Episode 097 Part 2 – Justin Stephens

Justin Stephens 0:01
I think you know what, as we grow as a community, as entrepreneurs are visionaries, they’re givers. And some people call entrepreneurs, greedy. It’s because they don’t know any true entrepreneurs. All they know is what –

Richard Matthews 0:20
Amen to that

Justin Stephens 0:20
– On social media, right? Entrepreneurs are the reason we live in the world we live in. They’re the reason that the economy is going to recover and do way better than it was doing before COVID-19.

Richard Matthews 0:39
…

Justin Stephens 1:41
They don’t care about money. Some of the circles I run in, like I am so – to be totally candid like they throw them around I’m like, you did what. Oh my god, that’s so crazy.

Richard Matthews 1:59
Like that. Like, I went to a yacht show recently, and it was talking with the yacht salesman. And I was like, I just want to find out like, what is it like selling to someone who has like money to burn. And they were like, it’s literally it’s like the most insane thing ever, someone will come to a yacht show like this. And they will pick a yacht. The way that you pick and pay for a yacht, the way that you pick and pay for socks at Walmart, right? They’re like, why buy the red pack or the black pack? And they’re like, I’m gonna buy that one. And then they just hand over all the money and they’re like, oh, did you want an extra 10% for your commission because you were so useful. Here you go. Right. Like, like, that’s the way that people with money act.

Justin Stephens 2:38
It’s so true. But don’t ask them for their time. They guard their time, way tighter than they guard their wallet. So if you’re getting started, always, like you said, do the descension model. Start at the very top and do it done for your service. Like if you’re getting started in the business, the reason I’ve had the success I’ve had is because I did not try and get people to come to a training program. I did not try to get them to download my free lead magnet so that I could then nurture them into a training program into Done For You. No, I picked up the phone, I started reaching out and I told people to listen, your people suck. Let me do it. I didn’t say that. But right. That’s the –

Richard Matthews 3:30
The central message.

Justin Stephens 3:32
So let me be a part of your team. Do this for you. We’ll grow together. I charge $5,000 a month plus commission, and that’s what I tell people. Listen, I don’t want to make money on my clients. I want to make money with them. I want to prove myself and if I do a three-month contract if, after three months, I’m not paying for myself. You should fire me. Right.

Richard Matthews 4:01
That is a glorious message and a glorious model, we do the same kind of thing with ours, where it’s like, hey, we have a retainer plus percentage of profits that we, we do with, with clients in our space. And the same kind of thing. And people are like, well, you know, how long are we gonna work together? How long is the retainer for? I was like, the retainer is for as long as you want to keep paying me, right? And if you get to a point where you’re like, I don’t want to pay this guy anymore, then stop paying me. But you know, I’ve got clients and I’ve had for five or six years, because they’re like, I couldn’t see running my business without him and his organization. Right. And that’s the kind of value you want to be providing to the people you’re working with.

Justin Stephens 4:36
Exactly. And a lot of people get into all the well what’s your contract like? What if they don’t want to pay like all that. Listen, if you are not working with people that you trust and believe; wants you to be successful as well, don’t work with them.

Richard Matthews 4:56
Yeah, like like my most of my clients at this point. I’ve gotten to the point where Like every single one of my clients, we’re traveling right now, like most of the guests, or the listeners on the show know that. And like when we are in places with clients, I like they invite our whole family over to come over for dinner. Like one of our clients down here in Florida is like, Hey, do you wanna bring your kids over to go play in the pool, and we’ll do a barbecue and I kind of stuff. Because you’re you’re not just building business relationships. And I think that’s something that a lot of people miss out on, is, you know, when they think of this whole thing like you’re building a business and you’re building a network, and a network is some sort of like business term that people associate with. And, like, I get it, I get the idea that you have to have words to describe what you’re doing. But you’re building relationships with real people. And those relationships are going to serve you for life and as long as you’re also serving those relationships.

Justin Stephens 5:51
Exactly, exactly. It’s got to be win-win. And like you said, In this game your network is everything. So, here’s a question I would ask yourself as the listeners, who do you spend time with right now? And are you where you want to be right now? Because if you’re not where you want to be my guess is you spend time with people who are not where you want to be.

Richard Matthews 6:24
Yeah, it’s one of the hardest things to figure out how to do as a new entrepreneur is how to get yourself in the right groups of people. But one of the things that I found is that when you start going after the prospects who are where you want to be with those high ticket services, they immediately don’t refer you down. Right, they refer you up. And that kind of stuff helps build your network and get you into cool circles. And over the course of time, you end up in places where, like, you’re like, I’m uncomfortable being around people. Like this, because they have, they have money to burn and I’m not there yet. Right?

Justin Stephens 7:07
We’ll be there.

Richard Matthews 7:09
Yes, we’ll get there eventually, eventually, like when I’m not quite to the purchase a yacht the way I purchase socks, but I have this one of my fun little like, like internal things I don’t share this with a lot of people. But one of my goals in life is to constantly increase the amount of money that I no longer care about. Right. And what I mean by that is like when I first got married, if like when it was like 10 years ago, and it’s really kind of a fun, fun thing. We just finished our taxes for this last year. I paid more in taxes this year that I made my first year of marriage. So like over a course of 12 months, so that’s a cool place to be. But I remember my first year of marriage if like you go to Walmart and you buy something and it like breaks and doesn’t matter if it was $1 or $10. You’re taking it back returning the damn thing because that dollar is important. Right, and you’ve probably been there, we’ve all been there, you’re like I need, like, it’s important to me that I get this taken care of. And I’ve been like, my, one of my goals in life is to up that dollar amount beyond which I don’t care where like, if it breaks, or if it doesn’t work, I just toss it in the garbage, right? Like and just move on with my life. And you know, moved it from $1 to $10 to $100 to $300 or $400 to $500. Or like to the point where like, I can spend drop 500 bucks on something. And if it doesn’t work out the way that I want, I just move on, right? Don’t even worry about it. And like I want to get to the point where, like, you know, if you buy a yacht, like a pack of socks, you don’t like the out you just buy another one. Right?

Justin Stephens 8:41
Exactly. Who cares if we lost 50% on it, whatever.

Richard Matthews 8:47
Doesn’t make a big difference. So I’m not to the yacht stage yet, but I have gotten to the point where like, I will buy things that I’m like, you know, I bought an iPad last year. I was like, I didn’t like it and I gave it to a friend and bought another one. Right. That’s a thousand dollar purchase, right and that’s, you know, that’s a big difference from where I was 10 years ago. But it comes from like you mentioned getting in with people who think differently than you do. And you start seeing the way that they interact with and treat money. And they don’t treat money the same way that broke people do. And when you start interacting differently with money, it starts interacting differently with you.

Justin Stephens 9:23
It’s so true. A great example is, have you ever talked to someone who like bought an online course for a thousand dollars and they’re like, oh, my God, these videos were so awful. The quality of that is ridiculous. I want my money back. It’s like, now, first, did you buy that course for high-quality videos? No, you didn’t. Second, if you can’t figure out how to get value out of your purchases, that’s your problem, not their problem. So one thing I would recommend, especially if you want to be great at selling info products and stuff like this, don’t be a hypocrite. This is something we trained for. I still train I call it a positive buy cycle. How you sell is exactly how you buy. So if you think things over, it makes sense to want to think things over. So if someone comes up to you and said, you go through a sales call, and they say, you know, this looks great. I just got to go Think about it. Let me get back to you next week. If you’re a thinker-over, then you’re going to say, Yeah, I would do that, too. If you have a positive buy cycle, something’s going to trigger in your brain and you’re gonna be like, wait a minute. What is it? I mean, it’s 1000 bucks. What is there to think about? It sounds like this really just isn’t a fit. Is that right? Like, another thing when it comes to sales? Go for the no. Don’t try and push people to – a no is way better than a yes. Because you don’t have to waste time dealing with it … and the emotional baggage.

Richard Matthews 11:22
I tell people my goal in sales is to get to the no as fast as possible. So like, I will, I will, like get on phone calls with people like new clients. And I would like hey, just so you know, our pricing is $5,000 a month plus a percentage of profits. If you’re not comfortable with that, we don’t need to continue the phone call. right. I was like, I’m like, I’m like, I’m not like I don’t need your money. I don’t need your work. Like I’ve got plenty of businesses and plenty of referrals who want to work with me. So if you actually want to spend time on the phone, we’ll do that. And actually, I’ve gotten to the point now, I think our application on our website to even get on my calendar Like is like, I understand that our pricing is here and I still want to get on the phone with you and they have to like check-off inside that they actually understand that we’re not cheap.

Justin Stephens 12:12
Yeah. So I love that. Love it. There’s a reason I mentioned my price here on this podcast and it’s on my website. I do not want a meeting where someone’s trying to figure out my price. There’s a book, if you are building a business, you need to read this book. It’s called Built to Sell by John Warrillow. It is all about turning whatever you do, whether it’s a product or a service into a product, and stop changing it based on everything. They have a product and just sell it. Go read the book, I promise you, it will change your business. But my belief is when you withhold price, you make it about the price.

Richard Matthews 13:00
Absolutely, absolutely. So the other thing that I’ve started doing too, which is, you know, for anyone who’s in the business of taking sales calls to close business, right, and generally, if you’re in a high ticket space, right, and I’ve worked in everything with all my clients over the years from low ticket all the way to, you know, multi, you know, 25-30-40-50 thousand dollar sales, once you hit the about 1500 dollar price point, if you’re not getting on the phone, you’re not closing sales. Alright, so So part of your sales process is going to be getting on the phone. So like in our business, and a lot of my clients, businesses, once you hit a certain point where you’re starting to get enough leads in your in the door, we start putting barriers in front of the phone call, right. And so first, at first, it’s an application, then it’s an application that has a fee associated with it. And now like my application, I think I don’t even know what the fee is like, it doesn’t matter, right? I think it’s 200 bucks. But the point is like that someone can’t get on the calendar with me and talk to me unless they’re willing to fork over money. Right right. I will apply that to the purchase price or whatever it’s like the $200 is irrelevant, right? But the the the point is, is like, Hey, you, you know what you’re getting into, you know how much it costs, you know what we’re doing. And you understand that like, Hey, we’re getting on the phone because, you know, we want to see whether or not we fit well together. Right? And that’s, that’s really all the call is about. You’re basically at this point you’re sold.

Justin Stephens 14:23
Exactly. And you may not be sold, but you have questions, and you’re not trying to figure out the price. Like I in the Sandler world, pricing is customized based on everything, like everything makes a difference. There are no real standard prices, which the problem with that is if everything’s customized, you can’t just sell something to someone until you talk to them. So you’re automatically building in these obstacles you have to overcome when it comes to your sales cycle.

Richard Matthews 15:12
One of the things that I’ve, I’ve noticed in my business, right, and we talked about this before we got on the thing, it’s like the push button podcast service, right? They cost $2500 a month, it’s completely done for you. And like, in my head, I struggled with the pricing for that for quite a while. Because I was like, I know like if you’re in this place in their business, it’s not going to make as much sense to pay for that and if they’re in this place, and I was like, I was like, I just need to throw that out and be like, this is the price and the people who it fits for are my clients, right? And if it doesn’t fit, you’re not my client.

Justin Stephens 15:42
Yes, a hundred percent. Another thing when it comes to pricing guys, never price something based on what the market will bear. Never. Price it based on what will be profitable for your company. I know that.

Richard Matthews 16:00
Amen to that.

Justin Stephens 16:02
I had this meeting. Oh God, it was years ago with a referral from a friend. Really nice guy. We sat down, he created ornaments. He was retired and did like metal casting and stuff like this. This was back when I worked at Sandler. He did all these metal castings and so I’m sitting down, I’m talking to him and I’m like, alright, tell me about what you do. And we got into it, we found out for the cost of goods sold just for like, the hard cost, not even the time he’s putting into it.

Richard Matthews 16:39
Cost of labor.

Justin Stephens 16:40
The cost of labor isn’t even included. It’s like 20 bucks per ornament. And he then spends all year making these ornaments. Goes to Christmas goes when Christmas shows up and sells them for 15 bucks an ornament.

Richard Matthews 16:59
He’s losing money. Holy cow. I was …

Justin Stephens 17:04
He’s literally paying people to take his crap. Right? Do not pay people for work. I’m telling you go spend the time with your family. If it is not profitable don’t do it.

Richard Matthews 17:19
So here’s, here’s one of the fun things is it’s a fun discussion cuz I think a lot of entrepreneurs struggle with pricing. And I had the opportunity for a number of years to work with an organization where I was a sea-level marketing director for them. And I got I reported directly to the President and I sat on the sea level, all the executives in the team would come together every week and I got to work with all of them was really cool. But the CEO was on the board of directors for 12 different companies, right? All multimillion-dollar big regional companies in their various spaces. And he was like, one of the things he harped on all the time was a 28% to 30% margin. All right, there’s, like whatever we’re doing we’re targeting a 28% to 30% margin. And like he started showing like I started asking him about that. And like, we’d go and have lunch. And it’s like he targets out in all of his businesses, and I started paying attention. Like if you can call in and listen to like the investor calls for like Apple and Google and all the other things, you know, the things that Apple harps on, in every single one of their investor calls, they’re 28% to 30% margin, right, you know, Google harps on them all their investor calls, they’re 28% to 30% margin targets. And I could probably guarantee that the overwhelming majority of your successful big businesses that you recognize their name brand, they’re targeting 28 to 30% margin in their business because they have to profit in order to continue growing. So there is there are some exceptions to that. Like, you know, if you look at Solar City, for instance, or Tesla, where you’re using investor funds to grow a business or Amazon who was using investor funds to grow business, they were buying, buying market share by sacrificing margin, right, and they’re doing that with capital, capital stuff. So that’s a different game. We’re not talking about that game unless you’re venture capital-backed, right. But if you remove venture capital backing, you have to profit in your business. And so like one of the discussions that I was having with myself is like when we set up the push button podcast business, it was like I needed to know what our costs were right. So we started really diving into like, I needed to know what our cost of labor for our deliverable was. And we got really solid when our cost of labor for deliverability was, and then we got really solid in what our cost for advertising was going to be, right. And so we know what our cost of customer acquisition is, right? And so we’ve got cost of labor, we got cust of customer acquisition, we have the cost of goods sold, you put all those things together. Right? And you have this is what it’s going to cost us to do it. I can’t sell it for anything less than that. Now, more importantly, if I sell it for only that cost, I’m out of business, right? I can’t afford to keep going. So you have to like the way that I structured our pricing was like here’s where we are. Where’s my add my 30% margin on there, and now I’ve got our price right now, on the other side, as a customer of someone, I only work with businesses who are profitable, right? If my business is going to rely on your service, if you’re not making a profit, I don’t want to work with you. Right? Because you’re not going to be there for the long haul. Right? So I want my customers to know that we have our price and our price means that we’re profitable. Right? And if we’re profitable, we will continue to be here to support you. Right. So that’s, that’s, that’s how I think about it. And anyway, I hopefully that’s helpful for our listeners.

Justin Stephens 20:37
I love that. And it is so true that this is why you need to charge more like across the board, I would recommend. Well, let me say it this way, nine out of 10 times when I first get on a sales call with someone. After we dove into their business, one of the things I say is are you comfortable charging more? Yeah, you should be. So there’s a difference between markup and margin. Yeah, big difference. We don’t have time to get into it now. But 60% markup is more like a 40% margin. And a lot of companies mix that up. So make sure as you’re going through building your company, make sure you’re looking at Alright, what is that markup? And what is that margin I’m targeting? Because if you can’t service your business, your clients, they shouldn’t do business with …

Richard Matthews 21:44
Yeah, and you have to account for things like how much does it cost to serve the client? How much does it cost to get a new client? right like your cost of customer acquisition and your labor costs. if you’re in manufacturing, we did a lot of work in the manufacturing world when I was working at a solar company, you’ve talked about the energy cost of goods sold, right how much your actual energy bill per unit is, right? Because that’s an important metric that a lot of companies don’t know. Right, and they don’t include it in their margins, and then they undercharge for their products, and they don’t understand why they’re losing money. Right. So it’s such a huge thing. And my rule of thumb is, you know, all the big successful companies targeted 28% to 30% margin, you should do the same. Figure out what your costs are, charge at least that enough to make that margin. Yeah, and if Apple can amass you know, a trillion dollars in cash in their thing on a 28% margin, you know, it’ll probably work for you too. So I want to move on to ask you the next question here. Your superpowers? What is it that you do, build, or offer this world that really helps solve problems for people and the way that I’ve been framing this for our guests lately has been to – if you look at all the things that you’re good at, like the skills that you’ve developed over your lifetime, you probably have one skill that is like the thread that commonly that ties all those things together that empowers the rest of your skills. Right? What is that for you?

Justin Stephens 23:11
It’s a good question. For me, I think it’s my attitude. Like it is my confidence in myself and in the people I meet and work with. One of the things – I consistently got in reboots just after-sales calls of people being like, you know what, just spending time with you makes me smile. Just being around you makes me more confident in what I’m doing. Right?

Richard Matthews 23:48
It’s infectious.

Justin Stephens 23:49
It’s infectious. And it’s because I was on a sales call yesterday and the guy said, you know, Justin, you are really quirky but you own it and it is so freaking awesome. I have really enjoyed this conversation. And I am quirky. I am myself and I, I want you to be yourself too and that’s what I try to empower people to do. Most people just don’t have enough faith. They don’t have enough belief in them. And here’s the thing, if you don’t believe in you, why the hell should I?

Richard Matthews 24:30
Absolutely. Yeah, one of the things that have always sat well with me is the idea that you can impact someone else’s life with your smile. Right? And I’ve, I tell people this regularly, I use my children as social experiments to see how things work. And you know, I got four children. And one of the things that cracks me up is that you can take a child who is in any sort of attitude ever, right? So like the whole spectrum of like, they’re on the floor kicking and screaming and crying, too. They’re having a bad day and they’re depressed and they’re crying. And you could just sit down with them and smile at them and change their life. Right? Because you like you, you can’t have someone smile at you for long enough without it like, it’s, it’s worse than the COVID-19 virus, it will get you.

Justin Stephens 25:22
It will, a hundred percent. I love it.

Richard Matthews 25:25
It will get you at some point. And that reminds me of something you said earlier that I wanted to make sure we commented on. you said that you said that you are willing to put in more work than anyone else. Right. And part of that comes to confidence. And it’s something that I think that a lot of entrepreneurs miss how powerful that is. And we have this idea that there is a competition that people that I have to worry about competition, and the reality is if you’re willing to put in the work, then you don’t have competition, right, and one of my mentors phrased it like this for me, he’s like there’s no competition in this world for real men anymore. Right, and you know, or real women or real anyone and what he meant by that essentially was that if you’re willing to put in the effort, no one you no one can compete with you. Right? And I’ve realized that over the course of my own business life, it sounds like you have as well, that you’re like, I realized a long time ago that it doesn’t matter what you do, I will beat you at it. Because I know that long after you’ve dropped the floor and died, I will continue … going, right, like I don’t need to eat, I don’t need to sleep. I don’t need any of that stuff. I will skid into the grave before I’m you know before I’m done, and that kind of attitude that comes from, you know, having the confidence in your skills, your abilities, that kind of stuff, keeping a smile on your face. You can’t – nobody can compete with you.

Justin Stephens 26:41
Nobody. It’s, it’s the cloud in the silver lining. For example, that business I started that failed epically one again, I would never change it for anything, but I am so blessed that it failed. Because it was all around blind events. … been doing right now had it succeeded.

Richard Matthews 27:12
You’d be starving. It’s crazy. So the flip side then of your superpower is your fatal flaw. Right? Just like Superman has his Kryptonite. Something that has held you back in your business or in your career that you sort of you’ve had to work on. So a) What is it? And b) How have you worked on overcoming that so our listeners who suffer from something similar might learn from you?

Justin Stephens 27:38
Oh, man, so where my head immediately went to, which is why I’ll share it is I am way too optimistic. Like every half-brained idea, I’ve ever had was a million-dollar product and million million-dollar company overnight. Like that’s again, my last business, right? I just see no way anything can go wrong because it’s such a great idea. And then I had I take action on all these ideas and then they almost I, yeah, I can’t think of a single idea that I’ve had that I built up in my mind that actually turned into something like what I had built up. So it’s that that optimism of oh my gosh, this is it. At the same time, I feel like that’s what drives me is I know, it’s right there. I know it’s right across the corner. So one of the things I’ve done to overcome my optimism is that I have a couple of mentors that I work with, that I try and always Run my ideas past and I consider them negative nancies. But maybe they’re just realists. I don’t know. So I think my Kryptonite, that even as I talk about it I’m like that’s not bad though I love that about me.

Richard Matthews 29:22
But see that’s the whole point of it it’s the flip side of the coin right? It’s part of the same skill set. The confidence and the optimism on one side come with it’s the double-edged sword. And, you know, my superpower I tell people is its systems and process. It’s I see things in systems. The flip side of that is that it makes you perfectionist, right? You’re like I want everything in the system to work before I ship it. And that’s a problem because you never get to the shipping part. Right so it’s the flip side of the superpower is the negative part. So but like I get I totally get the optimism thing, right? It’s not like I’m there with you probably not to the same degree. But like everything that I’ve always I’m always like, oh, and I remember, especially as a younger entrepreneur, I’m like, I have this idea. And I’m gonna be a millionaire tomorrow, I just know it. Right? And like, and you realize, at some point, that it doesn’t matter how good your idea is, if it’s going to be a million-dollar, very well could be a million-dollar idea. And in fact, most of them probably could be if you put the work in, the problem is you have to put the work in, and it doesn’t matter what it is, there’s going to be work and it’s going to take a long time and things are going to go wrong. And you have to be willing to deal with and you know, all those things, and no matter what you’re doing, it’s gonna cost too. It’s gonna cost time. It’s going to cost money, right? There’s no free ticket, so to speak. So, yeah, once you sort of learned to temper that and you realize like what I’ve gotten to the point now, where like, I have a really great idea, and you can I can temper that with, like, I know what it’s going to take on the other side, right? I know The kind of people and the type of systems that we’re going to have to build the type of money it’s going to take to put it on the front end. And you can judge that based on Okay, now, is it still worth it? Right? does it serve the business that we’re doing now? Does it take us to the next level? Did it actually helps us with our goal or doesn’t it? And you have, you have an easier way of making decisions and as the younger entrepreneur that’s something good, that like, that’s, that’s gonna come with experience, right. It’s not something that there’s no shortcut to that.

Justin Stephens 31:24
It’s so true. Yeah. I love it. Right

Richard Matthews 31:29
So my next question for you is more sort of, like practical in your business, that your, your, your newest business here. It’s your common enemy, and has to do with your clients, right? So if you could remove one thing from your client’s life, that, you know, if you did, if you had your magic wand, you could just tap their business on the head and remove that thing that they would get better, cheaper, faster, higher degree of results, whatever it is, what’s that thing that you’re sort of constantly banging your head against the wall with your clients that you wish you could just change?

Justin Stephens 31:59
If I had a magic wand and could do that, it would be consistent lead flow, like I would magic me out of business.

Richard Matthews 32:11
Nice.

Justin Stephens 32:12
Like, frankly, that’s the problem I’m solving. And that’s the biggest problem most companies face. And most companies, if you have enough business, enough leads coming in, could consistently grow. They could consistently generate more and more revenue at higher margins and change the world to make it a better place. So that’s and I don’t know if well, is it a new website? Is it a new lead magnet? Is it like, what magically I would make happen to create that consistent lead flow? But that is ahead. That’s what I would wish upon everyone, my enemies, and my friends is consistent lead growth.

Richard Matthews 33:07
Yeah, yeah, figuring out how to get to consistently lead flow. So yeah. Other side of that is the common enemy that you’re fighting against is lack of lead flow. Your driving force is the other side, right? So just like Spider-Man fights to save New York or Batman fights to save Gotham or Google fights to index and categorize all the world’s information. What is it that you fight for in your business? What is your mission, so to speak?

Justin Stephens 33:31
I love it. My mission is to go out there partner with people who love what they do. Love it. Don’t necessarily love the selling of it. And so my mission is to partner with them because I love sales. Like there is nothing funner than being on a sales call talking with people. I was on a cold call two days ago and I referred another company to them that I was like, Oh, you’ve got like, that’s fun for me. And there’s a lot of people who hear that and they think Justin, you are insane. Insane. Exactly. So what? That’s what I do. That is that common enemy. It’s my mission is to come into these organizations that want to make an impact because the competition is the best thing ever. Because it demands that you’re better. It demands that you continually improve. I love competition like a rising tide lifts all ships. That is why I think you know, what, as we grow as a community, as entrepreneurs are visionaries, they’re givers. Some people call entrepreneurs greedy. It’s because they don’t know any true entrepreneurs. All they know is what –

Richard Matthews 35:08
Amen to that.

Justin Stephens 35:09
– on social media, right? Entrepreneurs are the reason we live in the world we live in. They’re the reason that the economy is going to recover and do way better than it was doing before COVID-19. Not because of big companies, because big companies move a lot like slugs. They’re very slow. They’re a pain in the butt. They’re ridiculous. But you go out to entrepreneurs, anyone under let’s say a thousand employees, they can move like this. They can make quick decisions. They can go out and impact the world at a way higher rate than anyone else. And guess what? I love giving away money like it’s – I love donating, I love donating my time, money, energy, anything like that. Because I’m an entrepreneur, I have money to donate.

Richard Matthews 36:12
Yeah, I used to one of the things that I always bothered me as a kid, I grew up in a religious family. And, you know, the church, they pass the plate around, and I have anything against people putting money in the plate, right? But it always bothered me that people would put you put money in the plate, and that’s how they want to do is like, I don’t want to be the person who’s putting money in the plate. I want to be the person who’s building the building that everyone’s in. Yeah, right. Like and it’s like on, again, there’s nothing wrong with being an employee and being a worker and being part of the economy in that way. It’s definitely like there’s a lot of people that are built for that. And that’s what they want to do. And they like the safety and they like the security. They don’t have the risk tolerance … that’s it’s a great choice for your life if it’s a good fit. Those are the people that put money in the plate. And I was like, I want to be the person who put my name on the building. Right? And that takes a different level of risk tolerance and a different level of work ethic and a different level of, you know, just all-around work, you know, different mindset so to speak. But it also affords you the opportunities to do things that other people can’t do. Right? And that’s one of the reasons why we built this show, right? Why we have The HERO Show is because I’ve always hated this idea culturally, that entrepreneurs are villains, right? Do you want to pick up any Kids TV show and I guarantee you the theme of whatever episode you watch is going to be some entrepreneur is spilling oil in you know, in the ocean and hurting little duckies right that’s like, you know, some form or fashion of that story is like they’re the villain is always an entrepreneur. And, and I hate that, right and we grew up with this idea that entrepreneurs are villains, and then we have problems like the discussion we were having earlier with pricing, they’re like, I just want to – my time and my skills aren’t worth selling, right? So I’m going to spend $20 on a product and then sell it for 15 right because we’ve had negative feelings about profitability and creating value. Right and so that’s the whole point of building this show and talking to people like you is to get the message out that entrepreneurs are really the heroes that make the world go round.

Justin Stephens 38:28
I love it.

Richard Matthews 38:32
I do want to move on. I know we’re getting long in our episode here but it’s not a problem cuz I think it’s really gonna be fun. My my, the guy who manages my podcast will probably split this into two episodes for our guests or for our listeners. But that’s all right. So my next question for you is more practical, right heroes tool belt. And you know, this is, you know, I think maybe you got a big magical hammer like Thor or a bulletproof vest like your neighborhood police officer or maybe you just really love how Evernote works. When some of the practical tools that you use every day that you just couldn’t do what you do for your clients, whether that’s client management or your service delivery or whatever thing, you know, one or two tools that you’re like, you know, I just, I couldn’t do what I do without this thing, whether it’s, you know, a calendar or a pen and paper or some fancy piece of technology, what is uh, what is it for you?

Justin Stephens 39:20
Alright, so I’m gonna give you a whole bunch of different tools that we use together in order to create the processes and systems for my clients and for me, and because you got to eat your own dog food by the way, I prospect this way for myself and my clients, right. So these are some of the tools and if you want -message us at The Heroes Podcast and they can send you this worksheet I will give you –

Richard Matthews 39:58
We’ll put we can put it in the if we can put in the show notes for them.

Justin Stephens 40:01
Okay, perfect. So we’ll put a worksheet here so you can download our workbook to create these processes. And number one, if you don’t have a CRM tool that is managing your relationships with your customers. I would like to come through the screen here and just … you right now. Stop it. You need a CRM, you need a way to manage those relationships, especially in the sales process. Okay, so I use Pipedrive. I love it. If you can reach out to me, I’m happy to show you how to do it, set it up. It’s super easy. Second, I use a tool called Lemlist. Lemlist is an email automated system for cold emails that will let you customize pictures so like I’ve got a picture of me with the whiteboard.

Richard Matthews 41:00
And you put their name on it?

Justin Stephens 41:02
Looks like their names on the whiteboard. Right?

Richard Matthews 41:04
Genius.

Justin Stephens 41:05
So the Lemlist is super cool. You can do all kinds of stuff like that. Look into that. There’s another tool I use called Covideo. Now Covideo has a very unfortunate name as of like, three months ago.

Richard Matthews 41:20
Covideo-19.

Justin Stephens 41:23
Exactly. But it’s very similar to like Vidyard and BoomBoom. They’re tools that let you send a video, it gives you a little GIF, in the email. So like when I send an email to a prospect following up, they see me doing this. I’m like, hey, or I’ll write their name on the whiteboard. And I’ll be like that’s you. Right? This is custom. This is built for you. Right? So that is a tool that gets people to stop – one thing I love about Covideo, you can overlay that video on any website you want. So when I’m doing a follow-up video, if I’m doing it for my company, I overlay it onto my lead magnet page, so they can literally close the video and download my lead magnet. Super cool, right?

Richard Matthews 42:23
Nice Nice. Have you heard of Bonjoro? Bonjoro is similar, where you can follow-up with videos that are, you know, whatever your they come into your lead system, you can just follow-up and send a video right to them.

Justin Stephens 42:36
Awesome. Yeah, so that is very impactful. Another tool I use is called SendOutCards so I can send cards like this. So I this is my favorite card. You can’t see it’s got, Chris Pratt. Chris Pratt, from the Parks and Rec, and he’s making the so excited face, and it says surprise. This card is a full sheet of paper and then you open it up. And I’m going to read this because I think everybody should hear it because it’s the truth. On one side, I’ve got four different salesmen. So one says: when a prospect makes up an elaborate why just to avoid turning you down directly. I’m not even mad, that’s amazing from Anchorman. From Dumb and Dumber: sales prospect asked for a call back in six months. So you’re telling me there’s a chance. Liam Neeson from Taken: I don’t know who you are, but my sales target needs to beat it. And then White Shrew from The Office. Hey, I just met you and this is crazy, but here’s my sales pitch. So buy it, maybe. … So nice. My sales copy on this is not all unexpected surprises are positive. But I hope this one makes you laugh. The truth is in sales and marketing, you must stand out. Standing out means doing things differently. We are no longer in the information age. Information is everywhere. We are now in the attention age, it is whoever stays Top of Mind who will win. If you want to capture someone’s attention. You need to do things that stand out from everyone else, we help with that. And then our phone number and website so that – I do this all through SendOutCards, and it’s all online. I never have to go to the post office. They charge an additional depending on the package. So they’ve got a $100 package. Here’s the hack for you guys. Their $100 package lets you send unlimited cards like this, plus postage, like 100 bucks, we send out like 600 cards like this for a 100 bucks.

Richard Matthews 45:11
That is insane.

Justin Stephens 45:12
It’s ridiculously affordable. Now, … is you can only send one card to one person at a time. So I have a team member who we’ve got our system all automated. So whenever someone how we do it, and Lemlist, we have a 3-step qualifying campaign. If they open the email and click on links, or if they reply, they go to our follow-up process, which is 15-steps long. And what we’re trying to do is see do these people still work at this company? Are they actual people? Will they open an email from us before we start sending them stuff like this? So the very first thing we do when they get into our 15-step campaign, we send them a card, and we pick up the phone and call them. And so we’ve got it all automated that as soon as people hit, cards start going out, then this goes out, I think about two weeks later. And in between then we send emails and we’re doing LinkedIn stuff. And it’s all creating a process. And you’ve got to have a process to follow up. So there are 4 questions that you have to answer to make follow-up super easy. Who do I contact? When do I contact them? What do I say? And how do I contact them? If you answered those questions before ever starting follow-up. You will never have to sit at your screen and look at that prospect’s name and think, what the heck should I do with you? Right?

Richard Matthews 46:57
You just know what the next step is.

Justin Stephens 46:58
Exactly. So that’s exactly what we do for our clients is we put all these systems and processes in place, and we just start executing. And we just pick up the phone and call them we jump on LinkedIn, we all the fun stuff that nobody wants to do. Nobody.

Richard Matthews 47:21
Awesome. So I got a couple more questions for you then we’re all done. Next question. Your own personal heroes, right? Just like Frodo had Gandalf or Luke had Obi-Wan or Robert Kiyosaki and his Rich Dad, who were some of your own heroes, were they real-life mentors, speakers or authors, peers who are maybe a couple of years ahead of you, and how important were they to what you’ve accomplished so far in your business?

Justin Stephens 47:41
I am, who I am and where I am because of the people who have spoken to my life 100%. My parents, I mean, but that’s kind of cliche. Right?

Richard Matthews 47:54
You’d be surprised how many people say it’s their parents.

Justin Stephens 47:57
Yeah, I bet. My parents have been huge. In both good and bad ways. I’m not saying they’re perfect by any stretch of the imagination. But they have taught me so much. Tony Robbins is – I am a huge Tony Robbins fan. He helped me unlock who I am –

Richard Matthews 48:20
The power within.

Justin Stephens 48:21
The power within. Yes, exactly. If you haven’t been to UPW, you must go. I’m telling you it will change your life. Tony Robbins. I followed Russell Brunson and learned a ton from him. I there’s a guy by the name of Nicholas Barley. He’s much he’s a newer influencer. That’s a nice way to put a newer influencer is super, super good at what he does really nice guy. I’ve really enjoyed working with him. I’m in his mastermind, currently. Yeah. John Warrillow. He’s, I’m telling you that book changed my life. Built to Sell.

Richard Matthews 49:10
Which book was that? Built to Sell, okay, yeah, we’ll make sure we get a link to that on the show notes for people.

Justin Stephens 49:16
Incredibly impactful. So Built to Sell. Another one is Oren Klaff. And he teaches how to pitch, how to build pitch decks, and stuff like that. Very impactful. So I and, you know, my kids have been like you said, it’s training ground, right? And no, they have been the greatest thing when it comes to learning that if you want to get great at storytelling, there’s a hack. Read your kid’s stories every night right? Just read stories to them. And don’t read it like a story. You gotta read it like a movie. Oh my gosh. And then we love the tickle monster story. So I’ve got 5 and 3.

Richard Matthews 50:15
My, my favorite book to read with the kids is the there’s a Monster at the End of This Book. Have you read that one?

Justin Stephens 50:23
I haven’t. I’ll have to get it.

Richard Matthews 50:24
It’s got Grover, the tickle monster. And like each page of the book is like, it’s like, you know, I heard there was a monster at the end of this book. And like, you know, so it’s like, don’t turn the page. So like you as the reader, you don’t turn the page the kids have to turn the page and like each page, like he’s gonna tie the pages together and then you tie the pages like all your strong and then it’s like they build a brick wall. So you can’t turn the page and they turn the page and it’s hilarious because like, you’re reading like Grover and Grover is just getting more and more like, distressed as the book goes on. So like I have, I have quite a good time reading that book with my children and go full thespian on them.

Justin Stephens 50:58
That is awesome. So, my kids, huge impact, but the most impactful person in my entire life has been my wife, like the amount of support. And she’s incredibly smart. Like, can you imagine agreeing to pick up your life to move across the country for a hair-brained idea that your husband has when she’s a stay-at-home mom? And we’ve got no clients nor revenue coming in?

Richard Matthews 51:37
Yeah, my wife did that with me.

Justin Stephens 51:39
Right?

Richard Matthews 51:40
In 2012 my wife is amazing for that kind of stuff. But I like I – God bless her because I am building a parachute on the way down kind of person. Right, like, let’s jump off the cliff, and then before we smash into the ground, let’s figure out how to build a parachute. And so far, I’ve gotten really damn good at it. My wife is like, I trust you to pretty much jump off whatever cliff you want to jump off of because I’ve watched you build parachutes a number of times. But that’s, it’s, it’s amazing what having the support of a good woman will do for someone like myself, for yourself, it sounds like.

Justin Stephens 52:14
Yeah. 100%. So, as far as mentors, I would say my wife is my number one. But yeah, it’s build a parachute, baby.

Richard Matthews 52:30
Let’s bring it home for our listeners. One last question here, top one or two principles or actions that you put into practice every single day that you think have that contribute to the success and influence that you enjoy. Maybe something you wish you had known when you started out a long time ago.

Justin Stephens 52:47
I love the question. This is gonna sound overly simplified, but it’s not. Go every day when you wake up. Get your butt out of bed. Put your shoes on, in your pajamas. You don’t have to get ready and go on a walk. And think about – I say them out loud – but at least think about all the things you’re grateful for. That’s it. The key to success, the key to success in life is deciding to be successful.

Richard Matthews 53:27
That is 100% true.

Justin Stephens 53:32
Success is all relative, and I’m not where I want to be. But I promise you, I love my life. Yeah, yeah. And so just that that’s my key. I just love life. I could not imagine life any other way.

Richard Matthews 53:52
So I call it contented ambition. Love where you’re at, know where you’re going.

Justin Stephens 54:00
I’m stealing that. That’s good. That’s good.

Richard Matthews 54:05
Right? Because if you’re not going anywhere, you’re not going to love where you’re at.

Justin Stephens 54:08
Exactly.

Richard Matthews 54:09
So they have, you have to have both. You have to have the contentment with where you are. And the goal to get somewhere, right? You have to be on a journey, because of the joy, the joy is really in the journey. It’s in the doing of the thing, right? And it’s something that you know, as a kid, you think that you’re, you’re, you want whatever the thing is, and you when you finally get the thing you’re like, it always disappoints you, right? It doesn’t matter what it is, everything in life, whatever the thing is that you want, it’s more fun wanting it than it is having it. And so once you realize that, then you realize that you’re like, I could be thankful for what I have. And then you enjoy the process of wanting, right of wanting to move forward and you realize that it sort of changes you from when you sort of realized that it’s about the process of wanting it changes the things that you want. Into, like, I want to make an impact, right? I want to change other people’s lives. I want to leave people better than I found them. Right? And it changes the course of your journey. And so, you know, contented ambition. Love where you’re at, know where you’re going.

Justin Stephens 54:09
I love it. Amazing.

Richard Matthews 55:24
Uh, so that basically wraps up the interview. I do have a couple of small things we do right here at the end. One of them is really simple. I call it the HERO’s Challenge and it’s basically this, we do this on every show and it’s do you have someone in your life or in your network that you think has a cool entrepreneurial story? Who are they? First names are fine, and why do you think they should come share their story here on The HERO Show?

Justin Stephens 55:49
I know a lot.

Richard Matthews 55:52
So you have to go with your gut like who was the first one that popped into your head whether or not you think they would come on the show.

Justin Stephens 55:58
So I First person that popped in my head is one of my clients, a good friend named Gerald Nelson, who runs High Tech Automation. And I think he’d be a great guest. And I’d be happy to make the introduction.

Richard Matthews 56:16
I would love it. I would love it. We have not yet had anyone in the manufacturing space on our show yet. So it is an untapped, you know, world of knowledge we don’t have in our library of HERO Show entrepreneurs. Awesome. One of my goals with the show is to get someone in every space that’s ever happened. We’ll see how that goes over the course of time. But we’ll see. So we’ll reach out to you and … But at this point, Justin, thank you so much for coming on the show. I really appreciate it. Last question. Where can people find you, and more importantly, who were the right types of people to reach out if they happen to be in our audience if they’re thinking themselves: you know what I should reach out to Justin, he could help me, who are those people?

Justin Stephens 57:03
Alright, so you can find me on LinkedIn, and Facebook are the two platforms I use the most. Also, I’m working on getting better on YouTube. And Justin Stephens is the name on both of those or Prospecting Done For You. And you can find me online at https://www.prospectingdoneforyou.com/ And so I love the question if they want to reach out so here’s who I want to talk to. I want to talk to someone who enjoys laughing. I’ve got to tell you guys, my face hurts after this interview. It’s a great thing. That’s how I know I’m having a good day. Does my face hurt from laughing. So if you’re laughing and having fun, if you love business, and you’re either got a business or you’re looking to start a business, I’m happy like when I tell you I help anybody, literally what I mean is I will help anybody. Okay, so if that speaks to you and you’re like, man, I just, I want to get 5-minutes with Justin. Let’s make it happen. Reach out.

Richard Matthews 58:21
Reach out. Good. Awesome. Well, thank you so much for coming on, Justin. I really appreciate it. It’s been a fantastic interview. Enjoyed having you on any final like words of wisdom before I go ahead hit the stop record button.

Justin Stephens 58:32
Yes, you can do it. You can. You were meant to do it. So do it. Stop listening to that Negative Nancy inside your head that says I’m not good enough. Because I promise you they’re wrong. I love you guys. Thank you.

Richard Matthews 58:53
I completely agree.

Transcribed by https://otter.ai