The Thoughtful Entrepreneur

In this episode of the Thoughtful Entrepreneur, your host Josh Elledge speaks to business coach and mentor, Leah Gervais. Leah has a mentorship business, a coaching platform, and she and her team help budding entrepreneurs get their start and scale to their goals. They work with service-based entrepreneurs throughout various verticals. Leah and her team specialize in entrepreneurial mindset and marketing. Leah explains how social media marketing isn’t necessarily controlled by platforms like Facebook. Her principle to address this is that you should ensure your marketing isn’t reliant on other algorithms or platforms. You should focus on fostering prospect relationships on platforms where you retain full ownership of your digital assets. Don’t stake your success on a platform’s algorithms and guidelines. Leah also stresses that service-based business owners need to focus their efforts on sending their prospects through three different phases before prospects will buy from them. Consumers need to know you first, then like you, and then finally they will trust you. She also reminds service-based business owners not to forget about their existing client base (you can work with them again and again when they know, like, and trust you and your work.)Don’t overlook the opportunities available within the client base that already trusts you. You shouldn’t ignore the top of your funnel – but don’t neglect the connections you’ve already made. You can expand and build out the funnel of nurturing new prospects without forgetting to explore your friends, family, and clients for opportunities. Leah believes that nurturing prospects is the most fun, creative, and unique way an entrepreneur can express who they are to prospects. Generate content that’s true to you that offers value and exists in a place where your target audience will consume it. You can explore various marketing strategies here, whether that’s video media, podcasting, micro-content with creative captions, or whatever else draws in your prospects. There is not one “best” marketing funnel, and every business is different, so be creative with your nurturing. Josh and Leah also explore how an entrepreneur goes from six-figures to seven-figures. Leah says she and her team suggest a three phase approach to tackle this. First of all, raise your rates and don’t charge hourly. Do things on a project and result-driven basis. Next, say NO when necessary. You have to be exclusive and it might seem scary to “turn away money”, but the reality is that you have to be willing to say no when it’s appropriate. Finally, be ready to shift from a one-to-one model to a one-to-many model. Get to a place where your business doesn’t rely on how many hours a day you work on it. Learn more about Leah and her work at https://leahgervais.com/. Check out Leah on LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/company/urban-20-something/about/. Don’t forget to subscribe to The Thoughtful Entrepreneur, thanks for listening. Tune in next time!More from UpMyInfluence:✅ We are actively booking guests for our DAILY Entrepreneur Success Podcast. Schedule HERE.✅ Are you a 6-figure consultant? Let us fill your sales schedule and move you to 7-figures. Learn more here.✅ Check out our free Authority Transformation Masterclass.

In this episode of the Thoughtful Entrepreneur, your host Josh Elledge speaks to the founder and CEO of Unstruk Data, Kirk Marple. Unstruk Data unlocks the power of unstructured data by storing it in a data warehouse. Unstructured data can be anything from audio or visual data, and Kirk details that analytics can be run on geospatial and temporal unstructured data. This data can be analyzed using machine learning and artificial intelligence to show trends in a generated knowledge graph. Kirk explains how unstructured data is a core piece of what we as consumers do and use on the web. This data is typically referred to as “dark data'' in the industry, which isn’t looked at for its value and is forgotten. Kirk sees the massive oversight this is, which is why Unstruk Data came about. Unstruk Data strives to triage a myriad of data for users in record time, with data being analyzed in real time while users are still in the field. Kirk got his start in software development and media processing. This common thread throughout his career drove him to start multiple businesses, earn roles in the corporate world, and once his experience came to fruition, the ideas behind Unstruk Data were born. Kirk built the platform over several years, then gained funding and built a core team that has launched them into the data management solutions space. Kirk also elaborates on how he gets the word out. Unstructured data isn’t necessarily a well known niche to business owners and it’s largely overlooked and taken for granted. If you’re not looking to expand your team or time expenditures, investing in the analysis of your unstructured data might be the right move to make to streamline your business. Unstruk Data believes that the analysis of unstructured data should become the norm in the industry and they consider their work a building block in data solutions across industries. They don’t target any one vertical – because any space would benefit from collecting and evaluating this sort of data. If this data is adequately utilized and correlated, these databases can be connected to even larger, more streamlined databases. Kirk also explains how one of Unstruk’s design elements is that it is easy on the user and simple to navigate. They believe in making this data and analytic value accessible to business owners across industries. The future of data and data analytics is in the hidden value of unstructured data. These solutions are designed to push innovation, integration, and collaboration throughout countless verticals. Learn more about Unstruk Data at https://www.unstruk.com/. Check out Kirk on LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/in/kirkmarple/. Don’t forget to subscribe to The Thoughtful Entrepreneur, thanks for listening. Tune in next time!More from UpMyInfluence:✅ We are actively booking guests for our DAILY Entrepreneur Success Podcast. Schedule HERE.✅ Are you a 6-figure consultant? Let us fill your sales schedule and move you to 7-figures. Learn more here.✅ Check out our free Authority Transformation Masterclass.

In this episode of the Thoughtful Entrepreneur, your host Josh Elledge speaks to coach, speaker, entrepreneur, and the founder and CEO of MELD Fitness + Wellness, Micah Logan. Micah got started in entrepreneurship and fitness by accident. Micah has worked in a variety of gyms and studios in leadership roles, and studio ownership came later for him as he educated himself and capitalized along the way. MELD Fitness + Wellness is also a franchise, so anyone can start their own boutique fitness micro-studios. Micah shares how he created a system that’s easy to follow and digest for franchisees, and how he accumulated the knowledge to teach others. Being undereducated and undercapitalized can be reversed, as these were the first obstacles Micah overcame in his business. Micah also shares how to add other revenue opportunities to boutique micro-studios, including smoothie bars, merchandise shops, and more. MELD Fitness + Wellness just launched and their first objective was to get their brand story out into the fitness industry. While MELD started in Boston, Micah shares that they intend on growing and expanding across the east coast. MELD also offers discounts to minorities and veterans to help make fitness, nutrition, and franchising more accessible to those who truly need it. Josh and Micah also talk about the differences between a franchisable business and a non-franchisable business. A business must be profitable, it must be scalable, and it must have integrated systems and processes in order to be franchisable, according to Micah. Repeatable and determinable steps are tied to systems and processes, so make sure these are outlined explicitly, especially if you plan on breaking into the fitness industry. Prioritizing systems and processes has been an inherent and core piece of how Micah has run his businesses in the fitness industry for over a decade, and he used every available moment and resource to improve these aspects of his business. Identifying and patching needs in your business starts first with systems and processes, but needs to constantly be refined and changed as your business scales. Always keep a close eye on your growth and whether or not your SOPs still meet your company’s needs and pain points. Your business needs to stay as consistent as you can make it, and if you notice things change day to day, record those changes so that those variables can be identified. Learn more about MELD Fitness + Wellness at https://www.meldfranchise.com/.   If you’re looking to reach someone on their team to learn more about MELD Fitness + Wellness, you can contact them HERE. Check out Micah on LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/in/micahlogan/.  Check out Micha’s website at https://micah-logan.com/. Don’t forget to subscribe to The Thoughtful Entrepreneur, thanks for listening. Tune in next time!More from UpMyInfluence:✅ We are actively booking guests for our DAILY Entrepreneur Success Podcast. Schedule HERE.✅ Are you a 6-figure consultant? Let us fill your sales schedule and move you to 7-figures. Learn more here.✅ Check out our free Authority Transformation Masterclass.

In this episode of the Thoughtful Entrepreneur, your host Josh Elledge speaks to the founder and CEO of Involve.ai, Gaurav Bhattacharya. Involve.ai is a customer intelligence platform that helps you power your company's growth through artificial intelligence and data analysis. Customer data is collected in order to help customer support teams be more proactive and data driven. You can also prevent churn, grow revenue, and deliver amazing customer outcomes, all through machine learning. Machine learning is a crucial aspect of A.I. software and analysis. Data warehouses often just require API plugins to access siloed reports, data, and dashboards. This is one way to improve your customer experience right away, combined with the right proactive tactics. SaaS companies with monthly subscription products and services can benefit greatly from the use of this data and customer retention can grow significantly almost instantly.Knowing the truth about your customers is essential to increasing customer attraction and retention and Involve.ai helps you truly understand your customer base. Gaurav also explores his background and origin story. He's gone from developing video games to programming and platform building. This is how Involve.ai came to be, all launched off of their vision of better the customer experience across multiple industries. The COVID-19 pandemic launched many businesses into customer retention mode, which helped stoke Involve.ai's success.Gaurav also clarifies the true definition of an A.I. driven software -- if it involves machine learning and teaches itself how to improve using neural pathways, it's truly artificial intelligence. This data helps differentiate what different customer teams need to do to address their specific pain points. Involve.ai's software observes the issues within a customer's team and helps formulate actionable insights that can be offered to users. Some of this data collection and analysis can even be conducted unsupervised, meaning there’s always data being utilized to improve the customer experience.Multi-billion dollar enterprises focus on building their customer data analysis for a reason. This analysis and customer-centric data collection is what pushes companies past the obstacles involved in their specific customer experience. Involve.ai is well on its way to building a generational, legacy based company that innovates the data analysis space. If you’re interested in learning more about getting your feet wet in customer data analysis, check out Involve.ai’s demo on their website. Learn more about Involve.ai at https://www.involve.ai/.  If you’re looking to schedule a demo with someone from the Involve.ai team, you can schedule one HERE. Check out Gaurav on LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/in/bhattacharyagaurav/.  Check out Involve.ai on LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/company/involveai/.  Don’t forget to subscribe to The Thoughtful Entrepreneur, tune in next time!More from UpMyInfluence:✅ We are actively booking guests for our DAILY Entrepreneur Success Podcast. Schedule HERE.✅ Are you a 6-figure consultant? Let us fill your sales schedule and move you to 7-figures. Learn more here.✅ Check out our free Authority Transformation Masterclass.

In this episode of The Thoughtful Entrepreneur, your host Josh Elledge speaks to the CEO of Boomtime, JP Clement.Boomtime is a next-generation digital marketing agency with a twist. Boomtime stands out and apart from other agencies because they productize their marketing services and sort them into packages that focus on different pain points. No matter where you struggle with your digital marketing, they have a specific package that will meet your needs. They also offer à la carte services to make digital marketing more efficient and scalable.These packages are composed of various digital marketing subcategories and Boomtime has developed their own proprietary software to automate their systems and processes. Automation and relationship building can go hand in hand – if executed correctly. Josh and JP also explore LinkedIn's recent changes and the best digital marketing practices on the platform. Whether that’s optimizing your profile, how you use your voice, following up with true connections, and more, JP reminds us that LinkedIn is people connecting with other people (NOT companies.) LinkedIn's algorithm is changing, but just like utilizing SEO with Google, you CAN make LinkedIn work for you.JP also says your email is actually your greatest asset. Boomtime's capture package is all about adding good prospects to your email list -- you own your email forever, so you'll never need to worry about losing your email-based network.You can capture email addresses from LinkedIn in order to expand your email network through the true connections you've made on LinkedIn. Don't forget to ask for email addresses when you post value-driven content for all to see. When you offer value, asking your audience to opt-in is both appropriate and effective.JP also recommends you to pay close attention to your content marketing. This helps you automate aspects of your relationships through nurturing and drip campaigns. Staying top of mind is essential, so be ready to follow up nurture campaigns to continue staying relevant to your prospects. Holistic management of your email list is both extremely effective but also inherently tied to successful content marketing, so focus on those areas in 2022. Don’t put all of your eggs in one basket and combine elements and subtypes of digital marketing to see optimal success. When you’re ready to engage with a digital marketing agency, be ready to get your social media ducks in a row and utilize multiple mediums for the best results. Check out Boomtime at https://www.boomtime.com/. If you’re looking to schedule a call with someone from the Boomtime team, you can contact them HERE. Check out JP on LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/in/jpclement/. Check out Boomtime on LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/company/boomtime/. Don’t forget to subscribe to The Thoughtful Entrepreneur, tune in next time!More from UpMyInfluence:✅ We are actively booking guests for our DAILY Entrepreneur Success Podcast. Schedule HERE.✅ Are you a 6-figure consultant? Let us fill your sales schedule and move you to 7-figures. Learn more here.✅ Check out our free Authority Transformation Masterclass.

In this episode of the Thoughtful Entrepreneur, your host Josh Elledge speaks to Riley Oickle Real Estate Investor's Riley Oickle. Riley runs four different businesses based out of Canada – he primarily focuses on making real estate investments and also teaches others how to make their first real estate investments. He and his team also partner and run short-term rental properties, and they offer mentorship coaching that teaches other investors how to run short-term rental properties. How do you figure out the investment model that works for you, though? Josh and Riley discuss active versus passive investing. Almost all beginner investors prefer passive investing, but you need to make sure you know what comes with the investments you choose. Determine your ideal path by assessing how you want to be investing and how you want that to be a part of your day to day. Passive investing is the more attractive option, but seek a mentor or guidance first before jumping into it. Josh and Riley also discuss how the real estate market swings and how that affects movement in the market. Riley explains that multifamily investments are doing well. Because house building has slowed significantly in the last couple of years, many people are living in rental homes like multifamily apartment units. This works well for investors in the multifamily space, especially since vacancy is at an all time low and residency is at an all time high in the rental market. Riley also shares that people are also leaving urban centers and moving to more rural or suburban areas. What about short-term rentals? Well, Riley shares that travelling is picking back up and now is the time to start looking to add short-term rentals to your portfolio. He has found that positioning yourself with short-term rentals in the right areas has been profitable for him.Riley also talks about making the shift from private investor to mentor and coach. He shares that at some point, lenders tighten things up for private investors, and you need to decide how you’ll handle that. Pivot and find ways to conduct partnerships/joint-ventures or other solutions to help when you need to make some pivots.Follow Riley Oickle on social media if you’re interested in starting in real estate investing and are looking to learn to make your first investment. There are also articles on Riley’s blog on his website geared towards those wanting to make their first investments. Check out Riley’s content to learn more. Learn more about Riley Oickle Real Estate Investors at their website https://www.rileyoickle.com/. Check out Riley’s blog at https://www.rileyoickle.com/blog. Check out Riley Oickle on LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/in/rileyoickle/?originalSubdomain=ca. . Don’t forget to subscribe to The Thoughtful Entrepreneur and thank you for listening. Tune in next time!More from UpMyInfluence:✅ We are actively booking guests for our DAILY Entrepreneur Success Podcast. Schedule HERE.✅ Are you a 6-figure consultant? Let us fill your sales schedule and move you to 7-figures. Learn more here.✅ Check out our free Authority Transformation Masterclass.

In this episode of the Thoughtful Entrepreneur, your host Josh Elledge talks to Paige Arnof-Fenn, the founder and CEO of Mavens & Moguls. Mavens & Moguls is a virtual marketing department for companies that want an outsourced marketing team. Paige explores how she and her team look at a company’s marketing pain points. They do a deep dive of your social media accounts, your customer service journey, your existing content marketing, and more. They evaluate and determine where you’re performing well and where you need to improve. What Paige finds interesting in doing new marketing research is that companies claim to have already done their research. She explains that they might have done research with friends and family, but not necessarily a third-party, unbiased group. Only true unbiased market research, someone you hire independently, can give you the truth about what you’re trying to market. An independent marketing professional can offer a “straight story” lens that will give you this honest look. You can even use inexpensive survey software – as long as you don’t lead the witness. You need to do it yourself and ask truly unbiased questions that offer genuine, helpful feedback. Only quality feedback (and it won’t always be good feedback) will end in quality results. Paige says to push and probe, ask your audience why they feel how they do about your marketing. The dangers of doing an unobjective survey or study? Well, Josh explains that no one is smarter than the market. If you don’t get good data, you just won’t see the traction you’re looking for. Paige explains how to prioritize once you get good market data. Budget is an important factor, meaning you need to prioritize and fix one thing at a time. She explains that you need a good foundation if you want to scale and build. Do you have the right words, visuals, and designs? Are you on social media? Is your website search engine optimized? Ask yourself these questions as you go through each step of your marketing strategy. Paige also shares that everyone has a platform when they’re online. She encourages entrepreneurs to be authentic to who they are and use what platforms work for them. Share things that are relevant to you, your mission, and your audience. Start small and build as you go and stay consistent. There are endless online marketing and networking opportunities – you just have to do the work. Learn more about Mavens & Moguls at their website http://mavensandmoguls.com/.  If you want to reach out to someone on the Mavens & Moguls team, contact them at http://mavensandmoguls.com/contact-us.html. Check out Paige Arnof-Fenn on LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/in/paigearnoffenn/. Don’t forget to subscribe to The Thoughtful Entrepreneur and thank you for listening. Tune in next time!More from UpMyInfluence:✅ We are actively booking guests for our DAILY Entrepreneur Success Podcast. Schedule HERE.✅ Are you a 6-figure consultant? Let us fill your sales schedule and move you to 7-figures. Learn more here.✅ Check out our free Authority Transformation Masterclass.

In this episode of the Thoughtful Entrepreneur, your host Josh Elledge speaks with the founder of Vocal Impact Productions, Laura Sicola. Laura has given successful viral TED talks, is an author, expert on influence, and a podcaster! She shares that she’s an executive communication coach. Her job is to make sure that when her clients talk, people listen. Leaders have genius and vision that make them the brains behind an operation. If you’re a business leader, you have to make sure that when you speak to your audience, you’re able to properly articulate your vision. Laura also shares some common communication struggles that many of us are familiar with. There’s a gap between what we say and what someone else hears. This gap in communication is the source of all conflict. The essence of inspirational leadership is closing that gap and helping your audience hear what you need them to. Josh and Laura talk about the most common communication mistakes to be more cognizant of. She explains that we need to become better storytellers – we need to not get stuck in the weeds. Tell a story about what your product or service does to solve a problem. Use empathy to reach your audience. Be exciting, be engaging, and don’t get caught up in the innocuous details. Laura’s TED talk explores an interesting topic;  great leaders need to know how best to say their names. How you say your name will either bolster or undermine your first impression on someone. Don’t tell someone your name as if you’re asking a question; say your name slowly, separate your first and last name and give your whole name in individual pieces, and control your tone strategically. Josh shares a tidbit here – if you’re going to be interviewed, don’t assume the interviewer knows how to say your name. Approach them beforehand and make sure they know your name (and your domain names!) Laura shares that you should always clarify people’s names and pronunciations before you commence engaging with them, especially if you’re interviewing them for content marketing. Laura explains that speaking communication is a three-fold process. It’s verbal, vocal, and visual. What story are your words, tone, and body language telling? Your delivery changes the interpretation of words – delivering great words poorly is like dipping a pearl in mud. Poor words with great delivery is like putting lipstick on a pig. You need to master the words you say, the way you say them, and your body language to be an effective speaker. Learn more about Vocal Impact Productions at their website https://vocalimpactproductions.com/. If you want to reach out to someone on the Vocal Impact Productions team, contact them at https://vocalimpactproductions.com/contact-2/. Check out Vocal Impact Productions on LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/company/vocal-impact-productions/. Check out Laura Sicola on LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/in/drlaurasicola/. Don’t forget to subscribe to The Thoughtful Entrepreneur and thank you for listening. Tune in next time!More from UpMyInfluence:✅ We are actively booking guests for our DAILY Entrepreneur Success Podcast. Schedule HERE.✅ Are you a 6-figure consultant? Let us fill your sales schedule and move you to 7-figures. Learn more here.✅ Check out our free Authority Transformation Masterclass.

In this episode of the Thoughtful Entrepreneur, your host Josh Elledge talks to the founder and CEO of Convert ROI, David Schloss. Convert ROI takes complicated ad plans and makes them simple. David has done this work for 14 years. Josh and David explore what’s working today in the ad space, especially given how much outdated information is out there. Short form content has taken over, according to David, and platforms like TikTok, Instagram reels, and YouTube reels have dominated. Ask yourself how your ads can fit naturally into the short form environment – condense your messaging if needed and use these types of ads. From a paid and organic standpoint, short form content combined with other social media marketing is an excellent strategy right now. Josh and David also talk about what brands are appropriate for these short form content platforms. You don’t need to dance on TikTok for your brand, you simply need to effectively condense your normal ads into 30 second content that can fit onto these platforms. Users want something they can connect with, and they’re buying into you, so enjoy yourself and be authentic when you’re marketing with content. Stay excited and engaged with your audience and keep their attention through your words, tone, and body language. You also don’t need massive reach to be effective – as long as you build loyal followers, that’s enough. Convert ROI controls about 3 millions dollars worth of ad spend, mostly on Facebook and Instagram. David also talks about the issues many entrepreneurs see with ads on these social media platforms. What happened recently is that Apple changed tracking forever by giving users the option to not be tracked whatsoever when they boot up their devices. The word 'tracking' seems negative, which makes many users turn off the setting. Now, on those users' devices, ads can’t be optimized. It’s getting harder to make ads work, so there’s more attention than ever to the quality of your ads right now. They’re reaching less viewers, which means the quality of the content needs to be top notch. Josh and David also talk about how to future-proof your ad strategy a bit. Use new features that launch on various platforms as quickly as possible, when the price for the ads is cheapest and your content in this feed will be favored when it grows. We’ll often assume that people won’t use these platforms, but you can easily reuse short form or premade content on these platforms and this gives you a chance to become featured on these new and ever-growing networks. Learn more about Convert ROI at their website https://convertroi.com/home.  Check out Convert ROI on LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/company/convertroi/. Check out David Schloss on LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/in/davidmschloss/. Don’t forget to subscribe to The Thoughtful Entrepreneur and thank you for listening. Tune in next time!More from UpMyInfluence:✅ We are actively booking guests for our DAILY Entrepreneur Success Podcast. Schedule HERE.✅ Are you a 6-figure consultant? Let us fill your sales schedule and move you to 7-figures. Learn more here.✅ Check out our free Authority Transformation Masterclass.

Extend Your Customer Lifetime ValueOn the show today is Ryan Carruthers, Founder, and CEO of The Membership Mastery.Ryan helps business owners build a membership site of their dreams. The Membership Mastery program helps you figure out the best ways to not only simplify your membership offer but monetize it. In this episode, Ryan shows us his secrets of starting and growing a successful membership website, how to get into the mind of your customers, growing your community, and more! If you’re wondering how to build your membership program the right way, Ryan is here to help you through the entire process and get you top results for your business.Learn more about Ryan Carruthers and his work at The Membership Mastery on this episode of The Thoughtful Entrepreneur.More from UpMyInfluence✅ We are actively booking guests for our DAILY Entrepreneur Success Podcast. Schedule HERE.✅ Are you a 6-figure consultant? Let us fill your sales schedule and move you to 7-figures. Learn more here.✅ Check out our free Authority Transformation Masterclass.