August 10, 2023 • 12 mins
Do you ever feel like you're beating your head against a wall with a struggling project? Have you ever wrestled with the decision of when to let go and when to hang in there? I've been there, and in this podcast, I, Jacob K Mead, open up about my trials and tribulations in business. We tackle the tough questions, like how to keep your motivation alive in the face of adversity, and the importance of perseverance and having a strong support network.
On the flip side of the coin, we also talk about the thrill of success. We explore how awards can validate your business and the role superior customer service plays in earning them. I'll let you in on how I built a robust customer service system from scratch and the strategies I used to boost brand awareness. We also delve into the power of role-playing scenarios for training your team, and the importance of establishing yourself as a trusted source in your industry. And, because no journey is all smooth sailing, I also share how my passion for helping others has been a double-edged sword. So tune in, be prepared to take notes, and let's navigate the challenging landscape of business together."
Until next time... Follow on Instagram @buytimepodcast
Follow Jacob K. Mead on all the socials @jacobkmead
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
Hey everybody, this is Jacob K Mead and this is the
Buy Time podcast, where wediscuss everything there is to
know about buying back your time.
Be sure to like and follow andshare with somebody who needs to
buy back their time.
Enjoy today's episode.
Welcome back to another episodeof the Buy Time podcast.
My name is Jacob K Mead, I'myour host and I'm excited that
you're here today to listen totoday's episode, because we have
(00:23):
a lot of great stuff to covertoday.
So, diving right in, I just hada workshop a couple weeks ago
and something in that workshop,I always like to ask questions
and always like to get theattendees to be able to be
engaged, and so today we'regoing to really discuss a lot of
the questions that I was askedin the workshop and what makes
(00:44):
it so important, and some aresuper powerful.
I even remember some of thequestions and they still
resonate with me today.
So let's go ahead and dive inwith the very first question I
was asked, which is how do youknow when to give up?
How do you know if something'snot working?
And the way that I responded tothat workshop question was I
(01:05):
don't, and that's tough for me,because I don't know when to
give up.
I keep going and I keep going.
I don't quit until I get theresults that I want.
But I knew where that questionwas stemming from and so I asked
a little bit deeper.
And the big thing was is he wasstruggling to get people into
his business.
He wasn't seeing people cominginto his business and he's a new
(01:27):
business owner, and so Iexplained to him that hey,
listen, when I own mobile spotand I first started I was the
only one there I was workingMonday through Saturday, 10am to
6pm, most of the time even till8pm at the store, because we
were just open 10 to 6, but Iwould work until 8pm, if not
(01:47):
later, at the store and I wouldbe there.
And there was a lot of times,especially one week I can
remember in particular, where Iwould show up three days in a
row from 10 am To 6 pm.
Not a single customer camethrough the door and I felt
(02:09):
defeated.
I can I remember I felt sodefeated I said I can't do this.
I what if no one really wantsmy service?
What if I was wrong?
And Looking back on it as sucha poor mindset to have?
But at that time I keptdoubting myself and said what if
I'm wrong?
I didn't understand theimportance of showing up, but I
kept doing it.
I knew I had to show up.
(02:29):
I knew this is what I wanted todo and then I wasn't going to
accept failure and so I showedup every single day.
In every single day, therewould be Sometimes one customer,
sometimes two customers,sometimes no customers.
No, but it was that weekStretch where I showed up three
days in a row and I had nocustomers.
(02:51):
That really dug deep and itAffected me because I went
through a huge roller coaster ofemotions of I can't do this, I
don't know what I'm doing.
What if I was wrong?
And I pushed through it.
How did I push through it?
I had I had my fiance at thetime actually helping me.
She supported me and sheactually made sure that I was
(03:14):
Keeping on with my goal and Iwasn't giving up and She'd be
there to say it's going to beokay, we got this.
If I need to work more hours,I'll work more hours and she was
there to help support me.
So having that strong supportgroup someone there to help you
when you're feeling thoseemotions is super important and
I think, after I explained thatto him, he his eyes just kind of
(03:35):
got a little widened and youcould tell he hit him
emotionally and that's when Isaid, hey, if you were
struggling with this, if this issomething that you need help
with, you need someone to sitthere and tell you that it's
okay.
When you're having those toughdays, let me know, text me, send
me an email.
I will be that person for you,because everyone needs that
person.
(03:55):
Everyone needs that personthat's going to be there for
them when they are going throughthose tough days, because not
every day is easy Especially ifyou're just getting started off
like this guy was just gettingstarted off is the toughest part
.
You're building that groundworkand we covered the groundwork
and one of my videos that Iposted on, I think, instagram,
where it talks about theimportance of Building that
groundwork and that that's thetoughest part, and so that was
(04:18):
one of my questions.
Another one of my questions waswhen I was talking about getting
awards and how you know mystore, mobile spot, was able to
get best of the Moyan awards,and how important it is to be
able to showcase awards so thatwe can show the Authority that
you actually have in yourcommunity and it can be any
award in your community.
And so we are, you know, partof chambers of commerce, we are
(04:40):
part of BBB, we are part of thisso that we, we can show some
authority, and that's superimportant.
And so one of the questionsthat I got asked is how did we
get those awards?
And I had to sit back andactually reflect, because at the
time when I got the first award, I was just nominated for that
(05:03):
award through our customers.
I didn't go out there, I didn'trun ads, I didn't really do
anything to target towards thataward.
I simply just got nominatedthrough our customers.
But what I did do was providetop-notch customer service.
I made sure that my customerswere taken care of.
I made sure that I was actuallyUnderstanding my customers and
(05:24):
providing a solution to theirneeds.
Big.
So many times I'd havecustomers that would come in and
say I went to this other Shopor I went to this other store.
And when I hear that, the firstthing that I started to do is I
started to listen deeply.
I start to listen close Becauseif that other shop, that other
store, couldn't solve theirsolution or it's couldn't solve
(05:47):
their issue, and I'm able togive them a solution, then I'm
going to be the person they comeback to.
I'm gonna be the person thatthey remember.
And so I would listen superclose to everything that they
say, and then I would say Iunderstand those two words.
I Understand always put mycustomers at ease.
(06:07):
It gives them a breath of freshair that finally someone
understands me, someone's ableto actually help me out.
And so I would say I Understand, I will help you out, here is
my solution.
And then I would give them asalute, a solution that would
actually help fix the issue thatthey're having.
(06:29):
And so I built my customerservice up by doing this, and
it's just me in my shop at thistime when I'm doing this.
So then I start to bring teamin.
And when I start to bring myteam in, I want to make sure
that I still have a greatcustomer service.
So I would do role-playingscenarios with them.
I would make sure that theyunderstood how to provide that
customer service.
And it's tough because in myindustry we hire a lot of
(06:51):
technicians and sometimestechnicians don't have the best
of customer services.
So now you're training themfrom being, you know, a
technician to also offering somecustomer service, but it most
people will be trainable,especially when they come in.
So that's the first thing Istarted with.
I started to teach aboutcustomer service.
And then how did we getnominated?
(07:12):
What made people nominate us?
I think a couple reasons.
One we really did a lot ofbrand awareness.
We ran a lot of Google ads.
We ran a lot of Facebookcampaigns.
We made sure our name wasgetting out there.
I connected with a lot of thecarrier stores.
I connected with a lot of otherbusinesses and I made sure our
name was getting out there.
And I made sure not only it wasour name getting out there, but
(07:33):
it was getting out there as atrusted source.
There was a lot of things in myparticular industry that I was
in that were shady.
You know, we had shops doingvery shady tactics.
We and I I always said I'm notgoing to be that person.
You don't.
There's other ways to win inbusiness other than being shady
and having shady practices, andI was not going to put aside my
(07:56):
character in order for me justto create extra revenue.
So that's something I did.
As I said, no, I'm going tomake sure that I'm running
everything by the books.
I'm going to make sure that I'mhelping my customers and I'm
not going to run any shadypractices.
In fact, I actually had acouple calls that I was on and
they were like you could do thisand make make extra revenue.
I said I'm not doing thatbecause it wasn't ethical.
(08:18):
I will never put aside mycharacter or my beliefs or my
views In order to make moremoney in my business, and so I
think just having that brandawareness, making sure that I
was constantly out there, wasconstantly talking with business
owners, made the difference.
And people, when that that linecame up that said who's the
(08:39):
best cell phone repair storeMobile spot?
People could see me, they couldpicture it, people need to see
you out there, they need to seeyour ads over and over and over.
So that really helped.
Then follow up to that questionwas how did we know when the
right time was to startadvertising?
And that was a tough one,because I don't think you really
(09:02):
ever know.
I think that advertising isjust part of business, that you
should go into your business andknow that you need to spend
money on advertising.
Not everything's going to comeword of mouth.
If you really want to seegrowth, not everything's going
to come from word of mouth.
So, as far as when was theright time, I don't know if
there really was a time thatclicked and said this is the
(09:22):
right time when you spend moneyon advertising at least for me.
I just knew that we always hadto spend money on advertising.
And one of the things withadvertising is I see a lot of
businesses make this mistake.
They will start advertisingwith, let's say, $600, $1,000 a
month at Google Ads.
They will give it two monthsand they'll quit.
(09:45):
That's the issue They'll quit.
It takes time.
It takes time for the momentumto build up.
It takes time for your ads towork.
So with Google Ads especially,or even Facebook ads, give it
sometimes six to eight monthsbefore you give up, and even
then don't give up.
Look at possibly changing yourad.
Do A and B split testing.
(10:06):
There's different ways that youcan go about running these ads.
So, figuring out why it's notworking because it does work,
you just need to figure out whyit's not working.
So answering that question in myworkshop was super exciting and
I was really able to dive in,and I had a conversation
afterwards and I said hey,listen, google Ads, I'm not an
expert and I hire someone to domy Google Ads.
(10:28):
Facebook I'm not an expert andI hire someone to do my Facebook
ads, but I also know that if Idon't do it, I lose that brand
awareness, and that's superimportant.
And then I also know theconsistency.
So running ads one month andthen stopping them for two
months to rerun them again,you're going to lose those
placements.
You're going to go from beingnumber one to being number two
to number three, and people arealways looking for number one.
(10:50):
That's what they want.
So be the number one in yourindustry Advertise.
So those are a couple of thequestions I got in my workshop
that I just did a couple ofweeks ago and it was awesome.
You know, it was such a greattime.
I just I can't help, but lovehelping people is what I've
loved to do.
That's why I got into this.
(11:11):
To begin with is I love helpingpeople.
Even my wife just a couple daysago said hey, one of your great
traits is that you love helpingpeople.
You would give the shirt offyour back to somebody else that
they needed it, and that is it'strue, and it's something that I
accept.
Is I love helping people.
Has it gotten me into sometroubles in the past.
(11:32):
Yeah, has it gotten me intosome financial troubles, because
I'd rather help someone elsethan pay attention to my own
finances.
It has, but it's something todo with my trait and my
character and I'm accepting that, and so I love helping people.
So having people come to meafter my workshop and asking me
questions and me being able toactually help them, and then
hearing back in a week that, hey, wow, this really, this really
(11:55):
worked like this is great.
That meant a lot.
It really did.
So thank you for that, and ifthe people that were at my
workshop are listening, I reallywant to say thank you.
It meant a lot.
So thank you so much.
Well, that's going to beeverything for today's episode.
I hope you guys got someknowledge and understanding from
this.
In fact, I hope this motivatesyou guys to keep doing what
(12:17):
you're doing, keep showing upeven if no one's there.
Put money into advertisementsso that way you have that brand
awareness, and keep being thegreat business owner that you
are.
Don't give up.
There's something out there foryou.
Thanks, guys, my name is JacobK Mead, and until next time.
Thanks for listening to today'sepisode.
(12:38):
My name is Jacob K Mead anduntil next time.
Hey everybody, this is Jacob K Mead and this is the
Buy Time podcast, where wediscuss everything there is to
know about buying back your time.
Be sure to like and follow andshare with somebody who needs to
buy back their time.
Enjoy today's episode.
Welcome back to another episodeof the Buy Time podcast.
My name is Jacob K Mead, I'myour host and I'm excited that
you're here today to listen totoday's episode, because we have
(00:23):
a lot of great stuff to covertoday.
So, diving right in, I just hada workshop a couple weeks ago
and something in that workshop,I always like to ask questions
and always like to get theattendees to be able to be
engaged, and so today we'regoing to really discuss a lot of
the questions that I was askedin the workshop and what makes
(00:44):
it so important, and some aresuper powerful.
I even remember some of thequestions and they still
resonate with me today.
So let's go ahead and dive inwith the very first question I
was asked, which is how do youknow when to give up?
How do you know if something'snot working?
And the way that I responded tothat workshop question was I
(01:05):
don't, and that's tough for me,because I don't know when to
give up.
I keep going and I keep going.
I don't quit until I get theresults that I want.
But I knew where that questionwas stemming from and so I asked
a little bit deeper.
And the big thing was is he wasstruggling to get people into
his business.
He wasn't seeing people cominginto his business and he's a new
(01:27):
business owner, and so Iexplained to him that hey,
listen, when I own mobile spotand I first started I was the
only one there I was workingMonday through Saturday, 10am to
6pm, most of the time even till8pm at the store, because we
were just open 10 to 6, but Iwould work until 8pm, if not
(01:47):
later, at the store and I wouldbe there.
And there was a lot of times,especially one week I can
remember in particular, where Iwould show up three days in a
row from 10 am To 6 pm.
Not a single customer camethrough the door and I felt
(02:09):
defeated.
I can I remember I felt sodefeated I said I can't do this.
I what if no one really wantsmy service?
What if I was wrong?
And Looking back on it as sucha poor mindset to have?
But at that time I keptdoubting myself and said what if
I'm wrong?
I didn't understand theimportance of showing up, but I
kept doing it.
I knew I had to show up.
(02:29):
I knew this is what I wanted todo and then I wasn't going to
accept failure and so I showedup every single day.
In every single day, therewould be Sometimes one customer,
sometimes two customers,sometimes no customers.
No, but it was that weekStretch where I showed up three
days in a row and I had nocustomers.
(02:51):
That really dug deep and itAffected me because I went
through a huge roller coaster ofemotions of I can't do this, I
don't know what I'm doing.
What if I was wrong?
And I pushed through it.
How did I push through it?
I had I had my fiance at thetime actually helping me.
She supported me and sheactually made sure that I was
(03:14):
Keeping on with my goal and Iwasn't giving up and She'd be
there to say it's going to beokay, we got this.
If I need to work more hours,I'll work more hours and she was
there to help support me.
So having that strong supportgroup someone there to help you
when you're feeling thoseemotions is super important and
I think, after I explained thatto him, he his eyes just kind of
(03:35):
got a little widened and youcould tell he hit him
emotionally and that's when Isaid, hey, if you were
struggling with this, if this issomething that you need help
with, you need someone to sitthere and tell you that it's
okay.
When you're having those toughdays, let me know, text me, send
me an email.
I will be that person for you,because everyone needs that
person.
(03:55):
Everyone needs that personthat's going to be there for
them when they are going throughthose tough days, because not
every day is easy Especially ifyou're just getting started off
like this guy was just gettingstarted off is the toughest part
.
You're building that groundworkand we covered the groundwork
and one of my videos that Iposted on, I think, instagram,
where it talks about theimportance of Building that
groundwork and that that's thetoughest part, and so that was
(04:18):
one of my questions.
Another one of my questions waswhen I was talking about getting
awards and how you know mystore, mobile spot, was able to
get best of the Moyan awards,and how important it is to be
able to showcase awards so thatwe can show the Authority that
you actually have in yourcommunity and it can be any
award in your community.
And so we are, you know, partof chambers of commerce, we are
(04:40):
part of BBB, we are part of thisso that we, we can show some
authority, and that's superimportant.
And so one of the questionsthat I got asked is how did we
get those awards?
And I had to sit back andactually reflect, because at the
time when I got the first award, I was just nominated for that
(05:03):
award through our customers.
I didn't go out there, I didn'trun ads, I didn't really do
anything to target towards thataward.
I simply just got nominatedthrough our customers.
But what I did do was providetop-notch customer service.
I made sure that my customerswere taken care of.
I made sure that I was actuallyUnderstanding my customers and
(05:24):
providing a solution to theirneeds.
Big.
So many times I'd havecustomers that would come in and
say I went to this other Shopor I went to this other store.
And when I hear that, the firstthing that I started to do is I
started to listen deeply.
I start to listen close Becauseif that other shop, that other
store, couldn't solve theirsolution or it's couldn't solve
(05:47):
their issue, and I'm able togive them a solution, then I'm
going to be the person they comeback to.
I'm gonna be the person thatthey remember.
And so I would listen superclose to everything that they
say, and then I would say Iunderstand those two words.
I Understand always put mycustomers at ease.
(06:07):
It gives them a breath of freshair that finally someone
understands me, someone's ableto actually help me out.
And so I would say I Understand, I will help you out, here is
my solution.
And then I would give them asalute, a solution that would
actually help fix the issue thatthey're having.
(06:29):
And so I built my customerservice up by doing this, and
it's just me in my shop at thistime when I'm doing this.
So then I start to bring teamin.
And when I start to bring myteam in, I want to make sure
that I still have a greatcustomer service.
So I would do role-playingscenarios with them.
I would make sure that theyunderstood how to provide that
customer service.
And it's tough because in myindustry we hire a lot of
(06:51):
technicians and sometimestechnicians don't have the best
of customer services.
So now you're training themfrom being, you know, a
technician to also offering somecustomer service, but it most
people will be trainable,especially when they come in.
So that's the first thing Istarted with.
I started to teach aboutcustomer service.
And then how did we getnominated?
(07:12):
What made people nominate us?
I think a couple reasons.
One we really did a lot ofbrand awareness.
We ran a lot of Google ads.
We ran a lot of Facebookcampaigns.
We made sure our name wasgetting out there.
I connected with a lot of thecarrier stores.
I connected with a lot of otherbusinesses and I made sure our
name was getting out there.
And I made sure not only it wasour name getting out there, but
(07:33):
it was getting out there as atrusted source.
There was a lot of things in myparticular industry that I was
in that were shady.
You know, we had shops doingvery shady tactics.
We and I I always said I'm notgoing to be that person.
You don't.
There's other ways to win inbusiness other than being shady
and having shady practices, andI was not going to put aside my
(07:56):
character in order for me justto create extra revenue.
So that's something I did.
As I said, no, I'm going tomake sure that I'm running
everything by the books.
I'm going to make sure that I'mhelping my customers and I'm
not going to run any shadypractices.
In fact, I actually had acouple calls that I was on and
they were like you could do thisand make make extra revenue.
I said I'm not doing thatbecause it wasn't ethical.
(08:18):
I will never put aside mycharacter or my beliefs or my
views In order to make moremoney in my business, and so I
think just having that brandawareness, making sure that I
was constantly out there, wasconstantly talking with business
owners, made the difference.
And people, when that that linecame up that said who's the
(08:39):
best cell phone repair storeMobile spot?
People could see me, they couldpicture it, people need to see
you out there, they need to seeyour ads over and over and over.
So that really helped.
Then follow up to that questionwas how did we know when the
right time was to startadvertising?
And that was a tough one,because I don't think you really
(09:02):
ever know.
I think that advertising isjust part of business, that you
should go into your business andknow that you need to spend
money on advertising.
Not everything's going to comeword of mouth.
If you really want to seegrowth, not everything's going
to come from word of mouth.
So, as far as when was theright time, I don't know if
there really was a time thatclicked and said this is the
(09:22):
right time when you spend moneyon advertising at least for me.
I just knew that we always hadto spend money on advertising.
And one of the things withadvertising is I see a lot of
businesses make this mistake.
They will start advertisingwith, let's say, $600, $1,000 a
month at Google Ads.
They will give it two monthsand they'll quit.
(09:45):
That's the issue They'll quit.
It takes time.
It takes time for the momentumto build up.
It takes time for your ads towork.
So with Google Ads especially,or even Facebook ads, give it
sometimes six to eight monthsbefore you give up, and even
then don't give up.
Look at possibly changing yourad.
Do A and B split testing.
(10:06):
There's different ways that youcan go about running these ads.
So, figuring out why it's notworking because it does work,
you just need to figure out whyit's not working.
So answering that question in myworkshop was super exciting and
I was really able to dive in,and I had a conversation
afterwards and I said hey,listen, google Ads, I'm not an
expert and I hire someone to domy Google Ads.
(10:28):
Facebook I'm not an expert andI hire someone to do my Facebook
ads, but I also know that if Idon't do it, I lose that brand
awareness, and that's superimportant.
And then I also know theconsistency.
So running ads one month andthen stopping them for two
months to rerun them again,you're going to lose those
placements.
You're going to go from beingnumber one to being number two
to number three, and people arealways looking for number one.
(10:50):
That's what they want.
So be the number one in yourindustry Advertise.
So those are a couple of thequestions I got in my workshop
that I just did a couple ofweeks ago and it was awesome.
You know, it was such a greattime.
I just I can't help, but lovehelping people is what I've
loved to do.
That's why I got into this.
(11:11):
To begin with is I love helpingpeople.
Even my wife just a couple daysago said hey, one of your great
traits is that you love helpingpeople.
You would give the shirt offyour back to somebody else that
they needed it, and that is it'strue, and it's something that I
accept.
Is I love helping people.
Has it gotten me into sometroubles in the past.
(11:32):
Yeah, has it gotten me intosome financial troubles, because
I'd rather help someone elsethan pay attention to my own
finances.
It has, but it's something todo with my trait and my
character and I'm accepting that, and so I love helping people.
So having people come to meafter my workshop and asking me
questions and me being able toactually help them, and then
hearing back in a week that, hey, wow, this really, this really
(11:55):
worked like this is great.
That meant a lot.
It really did.
So thank you for that, and ifthe people that were at my
workshop are listening, I reallywant to say thank you.
It meant a lot.
So thank you so much.
Well, that's going to beeverything for today's episode.
I hope you guys got someknowledge and understanding from
this.
In fact, I hope this motivatesyou guys to keep doing what
(12:17):
you're doing, keep showing upeven if no one's there.
Put money into advertisementsso that way you have that brand
awareness, and keep being thegreat business owner that you
are.
Don't give up.
There's something out there foryou.
Thanks, guys, my name is JacobK Mead, and until next time.
Thanks for listening to today'sepisode.
(12:38):
My name is Jacob K Mead anduntil next time.
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