005: John Marshall – A Results Driven Business Coach

Title: John Marshall – A results driven business coach

Guest: John Marshall

Peter: Welcome to the Biz and Life Done Well podcast, where we explore what it means and what it takes to do business and life well. I’m your host, Peter Wilson. If you’re like me, you’re intrigued by stories of common people who have achieved uncommon success in business and life. Join me as I interview fascinating people about how they got started, their successes and failures, their habits and routines, and what inspires them. Today, my guest is John Marshall, the, founder, owner of Results Driven.

John: Thank you, first of all, Peter, for having me on the podcast. I’m really honored to to be part of it for both you and your ever wide scoping listeners. So the name of the firm is called Results Driven. It was founded over fifteen years ago. And the idea behind it is almost all business owners aren’t rewarded for their hard work.

And the the reason they’re not rewarded for their hard work is because they don’t know one vital number. So results driven, we created a tool to help them identify that vital number. And then through our business mentoring, we help them to achieve real results.

Peter: I detect a Canadian accent. So how long have you been in The States?

John: Is this call being recorded before the government? No. Just kidding. Yeah. So, yeah, Canadian living here in America, been here almost twenty years now.

So before Seattle, I was living in Denver and I wanted to let the listeners know that when I was living in Denver, Peter, the Broncos won the Super Bowl And then some years later, I moved to Seattle, and we won the Super Bowl. So I might well be the lucky charm for a city to win the Super Bowl. There you go. Saying. Yeah.

So I live in the Seattle area. I’m originally from Toronto, so that’s where I originally was born and bred and went to school and started my career there. Married, no children, got a terrific wife, she does some traveling like I do. And although we’re based in the Seattle area, we really are really fortunate because our business takes us literally all across North America. So we’ve got clients here in Seattle and Bellevue, a client on the East Side Of Washington State, and then I’ve got clients back east in Toronto and Montreal and Ottawa and New York.

So we’re really fortunate because what we do really applies to small business owners literally anywhere in in North America or almost in any part of the English speaking world.

Peter: What qualifies you as being the business expert?

John: Yeah. A couple of things. A great question, by the way, to to lead in. So let me share a couple of stories, if I may, for for the listeners.

Peter: Sure.

John: So I have a business business degree in marketing, and I work for Procter and Gamble at a university. And, it’s just a terrific place to work when you’re that age, you know, you’re you’re so disciplined, they’re so regimented, you learn a lot kind of in business and marketing from probably one of the premier firms in the world. And then I left Procter and Gamble because I had a bucket list goal. And my goal is I wanted to see as much of the world as I could over five years. And I got really lucky because I was able to travel through Europe, Scandinavia, Russia, The Middle East, Africa, Australia, New Zealand, and Asia in five years.

And when I was traveling as well as working, I kept on running into entrepreneurs. And I might be at a flea market, I might be at a networking event, I might be something in somewhere where I was hanging out. And I kept on hearing about all these small business and entrepreneurs getting stuck and struggling, and how do we grow our business. And that Peter kind of planted a seed for me one day to do something with it. But but back back then, I really didn’t know what that was.

So the story continues a wee bit, and I end up in Denver, Colorado, and I started my company because I asked this woman one question. One question. So let me share the story. So I was working as a home care in the home care industry as a sales and marketing director for a home care firm. Mhmm.

And I rang up this woman one day, kinda cold calling, and I said, hey, Ginny. I’m in home care. You’re in home care. Would you be interested in getting together and maybe we could talk about each other’s businesses and maybe share leads, share opportunities, share referrals? She said, sure.

So I drove up to Ginny’s office, she was just on the outskirts of Denver, and we sit down and had what I thought was a really good meeting. At the end of the meeting, I said, hey, are you interested in working together? Because I certainly am. And she said, you know, I gotta tell you, John, I’m not interested whatsoever. And I went, wow.

You know, in my head, thought, jeez, I thought it was a good meeting, but I guess I guessed wrong. So she said to me, what I’m more interested in is I wanna hire you as my marketing director. And I said, well, jeez, I’m really flattered, but I didn’t come looking for a job. I don’t have a resume or CV. I’m really sorry.

There must have been some miscommunication. And then I turned to her and I asked her one question, and that question launched my business. And the question I asked Jenny was, I said, Jenny, I’ve always wanted to have my own business consulting company. Would you consider being my first client? And I paused, and she said, okay.

So what I did Peter is I kept my full time job in the home care company and then I would drive up to see Jenny using Monday nights and we’d sort of spend a couple hours together about six to eight, 08:30 at night And although she bought a franchise, she wasn’t getting much help. So I began to help her with sales and marketing and finance and operations, just kind of typical stuff that a business owner should know. She’s a wonderfully talented social worker, but she wasn’t getting that assistance. And within, gosh, less than five months, I helped her to double her revenue.

Peter: Wow.

John: So I thought, wow. So I said, you know, John, maybe there’s something there for you, and that was kind of the genesis for results driven, and that’s how I started my my my practice.

Peter: Wow. That’s, that’s a great story. So one question, which is, sometimes the question that a lot of people never ask, would you be my client? You know? Yeah.

Let’s not beat around the bush. I like it.

John: Yeah. That’s awesome. Just you know? Yeah. Thanks.

Peter: So you started with one client. I know for a fact you have a few more now. So

John: got a second client, I doubled my volume.

Peter: You go. Yeah. So fifteen years later though, what was the journey like, that fifteen year journey as you grew your business?

John: It’s been really wonderful for a variety of reasons. First of all, you know, most business owners get into the business because they love what they do, but they need help. I call it being stuck on the treadmill, the day to day activities, so they’re overwhelmed, overworked, but they don’t know how to fix it. Mhmm. So it results driven.

We get real lucky because we help them fix that. And over these last fifteen years, gosh, I’ve worked with clients in more than 30 industries. So probably an industry that maybe one of your listeners is involved in. So to put it in perspective, there’s social media firms, CPAs, architects, landscape architects, digital media, trucking, logistics, retail, restaurants, warehousing. And the sweet spot typically is the small business owner.

So how I define small is solo to about 10,000,000 in revenue. Mhmm. So I consider that kind of the the small. And it’s been really wonderfully fun for results driven because not only have we helped them through one on one or through our peer groups that you’re aware of, of course, well, we also do a lot of speaking. I probably have about four or five speaking engagements a year.

I’ve spoken in Colorado and Utah and Vegas and Banff and Toronto and Vancouver. Had a chance to speak overseas couple of years ago, Utah. And just not that I am where results driven is a professional speaking firm, but they just like the messages that we have to say and hear, and they it’s nice for me to be able to share some ideas and impact an audience, however large or small that they are.

Peter: So my one of the things I noticed about your approach is that it’s very practical. So I don’t want to put words in your mouth, but that’s just my own observation that it’s very actionable and very action oriented. What would you say, in a nutshell, is that differentiator for your approach?

John: Yeah. It’s a it’s a great observation on your part because I I’m a real big fan of of how tos, like the specifics. I think the challenge with too many consultants, and this is where consulting gets a bad rub, is is two things. Number one, most consultants aren’t particularly good at what they do, but they wanna charge a lot of money to fix something. And then when they try to fix it, they try to bolt on or slap on too much theory.

And I’m much more about the practicality because the business owner wants to know how do I specifically need to do this. Mhmm. What do they specifically need to do? So all the tools, everything that I’ve designed at at Results Driven is really about what do you specifically need to do to take action and what are the how tos. So for example, if someone says they don’t have a a good follow-up system, which is common for probably a lot of your listeners.

So I say, okay. Well, what are you doing at the moment? And they, you know, they tell me, and it’s usually not a whole lot. So I say, well, what we need to do is create a a follow-up system. So we start with step one and go through to probably step 12.

Mhmm. And that might be using a CRM customer relation management software that might be using Constant Contact or, you know, Mailchimp. You letter do you need to see them first? What do you do second? What do you do third?

What does that email look like? What does the phone call look like? How do you track that in some sort of a spreadsheet like monday.com or something? But what they love and value is it’s very specific based on tried and true theory and practicality that they can then adopt with and run with. Because when they start to do that, that’s when they’re gonna get the results.

Verse, you should have a follow-up system. Well, everyone knows that. Hey, John. Tell me the specifics. So I’ll walk through very specified actions that they need to take and then work with them on an ongoing basis to make sure that they’re doing it.

Peter: How did you find your clients? I mean, you’re we heard how you found your first client, and you’ve grown to 30 industries. So what was that journey like just for you from a sales and marketing perspective? What what what did you do?

John: Really, to grow any business, your your your listeners may not like this, but there’s no secret sauce. There just isn’t. And if anyone says they’ve got the secret sauce, they’re they’re not being accurate or or fair. Any business has to do a variety of things, and you know that even with your own practice. Probably the biggest thing is you’ve got to be visible in your market, whatever market your listeners are in.

You want to be involved in various associations. We belong to more than half a dozen associations. You wanna stay with them consistently in contact. In some stage, as you know, we we do a newsletter that goes out to 5,000 folks every month and have done so for the last eight years.

Peter: Wow.

John: I used to write the the newsletter written. Now it’s a video format, and I turned that video into into a video about a year and a half ago. And that video format has got me speaking engagements in in Vancouver and Colorado, and I’ve got a couple of others that they’re talking to us about because it’s just staying in in in contact with them. And the video is a typical two or three minute short story. So visibility is really important doing a lot of networking events, just being where other business owners might congregate.

I’ll often ask my clients, you know, what events do you attend or go to, which is real important. Probably the next big thing is follow-up. Because not everybody’s ready to buy your product or service when you’re ready to sell. In fact, only about 3%. So you need to follow-up with someone consistently.

Right. In fact, just this week, I was speaking at a conference, and I reached out to someone, the woman said, hey. I’m really busy with my practice and my kids. You know, at this stage, I’m not interested. Reach out to me in a couple months.

Okay. That’s fine. So she’ll go into the database, and I’ll probably reach out to her either before the end of the year or the early part of next year. Mhmm. Because the last thing you wanna be is what I call a PETA.

And a PETA stands for you might have to delete this. It’s pain in the ass.

Peter: You mean you don’t wanna do that to a prospect. Right?

John: Yeah. You just wanna be no. You wanna be consistent, but you don’t wanna follow-up so you become annoying. So it might be once a week, once every couple of weeks, whatever it looks like, but certainly not not more than once a week. You know?

Right. And just be respectful of their time. So when you start to do these activities consistently day in, day out, week in, week out, you know, magic starts to happen. Business starts to increase whatever business your readers are involved your listeners are involved in because you’re doing those things on a, you know, consistent basis.

Peter: So what would you say is your strongest, skill or trait that you bring to the table?

John: I think metaphorically, it’s almost like I wanna put my arm around each client and kinda help them to be more successful. And I just genuinely wanna help. I’ll give you a, for instance, another story. So very recently, I was working with a client, and they’re fairly new for results driven. Mhmm.

And I won’t identify their their industry in case they happen to be listening to your podcast at some stage. But in one of our conversations, it’s a family business. So mom, dad, and and the son’s involved in the business. And the son desperately wanted to get out of the business because what mom and dad are doing is not of interest to him. He wants to get into a different industry.

So during one of our consulting meetings, I was talking to the son. He said, you know, I’m not really happy here. You know, I I prefer to leave. And and the parents are blessing him to go on to his own. So I said, oh, wow.

So what do you wanna do? He explains what he wants to do next kind of in a marketing role. And I said, well, jeez, you know, in our market, you shouldn’t have any trouble finding a job. And he says, well, I’ve been applying to, like, ten, twenty, thirty, fifty, a 100 companies. I’m not getting anywhere.

And I thought, what? What do you mean you’re not getting anywhere? So I said, can you do me a favor? In the next meeting we have, can you bring me your resume? If you like it, how about we look at it?

Mhmm. So the next meeting we had together in their business, I looked at the resume. And I said, uh-huh. There’s the problem. He said, what do you mean?

I said, your resume is not designed well enough for an employer to be interested in what you can do and more importantly, how you can help the employer potential employer be successful. Mhmm. He said, what do you mean? So I began to go through, you know, going back to the how tos, very, very specific. And I said to this person, here’s what you need to do step by step to get very, very specific on on that.

And we walked through redesigning it, not making him look any different than what he was, but positioning him to be far more successful. Mhmm. Significantly more successful. And what did end up happening, making a long story short, was he not only got one offer, but he ended up getting two offers. And now he’s left the firm.

And, you know, the mom reached out to me recently and said, wow. I can’t believe it. Thank you very much for helping my son. And, you know, I really, really appreciate it. He she says, how do you feel about helping my daughter?

Okay. And, you know, that’s just the way I’m wired. I mean, I could look at his resume and give him a couple of cursatory ideas, but I really dug into it and said, how can I help Bob? We’ll call this young chap Bob. How can I help him be successful?

So to answer your question, kind of a long story, but my DNA is how do I help? How do I get the specific information that they might not be able to see because they’ve got blind spots and help them help them be successful?

Peter: Right. So how do you define business done well?

John: I think a number of things. I think the highly successful elite firms that we work with or to get there slowly is they believe they genuinely wanna help their client with a problem, an issue, frustration, whatever it looks like. Mhmm. And everything they’re designed around their business is to help their clients be more successful. Mhmm.

That’s their marketing materials, that’s their culture, that’s the way they answer the phone, that’s their follow-up. If a customer is not happy with something, they don’t nickel and dime them. If they’ve to give them a refund, partial refund, they just do it because they know that’s the right thing. So they’re not about money. Typically, money comes over time to them.

Mhmm. But they really believe if they’re doing the right things to help the client be successful, they’ll just spin back to their business. So that’s their their DNA. Their total focus is how can we help all of our clients and whatever they’re doing and how how many there are be significantly more successful.

Peter: You’ve seen a lot of businesses. You’ve crawled, you know, just, you know, through the you know, you’ve got out the microscope and gone through the details.

John: Crawled through the muck.

Peter: Yeah. Exactly. What is what’s the one thing that you see, or is there one thing that you see that’s kind of the biggest sort of stumbling block?

John: Yeah. Great question. So here’s what I typically see, and I would say the number one thing that they don’t do is they don’t delegate. And tied together with that, Peter, is they don’t set expectations. So what do I mean?

So, typically, that stage let’s say they’re a $2,000,000 business. Yeah. There’s probably a pretty high likelihood that, you know, they’ve got some staff with them. Let’s just say it’s seven, seven, eight staff depending upon their business model. What happens is their team members within that firm, the owner or the ownership team hasn’t clearly communicated, you know, what is the business all about?

What’s the vision for the business? So everyone understands that, number one. Mhmm. Number two, they then don’t delegate to, you know, the marketing person, the ops person, the person on the front desk, the shipper receiver, whatever their business is. But more importantly is they don’t set the expectation.

In other words, what’s their job description? So I’ll give you a instance, one of the tools I was just talking to a client earlier today about, and you’re aware of it too. It’s called the performance scorecard, and it’s a very simple tool. I love simple. Because when you have something simple, you can do it.

You can take action back to your earlier point. So The performance scorecard is basically an Excel sheet, if we think of Excel for a moment. When you look at any position with an organization, you’ve got 10 skills, whatever those skills are for that individual within that firm. Now you define those 10 skills, whatever they are, and then you set up a scorecard so the score per skill is zero to 10. Zero being you don’t do it, 10 being you do it each and every time.

Mhmm. Mhmm. So you go through 10 skills, maximum score 10. The total score is a 100. 10 times 10 is a 100.

Peter: Right.

John: So what you then do is have the employee fill it out and get their number, whatever it is, like, say, 73 out of a 100. And then the owner fills it out and gets their number. Let’s say it’s 48 out of a 100. Mhmm. Well, the difference between forty eight and seventy three is quite a large gap.

Yeah. So then what the owner can do and or the manager is they can start the coach and train to get those numbers more in alignment Mhmm. Based on these 10 skills. But the secret sauce is you don’t do, you know, six or seven skills at once. You just pick one or two, ideally one, and you work on it for the next thirty days.

Peter: Right.

John: Whatever that skill is.

Peter: Mhmm.

John: The beautiful thing about the scorecard is the person, the receptionist, the marketing person, the ops person, they now know what they’re responsible for. They now know. Okay. I’m responsible for these 10 things. Maybe it’s a little bit more, but these are the 10 core things.

Mhmm. So to go back to your question, if the owner thinks like this, number one, they delegate, and then they delegate with a tool like this. Mhmm. The team members love it. They’ve got accountability.

Everyone’s got the same expectations, and things begin to happen almost magically because everybody knows, hey. You’re performing or you’re not. If you’re not, how do we correct it? Right. So it’s almost a self correcting tool as well.

Right. And something I created and have used for, I don’t know, many, many years.

Peter: So what you’re really talking about at the core of what you’re talking about in many respects is communication with respect with respect to employee and and and, and the employer or the owner of the business. So what about before before we bring somebody on? Let’s say we’re in a hiring mode right now. We’re growing. We need to hire.

What what sort of tips do you have for, hiring? What what what sorts of practices do you like to see implemented in your, clients?

John: Well, a number of things. You mean apart from foosball and free beer?

Peter: Yes. Yeah. What are what are we looking for in an ideal employee is it’s sort of what I’m getting at.

John: Yeah. It starts off with a great ad, and don’t rate an ad which looks like a laundry list or a grocery list of, you know, you gotta have these 47 qualifications because it ain’t gonna work. The ads got emotional be emotionally driven. In fact, it was funny as a quick story. One of my clients is a optometry practice, and they’re looking for somebody new within their practice.

So I kind of framed, here’s what the ad wants to look like and have it more emotional than just kind of technical. Mhmm. And the ad was really, really well written. So I gave him the ideas, and then he he words with it the way that he wanted. He thought, boy, I’ve never written an ad like this.

It’s so compelling, and he ended up finding just a a terrific candidate for him. Well, what makes the story fun, at least from my perspective, is he was sharing with me recently that the contact sales rep was calling on him recently. Mhmm. And she noticed somehow the you know, his ad being posted somewhere in one of the job sites. And she said, man, that’s exactly the kind of ad all the optometry practices should be writing.

So she’s using that ad now as a benchmark when she calls another optometry practices saying, hey, here’s a well written ad. Here’s what you wanna do.

Peter: Wow.

John: Wow.

Peter: Wow. That’s that’s, and that is especially important these days with the millennial workforce, because they care about where they work, the mission of the company. Yeah. You know, it’s not just about, you know, benefits and what am I doing, and am I qualified? And it seems like there’s Yeah.

They want to have more of that philosophical connection

John: Yeah.

Peter: To the business. So that’s good advice. Yeah. Great advice. Yeah.

So so, let’s get to know John a little better. So, what I’m interested in just, it’s kind of, you know, outside of

John: Sure.

Peter: You know, the professional arena. What sort of habits and routines have you adopted, over the years, you know, whether it’s, intellectual pursuits or, you know, physical pursuits or, you know, just what what interests you outside of the business?

John: You mean from apart from sitting on the couch and doing nothing? No. Just kidding. Really a number of things. I’m just, for whatever reason, perpetually curious, and I’ve always been so, way back when.

I remember being in business school, one of my professors, I think it was second year in in business school, said to me one day, she says, John Marshall, all you ever ask is why? Why? Why? You’re becoming tiresome. And I said, well, I’m curious.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I don’t think she liked that answer. When I opened up my risk scores, my grades my grades at the end of the year from her, thought, oh, I’m gonna get, a d minus or maybe a c or something.

And lo and behold, I think I got an a minus. So I don’t know. Maybe she felt sorry for me. So curiosity would certainly be one. So where I’m going with this is I love to read.

I read lots of magazines, articles, books. I just like soak up information. I’m really fortunate because I get to work with so many different industries, so I get to learn best practices from what these folks are doing. And if I’m at a conference, I’m always listening to the other speakers just to see what they’re sharing, not to plagiarize it, but just get a different perspective on that. Sometimes I’ll even sit in some conferences where it’s dental related, and I don’t I’m not a dentist or denturist or dental lab guy, but what are these guys doing with technology, and what does that look like?

So I’d say curiosity is one. I like to stay fit, so I like to exercise a lot, which is nice. I got a kind of a home gym that I look after. When I was in Colorado, I used to do the extreme skiing going up from over 12,000, 13,000 feet and doing the double blacks. Oh.

A wonderfully wicked rush with, with that, and just enjoyed really kind of enjoyed that because it’s the physical and intellectual pursuit when you’re skiing, you know, that kind of terrain. You, you really challenge your your mind and body. And then, we like to travel a lot. So, typically, every year, we do at least one big vacation because I’ve traveled a lot before I met Brenda, and she hasn’t done the same amount of travel. Mhmm.

So we’re always having somewhere big to go. So this most recent year, we did, Ireland and Scotland.

Peter: Okay.

John: And then the year before that, we did, two and a half weeks in Italy. I think she wants to go to Iceland next or something. That will be on the list. We’ve done, you know, the typical Arizona, Hawaii, Mexico vacations, but we love to travel.

Peter: Yeah.

John: Just, you know, again, to see other parts of the world.

Peter: You know,

John: I got real fortunate when I was traveling. You know, there I am in the Serengeti, you know, in in Africa looking at, you know, the wildebeest and the lion and the kudus and leopards and the cheetahs and the elephants and such. So, you know, wanna wanna experience some of that. And then say, I guess, probably, you know, a final point is just, you know, making sure you’ve got you know, take care of yourself so you’ve got, you know, the right attitude. Mhmm.

Because, you know, with you, you know, with your business being the owner that it takes a lot of mental horsepower to engage with clients at a really, really deep, valuable level. So you just wanna make sure that you can bring your sort of a game, your your best to every, you know, conversation and consultation.

Peter: Yeah. That’s right. So what’s the most exotic destination? Serengeti is one you just mentioned. What’s what’s the, you know, what’s what’s your most memorable exotic destination you’ve been to?

John: Well, that’s a good question. So I’d probably go back to the Serengeti and and tell you the reason why, and this is something I still pinch myself to this day. You know, sometimes you get you’re lucky because you’re at the right spot at the right time for the right reasons.

Peter: Yep.

John: So so let me kind of frame it just for for the listeners. So I was in Africa, and I did an overland trip where we left Nairobi, the capital of Kenya, and we went due north and due west, sort of into the central desert area of Kenya. And the definition of a desert is where nothing will grow. I mean, that’s the true definition. Nothing grows, not even tumbleweed.

Peter: Yeah.

John: So here we are in we’re having lunch. So we’re in a Bedford truck, which is an army vehicle that they they use for these, you know, two, three week journeys. They’re sleeping in a tent. I mean, it’s it’s as rough as you can get. So we’re off to the side of the road, and there’s no roads up there, so it doesn’t matter where the hell you pull off.

Right. On the side of the road, and you’ve got a you’ve got a cook and a guide to to, you know, cook a wee little lunch for you and start a fire. So there we are just kinda hanging out, and it’s probably, I don’t know, 100 degrees out, you know, sunny, warm. And it’s as flat as a four lane highway with geography. There’s nothing around us.

You can see literally for probably 10 miles. That’s that hard packed dirt. Right. It’s kind of a indigenous to that area. So we’re sitting there hanging out, and next thing you know, we see a little bit of dust coming towards us and a little bit more.

And I thought, well, I wonder if that is on the horizon. So next thing you know, these three African warriors approach us. And to put it in perspective, these three guys are as dark as a black piece of coal.

Peter: Yeah.

John: They’re barefoot. They’re literally naked except for a loincloth. They’ve got the spear and the shield, and these guys are out hunting. They’re actually out hunting.

Peter: Wow.

John: So as they’re approaching us, and I was in a small group, maybe ten, twelve, 14 people, none of us were afraid. Right? Mhmm. So the guide said, oh, no. They’re just out hunting.

They’re gonna come over. So they talked to the guide in Swahili, and I thought, man, I’d love to get a photo. But part of the protocol there is they don’t want their photo taken because they think that’s gonna steal their spirit.

Peter: Right. So you

John: can’t do it. So you just sit there and all look at them. You also realize or part of the the story is these guys are camouflaged, so they’ve got kinda war paint on their front and their back and everything else. Mhmm. So you think they’re, you know, they’re camouflaged.

You think, well, how can they be camouflaged when everything is flat? There’s nothing out there. I mean, aren’t aren’t they gonna be seen by the lion, the wildebeest, the kudu? I mean, come on, guys. Right.

You know? Kinda looks like a Disney movie. Right? So what happens is after about ten minutes, these guys just start to leave, and you could see where they’re leaving, you know, a straight line. And what made it absolutely amazing to this day, I can still remember this vividly, is if you think you and I were chatting together, and then we said goodbye, and you started to walk away from me, and I stood where we were having a conversation initially.

Mhmm. And you walked away, and how far would you get in twenty five, thirty five seconds? Not that far. Right? No.

No. Couple 100 feet maybe. So within less than a minute within less than a minute, all three, not one, but all three of these warriors, these Masai Mara warriors disappeared. Vanished. You couldn’t even see them.

I mean, I thought I thought, what? I mean, because I was staring at them as they left. Yeah. And all of sudden, like, mirage. They disappeared, I thought, hang on a second.

So I moved over a little bit. Yeah. And I said to the guy, said, where’d they go? He said, you don’t understand African camouflage, do you? And I said, jeez, I do now.

I mean, it was absolutely amazing. And these people, Peter, were the, from my perspective, the the dawning of man. Barefoot. They had feet that were, you know, probably twice the width of our our feet. Their hands were hunter’s hands.

Although they were lean, they were incredibly strong. Mhmm. I mean, wouldn’t arm wrestle with these guys.

Peter: Right.

John: I mean, they were just they were true warriors in the sense, and they’re going out to to kill something to bring back to their family so the family could eat. And it was just remarkable, you know, being that that day, that situation, just happening to see that, and they came up to to befriend us.

Peter: That’s

John: cool. You know, just seeing that firsthand was was truly amazing.

Peter: That’s that’s an amazing story. That is that is very cool.

John: Yep.

Peter: Of all the businesses that you’ve worked with, what what is one situation where you thought it was hopeless? You know, when you kinda had your doubts about going in, you were kinda like, can I help you? I’m not sure. Maybe against your better judgment, you you, started work working with a client anyway.

John: Yeah.

Peter: And then it just completely surprised you.

John: Yeah. Yeah. I started working for this firm, and I thought, boy, they don’t have any hope. I don’t think they’re gonna do that well. And, you know, I ran this guy, Peter, from Biz Marketing.

Hands off.

Peter: Wait a minute.

John: Wait a minute. On. Edit. Edit. Where’s the edit button?

Damn it.

Peter: Yeah. I’m got my finger on it right now.

John: That’s right. That’s right. You need the zapper button. That’s what you need, right, when someone gives you a hard time? Okay.

That’d be funny having someone on the phone call and you push it and all of sudden, like, shock. Is it I’m not happy. So, really, there’s been a couple of them, but a few of them kinda stand out. And, typically, some of the folks are reticent to get help. You know, they got all the answers.

They’ve got everything. It’s perfect. Mhmm. So, typically, if and when they sign up with Results Driven and begin to work with them either in the peer group that we run or consulting, is the first meeting two or three is often quite awkward. So what I mean by that is, you know, you go into their office if you’re visiting with them.

Mhmm. You know, they typically lean back in the chair. They’ve got their arms crossed. Although they’re listening to you, they’re not really listening. And the answers they give is like, well, I’m not really sure why we kinda hired you.

We’ve kinda got everything dialed in. We’re doing well. You know, I was just bringing you on board as a courtesy to my wife or my husband or my son or investor because they said we should look at you because we hear you’re good. Mhmm. So they’re very resistant at the beginning.

Right. And you can feel it. You can sense it. You can taste it. So what I always do is I just go I’m not gonna kinda be the bull in the China shop.

I’m just gonna go slow. Mhmm. And just be curious about your business. So it might be let’s just say you’re, you know, talking to this guy, he’s in this chair. You might say, hey, Bob.

Let’s do a favor. I’ve never been to your business. Can you can you walk me around? Mhmm. So he walks me through the front, takes me maybe to the back where the, you know, the shop is, whatever this is.

You know, started to ask him some questions about the guy working on the lathe. You know, how long has this guy been working with you, and how did he get started here? And, oh, wow. Look at the inventory he got there. You know?

Who who is this for? What client is ordering this, you know, this product? Mhmm. So what I start to do is I wanna really engage in their business and understand. Mhmm.

And then I might start to ask some questions, or as I’m walking around being purposely curious, I might think, okay. I gotta ask him this and this and this when we get back. So I get back to his office, and then I start to ask him some questions or when I’m on the floor with him. Like, hey. I know she got, like, a lot of inventory of the blue.

Mhmm. Know, when it says $19.73 on it. How come?

Peter: Right. Right.

John: Yep. So what I’m doing here is I’m trying to break down the the barriers, albeit slowly. Mhmm. Because he’s still gonna be reluctant. You know?

And then he’ll share a little bit more information, and then I’ll ask a few more questions. And my tonality is very supportive and engaging. And I realized that there’s probably a high likelihood that he needs help, and he wants help. But particularly for men, and we can say this both being men, sometimes it’s the male ego gets in the way. And that’s okay.

That’s okay. We’ll get there. Stop the tape. Stop. So it’s more of those situations of just trying to understand where they’re coming from Mhmm.

But approach the communication, a great word you used earlier, in a very systematic way. Mhmm. So what I’m doing is very purposeful because I wanna help them. Right. And I keep saying that.

And then we begin to set up, okay. You know, here’s the first thing that we can do. I always kinda try to dart with one or two things, and then we build that kinda muscle. You know? Okay.

Let’s do this. Wow. You did that. That’s great. You know?

You got this done. You know? You got your inventory cleaned up. Or Right. You know, one of my clients one time had a a real issue with bad debt.

So we got that cleaned up. That was their first thing. And they managed to collect $60,000 that was beyond a hundred and eighty days outstanding. Thought, wow. Like, suddenly, when you help with someone that specific, you get their attention because they know you wanna help.

Peter: Right. Yeah. Right? So you’re, not just speaking in sort of, platitudes.

John: Yeah. Yeah. Very much so. So

Peter: so you’ve been in business a while. You’ve coached a ton of businesses. So is there any person or book in particular that has really inspired you?

John: Boy. Of course, we both love StoryBrand. I think that’s a a really monumental book Mhmm. Yep. Which I think is really, really great.

Yep. Is there one book? Gosh. The reason I’m even hesitating is I probably have read, I don’t know how many books, a lot. I don’t know what the number is.

I read a lot of magazines, subscribe both digitally and, like, the physical copy of them Right. On on that. Right. I really love Entrepreneur Magazine.

Peter: What about individuals? Have you had anybody, you know, when you were at P and G or just, you know, out in your own, practice? You know, maybe somebody that you’ve known, personally that’s really been an inspiration or mentor or, you know, just really, inspired you?

John: Well, there’s this really terrific thought leader called Peter Wilson,

Peter: and I did mark that. You know? He’s fine.

John: Don’t edit that. Yeah. Ding. Ding. Ding.

Ding. Yeah. Don’t worry.

Peter: Yeah. I hit that.

John: Go do collect $200.

Peter: Hit the edit button.

John: Yeah. The probably the one of the guys I really like and and I think most people are probably aware of him is Simon Sinek. And and what I like about him is he’s very different in his approach, his methodology. And I’d never heard of the guy before, and how I got introduced to him was one of my clients. And so one of my clients is in the Seattle region, and he said to me a couple years ago, he said, you know, he’s originally from Spain.

He said to me, you know, my sister who lives in Barcelona is coming over for a visit because she does what you do in Barcelona, kind of business consulting. I said, okay. So we’re having dinner, and my client’s sister said, hey. There’s this really good thought leader called Simon Sinek. He’s got this great talk on the golden circle.

And I’m looking at her like, okay. I’ve got no idea what she’s talking about. She says, Simon Sinek. And I said, I don’t know. Never heard of the guy.

So she introduced me to this guy called Simon Sinek. Mhmm. And he’s got just tremendous work. So I I think he’s one of the great thought leaders. And he talks about millennials, the golden circle, the power of why.

And I just like the way he explains things because it’s not unfortunately, quite a few of these guys are they kinda retread the same thing again and again and again. Mhmm. So, certainly, he would be one that’s that’s good. And the other guy, maybe he can help me. Purple Cow.

What’s his name? Seth.

Peter: Seth Godin. Seth Godin.

John: Seth Godin. Yeah. I like his stuff because, again, he’s different. Yeah. I think the the folks that are different to me stand out.

Yes. Gonna I’m gonna go and read that book you suggested. The was it the measurement? What’s it called again?

Peter: Oh,

John: measure measure what matters?

Peter: Yes. Measure measure what matters. And that was John Doerr.

John: John

Peter: Doerr. Klein Kleiner Perkins was his

John: Oh, okay. The big v VC firm in California.

Peter: Yeah. So he’s one of the founding partners of that. So Simon Sinek’s books are start with why. That’s probably the most, well known of his books. Yeah.

Start with why. He’s already he’s also written, the infinite game and, find your why as well.

John: Ah, okay.

Peter: So yeah.

John: So recommend all those to readers. I mean, your listeners would be that they would do themselves a great service by connecting right or, you know, going to the YouTube and just following Simon Sinek and maybe buying his books because he’s that good.

Peter: Yeah. Yep. And we’ll have links to this in the show notes so we can, in in addition to links to your site and, your contact information. What else do we need to know about you?

John: Well, for the 12,400,017 people that are listening to this podcast, there’ll probably be more next time. What do you wanna know? I guess some people say this, and and some people say it and mean it. And that is, feel really lucky. It’s probably kind of a funny thing to say, but I really feel lucky because I figured out it took me a while to figure out this business model, results driven, of creating this company and being able to help business owners.

Because many of them, you know, they struggle, and they’re not getting the results that they deserve, and they have family issues. You know, work with clients in the past that are husband and wife. One they were husband and wife team. And one day, I only discovered about two or three meetings in that they were no longer husband and wife. They were actually divorced.

And during one of our meetings, the the wife said to the husband, no wonder I divorced you, you bastard. You never took out the trash. Boy. Okay. Well Let me go start my car.

But, you know, it’s it’s really so rewarding to help a client. You know? When like, the very first client that I worked with in Denver, you know, we’ll call her Jenny. And, you know, I was working with her, and and one day came in with to one of our meetings. And she was sitting in her office, and as I kind of approached her, said, hey.

How are you? And she started to cry. And I thought, uh-oh. Now what the hell have I done? Right?

I only got here. How can she be crying?

Peter: Right.

John: Some some women do cry when they meet me, but that’s for different reasons. So I I said, why are you crying? And she said she comes over to me and puts her arms around me, and I said, what’s going on? She said, I gotta just thank you. Okay?

She said, had I not found you and you coming into my office and me working with you, I probably would have lost my business. I thought, wow. You know? And here’s a talented, smart woman, had a couple of kids, and it wouldn’t have been fair. You know?

And she bought a franchise. She wasn’t getting help. And, you know, just all these things, and I thought, boy, that’s why I do what I do. Wow. And just to be able to help the business owner because, you know, they’ve got blind spots.

They got things they can’t see or do, and I’m real fortunate that I can just cut through the clutter. I can just see it. And maybe because I work in so many different businesses you know, was at a conference some years ago. My wife was joining me, and, you know, after I spoke, couple people queued up to talk to me. And one of the folks was standing beside Brenda and said, hey.

What makes John so good at what he does? We really enjoyed his talk. And she said, I gotta tell you. I really don’t know, but he’s just really good at it. You know?

Yeah. I’ve developed all yeah. I’ve got all materials and 12 success strategies and workbooks and exercises and a whole a whole variety of tools that I’ve created based on elite businesses and best practices over the years, and I’m always happy to share those with folks. And it’s just it’s just lucky, you know, to be able to do that with with people because suddenly, you know, maybe, Peter, they sell their business finally. Maybe their kids take it over and it’s success.

Or Right. You know, maybe they, I don’t know, finally can go home and start playing with the kids more and get more free time. You know? If I’m part of that, I feel pretty, pretty lucky.

Peter: So so where do you see where do you see your business in, say, five years?

John: Really, a number of things. So when I designed the firm these years ago, I got real lucky with the name results driven. You know, it’s happened to get fortunate. Mhmm. Because I couldn’t think of a name at the time, and I I was I saw this bus going by, and on the side of the bus had some something about results or driven or something.

I don’t even remember specifically. I thought, well, that’d be a good name for a company. Mhmm. So then they went in and took took took the name. So the next evolution in results driven is, I don’t know what the word is, magnification of the brand.

Mhmm.

Peter: So Okay.

John: What we’re gonna be doing, it could be as early as next year. That’s the tenet of gold is to license this. K. So the plan is to have results driven licensees, coaches, consultants, mentors all across North America. So, you know, they’ll have access to all the materials that I’ve created from all these businesses.

Mhmm. So this is, you know, the workbooks, the strategies, the the tools that I use very frequently in my talks and presentations. So all of this will be created to how to form peer groups. All of it will be created from a to z. Like, absolutely everything’s done.

And they know it works because I use it. So someone says, well, why is that gonna work? And I said, well, I used it. Here’s my results. You know?

Peter: Right.

John: So that’ll that’ll allow results driven to go in a variety of different cities and states and provinces and countries to, you know, help somebody who’s maybe a consultant or struggling or now wants to go on their own business but doesn’t know how to start one. Mhmm. And then, you know, eventually, we’ll have, you know, like, an annual conference where guys like Peter Wilson will come down and

Peter: Right.

John: Speak. You know? Yeah. So it might be twenty, thirty, 40 guys, or 10 guys. You know, eventually, I’d like to get it to it’s a fair size number.

I don’t know what that number is. Maybe a 100. I I don’t know what the final number is.

Peter: But Yeah.

John: If some guy could be doing this in, you know, Dallas or Chicago or St. Louis or you know? And just you know, they may be struggling with their own consulting practice and

Peter: Right.

John: You know, with the stuff that we’ve developed, they’d they’d really benefit from it. More importantly, the clients would as well.

Peter: That’s part of the charm or the not the charm. That’s part of the sort of what we like about StoryBrand is the framework, and you have a framework as well. And I think folks like to have a framework, because it’s easier to understand.

John: And you having, you know, got exposure to StoryBrand, that’s a good link for the listeners too to get engaged in.

Peter: Oh, yeah.

John: Yep. It’s brilliant stuff. I mean,

Peter: it’s just Absolutely. Yeah. It’s it’s kind of making sense of, wouldn’t say things that are complicated, but things that, we don’t have experience. You know, for example, one of in your in your steps, one of the know your number or what’s your numbers is talking about your customers, and do you know which are about to become even bigger customers, which are about to leave you? And, one of the things that I identified was that I had no idea.

Hence, in our in our own case, so what we did and, you know, it’s it’s not something they necessarily teach you in business school. It’s just a basic, hey. Do you know today the status of your customers? And it’s just it’s pretty easy. Do you do you or don’t you?

John: Yeah.

Peter: And all it takes is one customer who leaves unexpectedly to really give you a wake up call Yeah. To that fact. And I think for us, that’s why I like the program that you offer just because it is so action oriented, but also very just so practical as I mentioned earlier.

John: Thank

Peter: you. So that’s been extremely helpful. So that’s that’s, that’s good advice, John. So how do we Yeah.

John: And and just to to a point, if I may, Peter, because you you wonderfully kinda teed that up. So for the listeners of your podcast is, if anybody I haven’t had the pleasure of meeting yet, wherever you’re listening in from, and Peter referenced something called What’s Your Number? And what that is, folks, is it’s one of our business tools. It’s probably one of our most requested, and it allows you, after you complete just 20 questions, it allows you to find find out how healthy is your business on a scale out of 100, And more importantly, how to find out how healthy your business is in six key areas of every business, the elite businesses, which are vision, strategy, growth, process, people, and customers. So if you’d like a copy of that What’s Your Number?

Actually, we mail it because it doesn’t PDF well, and it’s much more fun to have it as a physical hard copy for color. So if you’d like a copy on on that, you can reach us at results dash driven dot com. And my email is john, j o h n, at results dash driven dot com. And if that can ever be of interest to you, your team, just let us know. We’ll be happy to send you one.

Perfect.

Peter: That’s perfect. Yeah. And we’ll have links, as well in the show notes for that, John. Sure. Well, John, I really appreciate your time today.

Thank you for, sharing your, your business and life done well.

John: Yeah. Yeah. A couple final comments, if I may. First of all, thanks for having me on the phone. I I really appreciate this, Peter, number one.

Sure. And for those listeners who are engaging with Peter or know of Peter and that sort of stuff, he’s brilliant. He’s really, really talented at what he does. He understands how to help businesses win online, is a very complex beast in and of itself, and he’s doing really terrific things with his clients. So if you’re not yet a client of Peter’s, pick up the phone, have a conversation with him and his team because they’re that good.

They really demystify what you need to do step by step to win online. That’s their slogan. It’s not just a slogan, really is reality. So if you happen to be listening to this, maybe someone’s passed on the podcast to you and you don’t know Peter Wilson of bizmarketing.com, do so because, you and your firm would be, you know, so much better off as a result of Peter and his, he and his team’s assistance.

Peter: Yeah. Well, thank you, John. I appreciate those kind words.

John: Yeah. It’s been a real honor to have me on the on the podcast, and congratulations on doing them. I think it’s gonna be a brilliant step for you and your business. Yeah. Awesome.

Peter: Thanks for listening to this episode of Biz and Life Done Well with Peter Wilson. You can subscribe to us on iTunes, Google Podcasts, Spotify, and most of the other popular podcast platforms. Please tell your friends about us and leave us a review so even more people will find out about us. Thanks again. We’ll see you soon.