June 23, 2025 • 34 mins
Todd Mitchell transforms cybersecurity for small businesses by bridging the gap between enterprise-level protection and solo entrepreneurs who lack resources but face the same legal requirements. Drawing from 20 years of Navy experience and advanced cybersecurity training, he focuses on protecting the most vulnerable business owners by taking a people-first approach rather than just securing networks.
• Spent 20 years in the Navy before transitioning to IT and cybersecurity
• Started his business after helping his DJ friend who lost all his music to hackers
• Discovered most cybersecurity companies only serve large businesses, ignoring solopreneurs
• Takes a holistic approach that prioritizes protecting people and information first
• Found success after identifying his true target market: women solopreneurs in finance and healthcare
• Helps clients meet cybersecurity insurance requirements and navigate industry regulations
• Pivoted his business model multiple times, including during COVID
• Emphasizes the importance of knowing who your customers really are and where they come from
• Creates detailed customer avatars to better understand and serve clients
• Found success by niching down rather than trying to serve everyone
• Focuses on human training since 90% of data breaches come from human error
Visit cybersecurity4biz.com to take a free assessment and learn more about protecting your small business.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:04):
Forget what you've heard.
Forged in Fire is where realentrepreneurs come to share the
untold truths of success thelate nights, the crushing
setbacks, the moments thatchange everything.
No fluff, just fire, ready tostep into the heat and unlock
(00:24):
what it really takes to build abusiness.
This is where legends are made.
Speaker 2 (00:35):
Welcome back, ladies and gentlemen, to another
exciting episode of Forged inFire.
I am your co-host, nateFromm-Reedon.
Allow me to introduce mycounterpart, cole.
How we doing brother.
Come on stage, man.
Speaker 3 (00:44):
Hey doing good man.
How are you doing today?
Speaker 2 (00:48):
The last, like week and a half or two weeks, has
really been like a test ofstrength and like driving
determination.
But you know what?
We're still here, we're stillsmiling, I'm doing all right.
How about you?
Speaker 3 (01:01):
I love it.
I love it.
I mean same thing here.
So, just as anybody else thatI'm sure is listening to this,
we're constantly learning,constantly failing, constantly
improving and trying new things,constantly working with social
media companies that are hackingour accounts.
The same old, same old.
So I get no complaints.
I'm excited for this interview.
Very relevant.
We'll get into that in a second, but, as always, before we dive
(01:26):
in deep, a couple housekeepingitems for everybody.
First, please leave us a ratingand review.
This helps us grow.
It helps us find more peopleand educate them on why real
estate's amazing.
Second, subscribe so you getnotified when we have a new
episode, just like this one.
And lastly, as always, sit back, relax, enjoy the show.
Speaker 2 (01:45):
Dude, it's going to be awesome.
Today we're actually going tobe interviewing Todd Mitchell,
who is another one of ourPyWorks members, so this will be
our fourth member from PyWorkswho's actually coming to the
stage.
He runs a company by the nameof Cybersecurity for Biz and he
does a ton of work when it comesto making sure that companies
are remained safe, making surethat companies are not getting
hacked.
I have been hacked personally.
(02:06):
I struggle with trials andtribulations, but enough about
me.
Let's go ahead and bring him onstage.
Todd, how are we doing, brother?
Speaker 4 (02:13):
Hey, thank you for having me.
This is awesome.
I'm having a good day and beinghere makes it even better, so
that's awesome.
Speaker 2 (02:22):
Man, we love it.
Love it well.
Thank you so much.
It is truly an honor, pleasureand a privilege to have you here
.
So please tell us a little bitabout yourself.
What got you here?
What brought you here?
Speaker 4 (02:31):
uh, well, I see, um, I uh, I did 20 years in the navy
and then, uh, reinvented myselfafter that.
Uh, after I retired from thenavy and I became a well, I was
already a computer geek, but Imade it official by getting an
actual degree in IT.
And then I started working forthe Marine Corps doing software
(02:55):
development and cybersecurityfor headquarters, marine Corps,
all the battlefield software.
And while I was doing that Igot a master's in cyber security
and kind of really focused onon the the cyber side of it.
And my best friend was a dj andhe got hacked and he uh, so he
(03:19):
lost all his music.
And a dj with no music's kindof useless, so he's freaking out
.
He calls me up.
He's like you gotta findsomebody to help me.
So we hit, you know, hit upGoogle and started looking up
all these cybersecuritycompanies and they're all have
an audience of large andenterprise level businesses and
we were literally like 10 pagesdeep before we found somebody
(03:40):
that would do small business.
And then we called them andthey're like oh yeah, we love
small business.
You got to have 250 employees,10 million in revenue, five guys
in your it department.
It's like that's not a smallbusiness, you know it's like.
So I ended up helping my bestfriend myself in my spare time,
you know, for free, uh, and thenhe brought a couple other
people to me and then over, uh,the next year or so after that,
(04:02):
uh, he just kept poking at meand poking at me with his
entrepreneur spirit until heconvinced me to open my own
business.
So I came into this verymission oriented of being the
little guy helping the littleguy, because nobody else will
basically.
So my goal is to bring corporatelevel, enterprise level,
whatever you want to call itcybersecurity down to a sole
(04:24):
opener that needs it.
And you know, because, as, as,depending on what industry
you're in, but you know peoplein the healthcare industry or
the financial industry that youknow, like a bookkeeper, for an
example, it doesn't matter withthe laws of how they have to
protect your, you know, your,their customers, financial
information.
Those laws are the same.
(04:45):
It doesn't matter if you'rerunning Jackson Hewitt or if
you're.
You know your, your, your wife,doing a side hustle, paying off
the Christmas debt.
You know doing taxes for acouple of months at the, you
know, in the spring, on thedining room table.
It's the same laws, the, the,but they don't have the
opportunities to get propercybersecurity in place because
(05:06):
all the tools and all theexpertise is all geared towards,
you know, enterprise levelbusinesses.
So that's kind of where I mademy passion and kind of made my
niche is I'm the guy that bringsthe whole IT department and
cybersecurity down to a soleopener whole IT department and
cybersecurity down to a soleopen source.
Speaker 3 (05:27):
That's fantastic.
I love that you mentionedbasically where you started from
, how you kind of felt the paininitially and how most business
owners start.
They feel the pain.
They can't get a solution, sothey create a solution.
So tell me more about a littlemore about where you're at now
and if you can kind of dive in alittle bit more of the journey.
So, like you kind of mentionedthe beginning and you kind of
mentioned building up, give mesome more details.
Speaker 4 (05:50):
So, yeah, basically what I do, I've kind of ended up
my business.
I'm in the fifth year and myactually has changed quite a bit
over time, which I'm sureyou've heard that from plenty of
other people too.
I'm not doing anything evenclose to what I thought I was
going to do when I first startedthis, and what's happened with
(06:14):
me is different laws have fellinto place that created a need
and people start calling me upasking me to help, and then I
realized that there was certainareas that people really needed
help with.
So I've tweaked what I do tomake sure I answer those needs.
I have kind of a holisticapproach to cybersecurity, right
(06:36):
?
So big companies, they're allworried about securing the
network and it trickles down andsome of their people get
protected.
I look at it the other way.
I'm looking at people andinformation and going from the
bottom up right, our mostvaluable assets as a business
owner are people and information.
I mean, if you don't havecustomers and you don't take
care of them and you don't havethat data, you know people
(06:56):
always think the information isnot worth anything.
Well, you know Google, you knowFacebook, you know all these
companies, companies, they'remulti-billion dollar companies
and they don't actually chargefor products, they're just
getting your information andselling it.
So information is definitelyworth money to good guys and bad
guys.
Uh, so protecting that is iscritical, and it just I guess my
(07:22):
passion was you.
I had the answer in my head ofhow to keep people safe, and you
know I just want to make surethat as many people as possible
know that, and so I likespreading the awareness, I guess
you'd say.
But as far as my journey itselfis, I've worked with a lot of
(07:42):
probably 75% of my customer baseis sole openers working from
home.
A single employee.
You know, maybe you'll have avirtual assistant on contract or
something, but it's, it'sbasically a one man shop with,
you know, a laptop and a homerouter, and so we need to do and
most of them are not that techsavvy, so you know it's an area
that they don't know a lot about.
It are not that tech savvy, soyou know it's an area that they
(08:03):
don't know a lot about it.
And so you know I'm there toguide them through the journey
of getting good software, makingsure their computer is set up
correctly and making sure thatthey're doing what they need to
do with not just the software.
You know there's more than justputting an antivirus on your
computer.
You have to take a look.
(08:24):
You know how you collect thisinformation.
How do you store thisinformation?
What are you doing with it?
You know, is it encrypted?
Does everybody have access, oris it controlled?
You're the only one that cansee it.
You know all these differenttypes of things and help people
get internal business policiesand procedures together so that
as their business grows and theybring in more employees just
like if you've had a job workingfor a big company before you
(08:45):
know you go day one HR hands youa big old clipboard full of
stuff and says here, read allthis and sign, saying you read
it.
You know, no-transcript, youwant to have these.
(09:27):
You want to have all thatinformation and all these ideas
thought out ahead of time andwritten down so if something bad
happens you can just pull out apaper and go down the checklist
and you don't have to try tothink too much.
So that's that's a lot of mygoals, too, is getting people
prepared, because nowadays youeven mentioned it kind of at the
beginning of the show hacking.
(09:52):
It's not an if, it's more of a,when we just need to be
prepared.
Speaker 2 (09:59):
Oh, I love it.
Oh my gosh, it's resonatinghome so much.
So so many different questions,but let's, let's start here,
let's, let's go in thisdirection.
Can you tell me a little bitabout some of like the struggles
and trials and tribulationsthat you went through?
You've mentioned that you'vebeen in business for, you know,
five years now and you pivoted anumber of times and you're now
doing something that you neverthought you were doing then.
But what triggered those kindof pivots to be able to, you
(10:21):
know, make that maneuver, to beable to keep your company afloat
?
But also, what else was it,especially coming from helping
your friend out that was a DJ,going into actually now running
your own entrepreneurialbusiness?
What kind of struggles did yougo through then too?
Speaker 4 (10:37):
So first, starting out, I ran into a couple of
struggles.
The first thing was he wassupposed to run the business and
I was just going to be thecyber geek.
And we went for a couple ofmonths waiting on him and then I
realized that that wasn't goingto happen.
So I decided to go solo, and sothat set me back a couple of
months.
On paper I was already a legitbusiness, but I hadn't finished
(10:59):
filing all the stuff.
And then, about the time Ireally decided to go solo and
get this together, covid hit.
So my plan originally was I'mgoing up and down Main Street
shaking hands and handing outbusiness cards and hitting up
all the little mom and pop shopson Main Street.
And that idea is gone becausenow everything's closed and all
(11:21):
that.
So I decided to ship to virtual.
So that's my first.
One was like okay, we got tofigure out how to make this work
, you know, via zoom, meeting orwhatever, um, so I come up with
ways of doing that and andpivoted.
And then the next big pivot wasuh, still, even though I'm
doing it virtually, I'm stilltargeting.
Going up and down main street.
I'm thinking I'm hitting up allthese Italian you know, mom and
(11:44):
pop Italian restaurants andlocal little boutiques and
things like that.
And so I was kind of targetingthat audience.
And meanwhile I have peoplecalling me and looking for my
services and I'm helping themout.
And then so what happened?
One day I was in on Alignable ata workshop and they had us
(12:04):
write down a bunch of everywherewe spent time, money or energy
in marketing or advertising.
So it's like, oh, half an houron Facebook, half an hour on
LinkedIn, half an hour onAlignable, half an hour on here,
you know, you know a hundredbucks on Google ads, whatever.
And I wrote all that down.
And then on the other side ofthe paper they're like write
down your last 10 clients andthen draw arrows where they came
from.
Well, two things went off.
(12:24):
One was I realized all myclients were coming from
Alignable.
So I'm like why am I wasting mytime on everywhere else?
I needed to dive headfirst intoAlignable, so.
But the other thing was, afterthat was over with, and I'm
sitting there looking at thatlist of 10 clients and I
realized they're all solopreneur, bookkeepers and tax preparers
and mental health professionalsthat work from home.
And I'm like I'm over herechasing around.
(12:47):
You know, luigi, the 55 yearold white guy in a muscle shirt
that owns an Italian restaurant.
And meanwhile I got all theseworking women, women working
from home, that are calling meup, that need me, and I'm like
I'm in the wrong spot, you know.
So once I went back and took acritical look at who my ideal
customer was, and not just youknow the industry, but you know
(13:09):
sex, religion, race, ethnicity,income level, you know, and draw
that little cartoon characterof them, you know kind of figure
out exactly who they reallyreally are.
Of them, you know kind offigure out exactly who they
really really are.
And once I did that I alsorealized at that same time,
looking at TV ads and a wholenew light, because I realized
(13:30):
all the big companies have beendoing this.
I mean, you haven't seen an oldwhite guy in a McDonald's ad in
40 years.
You know it doesn't mean Ican't get a cheeseburger, but
their target audience is young,mixed ethnicity, inner city mom
trying to raise a family on abudget, you know.
And all their ads look likethat.
They've all, you know all thepeople in their ads and it's
like.
So I kind of completely shiftedgears and started focusing more
(13:54):
on, you know women working fromhome that collect a lot of
information in the financialindustry and the healthcare
industry.
And once I actually made myselfavailable, phone started
ringing off the hook.
And about year three, it was astruggle of trying to fit in
exactly and get my brandawareness.
But once I got my messagingcorrect, the last two years were
just blown up.
(14:14):
I mean my, I met my sale, myannual sales goals last year.
I met him in June.
That's the nice problem to haveright in June where you're
looking around going wait, I, uh, I'm done for the year.
Okay, I got to make new goals,so, uh, but but I the story
behind that is you have to knowwho your audience really is.
(14:38):
I mean, down to that littleavatar I said in my case it's,
you know it's, it's, it's the.
You know a minority-based womanworking from home.
You know, uh, um, dealing withthe struggles of not being able
to get a hold of resources andthings like that, uh, to help
protect our customersinformation.
But once I figured out exactlywho it is, now you're like where
(15:01):
do they hang out?
Who else do they know?
And, most importantly, where dothey go to for advice?
Who's their mentor?
Because that working.
You know, in my case that waslike, okay, yoga instructors,
parenting groups, life coaches,things like that right, because
now those are the places I needto be hanging out, you know, and
the people I need to makefriends with.
(15:22):
Because if you want a referralpartner, you want the referral
partner that is giving advice toall the people that could be
your clients.
You know, and it's like so nowyou know, and once I did that
and started making because weall do like, I'm sure, a lot of
your, your, whether they do itat Alignable or other social
media networks.
But you know, mostentrepreneurs are doing some
(15:44):
kind of network, b&i Chamber orsomething.
You're going to these events,you're meeting all these people
and I guess my advice is beintentional Make sure that
you're not just meeting a bunchof random business owners in all
different industries.
You want to be in front of thegroup.
That's the ones you need to betalking to, the ones that are
all and I treat everybody.
I don't do, I don't do I guesswhat do you call it direct sales
(16:11):
at all?
I treat everybody like thereferral partner.
I talk to most of my clientsthe same way.
I'm talking to you.
I just tell them what I do andwho I do it for.
If they're interested, great.
If not, maybe they knowsomebody, whatever you know.
So that's kind of how myapproach to life has been.
I hate direct sales.
I hate salesmen that get you onthe phone and won't let you go
until you say yes, and all thisother stuff.
(16:33):
So I'm not doing that toanybody else.
Speaker 3 (16:36):
I think that's awesome.
I mean, there's so many thingsthat I think we really got to
dial back to for a second therethat you mentioned that are
fantastic.
Earlier on Juan, you mentionedabout decision making and making
sure you're prepared and nomatter what it is, it's just not
getting into a panic and havinga plan.
I think that's fantastic.
Another huge one is that youmentioned tracking and like we
will dial this hill.
(16:56):
We talk about this every singleepisode, with every person.
One of the reasons most peoplefail is because they're not
tracking.
And so you went even deeper andyou were talking about okay,
where are my leads coming from?
Oh, they're coming from thissource.
Okay, now that I know that,let's double down on that, like
you said.
And then further you said okay,well, they're all sharing this,
this same thing.
So let's create this avatar,right, let's find these people,
(17:18):
and then let's adjust ourmessaging to this, and I think
that is so good.
So, and then, obviously beingintentional with that messaging,
so can you go into that alittle more?
Meaning, you found these people, you have the people you're
targeting.
What are you saying?
And I don't mean specificallyfor your client, necessarily,
but what are you saying, whatare you trying to Explain to
them?
To get them to bite, because alot of people have a challenge.
(17:39):
Okay, I found the person that Iwant to talk to or sell to, or
whatever it may be, but now whatdo I say to them?
How do I actually move forward?
Speaker 4 (17:46):
Right, so that's an awesome question.
I've done it a couple of ways.
One is generic research goingto SBA's website and looking up
demographics of industries andwho does things like that.
But then also just talk to someof your clients or find the one
that you wish you had as aclient and talk to them and say
(18:06):
hey, you know why.
What do you think cybersecurity?
In my case, you know with cyber, you know.
So what do you thinkcybersecurity is?
What do you need?
What are your pain points?
And for me, I had a discussionwith a couple of my clients and
their biggest problem is theytry to get, they have to get
cybersecurity insurance.
It's it's mandatory to connect.
(18:28):
So if let me back up a step ifyou're doing payroll or filing
other taxes for other people notfor yourself, but like if
you're one of these companiesthat does payroll and taxes for
other companies you have toconnect to the IRS's database.
In order to do that, you haveto have cybersecurity insurance
and a few other things.
(18:48):
So these guys are all trying toget cybersecurity insurance.
Except if you can't proveyou're doing prevention, the
cybersecurity insurance isdoubling your rates or won't
give you a policy at all anyways, because they're not just going
to pay for all the stuff thatyou leave damage in your wake
because you're doing nothing toprevent it.
You know, so, kind of like withyour house, I mean, you call
(19:09):
State Farm and say, hey, I letmy kid play with matches, I
don't have smoke detectors.
Can I get house insurance?
And they're going to be like,oh no, you know.
So it's kind of one of thosethings you know and know, um,
and once I did that I justreally started listening to what
my clients were and then Ifound out what those pain points
were, and so now that's myadvertising messaging.
You know, you do you need help.
You know, uh, getting securityin place to meet your needs.
(19:31):
Your insurance rates, you know,uh, you're trying to get lower
rates on cyber insurance and yougotta.
You know, or you're a taxpreparer and you got all this.
You know the irs is asking youa million questions about what
do you do about this and that,and you don't even know what
they're talking about.
You know I'm the guy you needto call.
I can help you get the answers,you know.
So that's that's.
That's what I kind of shiftedwas I made my messaging kind of
(19:53):
very niche, specific to whatwhat those specific clients were
having problems with.
Speaker 2 (20:05):
This is so good.
This is so valuable.
Anybody that's listening pause,stop, rewind, play this whole
thing all the way back, becausethere's so many gems, so many
nuggets have just been dropped.
Talking about pain points,talking about targeting your
avatar, talking about even whatan avatar is and how you define
it.
Every company is going todefine an avatar a little bit
different.
This has been amazing thus far.
I just want to throw that outthere.
So talk an avatar a little bitdifferent.
This has been amazing thus far.
I just want to throw that outthere.
(20:26):
So talk to me a little bitabout um.
Choose words carefully here, ifyou, in terms of marketing and
outreach and pivoting, what doesit look like now?
We're five years in.
You've talked a little bitabout alignable, now to be able
to touch base and network, butwhat else are you doing?
Because we started with MainStreet and going down and trying
(20:48):
to figure out how to build anown pizza shop, but now COVID is
hopefully gone, you knowfingers crossed.
So now what does it look likefor you to be able to get that
same avatar?
Speaker 4 (20:58):
So for me, I think it's just becoming available.
So my, my whole marketingstrategy is this I guess to
parents is on shows like yoursand just kind of get myself in
front of more people.
And you know somebody, somebodyout there may be like Holy crap
, I need to talk to this guy.
I'm going to call Todd, youknow, or, or there may be, you
know, or maybe it's like oh, Iknow, I know somebody who needs
(21:19):
this, and I think that's kind ofkey is just my sister, who has
nothing to do with entrepreneursor any this kind of stuff.
Gave me some of the best adviceI ever got, and at the time she
told me it.
To me it didn't make any sense,but now, looking back at it, it
was dead on.
Nobody's buying cybersecurity.
(21:40):
They're buying me, they trustme, they're going to.
They don't even know what I do.
I mean, you know I'd go in andwork on your computer for 20
minutes and then leave and youhad no idea what I even did.
You know it's like, but sothey're buying me, they're
buying, they're, they're,they're, they're looking at me,
they're going.
Hey, this seems like a prettystraight up guy.
I trust him.
I'm just going to let him dealwith all this junk and he'll
(22:08):
tell anything.
I got to take care of and, andso once I kind of got that
attitude in there when Irealized I'm actually selling
myself and just being myself andpeople gravitate towards that
or not, you know, uh, and andthat was kind of the key, you
know you, you can't, you can'tsell to everybody, and that was
one of my big error when I firststarted out.
That was my.
You know who needs cybersecurity?
Everybody.
Everybody needs cyber security.
I can think of a use case forevery person on this planet or
why they need cybersecurity.
But you can't market like that.
(22:30):
It's like, you know, you can'tbe all things to everybody,
because then you're nothing tonobody.
You know kind of a thing, and Ithink especially for
solopreneurs and entrepreneurs.
You know smaller businesses.
I always tell people that mythe big box analogy right.
I always tell people the bigbox analogy right.
And you have to kind of twistthis around in your brain
(22:51):
loosely because we're not allselling products.
But you know I can't competewith Walmart.
If all you want is basicsomething in a box that's cheap
and easy, you're going to go toWalmart and get it.
You know I use great jelly as aperfect example, right easy,
you're going to go to Walmartand get it.
You know, I use grape jelly asa perfect example, right?
If you want a jar of jelly,you're never going to, I'm never
(23:12):
going to be able to make a jarof jelly cheaper than what they
could put on the shelf inWalmart.
But if you go to Walmart, allyou're getting is grape jelly,
right?
So if you want to make jelly fora living, you need to make the
rhubarb jelly with a hint oflime that you're never going to
find in Walmart, because nowthey got to come to you to get
it and you got to find thepeople who like that specific
kind of jelly and aren't worriedabout just buying a jar of
grape jelly, you know.
(23:34):
So it's knowing your audienceand knowing your little piece of
the world, and don't get caughtup in a rat race of trying to
reproduce economy of scale andmarket to, you know, the masses
with the generic stuff that theysell at the big box store,
cause you're never going to beatout that.
You know you don't.
You don't have the milliondollar a month ad budget that
(23:55):
Walmart has.
You're never going to beat them.
Speaker 3 (23:58):
I love that and you're diving so much into like
niching down and like findingthe thing that you're the best
at and becoming the face of it,or your company is becoming the
face of it and like being thego-to person for that, like you
said, and then not only from amarketing aspect, but then you
legitimately do become the bestof that, because that's all you
focus on and that's what givesyou the competitive advantage.
So I think that's so, so good.
Something that we struggledwith starting up is what exactly
(24:21):
do we focus on?
And most people do, like youmentioned.
We can make a use case, likeyou said, for anybody out there,
but what do we really helppeople with?
Okay, well, we don't want to doflips, that's not our bread and
butter.
We don't want to do this.
So we do multifamily only and,just like you said, okay, well,
I don't want to do these bigcorporations, I want to do a
solopreneurs and specificallyXYZ in that.
So I think that's awesome yeah.
Speaker 4 (24:42):
That's what happened with my.
You know, that was what I waskind of talking about, was?
You know?
I'm over here looking forrestaurant owners like Luigi,
and meanwhile my phone's ringingoff the hook and it's all these
women that have a very specificproblem.
The IRS won't renew theirwhatever, won't let them connect
because they can't prove theyhave this and this, and that was
a very specific thing.
And I'm like, oh, I know how tosolve that, Okay.
(25:03):
So now I just kind of and thentarget that area.
And you know, they go to alltheir friends, because anybody
going through that struggleknows other people going through
the same struggle, and once youhelp one of them, they go tell
all their friends, and nowyou've got 10 more clients.
Speaker 3 (25:21):
Love it, Ned.
I think he's ready.
What do you think?
Speaker 2 (25:23):
Oh, my goodness, I think so.
I think it's time.
This is good, this is exciting.
Speaker 3 (25:28):
All right, todd, here's what we're going to do.
So we're going to do the fireround, right?
And basically we're going toask you a couple questions.
We ask to every single guest.
You can answer succinctly, youcan answer at length.
Whatever you want to do, we'regoing to do our best to and to
not expand on what you're saying.
(25:49):
It usually doesn't work, butwe'll see what happens this time
.
So, with that being said, herewe go.
What separates top performingentrepreneurs from the rest of
the crowd?
Speaker 4 (25:57):
You're breaking up.
Say that again.
Speaker 3 (26:01):
Hey, we got to cut that music out, I think, and
then just put it in afterwards.
All right, let's try this again.
We'll edit that out.
What separates top performingentrepreneurs from the rest of
the crowd?
Speaker 4 (26:15):
Their ability to adapt.
Speaker 2 (26:20):
What is a daily habit that's contributed to your
success?
Speaker 4 (26:25):
Time management.
My calendar runs everything.
My wife's always asking me whatdo you want to what?
What do you do with this?
What do you?
I don't know.
Look at my calendar.
I just do whatever my calendarsays.
Speaker 3 (26:36):
Love that what is a piece of advice that you'd give
to yourself if you were startingagain?
Speaker 4 (26:45):
definitely learning more about finding my niche,
because I didn't find it untilyear three and if I'd have found
it in year one I'd be retiredby now.
No, no, it wouldn't be that bad, but uh, yeah, I definitely
wish I would have figured outthat whole thing with niching
down a couple of years beforethat what is your favorite
(27:05):
business book?
that is weird because I don'tactually have one.
I've had some experience with,like the Clifton Strengths and
the leadership things and Ireally like those, but I did
have a book.
Actually no, I do have ananswer for that.
(27:26):
My grandmother bought me a bookwhen I was 18, right when I was
coming in the Navy and lookingat what I was going to do.
I thought I was only going todo four years and not 20, but
and I was going to get out ofthe Navy and open my own
business and she bought me abook called Growing your
Business or something like that.
I don't know.
This is 40 years ago, so thetitle is probably, and I can't
(27:48):
even find the book anymore.
But it was about a guy who wasbasically talking about how to
get your business up and running, but it was high-level, generic
, but it was that kind ofplanted some seeds in my head of
, well, you could do anything ifyou just get a plan together.
Basically was what his pointwas.
As long as you just get a plantogether.
Basically was what his pointwas.
(28:09):
You know, as long as you got aplan and follow the plan you'll
get to where you're going.
Speaker 3 (28:11):
I like that really good.
Do you know the name of thatbook offhand?
Did you say that?
Speaker 4 (28:15):
I think it was like growing your business or
something like that okay, allright, sounds good.
Speaker 3 (28:20):
What is your favorite part of owning your business?
Speaker 4 (28:25):
flexibility.
So, uh, for time, I should saymore specifically uh, my
long-range goal for my lifewhich is actually kind of short
range because now it's only like10 years away instead of, like
you know, 100 or whatever, whenyou're a little bit, uh, I plan
on semi-retiring into afull-time rv life and, uh, you
(28:46):
know, if I have my way, in acouple of years we'll be having
this conversation and I will.
You'll be seeing the GrandCanyon out the window of a motor
home behind me.
Speaker 2 (28:54):
Oh, I love it, man.
I can't wait Moment thathappens.
Come on back, Cause you know,our house is your house.
Speaker 4 (29:02):
I'm already.
I'm working on it.
I got a truck and a trailer andI do a lot of traveling and I
sort of work a little bit hereand there while I'm doing it,
but as internet accessibility ismy enemy, so once I tackle that
beast and figure out how to getgood internet, I'm gone, if you
want that.
Speaker 3 (29:20):
Starlink.
It's coming, it's on its way.
Speaker 2 (29:24):
So what is something new that you've implemented into
your business that's helpeddrive your success?
Speaker 4 (29:32):
Something new.
I would say more training.
For me it's been cybersecuritytraining Everybody.
You know, statistically, 90% ofdata, over 90% of data breaches
, are caused by human error.
Okay, so you know.
(29:54):
You see, in Hollywood you'regetting hacked by some guy in a
hoodie in his mom's basementclacking away at a keyboard.
That's not how you're gettinghacked.
You're getting hacked becauseyou're clicking on some stupid
email that you shouldn't haveclicked on, that you shouldn't
have clicked on.
So that's what I focus on, Ithink, is teaching people how to
recognize these phishing emailsand quit clicking on stuff.
Speaker 3 (30:18):
Awesome, awesome, awesome.
You survived, so that wasawesome.
I really liked your answers.
I think that was incredible.
So look, as we wrap up here,I'd just love to recap this
whole thing.
So, one, it was good hearingyour initial thing, how you got
into this right, Like feelingthe pain, not having a solution
and creating one right, theentrepreneurial struggle,
(30:39):
finding people's info, yourdecision-making kind of going
through that, going throughtracking, reviewing the data,
finding your target audience,niching down, being intentional,
going through messaging so manygood things that we recapped.
So I have two final questionsfor you.
Number one where can peoplefind you?
Number two any final advice?
Speaker 4 (31:01):
So where can people find me?
My cybersecurity4bizcom withthe number four.
Uh, on my website I've got alot of useful information.
There's a short couple ofquestions, um and uh.
You could take some freeassessments, uh, kind of get an
(31:21):
idea of some of the questions.
I'd ask if we were talking andgive you an idea where you're,
because a lot of people thinkthat, oh, I got, I got Norton
antivirus, I'm good.
It was like, no, there's not.
There's a whole bunch more toit than that.
Oh, but that's, that's wherethey could find me and a bunch
of useful information.
Schedule a free consultationand we could chat and see if
it's a good fit or not.
(31:42):
And what was the second question, final advice, oh, oh, yeah,
yeah, yeah, final advice.
Final advice is you know forany solopreneur out there, just,
you know, we're not all expertsin everything, so you have to
know what it is you're good atand not be afraid to bring in
(32:02):
other people to do things.
You know whether you're hiringemployees or whether you're 1099
contractor or you get a goodcollaboration effort going or
something, but bring in peoplethat know what they're doing.
Don't don't, don't think thatjust because you're the best
plumber in the world.
That means you know how to dofinances, you know that's that
kind of thing, that's.
That's.
That's my biggest advice, Ithink because that's Because I
(32:24):
think that's why most businessesfail, because you become a sole
opener.
You got that hat on that saysI'm the chief financial officer,
I'm the chief technical officer, I'm the chief operating
officer, I'm the chief marketingofficer.
No, you can't be all thosethings at once.
You got to know yourlimitations.
Speaker 2 (32:42):
Oh my gosh, this is so good.
Oh, again, if you're listening,pause, rewind, play this back.
Nicole and I, we talk aboutthis all the time.
How, when we got into realestate, we thought it was a me,
me, me, I, I, I kind ofsituation.
And no, real estate is a teamsport, very similar to so many
different fields, forsolopreneurs and entrepreneurs
alike.
Don't feel like you have to wearevery single hat.
One of our favorite books, who,not how?
(33:05):
Dan Sullivan, right.
So make sure, make sure, makesure that you reach out, make
sure that you work together,Make sure that we collaborate.
We can go way faster, wayfarther when we work together as
a team.
But, with that being said,thank you all so much for tuning
in to this exciting episode ofForged in Fire.
We're looking forward to seeingyou all on the next one.
Todd, thank you so much forcoming through.
Our house is your house.
(33:26):
You're always welcome.
So soon as you get that RV, yougot the grand cannon behind you
.
Give us a call once you figureout the internet issues, we'll
have you right back on thanksfor tuning in to another episode
of forged in fire.
Speaker 1 (33:42):
If you enjoyed today's raw, unfiltered stories,
don't forget subscribe andleave us a review.
Your feedback helps us bringmore real-world insights to
entrepreneurs like you.
Be sure to join us next timefor even more lessons, struggles
and breakthroughs on the roadto success.
(34:03):
Keep forging ahead.
Forget what you've heard.
Forged in Fire is where realentrepreneurs come to share the
untold truths of success thelate nights, the crushing
setbacks, the moments thatchange everything.
No fluff, just fire, ready tostep into the heat and unlock
(00:24):
what it really takes to build abusiness.
This is where legends are made.
Speaker 2 (00:35):
Welcome back, ladies and gentlemen, to another
exciting episode of Forged inFire.
I am your co-host, nateFromm-Reedon.
Allow me to introduce mycounterpart, cole.
How we doing brother.
Come on stage, man.
Speaker 3 (00:44):
Hey doing good man.
How are you doing today?
Speaker 2 (00:48):
The last, like week and a half or two weeks, has
really been like a test ofstrength and like driving
determination.
But you know what?
We're still here, we're stillsmiling, I'm doing all right.
How about you?
Speaker 3 (01:01):
I love it.
I love it.
I mean same thing here.
So, just as anybody else thatI'm sure is listening to this,
we're constantly learning,constantly failing, constantly
improving and trying new things,constantly working with social
media companies that are hackingour accounts.
The same old, same old.
So I get no complaints.
I'm excited for this interview.
Very relevant.
We'll get into that in a second, but, as always, before we dive
(01:26):
in deep, a couple housekeepingitems for everybody.
First, please leave us a ratingand review.
This helps us grow.
It helps us find more peopleand educate them on why real
estate's amazing.
Second, subscribe so you getnotified when we have a new
episode, just like this one.
And lastly, as always, sit back, relax, enjoy the show.
Speaker 2 (01:45):
Dude, it's going to be awesome.
Today we're actually going tobe interviewing Todd Mitchell,
who is another one of ourPyWorks members, so this will be
our fourth member from PyWorkswho's actually coming to the
stage.
He runs a company by the nameof Cybersecurity for Biz and he
does a ton of work when it comesto making sure that companies
are remained safe, making surethat companies are not getting
hacked.
I have been hacked personally.
(02:06):
I struggle with trials andtribulations, but enough about
me.
Let's go ahead and bring him onstage.
Todd, how are we doing, brother?
Speaker 4 (02:13):
Hey, thank you for having me.
This is awesome.
I'm having a good day and beinghere makes it even better, so
that's awesome.
Speaker 2 (02:22):
Man, we love it.
Love it well.
Thank you so much.
It is truly an honor, pleasureand a privilege to have you here
.
So please tell us a little bitabout yourself.
What got you here?
What brought you here?
Speaker 4 (02:31):
uh, well, I see, um, I uh, I did 20 years in the navy
and then, uh, reinvented myselfafter that.
Uh, after I retired from thenavy and I became a well, I was
already a computer geek, but Imade it official by getting an
actual degree in IT.
And then I started working forthe Marine Corps doing software
(02:55):
development and cybersecurityfor headquarters, marine Corps,
all the battlefield software.
And while I was doing that Igot a master's in cyber security
and kind of really focused onon the the cyber side of it.
And my best friend was a dj andhe got hacked and he uh, so he
(03:19):
lost all his music.
And a dj with no music's kindof useless, so he's freaking out
.
He calls me up.
He's like you gotta findsomebody to help me.
So we hit, you know, hit upGoogle and started looking up
all these cybersecuritycompanies and they're all have
an audience of large andenterprise level businesses and
we were literally like 10 pagesdeep before we found somebody
(03:40):
that would do small business.
And then we called them andthey're like oh yeah, we love
small business.
You got to have 250 employees,10 million in revenue, five guys
in your it department.
It's like that's not a smallbusiness, you know it's like.
So I ended up helping my bestfriend myself in my spare time,
you know, for free, uh, and thenhe brought a couple other
people to me and then over, uh,the next year or so after that,
(04:02):
uh, he just kept poking at meand poking at me with his
entrepreneur spirit until heconvinced me to open my own
business.
So I came into this verymission oriented of being the
little guy helping the littleguy, because nobody else will
basically.
So my goal is to bring corporatelevel, enterprise level,
whatever you want to call itcybersecurity down to a sole
(04:24):
opener that needs it.
And you know, because, as, as,depending on what industry
you're in, but you know peoplein the healthcare industry or
the financial industry that youknow, like a bookkeeper, for an
example, it doesn't matter withthe laws of how they have to
protect your, you know, your,their customers, financial
information.
Those laws are the same.
(04:45):
It doesn't matter if you'rerunning Jackson Hewitt or if
you're.
You know your, your, your wife,doing a side hustle, paying off
the Christmas debt.
You know doing taxes for acouple of months at the, you
know, in the spring, on thedining room table.
It's the same laws, the, the,but they don't have the
opportunities to get propercybersecurity in place because
(05:06):
all the tools and all theexpertise is all geared towards,
you know, enterprise levelbusinesses.
So that's kind of where I mademy passion and kind of made my
niche is I'm the guy that bringsthe whole IT department and
cybersecurity down to a soleopener whole IT department and
cybersecurity down to a soleopen source.
Speaker 3 (05:27):
That's fantastic.
I love that you mentionedbasically where you started from
, how you kind of felt the paininitially and how most business
owners start.
They feel the pain.
They can't get a solution, sothey create a solution.
So tell me more about a littlemore about where you're at now
and if you can kind of dive in alittle bit more of the journey.
So, like you kind of mentionedthe beginning and you kind of
mentioned building up, give mesome more details.
Speaker 4 (05:50):
So, yeah, basically what I do, I've kind of ended up
my business.
I'm in the fifth year and myactually has changed quite a bit
over time, which I'm sureyou've heard that from plenty of
other people too.
I'm not doing anything evenclose to what I thought I was
going to do when I first startedthis, and what's happened with
(06:14):
me is different laws have fellinto place that created a need
and people start calling me upasking me to help, and then I
realized that there was certainareas that people really needed
help with.
So I've tweaked what I do tomake sure I answer those needs.
I have kind of a holisticapproach to cybersecurity, right
(06:36):
?
So big companies, they're allworried about securing the
network and it trickles down andsome of their people get
protected.
I look at it the other way.
I'm looking at people andinformation and going from the
bottom up right, our mostvaluable assets as a business
owner are people and information.
I mean, if you don't havecustomers and you don't take
care of them and you don't havethat data, you know people
(06:56):
always think the information isnot worth anything.
Well, you know Google, you knowFacebook, you know all these
companies, companies, they'remulti-billion dollar companies
and they don't actually chargefor products, they're just
getting your information andselling it.
So information is definitelyworth money to good guys and bad
guys.
Uh, so protecting that is iscritical, and it just I guess my
(07:22):
passion was you.
I had the answer in my head ofhow to keep people safe, and you
know I just want to make surethat as many people as possible
know that, and so I likespreading the awareness, I guess
you'd say.
But as far as my journey itselfis, I've worked with a lot of
(07:42):
probably 75% of my customer baseis sole openers working from
home.
A single employee.
You know, maybe you'll have avirtual assistant on contract or
something, but it's, it'sbasically a one man shop with,
you know, a laptop and a homerouter, and so we need to do and
most of them are not that techsavvy, so you know it's an area
that they don't know a lot about.
It are not that tech savvy, soyou know it's an area that they
(08:03):
don't know a lot about it.
And so you know I'm there toguide them through the journey
of getting good software, makingsure their computer is set up
correctly and making sure thatthey're doing what they need to
do with not just the software.
You know there's more than justputting an antivirus on your
computer.
You have to take a look.
(08:24):
You know how you collect thisinformation.
How do you store thisinformation?
What are you doing with it?
You know, is it encrypted?
Does everybody have access, oris it controlled?
You're the only one that cansee it.
You know all these differenttypes of things and help people
get internal business policiesand procedures together so that
as their business grows and theybring in more employees just
like if you've had a job workingfor a big company before you
(08:45):
know you go day one HR hands youa big old clipboard full of
stuff and says here, read allthis and sign, saying you read
it.
You know, no-transcript, youwant to have these.
(09:27):
You want to have all thatinformation and all these ideas
thought out ahead of time andwritten down so if something bad
happens you can just pull out apaper and go down the checklist
and you don't have to try tothink too much.
So that's that's a lot of mygoals, too, is getting people
prepared, because nowadays youeven mentioned it kind of at the
beginning of the show hacking.
(09:52):
It's not an if, it's more of a,when we just need to be
prepared.
Speaker 2 (09:59):
Oh, I love it.
Oh my gosh, it's resonatinghome so much.
So so many different questions,but let's, let's start here,
let's, let's go in thisdirection.
Can you tell me a little bitabout some of like the struggles
and trials and tribulationsthat you went through?
You've mentioned that you'vebeen in business for, you know,
five years now and you pivoted anumber of times and you're now
doing something that you neverthought you were doing then.
But what triggered those kindof pivots to be able to, you
(10:21):
know, make that maneuver, to beable to keep your company afloat
?
But also, what else was it,especially coming from helping
your friend out that was a DJ,going into actually now running
your own entrepreneurialbusiness?
What kind of struggles did yougo through then too?
Speaker 4 (10:37):
So first, starting out, I ran into a couple of
struggles.
The first thing was he wassupposed to run the business and
I was just going to be thecyber geek.
And we went for a couple ofmonths waiting on him and then I
realized that that wasn't goingto happen.
So I decided to go solo, and sothat set me back a couple of
months.
On paper I was already a legitbusiness, but I hadn't finished
(10:59):
filing all the stuff.
And then, about the time Ireally decided to go solo and
get this together, covid hit.
So my plan originally was I'mgoing up and down Main Street
shaking hands and handing outbusiness cards and hitting up
all the little mom and pop shopson Main Street.
And that idea is gone becausenow everything's closed and all
(11:21):
that.
So I decided to ship to virtual.
So that's my first.
One was like okay, we got tofigure out how to make this work
, you know, via zoom, meeting orwhatever, um, so I come up with
ways of doing that and andpivoted.
And then the next big pivot wasuh, still, even though I'm
doing it virtually, I'm stilltargeting.
Going up and down main street.
I'm thinking I'm hitting up allthese Italian you know, mom and
(11:44):
pop Italian restaurants andlocal little boutiques and
things like that.
And so I was kind of targetingthat audience.
And meanwhile I have peoplecalling me and looking for my
services and I'm helping themout.
And then so what happened?
One day I was in on Alignable ata workshop and they had us
(12:04):
write down a bunch of everywherewe spent time, money or energy
in marketing or advertising.
So it's like, oh, half an houron Facebook, half an hour on
LinkedIn, half an hour onAlignable, half an hour on here,
you know, you know a hundredbucks on Google ads, whatever.
And I wrote all that down.
And then on the other side ofthe paper they're like write
down your last 10 clients andthen draw arrows where they came
from.
Well, two things went off.
(12:24):
One was I realized all myclients were coming from
Alignable.
So I'm like why am I wasting mytime on everywhere else?
I needed to dive headfirst intoAlignable, so.
But the other thing was, afterthat was over with, and I'm
sitting there looking at thatlist of 10 clients and I
realized they're all solopreneur, bookkeepers and tax preparers
and mental health professionalsthat work from home.
And I'm like I'm over herechasing around.
(12:47):
You know, luigi, the 55 yearold white guy in a muscle shirt
that owns an Italian restaurant.
And meanwhile I got all theseworking women, women working
from home, that are calling meup, that need me, and I'm like
I'm in the wrong spot, you know.
So once I went back and took acritical look at who my ideal
customer was, and not just youknow the industry, but you know
(13:09):
sex, religion, race, ethnicity,income level, you know, and draw
that little cartoon characterof them, you know kind of figure
out exactly who they reallyreally are.
Of them, you know kind offigure out exactly who they
really really are.
And once I did that I alsorealized at that same time,
looking at TV ads and a wholenew light, because I realized
(13:30):
all the big companies have beendoing this.
I mean, you haven't seen an oldwhite guy in a McDonald's ad in
40 years.
You know it doesn't mean Ican't get a cheeseburger, but
their target audience is young,mixed ethnicity, inner city mom
trying to raise a family on abudget, you know.
And all their ads look likethat.
They've all, you know all thepeople in their ads and it's
like.
So I kind of completely shiftedgears and started focusing more
(13:54):
on, you know women working fromhome that collect a lot of
information in the financialindustry and the healthcare
industry.
And once I actually made myselfavailable, phone started
ringing off the hook.
And about year three, it was astruggle of trying to fit in
exactly and get my brandawareness.
But once I got my messagingcorrect, the last two years were
just blown up.
(14:14):
I mean my, I met my sale, myannual sales goals last year.
I met him in June.
That's the nice problem to haveright in June where you're
looking around going wait, I, uh, I'm done for the year.
Okay, I got to make new goals,so, uh, but but I the story
behind that is you have to knowwho your audience really is.
(14:38):
I mean, down to that littleavatar I said in my case it's,
you know it's, it's, it's the.
You know a minority-based womanworking from home.
You know, uh, um, dealing withthe struggles of not being able
to get a hold of resources andthings like that, uh, to help
protect our customersinformation.
But once I figured out exactlywho it is, now you're like where
(15:01):
do they hang out?
Who else do they know?
And, most importantly, where dothey go to for advice?
Who's their mentor?
Because that working.
You know, in my case that waslike, okay, yoga instructors,
parenting groups, life coaches,things like that right, because
now those are the places I needto be hanging out, you know, and
the people I need to makefriends with.
(15:22):
Because if you want a referralpartner, you want the referral
partner that is giving advice toall the people that could be
your clients.
You know, and it's like so nowyou know, and once I did that
and started making because weall do like, I'm sure, a lot of
your, your, whether they do itat Alignable or other social
media networks.
But you know, mostentrepreneurs are doing some
(15:44):
kind of network, b&i Chamber orsomething.
You're going to these events,you're meeting all these people
and I guess my advice is beintentional Make sure that
you're not just meeting a bunchof random business owners in all
different industries.
You want to be in front of thegroup.
That's the ones you need to betalking to, the ones that are
all and I treat everybody.
I don't do, I don't do I guesswhat do you call it direct sales
(16:11):
at all?
I treat everybody like thereferral partner.
I talk to most of my clientsthe same way.
I'm talking to you.
I just tell them what I do andwho I do it for.
If they're interested, great.
If not, maybe they knowsomebody, whatever you know.
So that's kind of how myapproach to life has been.
I hate direct sales.
I hate salesmen that get you onthe phone and won't let you go
until you say yes, and all thisother stuff.
(16:33):
So I'm not doing that toanybody else.
Speaker 3 (16:36):
I think that's awesome.
I mean, there's so many thingsthat I think we really got to
dial back to for a second therethat you mentioned that are
fantastic.
Earlier on Juan, you mentionedabout decision making and making
sure you're prepared and nomatter what it is, it's just not
getting into a panic and havinga plan.
I think that's fantastic.
Another huge one is that youmentioned tracking and like we
will dial this hill.
(16:56):
We talk about this every singleepisode, with every person.
One of the reasons most peoplefail is because they're not
tracking.
And so you went even deeper andyou were talking about okay,
where are my leads coming from?
Oh, they're coming from thissource.
Okay, now that I know that,let's double down on that, like
you said.
And then further you said okay,well, they're all sharing this,
this same thing.
So let's create this avatar,right, let's find these people,
(17:18):
and then let's adjust ourmessaging to this, and I think
that is so good.
So, and then, obviously beingintentional with that messaging,
so can you go into that alittle more?
Meaning, you found these people, you have the people you're
targeting.
What are you saying?
And I don't mean specificallyfor your client, necessarily,
but what are you saying, whatare you trying to Explain to
them?
To get them to bite, because alot of people have a challenge.
(17:39):
Okay, I found the person that Iwant to talk to or sell to, or
whatever it may be, but now whatdo I say to them?
How do I actually move forward?
Speaker 4 (17:46):
Right, so that's an awesome question.
I've done it a couple of ways.
One is generic research goingto SBA's website and looking up
demographics of industries andwho does things like that.
But then also just talk to someof your clients or find the one
that you wish you had as aclient and talk to them and say
(18:06):
hey, you know why.
What do you think cybersecurity?
In my case, you know with cyber, you know.
So what do you thinkcybersecurity is?
What do you need?
What are your pain points?
And for me, I had a discussionwith a couple of my clients and
their biggest problem is theytry to get, they have to get
cybersecurity insurance.
It's it's mandatory to connect.
(18:28):
So if let me back up a step ifyou're doing payroll or filing
other taxes for other people notfor yourself, but like if
you're one of these companiesthat does payroll and taxes for
other companies you have toconnect to the IRS's database.
In order to do that, you haveto have cybersecurity insurance
and a few other things.
(18:48):
So these guys are all trying toget cybersecurity insurance.
Except if you can't proveyou're doing prevention, the
cybersecurity insurance isdoubling your rates or won't
give you a policy at all anyways, because they're not just going
to pay for all the stuff thatyou leave damage in your wake
because you're doing nothing toprevent it.
You know, so, kind of like withyour house, I mean, you call
(19:09):
State Farm and say, hey, I letmy kid play with matches, I
don't have smoke detectors.
Can I get house insurance?
And they're going to be like,oh no, you know.
So it's kind of one of thosethings you know and know, um,
and once I did that I justreally started listening to what
my clients were and then Ifound out what those pain points
were, and so now that's myadvertising messaging.
You know, you do you need help.
You know, uh, getting securityin place to meet your needs.
(19:31):
Your insurance rates, you know,uh, you're trying to get lower
rates on cyber insurance and yougotta.
You know, or you're a taxpreparer and you got all this.
You know the irs is asking youa million questions about what
do you do about this and that,and you don't even know what
they're talking about.
You know I'm the guy you needto call.
I can help you get the answers,you know.
So that's that's.
That's what I kind of shiftedwas I made my messaging kind of
(19:53):
very niche, specific to whatwhat those specific clients were
having problems with.
Speaker 2 (20:05):
This is so good.
This is so valuable.
Anybody that's listening pause,stop, rewind, play this whole
thing all the way back, becausethere's so many gems, so many
nuggets have just been dropped.
Talking about pain points,talking about targeting your
avatar, talking about even whatan avatar is and how you define
it.
Every company is going todefine an avatar a little bit
different.
This has been amazing thus far.
I just want to throw that outthere.
So talk an avatar a little bitdifferent.
This has been amazing thus far.
I just want to throw that outthere.
(20:26):
So talk to me a little bitabout um.
Choose words carefully here, ifyou, in terms of marketing and
outreach and pivoting, what doesit look like now?
We're five years in.
You've talked a little bitabout alignable, now to be able
to touch base and network, butwhat else are you doing?
Because we started with MainStreet and going down and trying
(20:48):
to figure out how to build anown pizza shop, but now COVID is
hopefully gone, you knowfingers crossed.
So now what does it look likefor you to be able to get that
same avatar?
Speaker 4 (20:58):
So for me, I think it's just becoming available.
So my, my whole marketingstrategy is this I guess to
parents is on shows like yoursand just kind of get myself in
front of more people.
And you know somebody, somebodyout there may be like Holy crap
, I need to talk to this guy.
I'm going to call Todd, youknow, or, or there may be, you
know, or maybe it's like oh, Iknow, I know somebody who needs
(21:19):
this, and I think that's kind ofkey is just my sister, who has
nothing to do with entrepreneursor any this kind of stuff.
Gave me some of the best adviceI ever got, and at the time she
told me it.
To me it didn't make any sense,but now, looking back at it, it
was dead on.
Nobody's buying cybersecurity.
(21:40):
They're buying me, they trustme, they're going to.
They don't even know what I do.
I mean, you know I'd go in andwork on your computer for 20
minutes and then leave and youhad no idea what I even did.
You know it's like, but sothey're buying me, they're
buying, they're, they're,they're, they're looking at me,
they're going.
Hey, this seems like a prettystraight up guy.
I trust him.
I'm just going to let him dealwith all this junk and he'll
(22:08):
tell anything.
I got to take care of and, andso once I kind of got that
attitude in there when Irealized I'm actually selling
myself and just being myself andpeople gravitate towards that
or not, you know, uh, and andthat was kind of the key, you
know you, you can't, you can'tsell to everybody, and that was
one of my big error when I firststarted out.
That was my.
You know who needs cybersecurity?
Everybody.
Everybody needs cyber security.
I can think of a use case forevery person on this planet or
why they need cybersecurity.
But you can't market like that.
(22:30):
It's like, you know, you can'tbe all things to everybody,
because then you're nothing tonobody.
You know kind of a thing, and Ithink especially for
solopreneurs and entrepreneurs.
You know smaller businesses.
I always tell people that mythe big box analogy right.
I always tell people the bigbox analogy right.
And you have to kind of twistthis around in your brain
(22:51):
loosely because we're not allselling products.
But you know I can't competewith Walmart.
If all you want is basicsomething in a box that's cheap
and easy, you're going to go toWalmart and get it.
You know I use great jelly as aperfect example, right easy,
you're going to go to Walmartand get it.
You know, I use grape jelly asa perfect example, right?
If you want a jar of jelly,you're never going to, I'm never
(23:12):
going to be able to make a jarof jelly cheaper than what they
could put on the shelf inWalmart.
But if you go to Walmart, allyou're getting is grape jelly,
right?
So if you want to make jelly fora living, you need to make the
rhubarb jelly with a hint oflime that you're never going to
find in Walmart, because nowthey got to come to you to get
it and you got to find thepeople who like that specific
kind of jelly and aren't worriedabout just buying a jar of
grape jelly, you know.
(23:34):
So it's knowing your audienceand knowing your little piece of
the world, and don't get caughtup in a rat race of trying to
reproduce economy of scale andmarket to, you know, the masses
with the generic stuff that theysell at the big box store,
cause you're never going to beatout that.
You know you don't.
You don't have the milliondollar a month ad budget that
(23:55):
Walmart has.
You're never going to beat them.
Speaker 3 (23:58):
I love that and you're diving so much into like
niching down and like findingthe thing that you're the best
at and becoming the face of it,or your company is becoming the
face of it and like being thego-to person for that, like you
said, and then not only from amarketing aspect, but then you
legitimately do become the bestof that, because that's all you
focus on and that's what givesyou the competitive advantage.
So I think that's so, so good.
Something that we struggledwith starting up is what exactly
(24:21):
do we focus on?
And most people do, like youmentioned.
We can make a use case, likeyou said, for anybody out there,
but what do we really helppeople with?
Okay, well, we don't want to doflips, that's not our bread and
butter.
We don't want to do this.
So we do multifamily only and,just like you said, okay, well,
I don't want to do these bigcorporations, I want to do a
solopreneurs and specificallyXYZ in that.
So I think that's awesome yeah.
Speaker 4 (24:42):
That's what happened with my.
You know, that was what I waskind of talking about, was?
You know?
I'm over here looking forrestaurant owners like Luigi,
and meanwhile my phone's ringingoff the hook and it's all these
women that have a very specificproblem.
The IRS won't renew theirwhatever, won't let them connect
because they can't prove theyhave this and this, and that was
a very specific thing.
And I'm like, oh, I know how tosolve that, Okay.
(25:03):
So now I just kind of and thentarget that area.
And you know, they go to alltheir friends, because anybody
going through that struggleknows other people going through
the same struggle, and once youhelp one of them, they go tell
all their friends, and nowyou've got 10 more clients.
Speaker 3 (25:21):
Love it, Ned.
I think he's ready.
What do you think?
Speaker 2 (25:23):
Oh, my goodness, I think so.
I think it's time.
This is good, this is exciting.
Speaker 3 (25:28):
All right, todd, here's what we're going to do.
So we're going to do the fireround, right?
And basically we're going toask you a couple questions.
We ask to every single guest.
You can answer succinctly, youcan answer at length.
Whatever you want to do, we'regoing to do our best to and to
not expand on what you're saying.
(25:49):
It usually doesn't work, butwe'll see what happens this time
.
So, with that being said, herewe go.
What separates top performingentrepreneurs from the rest of
the crowd?
Speaker 4 (25:57):
You're breaking up.
Say that again.
Speaker 3 (26:01):
Hey, we got to cut that music out, I think, and
then just put it in afterwards.
All right, let's try this again.
We'll edit that out.
What separates top performingentrepreneurs from the rest of
the crowd?
Speaker 4 (26:15):
Their ability to adapt.
Speaker 2 (26:20):
What is a daily habit that's contributed to your
success?
Speaker 4 (26:25):
Time management.
My calendar runs everything.
My wife's always asking me whatdo you want to what?
What do you do with this?
What do you?
I don't know.
Look at my calendar.
I just do whatever my calendarsays.
Speaker 3 (26:36):
Love that what is a piece of advice that you'd give
to yourself if you were startingagain?
Speaker 4 (26:45):
definitely learning more about finding my niche,
because I didn't find it untilyear three and if I'd have found
it in year one I'd be retiredby now.
No, no, it wouldn't be that bad, but uh, yeah, I definitely
wish I would have figured outthat whole thing with niching
down a couple of years beforethat what is your favorite
(27:05):
business book?
that is weird because I don'tactually have one.
I've had some experience with,like the Clifton Strengths and
the leadership things and Ireally like those, but I did
have a book.
Actually no, I do have ananswer for that.
(27:26):
My grandmother bought me a bookwhen I was 18, right when I was
coming in the Navy and lookingat what I was going to do.
I thought I was only going todo four years and not 20, but
and I was going to get out ofthe Navy and open my own
business and she bought me abook called Growing your
Business or something like that.
I don't know.
This is 40 years ago, so thetitle is probably, and I can't
(27:48):
even find the book anymore.
But it was about a guy who wasbasically talking about how to
get your business up and running, but it was high-level, generic
, but it was that kind ofplanted some seeds in my head of
, well, you could do anything ifyou just get a plan together.
Basically was what his pointwas.
As long as you just get a plantogether.
Basically was what his pointwas.
(28:09):
You know, as long as you got aplan and follow the plan you'll
get to where you're going.
Speaker 3 (28:11):
I like that really good.
Do you know the name of thatbook offhand?
Did you say that?
Speaker 4 (28:15):
I think it was like growing your business or
something like that okay, allright, sounds good.
Speaker 3 (28:20):
What is your favorite part of owning your business?
Speaker 4 (28:25):
flexibility.
So, uh, for time, I should saymore specifically uh, my
long-range goal for my lifewhich is actually kind of short
range because now it's only like10 years away instead of, like
you know, 100 or whatever, whenyou're a little bit, uh, I plan
on semi-retiring into afull-time rv life and, uh, you
(28:46):
know, if I have my way, in acouple of years we'll be having
this conversation and I will.
You'll be seeing the GrandCanyon out the window of a motor
home behind me.
Speaker 2 (28:54):
Oh, I love it, man.
I can't wait Moment thathappens.
Come on back, Cause you know,our house is your house.
Speaker 4 (29:02):
I'm already.
I'm working on it.
I got a truck and a trailer andI do a lot of traveling and I
sort of work a little bit hereand there while I'm doing it,
but as internet accessibility ismy enemy, so once I tackle that
beast and figure out how to getgood internet, I'm gone, if you
want that.
Speaker 3 (29:20):
Starlink.
It's coming, it's on its way.
Speaker 2 (29:24):
So what is something new that you've implemented into
your business that's helpeddrive your success?
Speaker 4 (29:32):
Something new.
I would say more training.
For me it's been cybersecuritytraining Everybody.
You know, statistically, 90% ofdata, over 90% of data breaches
, are caused by human error.
Okay, so you know.
(29:54):
You see, in Hollywood you'regetting hacked by some guy in a
hoodie in his mom's basementclacking away at a keyboard.
That's not how you're gettinghacked.
You're getting hacked becauseyou're clicking on some stupid
email that you shouldn't haveclicked on, that you shouldn't
have clicked on.
So that's what I focus on, Ithink, is teaching people how to
recognize these phishing emailsand quit clicking on stuff.
Speaker 3 (30:18):
Awesome, awesome, awesome.
You survived, so that wasawesome.
I really liked your answers.
I think that was incredible.
So look, as we wrap up here,I'd just love to recap this
whole thing.
So, one, it was good hearingyour initial thing, how you got
into this right, Like feelingthe pain, not having a solution
and creating one right, theentrepreneurial struggle,
(30:39):
finding people's info, yourdecision-making kind of going
through that, going throughtracking, reviewing the data,
finding your target audience,niching down, being intentional,
going through messaging so manygood things that we recapped.
So I have two final questionsfor you.
Number one where can peoplefind you?
Number two any final advice?
Speaker 4 (31:01):
So where can people find me?
My cybersecurity4bizcom withthe number four.
Uh, on my website I've got alot of useful information.
There's a short couple ofquestions, um and uh.
You could take some freeassessments, uh, kind of get an
(31:21):
idea of some of the questions.
I'd ask if we were talking andgive you an idea where you're,
because a lot of people thinkthat, oh, I got, I got Norton
antivirus, I'm good.
It was like, no, there's not.
There's a whole bunch more toit than that.
Oh, but that's, that's wherethey could find me and a bunch
of useful information.
Schedule a free consultationand we could chat and see if
it's a good fit or not.
(31:42):
And what was the second question, final advice, oh, oh, yeah,
yeah, yeah, final advice.
Final advice is you know forany solopreneur out there, just,
you know, we're not all expertsin everything, so you have to
know what it is you're good atand not be afraid to bring in
(32:02):
other people to do things.
You know whether you're hiringemployees or whether you're 1099
contractor or you get a goodcollaboration effort going or
something, but bring in peoplethat know what they're doing.
Don't don't, don't think thatjust because you're the best
plumber in the world.
That means you know how to dofinances, you know that's that
kind of thing, that's.
That's.
That's my biggest advice, Ithink because that's Because I
(32:24):
think that's why most businessesfail, because you become a sole
opener.
You got that hat on that saysI'm the chief financial officer,
I'm the chief technical officer, I'm the chief operating
officer, I'm the chief marketingofficer.
No, you can't be all thosethings at once.
You got to know yourlimitations.
Speaker 2 (32:42):
Oh my gosh, this is so good.
Oh, again, if you're listening,pause, rewind, play this back.
Nicole and I, we talk aboutthis all the time.
How, when we got into realestate, we thought it was a me,
me, me, I, I, I kind ofsituation.
And no, real estate is a teamsport, very similar to so many
different fields, forsolopreneurs and entrepreneurs
alike.
Don't feel like you have to wearevery single hat.
One of our favorite books, who,not how?
(33:05):
Dan Sullivan, right.
So make sure, make sure, makesure that you reach out, make
sure that you work together,Make sure that we collaborate.
We can go way faster, wayfarther when we work together as
a team.
But, with that being said,thank you all so much for tuning
in to this exciting episode ofForged in Fire.
We're looking forward to seeingyou all on the next one.
Todd, thank you so much forcoming through.
Our house is your house.
(33:26):
You're always welcome.
So soon as you get that RV, yougot the grand cannon behind you
.
Give us a call once you figureout the internet issues, we'll
have you right back on thanksfor tuning in to another episode
of forged in fire.
Speaker 1 (33:42):
If you enjoyed today's raw, unfiltered stories,
don't forget subscribe andleave us a review.
Your feedback helps us bringmore real-world insights to
entrepreneurs like you.
Be sure to join us next timefor even more lessons, struggles
and breakthroughs on the roadto success.
(34:03):
Keep forging ahead.
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