Generate Flow. Monetize Flow. Add Friction Ep 265

In this episode, the host shares insights from a conversation with a high school friend who recently started a business but was prematurely concerned with fulfillment issues before securing his first sale. The host emphasizes the importance of making sales first and over-delivering to create demand, advising entrepreneurs to focus on creating an irresistible offer rather than worrying about scalability or optimization too early. This approach is likened to building physical fitness, where one should focus on basic progress rather than distant, advanced goals. The host also touches on the power of belief in one's success, contrasting the mindsets of the wealthy and the poor. The episode concludes with a call to action from Speaker C, asking listeners to help spread the podcast's message by leaving reviews.

• Focus on making initial sales before worrying about potential fulfillment issues.
• Overwhelm in fulfillment should only be addressed after achieving some sales.
• The initial goal is to create an offer so compelling that refusal feels irrational to the customer.
• The process should be to create flow, monetize that flow, and then introduce friction if necessary.

"Don't try and fix your nonexistent, overwhelmed fulfillment issue when you haven't even made a sale yet."

This quote emphasizes the importance of prioritizing initial sales over preemptive concern for fulfillment challenges, which are irrelevant without any sales.

• Start by offering exceptional value to secure the first few sales.
• Use the revenue from initial sales to manage and solve fulfillment issues.
• It's common for entrepreneurs to prematurely solve problems that don't yet exist.
• The strategy involves selling as much as possible initially, then scaling back later on non-essential, time-consuming aspects.

"Close a deal, then another and then another. And then once you are overwhelmed, then you can start dealing with it."

This quote advises to focus on closing multiple deals before considering how to handle the subsequent fulfillment workload.

• Establish a flow of customers by making an attractive offer.
• Monetize the customer flow to generate revenue.
• Add friction, such as scaling back offers, only after establishing demand and cash flow.
• The offer should be so attractive that it generates a high conversion rate.

"Create flow, monetize flow, then add friction, all right? In that order."

This quote outlines the sequence of creating demand, capitalizing on it, and then optimizing the business process once a stable customer base is established.

• The concept of a value ladder is discussed in the context of pricing and offers.
• A specific price point of $4800 for ten weeks is mentioned as part of the conversation.
• The advice is to deliver overwhelming value at the price point to ensure the customer perceives it as a no-brainer.

"What's the price? And he said, 4800 for ten weeks. And I said, listen, man, just give so much that you feel like the person would feel stupid saying no, all right?"

This quote highlights the strategy of setting a price for a service (ten weeks in this case) and packing it with enough value to make it an irresistible offer for the customer.

• The podcast aims to discuss customer acquisition, increasing customer value, and retention.
• The hosts share their failures and lessons learned in business as part of the content.

"Welcome to the game, where we talk about how to get more customers, how to make more per customer, and how to keep them longer, and the many failures and lessons we have learned along the way."

This quote serves as an introduction to the podcast's themes, focusing on comprehensive business growth strategies and real-world experiences.

• Entrepreneurs often focus on scaling their business before making their first sale.
• The importance of securing the initial sale and customer experience is emphasized.
• Scaling is compared to a gym-goer wanting to build muscle without first establishing a workout routine.
• The speaker advises to concentrate on the basics before worrying about optimization and scale.

"Stop thinking about scale before you've even had the ability to have a single sale, right?"

This quote underscores the premature focus on scaling a business before achieving the fundamental milestone of the first sale, highlighting the need to prioritize initial success over long-term plans.

"There's a million steps between where you're at and where I'm at. And believe me, it won't happen on accident, right?"

The quote compares the journey of business growth to bodybuilding, emphasizing that significant progress requires many incremental steps and does not occur by chance.

"Why don't we start with you actually just getting a sale before we even talk about what your fulfillment and optimizing for profit even looks like, right?"

The speaker suggests that the first goal should be to make a sale, which is a practical starting point before considering the complexities of fulfillment and profit optimization.

• The lasting impact of customer service and understanding customer problems is highlighted.
• The speaker asserts that customers remember the feelings associated with a service and whether solutions are presented as unique and believable.
• The focus should be on delivering value and ensuring the customer feels understood.

"None of it's going to even matter because they're not going to remember any of it. They'll just remember how they feel and how well you understood their problems, right?"

This quote stresses that customers will primarily recall the emotional experience and the empathy shown towards their issues, rather than the specific details of the service.

• The conversation shifts to the topic of self-limiting beliefs and their impact on success.
• The speaker connects the ability to make money with having a positive and rich mindset.
• Visualization of success is presented as a critical step before actual achievement.
• The mindset of expecting positive outcomes is associated with wealthy individuals.

"It's crazy how much of this has been, like, just removing my own self-limiting belief."

The speaker acknowledges the significant role that overcoming personal doubts plays in achieving business success.

"Money is made in your mind first, right? Poor people have poor beliefs."

This quote introduces the concept that financial success begins with a person's mindset and beliefs, suggesting that poverty is linked to negative expectations.

"Everything happens in your mind before it happens in reality."

The speaker emphasizes the importance of visualization and belief in one's ability to succeed before actual success can manifest.

• The host does not run ads or sell products on the podcast.
• The host's only request is for listeners to help spread the word to support more entrepreneurs.

"Real quick, guys, you guys already know that I don't run any ads on this and I don't sell anything. And so the only ask that I can ever have of you guys is that you help me spread the word so we can help more entrepreneurs make more"

This quote is a direct request from the host to the audience, asking for their assistance in promoting the podcast to reach and aid more entrepreneurs.

• Encourages the growth of businesses by helping them earn money, improve products, and enhance employee and customer experiences.
• Audience engagement through ratings, reviews, and sharing can have a significant impact on the podcast's reach and effectiveness.
• A simple action like leaving a review can have a profound effect on others.

"money, feed their families, make better products, and have better experiences for their employees and customers. And the only way we do that is if you can rate and review and share this podcast."

"It would mean the absolute world to me. And more importantly, it may change the world for someone else."

The quotes emphasize the importance of audience engagement in the success of a podcast and its broader implications for listeners and the community. The speaker believes that a small action like a review can have a large impact.

• Poor beliefs can be a barrier to financial success.
• Focusing on sales rather than getting bogged down by details is crucial when starting a business.
• The strategy is to sell first, over-deliver, then optimize for profit.
• Overwhelm is a normal part of starting a business, and it's important to learn what offers are valuable to customers.

"And so what happens is those poor beliefs keep people poor, all right? And so anyways, I was like, listen, man, stop obsessing over what you're going to include or what the little offer stack is."

"Sell first over deliver, and then optimize for profit."

The speaker is addressing the common mistake of letting limiting beliefs and unnecessary details hinder the sales process. They advocate for a focus on making sales and delivering value before worrying about optimization.

• New entrepreneurs should make compelling offers to attract customers.
• It's better to offer too much value upfront and adjust offerings based on customer feedback.
• The goal is to learn which aspects of the offer customers truly value.
• Offers should eventually become both profitable for the business and attractive to prospects.

"Sell the most insane offer you can possibly think of. Get someone to say yes first, all right? And then get another person to say yes."

"But you're going to start learning how even to sell, right? And you're going to start learning, okay, well, this is something that I'm offering that might have been really valuable in the sale, but is actually really easy to fulfill on."

The speaker suggests that new entrepreneurs should prioritize getting initial sales by making offers that are too good to refuse. This approach allows them to learn what is valuable to customers and what can be easily fulfilled, leading to a more refined and profitable offer over time.

• The speaker shares a personal story to illustrate the lesson on sales.
• At 23, the speaker attended a conference and invested in themselves, which led to a learning experience about the value of making compelling offers.

"And so what I'll do is I'll wrap up with the story of how I learned this. And so when I was 23, I went to a conference, and I paid $3,000 for a weeke"

This quote introduces a personal story that is meant to provide context and evidence for the speaker's advice on sales strategy. It suggests that the speaker's insights are based on real-life experiences.

• The speaker attended a conference that was beyond their financial means, indicating a strong commitment to learning and personal growth.
• The conference was targeted at business owners, highlighting an environment focused on advanced business strategies.
• Key business metrics like CTRs (click-through rates), conversion rates, and cost per lead were discussed, which are essential for understanding marketing effectiveness and customer acquisition costs.
• The speaker initially lacked understanding of these concepts, demonstrating the beginning of their learning journey in sales.

nd conference, and it was $3,000 of money I didn't have.

This quote shows the financial sacrifice the speaker made to attend the conference, emphasizing the value they placed on the opportunity to learn.

And everyone there was a business owner except for me.

This quote highlights the speaker's unique position at the conference as a non-business owner, which may have contributed to their feeling of being out of their depth.

• TJ was a business coach and successful entrepreneur who had made a significant income, serving as an aspirational figure for the speaker.
• The speaker was motivated to emulate TJ's success and sought his advice.
• TJ's approachability and willingness to offer guidance are evident, as he noticed the speaker's confusion and reached out.

And it was run by a guy named Travis Jones. He went by TJ, and he was a business coach.

This quote introduces TJ as a key figure at the conference and someone the speaker looked up to.

He saw that I was, like, way over my head, and he was like, hey, man, do you want to know the secret to sales?

TJ's observation of the speaker's struggles led to a pivotal moment of mentorship, indicating TJ's perceptiveness and the speaker's openness to learning.

• TJ shared a powerful sales principle: making an offer so compelling that refusal would seem foolish.
• The speaker had a significant realization that successful sales could be achieved through irresistible offers, not just sales skills.
• This principle became a cornerstone of the speaker's approach to sales and business.

Make people an offer so good, they would feel stupid saying no.

TJ's advice encapsulates a fundamental sales strategy that focuses on creating high-value propositions for customers.

• The speaker learned to enhance offers by adding value rather than reducing prices.
• This approach relies on outdoing competitors by offering more, creating a no-brainer decision for potential customers.
• The speaker embraced a strategy of scaling the unscalable at first, to establish customer flow and then optimize the process.

Instead of cutting prices, I would keep my price and just add more than anyone else could even imagine, so much so that it would be ridiculous.

This quote explains the speaker's strategy to differentiate their offers by adding excessive value, making it difficult for customers to decline.

• The lesson from TJ had a lasting impact on the speaker's career, shaping their entire professional trajectory.
• The speaker is now in a position to share this valuable lesson with others embarking on their entrepreneurial journeys, such as a friend from high school and a neighbor.
• The act of sharing knowledge is portrayed as a way of giving back and reinforcing the speaker's own understanding.

And it was one of the most important lessons of my life. It's one that stuck with me through my entire career.

This quote underscores the profound and enduring influence of TJ's advice on the speaker's life and career.

• The speaker expresses a desire to continue sharing insights and lessons with the audience.
• There is a sense of community and mutual support, as the speaker offers encouragement and looks forward to future interactions.

So anyways, keeping awesome. Lots of love. I'll catch you guys soon. Bye. Our channel.

The speaker concludes with a positive and affectionate farewell, indicating a strong connection with the audience and a commitment to ongoing communication.