Transcript
Steve Gordon: Welcome, welcome. Welcome. This is the Unstoppable CEO podcast and the Advisor Inner Circle podcast. My name is Steve Gordon, I’m your host, and I’m here today with the co-host of the Advisor Inner Circle podcast. John H. Curry. Mr. Curry, great to see you again. Welcome.
John Curry: Nice to see you, Steve. I’m looking forward to this because I’m convinced that you are one of the craziest people on that. You remind me of Steve Martin, you know, wild and crazy guy.
Steve: I don’t know about that. But we’re doing folks a very special joint episode of these two podcasts. And we’re going through a thing called the inevitable growth scorecard that I’ve created and is now available if you go to thegrowthscore.com, you can download the scorecard and in a PDF and you kind of follow along. And in the last episode, we did an overview of the entire scorecard and it covers eight mindsets, eight ways of kind of thinking and approaching growing your business and approaching your marketing. And, and what we’re going to do now is, we’re going to go through in separate episodes, we’re going to go through each of the eight mindsets that are on the scorecard. And today’s the first one, John, so I’m excited about it.
The First Mindset
John: So I’m honestly especially with number one, who is your who I’m looking forward to your thoughts on this. I’m also looking forward to jumping in a little bit because as you know, I spent a lot of time over the years way back in 1983, identifying my who, and getting really focused on the who also not the who, but the why they were my hope. So those of you are listening, you’re thinking this cast net who, why, who? But trust me to hang in there with Steve, and you’re going to love what you say. And Steve, would you please, I will just start with the basics just take us from each of these 12 points that you have on the scorecard. And if you’ve not downloaded it yet, it’s okay. Just listen, and then go back and look at the PDF later but just started from scratch, Steve, and then wherever it goes, it goes.
Steve: Yeah, so on the scorecard, there are four mindsets. And these really represent what I’ve observed as the growth path for a lot of the business owners that we’ve worked with. They’ve been in one of these four areas to one degree or another. And, and so I’ll just kind of walk through each one of these, john the first one under Who is your Who is that? You feel that focusing on a specific target market is simply too limiting and forces you to miss out on too many deals. And, john, you’ve worked with a lot of financial advisors over the years. Do you ever come across advisors that feel like that? if they focus on a specific target market, that it’s just too limiting for them?
John: All the time. I’m working with a gentleman right now. We just had a conversation yesterday morning. He’s a coaching client. And he said, but John, if I, if I only focus on these people, what about the ones I lose? What about it? And he goes, I don’t get them.
Understand, if you don’t get them that you spend more time and energy on the ones you choose to work with, because they love you, you love them? What’s going to happen to your business? Now, you’ve kicked me in the butt many times on this one, sometimes not very nicely, by the way. From the standpoint, I’ve talked about going to another market and you say why would you do that? You’ve got a presence. You’re known, well respected. You’re kind of like the wizard in this particular Why would you go do that? But sometimes we can have to step out of the lane for a little bit. And that’s okay if we get back in the line. And I get that but just don’t be chasing everything that comes.
Steve: Yeah, believe I said you’d be a flipping fool and I didn’t use the word flipping. You were rather rude if you didn’t get focused, and that was after a number of conversations and I think that illustrates just how powerful that pole is off, you know, Oh, am I missing out on opportunity somewhere?
John: Let me jump in. I’m gonna make a point here. I am. I’m very good. Oh, that was upon the shoulder. I’m very good at marketing. I’m very good at sales. But I had struggled folks with what Steve just talking about. I chose the market. We’ll get into that later when it’s appropriate. But I chose a market that is ideal for me because of why. And I was talking with Steve that particular day about I want to go do this. I felt like I’m missing out. opportunities. That’s the context of what this conversation was like. So that’s the background.
Steve: Yeah. And I mean, I think it’s natural to feel that tug. I feel it all the time, too. You know, so I don’t think if you’re in that, if you identify with that, thinking right now, don’t beat yourself up over. Just understand where you are right now. And John, I think it’s, it’s, you’re a great example of that. So you had that sort of distraction. And you kind of went that direction, not really far in that direction. But you went a little way that way, for a little while, and then you sort of snapped back. I like to think that I had a lot to do with that. But I probably didn’t, but you snapped back and now you’re you are hyper-focused on this very specific target market that you have. And we’re going to talk about that in a minute because I want to get into the why part of it as we get into the next mindset, but you’re incredibly focused now. And your business is just taken on this. I mean, dramatic, like hockey stick growth. And I don’t think it’s, you know that that’s just by chance. I think that’s a direct result of you getting really, really focused on that group and then figuring out how do I better serve them? And how do I deliver a better result for them and communicate that more clearly to them and me as a result, I mean, you’re just off the charts? I mean, you’re leading the nation in annuity sales and, you know, the main company that you work with, that’s huge. And you’re doing in this tiny little market, you know, you’re proof that it works.
So anyway, let’s move into the second mindset, John.
The Second Mindset
John: There, let me do this. Let me ask people to think in terms of four steps, you know, walk up step, one step, two, step, three-step. That’s what I Seeing here. This is why my mind works. Steve likes the numbers. I like the visuals. So you’re a step one if you’re feeling like oh my god, that’s me. Don’t despair to simply say, Oh, great, I’m on step number one. Now I’m going to number two, and I’m gonna get to three and four. And I’m gonna get the ball where I understand this stuff in a match. Because that’s the way it is in life. You start walking, you fall in your best few little bit. You try to ride a bicycle, you bust your butt, you keep trying. So it’s the same thing everybody saying,
Steve: Yeah, it’s all about progress.
So the second mindset is, and this is the next step up, which I think is a great way to think about it, that you now have, excuse me, you know that narrowing your target market is a proven idea. So you understand that it’s something that will help you but you’re not sure how to do it without making a mistake,
John: What kind of mistake it possibly makes by focusing on a narrow market?
Steve: John, what if I choose the wrong one?
John: Then I’m in trouble. And that does happen
Steve: Yeah. So the way that it honestly folks, this is where I find most of the people that we work with. So when we get a new client, they are most often in this second mindset. They know that this is the right idea, but they don’t know how to do it. And they’re really afraid that they’re going to choose the wrong market. And, and part of that is, there’s too much choice, right? Because they look around and they go, Well, I got all these different little subgroups of types of clients that I’ve worked with, and how do I choose and if I choose does that then mean that I can’t do business with all of these other types anymore.
And, and so the pain-free way to approach this is to look at it as I’m only going to do one at a time. Right, I’m going to pick a single target market, I’m going to pick my ideal client. And, and, and I’m going to do my best guess of who that is. And we take folks through a process to do that, where we look at their existing clients, and we look at them really for, for several criteria, the first thing we look at is are they profitable? Because why would you want to focus on a type of client that’s not profitable for you? Second is do you like working with them? Because again, why would you want to focus on those groups of people that you can’t stand working with?
The third is do they get a really great result from working with you? So out of all of the clients you have, there’s always going to be some that get a better result than others. Is this the group that gets really good results and, and then the fourth is, are they easy to find are easy to reach. And when you put those together, now, you’ve got a really easy way to figure out where to focus at first. And, and so that’s kind of how you move. If you’re on this second step, where you know, this is something to do, but you’re just kind of frozen, you’re not sure how to do it. That’s, that’s a way to move up the rung a little bit, John.
Connecting “Why” With “Who”
John: But let’s talk about that for a second from the word Why.
Steve: Why, and I was just gonna ask you because I know, we’ve talked about this before in the advisor, inner circle podcast, and you, you really believe in connecting why with who So tell us a little bit about that?
John: Well, I’m not so sure how to say this without offending some people. So I’m just gonna say it. If you’re in business, you’re in sales. Period. We’re all hustling, you’re selling something either professional salesperson or you’re in a business that sells something. So we think that everybody on the planet should have what we have because we’re so in love with it. It’s really There are most people who don’t want to talk with us. Most people don’t want what we have as a product. They want the end result of the product. You know the story about nobody wants a quarter-inch drill bit. They want a quarter-inch hole.
So I when I started seeing huge growth in my business state, and I can look back in time I can remember five times where my business just went like off the charts the next year like boom, boom, that one was to actually get 25 some years ago, it was because I focused on why am I working with this particular person? Why should I work with this particular person? When I started getting into why it made the who more powerful Okay, and it also gave me more energy because I was working with people who drain my energy. They were a pain in my ass. No fun, no profit. I know the I’m done. I’m done. I would rather work on a case that gives me half the revenue but I’m having fun working with them, then work with someone who is a pain in the tush that I make more money, but they make my life miserable. When I finally made that connection, and all of a sudden it hit me like, I’ve got plenty these people around me, that love me, respect me, trust me.
But then my why I came because for me, my chosen primary market are members of the Florida Retirement System. Because I can tell the story about my grandfather, my father, who was studying boys, what they experience when they retired, and ultimately died. Both of them passed away. So I’m able to have a wine that is so powerful, that if you are a compassionate, caring person, when you hear that story, you’re like, wow, I have found my guy is not made up. It’s not make-believe it’s not BS. It is actually absolutely my reality of the life of what I have experienced by observing family members, and I can take that with passion and share it with people go, Damn, this guy knows me where his event the last 20 years I need this guy. That’s who. And the one that I chose them to be the now how do I get out of the lane and go after doctors, lawyers, dentists, etc Of course someday I’m going to continue to that but I’m gonna get my butt back in my primary lane as quickly as possible. That’s what I call it my bread and butter.
Steve: And what I always tell our clients is you’ll probably end up with two or three types of ideal client profiles.
John: You better because one might disappear for whatever reason. I think about your industry you’re in before it dissolved. Yeah, 2008-2009 because of the economy. Yeah, so So, just on one market, you might be in trouble. But I would also caution people don’t get more than two or three.
Steve: Yeah, it’s very, I think, very difficult in a small business. And by that I mean anything less than 500 or 1000 employees. You know, that, that if you don’t have a dozen people in your marketing department or more, it’s going to be very difficult, to be successful with more than two or three ideal clients. I agree. And, and so, but start with one, start with one know that, that if it’s off a little chances are you’re not going to be completely off, you might be off a hair, but that can be adjusted for and know that if somebody that doesn’t fit that profile comes and wants to give you money. That’s just a business decision. You can decide do I want to take that money right now or are they not in my you know, Target Market do I not want to work with them, you get, you have the choice at that point. But I’m, I’m not here to tell you, you shouldn’t do business with them. That’s up to you. But for the purpose of your marketing and your communication with the world, you need to get that focused if you want to be successful.
John: Steve talked about the importance of visualizing your ideal client, like an avatar, talk about that. We’ve not mentioned that so far. Talk about visualizing things, that all the things that make up your ideal client.
Steve: John, I, you know, I’ll be honest, I’ve always struggled with that. And I see people struggle, you know, with it all the time when they try and do it from a make-belief standpoint. And so our approach is actually…
John: I just described from the standpoint of real-life experiences of who the hell you like to work with, and why. And now because it becomes real not make-believe.
Steve: Well, that’s just it. I mean, so when we take a client through that process, we actually have them write down the names of the four or five clients that they currently have that they think are Ideal or at least are really, really close to the ideal. And when we do that, it makes it really easy to get clear on what are the characteristics of them that make them ideal. And so yeah, that’s the way we approach it.
John: Let me jump in. That’s what it was, again, Charlie, I won’t use his last name all the podcasts with him, but he probably mine but when he sat down with me back in the 80s, and said, Look, I need your help. I’ve got all this crap. Did you get a big box in? Nothing on my desk? I don’t understand this. Can you help me? I don’t do that. He said, Would you take time to figure it out? So we’ll leave the stuff I’ll get back to you. Give me a month to work on it. And one day hit me. This is 1983. Remember clearly, just before our son was born July as I got it, I get it. And that’s when I started focusing on the secure retirement aspect because he had all this stuff.
But it was a professor for State University, but he didn’t have it all coordinated. So I figured it out. I sat down, looked at it pretended it was my staff call it. I think I have something for you that came in how much say nothing. It was way back then I should have charged the charge for that. Because he said, John, this is a tremendous bank. But when you’re correct, you pick a person. Not some make-believe. So Charlie became my avatar, my ideal of who I worked as a client. And then I started looking for people like him, and the more like him I could find great than ever think about now somebody was one step below him still great. Two steps, maybe three or four steps, maybe not. So I totally agree with that concept of Who are your best people, not just from the money you make, but because you enjoy working with them. You can make a lot of money with somebody but if you hate dealing with them is that the life you want to live in? It’s not just about money.
Steve: Absolutely. So let’s, let’s take the next step up on the on a scorecard here. So the third mindset out of the four is that you’ve built a good book of business and you’re focused on mining the value from your existing book until you retire. With this mindset. This is again, these are all things that I observed in people these aren’t invented. I just after observing business owners for 10 years now all of these things began to be, you know, really get clear. There’s there a group of people to get to a certain level of success, John, and you and I both know people like this.
John: I went to that for a period of the year. Let’s be honest, I went through a period of a year of where life was great. I said, Okay, how many times I thought, okay, I’m semi-retired, and now, rarely user Return, you know, my retirement, My vision is from 67 now to age 8720 years out, but for a while, I was kind of like in that, even though I wasn’t really retired, I was eating a pension and Social Security. So I fell into that 789 maybe for a little while.
Steve: Yeah, and we see people who get there and you know, and for these people, often they, they kind of lose sight of who they’re who is it’s just really about who’s already in the business, who are their current customers and you know, and just continuing to sort of service and maybe they get some referrals and things like that. And, and often that’s where somebody is. You know, I think there’s a step above that. You know, but for a lot of business owners, the goal is just to get up to that level.
Niching Down
John: Yeah. Why? Let’s talk about That could because you work with more people from a consulting side than I do coaching and consulting that with clients was primarily from the financial side. So why do you think it is that we have this mindset, I’m going to build something. And once I get it to be really successful, I’m just going to think coast and retire versus like, Wow, look at this machine I have built Why would I ever retire from this? And that’s where I am now. You’re not talking? I think I’ll be doing this as long as I live. But because I’ve got growth and got people around me that helped me grow and I’m excited this I’m passionate about it is fun, is if it’s not fun, guess what? I’m gonna get the person who’s not fun out of my world.
Steve: First, the keyword you said there was a machine. And I find that the people that that get into this third mindset, haven’t built a machine. They built a business on good old fashioned hard labor belly to belly prospecting. They’re going out and networking and shaking hands and kissing babies and they get tired. After a while, there’s no system or process to continually get in front of their ideal client. You know, and, and so they built it up to a point where it sort of supports them. They’ve gotten in a comfortable lifestyle, and they just sort of coast at that point. And, you know, and that’s fine. If that’s where you want to be no judgment, you know.
John: Let’s agree that sometimes people just getting a position where they have gotten in a comfort zone. And some other people got into this thing with a worn-out there, because they work so hard.
Steve: Absolutely. Absolutely. But something else you said, which is key to and I see this a lot. You know, you talked about the fact that you’re passionate about who you’re working with, and you’re excited about working with them and that they’re fun. A lot of times I find that people We’re in this mode because they weren’t specific about who they really wanted to work with. They didn’t get clear on who they’re who is who their ideal client is that they’re not working with people that they’re having fun with their they don’t look at their clients as people that give them joy or energy. And so why would they want more? And I think that’s the, for me, that’s the argument for, for really being clear about who your ideal client is. So you kind of leapfrog over this into the fourth mindset. So that you have a business that energizes you. I mean, John, you know, you’re 67 years old, and you got a 20-year plan for growth ahead of you. You’re energized by it. Right. I’ve never seen in fact, over the last probably 18 months. It’s like, I don’t know what’s gotten into you. You know, and not only is the business grow and more than, you know, but I’ve also known you for 10 years. It’s growing faster now than it ever has been. It’s also less work for you than it’s ever been because you built this really great team, you’re making more money than you ever have. It’s, you know, it’s like everything’s clicking on all cylinders. And I think a lot of that comes from the fact that you are very clear about who you want to work with and why I think that wise is important in there. And you’re very motivated by that as part of your life’s mission to help those people. And so you transcend it even though you got into that place for a little while where you thought about coasting. Your why kind of took over and you transcended it. And I think that’s really powerful. To me. That’s a very aspirational thing, a place you want to be.
John: I agree, and I think if you have doubts about the whiteboard, read the Simon Says book, start with why and you’ll get a better understanding or go watch this video that just put it in, like Ted Talks and listen to it. But I will tell you something, Steve, that You’ve helped me tremendously. And Bob was there for more than 10 years. Because my husband or surgery was back in 2008. You were right there with me. And for me the whole plan so it’s been more than 10 years, my brother.
Steve Gordon: Yeah, you’re right. It has it. That’s right. We knew each other before I started this business, right.
John: And you are right there for me when I needed it because I couldn’t drive I wasn’t allowed to drive were supposed to arrive early. I think back to all of the time, we spent together breakfast meetings and a lot of where we talked about these things. And it to me, it really comes down to two words, who and the one all this other stuff is important. I know we’ll get to that in future episodes, but the who, if you’re not clear on who you want to serve, and if you don’t have a servant mentality, I’m gonna tell you something, you’re going bankrupt your assets going out of business. You got to determine who you wish to serve. And why do you want to serve that person or persons and when you figure that out, I got news for you. The money will come you’ll be sitting on Where in the hell did this come from? How did we get that? It will blow your mind. You agree or disagree?
Steve: I agree completely. And and, you know, this is the reason why we’re on the first mindset. It’s the most foundational, it’s important.
John: It’s the most important there. It’s the most important.
Steve: It’s the most important. Well, yeah, I mean, if you get, you don’t deal with this. I don’t want to say if you get this wrong, because I don’t I think it’s really hard to get this wrong. I think a lot of people worry about getting it wrong. But if you don’t begin to think about it and make some decisions around it, I think it’s it’s really problematic. It makes it difficult to do anything else, you know.
John: Changes those days over in your lifetime. Okay, I’m 67. So as I have aged and I have grown with my clients and prospective clients, my focus has changed but my market hasn’t changed. The market has been the same but their desires, their needs. Are their goals have changed. So if we’re willing to pick the who, and move through life with them and understand, think about the things I’ve had to really learn. I didn’t know anything about social security at one point had to learn about it. Because class, we’re asking that all of a sudden I’m in it, then Medicare. So what’s happened is all these things that I’ve experienced with clients has made me stronger and better. And not till constant everyday total clients today, in fact, at 130. He said this is a problem can you help? I’m sorry to waste your time not a waste of my time because when I help you solve this problem, I will now have new knowledge. So allow me to help hundreds if not thousands, or 10s of thousands of other people. So we grow and we grow and grow or we choose not to grow, and it’s okay. I’m not being judgmental or critical. People don’t want to grow because, for a period of time, I was thinking he just retired, fade off into the sunset.
Steve: Couldn’t agree more. I you know this about me, you know, the thing that really drives me is that that I’ve grown up in professional service businesses. You know, my dad’s a CPA. He’s now retired, but, you know, he didn’t retire until he was into his 70s. And, you know, had a small firm at one time, it was one of the largest firms in the city where I grew up, and then it got smaller again, and you know, and I was kind of the kid that was crawling around under dad’s desk, you know, when he was working weekends and, and, you know, nights and things like that, and, you know, so when we go to work with one of our clients, I’m thinking about that kid that’s crawling around under a desk somewhere. And if I can solve the problem of getting business for that firm for that professional.
And they don’t have to worry about that. And they can go home and they can spend time with their family and do those things. Yeah, I mean, that, to me is the driving factor. So I think it’s vital to have that why otherwise, I mean,, this all gets to be too difficult. You know business is hard enough if you don’t have a really strong connection to why you’re doing it. And for me, I don’t you know, a lot of people talk about, well, you know, your why should be your family or your kids or whatever, that’s all great, but that’s kind of, I mean, I love my kids. But you know, if they listen to this, don’t take it the wrong way, guys. That’s selfish why. I mean, that’s, that’s about me and my family. That’s not about the people I’m serving.
John: Well, when I’ve got you back, well, 20 years, 19 years, I’m not sure. So let’s just got 20 years. I got news for you, your kids grow up your grandkids. Grow, they find other interests other than you, you dance your better half interest other than just your kids and your grandkids. You love them and you want to be with them, but you better have the other things you care about. I want to talk about lifestyle. That’s not part of what you’re talking about. David, let’s talk about lifestyle. I know where you’re sitting right this minute. I know how you’re working. Talk about how you got rid of all of the nonsense in your world that was wasting your time and energy. And you focused on building your business where you could do it from anywhere you want to be. One of the freedoms we’re talking about time, freedom, money, freedom, relationship, freedom, and location freedom. Spend a moment on that because I think you’re who helps determine that?
Steve: It does I mean, if you know if I didn’t focus on the who that that we focus on. I might have to have A big office somewhere. You know, like, you’ve got to have an office because people are coming in. And, you know, our clients.
John: Are you being critical of me?
Steve: You know, I’m not it’s not a criticism. It’s a reality. Right. So I mean, early on and early on. When did I I gave up the office, I think about five, five and a half years ago, because I was the only one going, all of our clients were outside other than you were outside of the local area.
John: Yes. And that was by design. It was a nice office. I love coming to see you.
Steve: It was a beautiful office. It was wonderful but totally unnecessary. Right.
Right. And, and so and more than that, I was wasting a lot of time going back and forth and it wasn’t serving our clients. And so you know, if you’re in choosing you why, yeah, you can and choosing you who, and connecting them. You know you can, you can design the business in a way where it’s serving the people you want to serve. And it’s at the same time allowing you to build the type of business you want to build.
John: I know where you’re sitting right now, folks, he is sitting in his beautiful home that his wife, Aaron built. He has a studio, it’s not an office, it is a studio, you walk in there and you look at what he’s got. It’s like a recording studio. So that he’s got his environment where he can. He can. He can travel down the hallway in the morning in his pajamas and a cup of coffee. He wants to work. In my home. I’ve set up my own little studio as a microcosm of what he’s got. But I’m to the point where I’ve been focusing on this location for him so I can do interviews, no matter where I am.
Because if you don’t get to the point where you have the ability to control your lifestyle in your life, Why be in business? Your business is there to be your benefactor. It is there to serve you, not you serve it. And if we learn how to focus on our who and why we choose them, we will be much better Steve, in my opinion, to create a lifestyle that we enjoy and we love them. We’re not going Oh crap, I gotta go to work today for like, Oh my God, look at my day. I’m getting to see Joe Susie, Dan, and Bobby, I guess for almost that I’m excited about seeing these people because I’m part of their lives.
Steve: That’s it. That’s that is it. Alright, so let’s move on to this fourth, fourth mindset. Well, we have but the mindset is that you understand that by being very specific about your ideal clients. You’re able to multiply your growth as a result of focus. And this is one of the things that I noticed, John, in the very first year of working with clients on their marketing, the minute we could get them to focus, that’s like instant results.
John: But we agree, Steve, that’s true of anything with the sports entertainment business, once you identify one or two areas where you say, Wow, we’re kind of weak here. Let’s focus on this. When you start measuring something and focusing you automatically improve.
Steve: I think so always, you know, I’ve always described it as, as, you know, sort of taking the blinders off, you know, in your case, John, you know, you’re focusing on university professors, really members of the panel system, right. But I mean, if you look at your narrowest kind of core there. That’s professors, right? And as you go around town if you didn’t have that focus, you know, and you just said, Well, I’ll work with any, any adult Well, those university professors fall within that. So you still might do business with some of them. You know, but, but the minute you say no, I’m going after university professors, all of a sudden, all of these opportunities for you to connect with them are revealed. So some of the media that you use like the FSU, faculty magazine, all of a sudden now it immediately appears before you like, where it makes sense, hey, I should probably advertise there, you know, the events that you need to go to the places you need to be seen the ways you need to network. All of that becomes immediately apparent to you. And before that they were completely invisible because if you’re going after anybody in Everybody, why in the world, would you market in the university faculty magazine? would make sense, right? And so and that’s really what it’s like it’s I see this with clients all the time, the minute that we get them to focus.
It’s like they go, Oh, wait, there’s this opportunity over here. And then there’s this connection I have over here. And that person has a bunch of people in their audience or in their network that fit this description. And I remember that now. And we could do a webinar with them, or we could do a lunch and learn with them. And then over here, there’s another opportunity and they start seeing it all over the place. All those opportunities existed. They just didn’t recognize them because they weren’t focused. And that’s what creates that speed of growth. It really is. It’s a multiplier.
John: No doubt about it. And one of the things I’ve discovered for me, it’s not just the professor’s but it’s having a clearer vision that I want to talk about retirement issues that are on their mind, such as Social Security, Medicare, I’ve got to take money out of my retirement accounts required minimum distributions. What happens ultimately when I die who gets this money, and the new secure act goes passed by Congress and signed by the president really makes that more troubling and more confusing. So now, instead of seven and a half, away to 72, so that is newsworthy. So we sent out an email that and the fact that you die, your non-spouse beneficiary must take the money out over 10 years instead of a lifetime. So now we’ve had something that’s newsworthy so that we can talk about something that’s specific to every person who has a retirement account. So if you have money in retirement accounts, I want to make sure you see John Curry and his team as being the experts to help me that’s all we thought. There. So we are who, specifically FSU professors, and MIT professors, but also anyone who has money and retirement accounts where they’re concerned about their future. And what happens is with the emotions we’re doing, as you know, I don’t spend a lot not every time I’ll play something here and there, sponsorship here and there. But what happens every time I do it, we’re getting multiples of that back.
Steve: Oh, yeah, easily and that a lot of that comes from just being really focused. If you focus you can have a message that people will respond to when you’re not focused, you end up having a message that does have no meaning to anyone. And, and, and I think that’s, that’s the real key there. So you want to get to that fourth mindset ultimate where, where you really understand that that specificity is the key that focus is the key.
John: And let’s talk about the fact that by the number one, there are people who are fearful of spreading themselves too thin or I’m leaving a mark It if you feel if you’ll take the step of having the courage to identify that narrow focus, now you say, time, energy and money, and you have become an expert, a celebrity, and you have some authority, if you will, you become the aseptic, a market authority, celebrity, and expert in that particular market, because now they see you just today one of my colleagues that, you know, John has done a great job of promoting himself as being the retirement expert. He said and dammit, he’s done that, because he’s in a position now where there are people that I want to work with, as I know John’s expert in this just this morning, so you shared that. So you got to pick a niche. You can’t be all things ever, everyone, but you can be something to someone.
Steve: Yeah, I’ve I think this is the foundational decision to make in your business. And so if you want to make growth inevitable This is where you begin. So thanks for helping us walk through the first of these mindsets. John, we’re going to continue to go through the scorecard in the upcoming episodes. And the next one, we’re going to cover the target 100 advantages and, and I know we got a lot to cover there.
John: Well, first of all, I thank you for letting me be a part of this and interviewing you somewhat because today is the first time I’ve seen this in the detail. You’ve done it. And I think I’m pretty good at this. But I’m sitting here laughing going, Yeah, you’d have been talking to since about 2 o’clock. What about two o’clock, almost two and a half hours, two hours, 45 minutes today. And I’ve learned a lot myself. So thank you for allowing me to be part of it, my friend and those of you who are listening, whether you’re part of the unstoppable SEO group or the inner circle, you’ve got something here that if you will take it and spend some time with it and run with it and truly learn more what Steve offers. You’ll see huge gains in your business, you’ll be happier and your life of the better. So, Steve, back to you.
Steve: Well, John, let’s wrap things up. We’ll be back in the next episode with the target 100 advantage, I’m looking forward to that there’s a ton they’re like, to me, that’s once you go through and identify who your who is then applying the target 100 advantage that we’re going to talk about, really will accelerate things for you. So stay tuned for that. And you can get the scorecard at thegrowthscore.com download it scores yourself, and I would love to hear from you and find out where you are right now where your score is, you can email me just send me an email at Steve@unstoppableceo.net. I’d love to know. Any last thoughts, John?
John: Yes, absolutely. Think about this book, if you can identify the one ideal client that you’re the one And then as Steve just pointed out, what if you could then identify 100 of those? How much better would your life be? So you identify one person, you Oh my God, this if I got just this one guy or gal, my life is better. What would happen if you had 100? And then if you lose one you had another, you lose one and think about that for just a minute. And that will give you a little teaser of what you’re going to experience in our next episode.
Steve: Absolutely. Alright folks, we’ll see you next time.
