yeah go ahead. Charge me whatever. And I was booking a new flight which luckily I was able to get one that night to Cleveland and got in late at night. And it only cost me about five hundred dollars out of my own pocket for that screw up.

[00:27:39] We could probably do many many issues on travel crazy store time of them right before I had to go through a luncheon program I had to fly in in the morning and it was three degrees below zero and the guy sitting next to me says we got up off the plane spilled a whole diet coke on my lap it soaked me and I go outside and my pants freeze. So did you hear lately they're going to reduce the size of the airline bathrooms so they can fit in a couple more chairs and I'm thinking I can't fit into it now. They should just put a porta potty at each seat.

[00:28:26] Oh my gosh. So I don't know how how some people right now fit in fit in the seats.

[00:28:35] I mean I lost 100 pounds of last time you saw me. Been on the ketogenic lifestyle kind of it's very low carb moderate protein high fat and it's been really great but anyway what do you like best about working for yourself and what's the worst part.

[00:28:54] Well it's actually all I can remember but I I I could not imagine working for someone else where I was not in total control of my destiny and my income and what what I chose to do each and every day. And I know it's not for everybody but again just the thought of being able to and you can relate to this. The thought of being able to wake up one day get an idea and say you know I'd like to generate ten thousand dollars because I want to go on this trip. So then what we do is we come up with a campaign and write some copy make an offer and and send it out to the list. Now I don't want people to think that you know it's it's internet marketing is is get rich quick overnight or you need to do is send it email and you know you know being the scam buster that you are there are people that teach that.

[00:30:02] But the fact is if you've done the right things over the years and you build up your tribe you deliver value and you you have credibility and people put trust in you if if you come up with a good offer that truly is going to deliver more than what they're investing you're capable of doing that. I've done it. I do it regularly and I and I know you do as well from from the offers I get from you.

[00:30:28] Yeah. So I can't imagine working for anybody else I can't imagine. So for me I'm definitely anti corporate because I couldn't sit in a in two weeks a committee meetings just to go to the bathroom. Fast speed to market and the people that never did anything you know or sometimes above you because of nepotism and like oh man I would murder somebody if it's always but what's the worst part. Is it gonna be some downsides to this right.

[00:31:01] Well I think I think the worst part could also be the best part. The worst part. If I had to pick a negative is that when and I'm pretty much a solo producer. I had staff at one point and I had an office building and and I always knew I was not a good manager. Many entrepreneurs aren't. I wasn't great at delegating so anyway to today I'm just pretty much by myself I use some VAs so the worst part would be when you're working all by yourself. You're you're a committee of one which means you could be a little bit isolated from other ideas other people out there so therefore you've got to make sure that you are inserting yourself in situations where you're continuing to associate with people when you want to because you may not always want to which could also be the best part because you don't have to put up with all the crap and the politics and all of that. So what I make sure that that I do is of course when I'm speaking about there and I am kind of in the corporate world. So I see those things and I'm thankful that that I'm that I'm not in it full time but also involved in mastermind groups and associating with with other like minded successful people which is very important when when you're an entrepreneur you're if you're you're not continually getting new ideas whether it be you're just going out and seeking education reading it consuming it through videos audios your stuff. We most definitely should be associating with other people who are at your level and higher the levels that you aspire to.

[00:32:43] Yeah. Yeah. Even in our own little company here know twice a week I you know mostly young people compared to me and I want that because you know they're they're in tune with you know what's the latest social media what's that. And I encourage them to let me know give me ideas that don't scare them away like oh I'm the big kahuna. Don't you know don't challenge me. I want to hear what's going on because they're in a different world than me. So you're going to keep yeah you're going to keep your mind open.

[00:33:14] Oh absolutely. You know I think it's popular for people of our age group to to bash millennials but I am absolutely amazed by the millennials who are doing amazing things out there. Matter of fact I was. My girlfriend was just talking to an 18 year old yesterday who just started this Instagram business and he's partners with a 21 year old who had just sold a social media business for get this a million bucks.

[00:33:45] Yeah. Doing stuff. I mean the kid our first kid. I don't know if you remember Ilia worked for me I recruited him out of CompUSA which I don't think exists anymore but in 10th grade and he's just on his third startup he's a millionaire in Los Angeles now the latest was called Pluto.tv. I think they got 50 million dollars in funding. So. So yeah these these kids. Yeah I agree that I have a little trouble with work ethic and things from our generation. You actually worked and got paid. Now I guess you work only one percent of the hour. But but I tell you what they get. They're in tune with a lot of things though. So what kind of stuff do you have that could help our listeners. You've got books. What else you got.

[00:34:36] Well I mentioned the podcast and and I got to say you were partly responsible for my inspiration for the podcast. Sometimes we hear things enough and it finally sinks in.

[00:34:51] Well I totally poo poo pooed them for years because nobody was making any money. It was kind of an ego trip for people. But now with the advent of automobiles being able to play podcasts directly it's exceeded the listenership of XM Radio and they're free and the Amazon echoes where people could just say Hey play screw the commute and it starts playing in their house you know. So it's a different world and people are making some really big money from these now.

[00:35:20] Well here's here's the funny thing. Way back in the day when they actually had these things called iPods. Yeah I actually started out and probably did I don't know 10 15 episodes and I called it a podcast and at the time it was just simply an MP3 that I had up on a Web site and people could download them onto an iPod and and and then after like you said people were making money but it wasn't popular then I would always hear about podcasts and just up until probably about eight months ago. Did it really get on my radar when I. You know I heard about it enough. And when people I really respected then started getting into it and doing well with it. That's when I really sat up and paid attention. So I decided to launch my own. And we we started in at the end of November it's called theartofsales.com. And it's conversational sales techniques for either sales people or people who may not consider themselves a sales person but nevertheless need to sell. And and and again it's just common sense type of things that anybody can use in order to to help people buy.

[00:36:31] Yeah. And all this entrepreneurs still have to sell. I mean there's no getting around that. It's just you have to sell in one fashion or the other. So you can't bury your head and think I'll just sit back and I'm in business now. Good. You're going to hear the crickets chirping. So. So we've got to take a brief break for our sponsor which is usually me and then when we come back we're going to ask Art what's a typical day look like for him and how he stays motivated.

[00:37:01] Now folks I kind of turned internet marketing training the world of that on its head around the year 2000 see people like me were charged in 50 to 100 thousand dollars upfront to teach what we knew to clueless business people who refused to learn it themselves. And you know I'm a small business advocate and I knew many small businesses could never afford that kind of upfront money. So I made all those gurus mad by charging a relatively small entry fee to my program. But I also got a percentage of profits that was capped. So you're not stuck with me forever. So for me to get my big money you have to make way bigger money plus you know I'm not going to disappear on you. Like many of them do because I won't get my money. So I took it a step further even. I bought a big estate home and a TV studio where my students as part of their yearlong training come and actually stay in my house for an immersion weekend as part of their yearlong training. So check it all out at greatinternetmarketingtraining.com. And of course that'll be in the show notes.

[00:38:14] All right let's get back to our main event Art Sobczak is here he's got a long long career is probably the best there is in his field. Art what's a typical day look like for you.

[00:38:27] Well when I'm in town when I'm not on the road and doing training. Typical day is getting up really early. I've always been an early riser. Is really an Arizona. So we're either on mountain time or Pacific time depending on if it's daylight savings time. Early is I'm normally at the gym between 430 and 5:00. The way I look at that is on the East Coast it's already you know six six thirty or so. Oh boy. So then after that come back have a healthy breakfast. I like to take care of my health. And then after that I'm into the office and I I guess one one weakness that I have is I'm not necessarily very regimented or disciplined in OK at at six o'clock. You do this six 20 you do this. Sometimes I'll be all over the board so I might be working on a major project. But but normally it's going to involve a little bit of social media doing my LinkedIn staying up with my contacts posting something. It could be posting something in our Facebook community. It could be working on my email newsletter so content creation is is a big part of my day. And then also there's always some sales involved because I still sell every day so if there's any follow ups or new contacts to make I'm actually on the phone so I'm a salesperson first and foremost. And then also depending on if I have a speaking engagement coming up it might involve preparation. So for example day after tomorrow I'm doing a national sales meeting for a office cleaning franchise and they happen to be doing it right here in Scottsdale which is awesome so don't have to get on a plane for that.

[00:40:25] So I'm preparing the presentation for that. So there and a great thing about being in this business as you know is that there are a lot of different things that that can be done. And it's a matter of making sure you're focusing on the the high value activities.

[00:40:44] How much customization do you do for these groups.

[00:40:48] I pride myself on doing a lot of customization for for my clients and I guess being the guy who is smart calling who talks about customizing your sales call right. I want to make sure that we're talking about their call to their market to their prospects. With the problems that they're facing. So I go through a process where I'll listen to sales calls recorded sales calls in advance I'll of course we'll we'll do a planning meeting with the decision makers and the managers in advance. Then I'll interview the the actual sales people themselves to find out what's really going on out in the field. Because of course they'll tell me things that the managers may not and and then the the little secret which is not a secret to you as a speaker is that I don't have to go in to rewrite my program every time. Having done this about fifteen hundred times it's relatively easy for me to go and just tweak a few things and make it a customized program.

[00:41:49] Yeah and yeah same with me as I totally pride myself. And when you're mentioned about research and everything. I've had great success with Google Alerts where I just put them they keywords in of companies that if I'm going to be dealing with as far in advance as they can and then I get any news item emailed to me every every time it shows up in the news. I went into like Hallmark cards to speak one time and I knew stuff that they didn't know it just came out in the news that morning and I walked into the meeting and they thought I was part of the company you know. So this this really can be impressive using the tools we have now online. So. So hey you said you're currently a solopreneur. How do you stay motivated.

[00:42:38] Well that That's an interesting question because being in business as long as I have and as long as you have. Sometimes there are peaks and valleys as you know And having a pretty good degree of success over the years what what can happen is sometimes we can we can drift into complacency which which means that you get comfortable. But when I when I start nearing the fringes of that what I do is I start romancing the business again. And what I do is start looking at what what can I do here to deliver more value to to my tribe to my audience. And I do get a tremendous amount of satisfaction out of that. And you know it might sound kind of woo woo or altruistic but but but it really is part of what I do I get tremendous satisfaction out of helping people be successful naturally. Money will flow to value. So there's a there's a great reward in that. But what I always want to make sure that I've got several different targets or projects on the drawing board and that gives me the why to operate at the breakneck pace that that many of us entrepreneurs do.

[00:44:01] So great words from a great salesperson now. Any parting words for our listeners we call them screwballs that listen to this.

[00:44:13] Well I would assume that the people listening to this are interested in entrepreneurism either they are one or they they're looking to get into it. And I would say that there is there's there has been no greater time to to get into business for yourself than than than today. And if you're going to do it though make sure you do it in an educated way because of the age that we live in. There's never been a time there's been more information available to us. So if you are going to go out and do it on your own make sure you do it in an educated way by the same token don't don't be paralyzed by the pursuit of perfection you're never ever going to achieve that. But I'll give you an example Tom I'm I'm a professional cook in the sense that I've been paid for for cooking before I'm. I'm a competitive barbecue cook barbecue contests and when I'll cook for a party or something people will say oh my god this the best barbecue I ever had you should open up a restaurant and I look at them like are you freaking crazy. Did you know the difference between cooking good barbecue and running a barbecue restaurant.

[00:45:31] They don't. No they don't.

[00:45:32] I know. And see that's the problem with a lot of people who go into business they think that because they're a good technician at what they do that that's going to translate into being good business person. So what I would suggest is if you got idea of her business go out and get all the information you possibly can there's probably somebody that's done it before so so. So go out get educated on it and then the second thing is to get all the way naked. Which means you're going to do it. Be all in. Don't take your clothes off half way knowing that well I can. You know I still have this safety net here. Yeah. I'm not saying give up your life savings. It'd be nice to still have a nest egg but I'm saying if you're going to if you make the decision to go into business get into with all your heart so that is just non-negotiable meaning you're going to do whatever it takes to be successful. And if you've got the desire and if you've got the ability to go out and find the knowledge and the information to make it work that's a pretty good combination of being successful in working on your own.

[00:46:37] I have to boil it down to be naked when you screw the commute.

[00:46:47] That's that's why you make the big bucks Tom you're able to simplify things.

[00:46:55] There's been so good catch it up with you man. I didn't know about that barbecue stuff I ever get in your neighborhood you're cooking me some.

[00:47:01] Well I got to tell you I'm not sure all the things that go into Keto but it's definitely high protein.

[00:47:08] Well that's you know I can take a vacation for the day if I see you. So. So anyway folks get a hold of that book smart calling and check out theartofsales.com. Check out arts podcast check out the smart calling book if you need a great speaker on this topic. If you happen to be in a company now and need somebody in there struggling with this. This is the man. He's the bomb. So again thanks Art for coming on. This has been episode 84. Coming up as 85 is crowdfunding where you learn how to get money for your creative projects and you don't have to pay it back. How about that. It's not hocus pocus either. Also download the podcast app and we have instructions on How to do all that on the Web site screwthecommute.com. Please leave us a review at iTunes and a star rating and I will catch you all on the next episode.

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