Grow A Small Business Podcast

In this episode, I interview Dustan Fankhauser, the Founder, and CEO of LED Direct based in Kansas, United States. Dustan has set up his own business to distribute commercial and industrial LED lighting products. From working in a corporate job, Dustan has established a well-structured business after his 27 years of experience in growing a small business. LED direct was established in 2016 and has been running for over 7 years, growing with over 4 million in revenue and 8 FTEs. Dustan has said that growing a small business requires developing and maintaining consistency and self-discipline in order to become productive. So he says, "It's just the constant work ethic of getting up every day early. Not being lazy. Having consistency. This, nobody's looking out for you, you don't have to clock in and clock out. This Cast Covers: Running three small businesses that have been merged into one. Created an Excel Lighting and Signed that business assigned contracting company. Make sales and install signage for small businesses and large businesses. LED commercial and industrial lighting wholesaler. Grew up in an entrepreneurial family and started his business at the age of 26. Worked in a corporate job to gain experience managing a business. Growing with over 4 million in revenue and 8 FTEs. One of the first to have a showroom with stocked inventory, and teaching people about the LED lighting world. Developed very tight relationships with factories in China over 10 years. Getting into a lot of sports lighting, and retrofit projects in 2022. Links: Dustan's Linkedin Dustan's Twitter Additional Resources: LED Direct Rich Dad Poor Dad by Robert T. Kiyosaki Quotes: "Become able to do what you want when you want." —Dustan Fankhauser "If you can develop some key relationships, people do business with people they like." —Dustan Fankhauser "Sometimes fast growth isn't always the best growth." —Dustan Fankhauser "Let people do their jobs that they know how to do and get out of their way." —Dustan Fankhauser

In this episode, Troy interviews Wanda Toro Turini, from Ketchword.com, based in Lancaster, USA. It's a texting technology that allows speakers and experts to share content with their audience. At age 38, with a doctorate in Pharmacy, skills of a performer in musical theater and being a singer in a band, which explains the hand gestures and her being expressive. She invented the texting technology that allowed her to connect and serve those in the audience after public speaking. She also just recently launched a podcast called Rock-It Fuel where she gets to feature experts, using Ketchword technology on the podcast. To Wanda, success is when she feels she has empowered the team, has the system and structure in place, so that when there comes a time she has to step away or if something happens, the business can still continue to move forward. This Cast Covers: Her vision of Ketchword, and how it could potentially replace paper brochures How their business got affected by the national shutdown during COVID Left her previous plush job realizing she has way too many ideas and not feeling fulfilled Most stressful point of choosing between starting a family or having a career Links: Ketchword.com Rock-It Fuel Additional Resources: Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill Profit First Nation Podcast Clickup Slack Quotes: "I think very often when we want to do hard things in our lives, or in our businesses, we wait too long." — Wanda Toro Turini "When people receive emails alone with a link to a PDF, they don't open it as much. But if they receive an email with an attachment, it gets prioritized in our minds." — Wanda Toro Turini "I believe our growth was a little slower, because I've been a little bit more selective with who it is that we're going to work with." — Wanda Toro Turini "When we're visionary, and we're inspired people, we have all these ideas, and there's all this possibility." — Wanda Toro Turini "If you have that spirit of continuous improvement, then you're not taking a failure as a failure, you're not taking bad numbers as a failure, you're taking it as an opportunity to learn and then move forward more quickly." — Wanda Toro Turini

In this episode, Rob interviews Tegan Rein, Managing Director of Tegan Rein Coaching. a well studied Life Coach who offers one to one and group coaching services via online Australia wide. Tegan has over 8 years experience as a Life Coach. Tegan said 95% of transformation comes from awareness. So we need to take the time to stop and breathe and have a look at everything from a bird's eye view. It doesn't really need a holiday, just reflect on what has happened to you at the end of the day, looking at where your energy went up and where it was drained and who those people were that were contributing to your positives or negatives and looking at what that would mean the next day. Tegan's website teganrein.com, provides a 32 question quiz to anyone to assess their strength and opportunities, offering a free coaching session after valued at $250. This Cast Covers: The importance of mindset to achieve goals What a mindset and human behavior specialist does The human evolution model framework An example of a business owner she have helped Tips for business owners The free coaching session she provides from teganrein.com Links: Tegan Rein Coaching Quotes: "It's our responsibility to take control of our own happiness and our own peace." — Tegan Rein "Remember the view at the top of the mountain that we're looking to get to, and make sure that that view is always in our mindset daily." — Tegan Rein "A life and business empowerment coach is no dissimilar to an Olympian, having a coach helped them become the best in that sport and the best in the world." — Tegan Rein "Sometimes people will avoid things and they'll delegate them to someone else because it's not their favorite thing to do." — Tegan Rein "If you're in pain and survival, it's too much of a contrast, you have to start with a connection first." — Tegan Rein "It can be a lonely job at the top." — Tegan Rein

In this episode, Troy interviews Matt Orlic, founder of the Inspire Brands Group. Matt is based in Zagreb, Croatia. Matt has had around 15 businesses in the last 23 years. He had everything from laser clinics to manufacturing easter eggs, brands in the drone industry, speakers and headphones accessories, licenses to manufacture sports apparel for Under Armour, and many more. One of those businesses is called the Inspire Brands Group. A business that helps eCommerce businesses scale through ad campaigns. Matt used to build brands and distribute them to retailers; however, after suffering a horrible loss, he decided to dive into the world of digital marketing. Now earning over $30 million in revenue in the past 15 months. According to Matt Orlic, in growing a small business, you should have these two things: focus and wisdom. For small-medium business owners, focus is important, taking on one business at a time, not giving into the shiny-object syndrome; and wisdom for reliable, sound, reasonable, and good judgment. This Cast Covers: Matt Orlic's business: The Inspire Brands Group. What pushed Matt to focus on digital marketing. The growth of the business over seven years. Matt's myriad of businesses. Creating something unique and innovative. Keeping on going in spite of difficulties. The difficulty associated with filling open positions. Bringing to fruition an idea or concept. Always planning your next move. Utilizing each and every set of skills. Links: Matt's Linkedin Matt's Company Website Additional Resources: The E-Myth Revisited: Why Most Small Businesses Don't Work and What to Do About It by Michael E. Gerber Quotes: "Think about how to create something unique and innovative." — Matt Orlic. "Anyone that's really done something great, has had a massive loss to some degree." — Matt Orlic. "If someone's not in a job rather than potentially they aren't the best at what they do in that sector." — Matt Orlic. "Make sure you hire the right people and then the culture follows." — Matt Orlic. "Make sure you have the next move in place." — Matt Orlic.

In this episode, Troy interviews Martin Quinn, Director of M2 Logistics. He's based in Launceston, Northern Tasmania, Australia. The team have co-ordinated manufacture and distribution of over 100,000L of medical grade Hand Sanitiser. Later on Tasmanian Hand Sanitizer. Martin together with Matthew Will and Charles Beaumont formed M2 Logistics in April 2020 at the beginning of the COVID outbreak. He got the sniff that the state government was starting to run out of medical-grade hand sanitizer throughout the hospital system sensing a massive shortage. Martin, having worked in a pharmacy doing a lot of manufacturing, he figured he can be of help offering his expertise in what to do. However, the government wasn't interested in that and wanted to purchase the product outright from them instead. They now also provide a wide range of cleaning and sanitation products as well as Personal Protective Equipment. Since inception they have supplied over 2,000,000 face masks to customers all over Australia. The wake up call for him when he still had his pharmacy was when his kids were playing soccer while the parents thought his wife was a single mum, because he was never there. Martin believes, in business, it is beneficial to get people with completely different skill sets. This Cast Covers: How the business was started during the COVID outbreak Having been out of work for probably two or three years having sold the pharmacies How the connections he had were instrumental in starting the business Being lucky they were able to fund the business when they asked for 50% upfront deposit from government The government request of 60,000 liters of of hand sanitizer instead of just a few hundreds expected Started conversations with essential oils in Tasmania when they noticed people often stick their nose in their hands after rubbing hand sanitizers because some of them smell like complete shit Developing their own hand sanitizer based from their experience which is now being used in Sapphire - a very premium invested boutique hotel in the world The government request of 60,000 liters of of hand sanitizer instead of just a few hundreds expected Links: Sleeker Media Shopify Additional Resources: Rich Dad Poor Dad by Robert T. Kiyosaki Quotes: "Don't try and find a carbon copy of yourself and think that that's going to work because you're just duplicating yourself, and, and you're not giving yourself a broader spectrum of skills." — Martin Quinn "People can get very emotionally attached to a small business, but if you get the opportunity to exit and the price is right, then I think you've just got to give some serious consideration." — Martin Quinn "Everything has its timing." — Martin Quinn "We were conscious of not over-promising and delivering, I think it's a recipe for disaster." — Martin Quinn "Everyone's got to be on for the journey. If they're not, then it's just not going to work." — Martin Quinn

In this episode, Rob interviews Dina Buchanan, Director of Business Strategy at Core Digital Marketing. They develop marketing strategies that deliver quality leads and clients to a business. Their company, Core Digital Marketing, find.com, high-end client program, providing small business owners a system that can be platformed, with LinkedIn, or a social media platform, allowing business owners to customize the types of clients that they want to be brought to them. They also provide different strategies with videos, webinars and coaching throughout a 12-week period. Dina's advice to small business owners is to seek out a business coach to help navigate your marketing plan. She says birds of a feather flock together, so your target clients will know more of your target clients. So when you're hitting that group of people consistently, that's when expansion happens. This Cast Covers: How Core Digital Marketing helps their clients The onboarding 90-minute call Why building a zero-to-hero story works Why their main focus is Linkedin for digital marketing Complimentary strategy session, to anyone listening to the podcast worth $2,000 Links: Find.com, Inc Bookcallnow.com Quotes: "I had a coach of mine tell me no marketing, no money, more marketing, more money." — Dina Buchanan "Working with business coaches, any type of coaching in your life, I think is life-changing." — Dina Buchanan "I have to get to the power of the personal leadership team over at the higher client, they do all the magic." — Dina Buchanan "The main factor in marketing is consistently targeting the right people." — Dina Buchanan "When you've got consistent, predictable clients coming in that are your ideal clients, business is better, it's more consistent, and growth happens." — Dina Buchanan

In this episode, I interview Dr. Angela Lim, the Co-Founder, and CEO of Clearhead. Angela has set up her own business to assist employees in remaining resilient, avoiding burnout, being more productive, and feeling more confident in doing their tasks. Angela, a trained medical doctor, has decided to leave her previous job to pursue the opportunity she saw for employers to step up in providing better mental health and wellbeing support for their people. Clearhead was established in 2018 and has been running for 5 years. Went from basically no customers to a 15% market share in one year. Last year they9x their revenue and 6x their customers and 3x their workforce to 20 FTEs. Growing a small business, according to Angela, necessitates being self-aware of your mental state in order to work efficiently. So she says, "If you give up, then your team will give up. If you're excited, your team will be excited. This Cast Covers: Running an employee well-being solution that was delivered both online and in person with the help of intelligent AI support. Providing mental health support for those employees that are struggling but also to small business owners. Tips and tools on how to helping business owners and their employees to stay resilient prevent burnout be more productive, and be more confident. How running your own business is like training to be a professional athlete Sharing the highs and lows of running a startup to the steps to finding product market fit Discuss the growing pains from going from no customers to a 15% market share in one year. Discussing Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC) and LifeTime Value (LTV). Links: Angela's Linkedin Additional Resources: Clearhead Good to Great by Jim Collins Quotes: "Culture is not what you say it's what you do." —Angela Lim "Humans don't change unless you make it very clear why they should change." —Angela Lim "Success for Clearhead is to be the go-to digital mental health brand that people trust ." —Angela Lim "You have to dutifully understand who your customers are." —Angela Lim "If you build something that people resonate with, you are solving a meaningful problem, that's when you know you've found product marketing fit. —Angela Lim

In this episode, Troy interviews Sabrina and Rik Konings from Kings Digital based in Hobart, Tasmania, Australia. Kings Digital is a team of digital specialists who provide expertise across Strategy, Digital Brand & Web Design, Technical Development, and Digital Marketing. The business started in 2013 as a sole trader and then evolved quickly into the original business KingsDesign. The business grew organically with the help of consulting work for larger Tasmanian businesses and founder Rik's foresight to create a good network of professional contacts. The Kings Digital team uses customer retention to measure the success of their business and aims to work with clients across multiple areas of expertise. What Rik and Sabrina have found the most challenging is creating a good team, which is integral to the business. To them, success would be to be able to step out of the business for a reasonable period of time and not feel that you need to be part of it. This Cast Covers: How they got a 75 to 80% client retention The struggle of finding the right staff How effectively removing the single-point dependencies within the business allows for growth Self-funding the business without any investor and financing Rebranding from Kings Design to Kings Digital Links: Kings Digital Entrepreneurs' Programme Grant Additional Resources: It Doesn't Have to Be Crazy at Work by Jason Fried Scaling Up by Verne Harnish Quotes: "Marketing can be quite confrontational upfront because you're literally questioning your client, whether what they want is right or not. Sometimes that means we're literally not getting to work because we don't agree with their approach. But I think that honesty upfront does build a lot of trust in that relationship." — Sabrina and Rik Konings "I think we've said no to more work than we've said yes to because we are now looking at work that isn't going to serve us and isn't going to make our team happy." — Sabrina and Rik Konings "We're going to make a lot of mistakes, we're going to get things wrong but it's about constant discipline, chipping away at it and getting that momentum in terms of growing your business." — Rik Konings "Honesty upfront does build a lot of trust in that relationship." — Rik Konings "In Marketing, I think the main thing is to do your research upfront. And then to not try a single thing, try multiple things, and have well-detailed reporting in place." — Rik Konings Be strategic upfront, think about your audience, think about what you're trying to do, really think about those goals and then try the channels that you think are going to be worthwhile. Be brutal, cut what doesn't work and hone in what does and capitalise on that. - Rik Konings

In this episode, Michael interviews Alisha Conlin-Hurd, co-founder of Persuasion Experience. She's based in Melbourne, Australia. She started her career in sales, cold calling agency, ebook leads, and telco sales, eventually ending up building funnels and landing pages for 400+ clients. Now she is the co-founder of Persuasion Experience - a funnel and conversion agency that focuses on the post-click experience. A sales funnel is a marketing concept that describes the journey a customer goes through in the process of making a purchase. A funnel is every single touchpoint that somebody has with your brand. Alisha Conlin-Hurd helps small-medium business owners by revolutionizing how they handle traffic by focusing on the post-click experience, prioritizing traffic conversion. Alisha emphasized the importance of small-medium business owners understanding their target market. Focusing on the target market's pain points and position the conversation around it rather than using internal jargon to oversell themselves. She said, "because giving what they want to hear is different from what they need to hear." This Cast Covers: Alisha Conlin-Hurd's endeavors before co-founding Persuasion Experience. Mapping out all your company's touchpoints to mitigate revenue leaks. Ways to map out the touchpoints. The difference between the channels and the traffic. Prioritizing getting the lead. Business owners understand their target market. Focusing on the customer's pain points. Doing marketing is answering what's in it for the customers. The two levers you can pull in lead generation. Going back to the basics. Links: Alisha's LinkedIn Alisha's Company Website Alisha's Twitter Alisha's YouTube Additional Resources: Playing to Win: How Strategy Really Works by A. G. Lafley Quotes: "Most people should focus on is their acquisition." — Alisha Conlin-Hurd. "What they want to hear and what they need to hear are two different things." — Alisha Conlin-Hurd. "If your marketing is led by assumptions, you'll usually be pretty disappointed." — Alisha Conlin-Hurd. "It's your responsibility as a business owner to better yourself." — Alisha Conlin-Hurd. "Don't forget the little things that made you successful." — Alisha Conlin-Hurd.

In this episode, Troy interviews Steph Whittle, founder of HVAC Growth Lab. She's based in Austin, Texas, United States. HVAC is an acronym that stands for Heating, Ventilation, and Air Conditioning. Basically, working with the contractors who do all the heating and cooling work in your home. In 2020, during COVID, decided to niche down her digital marketing business and focus on the HVAC industry with a mission to help 500 of America's top HVAC contractors double their business through profitable marketing by 2027. Steph says the most stressful point is when COVID hit, there was just so much uncertainty at the time. Like, where's this going to go? She didn't like the conversations, the sales conversations with prospects, she was starting to feel defeated. But she just kept putting one foot forward, sharing to people what she knows pertaining to HVAC industry. This Cast Covers: How a small talk on the military plane while on mission inspired her to learn marketing Why she niched down to HVAC industry Fun fact about Legionnaires' disease How funding the first 2 years through day trading stock hinder their growth The benefits of having two kinds of mentors - a tactical and strategic The challenge of trying to improve everything by 1% How she used to avoid problems but is now embracing it How she relates to Drew Barrymore's character from the movie '50 First Dates' Links: Josh Nelson's Seven Figure Agency Wave Apps Additional Resources: Nuts!: Southwest Airlines' Crazy Recipe for Business and Personal Success by Kevin Freiberg The 10X Rule by Grant Cardone Quotes: "Anyone who's good at sales should never be doing less than 250k a year in income. And anyone good at marketing should never be doing less than a million a year in income." — Steph Whittle "Success is being able to do what you want, whenever you want, wherever you want, with whomever you want." — Steph Whittle "Focus on the volume and perfection will come." — Steph Whittle "I think sometimes when you have a little too much funding, you start to get sloppy, and I don't ever want to get sloppy." — Steph Whittle "The best way to generate startup revenue, is to get customers and get them to pay you." — Steph Whittle