September 15, 2025 • 45 mins
Our guest today is James Brown, the CEO/Founder of Business Accelerator Institute and Perseverance Squared. With a background in law and business, James launched his first successful business in 1994 and later transitioned to coaching, where he has driven significant growth for over 350 business owners nationwide. He’s also the coauthor of the best-selling book Shift Happens and a recognized industry expert. Get ready for insights on strategic management, marketing, and building a thriving business.
James is the CEO/Founder of Business Accelerator Institute and Perseverance Squared where he is a business consultant with a strong background in law. He launched his first business in 1994 and rapidly expanded to multiple top-performing locations reaching $8M in annual revenue. In 2014, James transitioned to coaching, guiding over 350 business owners to significant growth through strategic management and marketing. As a fractional CEO/SLFU Program Manager at How To Manage a Small Law Firm, he launched Small Law Firm University, growing it to $3 million in revenue within a year, and developed a CMO program that generated an additional $2 million annually. With a Business degree from Lindenwood University and a JD from St. Louis University, James is a recognized industry expert and co-author of the best-selling book Shift Happens. He has earned numerous accolades for his legal expertise and business acumen.
CONTACT DETAILS
Email: jamesb@businessaccelerator.institute
Business: Business Accelerator Institute
Website: https://businessaccelerator.institute
Gift: https://businessaccelerator.institute/jmmb/
Social Media:
LinkedIN -https://www.linkedin.com/company/businessacceleratorinstitute
Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/businessacceleratorinstitute
Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/business.accelerator.institute/
Tiktok - https://www.tiktok.com/@business.accelera
Remember to SUBSCRIBE so you don't miss "Information That You Can Use." Share Just Minding My Business with your family, friends, and colleagues. Engage with us by leaving a review or comment. https://g.page/r/CVKSq-IsFaY9EBM/review Your support keeps this podcast going and growing.
Visit Just Minding My Business Media™ LLC at https://jmmbmediallc.com/ to learn how we can support you in getting more visibility on your products and services.
Google Review Link https://g.page/r/CVKSq-IsFaY9EBM/review
James is the CEO/Founder of Business Accelerator Institute and Perseverance Squared where he is a business consultant with a strong background in law. He launched his first business in 1994 and rapidly expanded to multiple top-performing locations reaching $8M in annual revenue. In 2014, James transitioned to coaching, guiding over 350 business owners to significant growth through strategic management and marketing. As a fractional CEO/SLFU Program Manager at How To Manage a Small Law Firm, he launched Small Law Firm University, growing it to $3 million in revenue within a year, and developed a CMO program that generated an additional $2 million annually. With a Business degree from Lindenwood University and a JD from St. Louis University, James is a recognized industry expert and co-author of the best-selling book Shift Happens. He has earned numerous accolades for his legal expertise and business acumen.
CONTACT DETAILS
Email: jamesb@businessaccelerator.institute
Business: Business Accelerator Institute
Website: https://businessaccelerator.institute
Gift: https://businessaccelerator.institute/jmmb/
Social Media:
LinkedIN -https://www.linkedin.com/company/businessacceleratorinstitute
Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/businessacceleratorinstitute
Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/business.accelerator.institute/
Tiktok - https://www.tiktok.com/@business.accelera
Remember to SUBSCRIBE so you don't miss "Information That You Can Use." Share Just Minding My Business with your family, friends, and colleagues. Engage with us by leaving a review or comment. https://g.page/r/CVKSq-IsFaY9EBM/review Your support keeps this podcast going and growing.
Visit Just Minding My Business Media™ LLC at https://jmmbmediallc.com/ to learn how we can support you in getting more visibility on your products and services.
Google Review Link https://g.page/r/CVKSq-IsFaY9EBM/review
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:02):
Welcome to Just Minded My Business Media LLC, where you
get information that you can use. I'm your host, Ida Crawford.
Speaker 2 (00:12):
But before we dive in, subscribe.
Speaker 3 (00:15):
To Just Minding My Business on YouTube.
Speaker 1 (00:18):
And wherever you get your podcasts shape Just Minded my
Business with your family, friends, and pile leaders. Engage with
us by leaving a review or comment. Your support keeps
this podcast going and growing. Visit our website at JMMB
mediac dot com to learn how we can support you
(00:42):
and get more visibility on.
Speaker 3 (00:44):
Your products and services.
Speaker 1 (00:46):
So grab a cent of paper and get ready for
information that you can use.
Speaker 4 (00:56):
Are you a woman owned business ready to amplify your
VOE and grow your business? Join assist as Circle Empowerment
Network and step into a community that truly supports you.
Boost your visibility with our SEO optimized platform and connect
in our vibrant LinkedIn group. Showcase your achievements in our
(01:17):
quarterly magazine and shine in live interviews. Want a broader platform,
Gain access to exclusive discounted opportunities to feature your brand
or insights on conversations that matter that airs on Roku
and fireTV. Join us on September seventeenth, twenty twenty five
at seven pm Eastern Time. To learn more about assist
(01:41):
us Circle Empowerment Network, visit our website at https colon
slash slash Asistcircle dot org. That's Asistascircle dot oorg. Click
on the What's going on tab and get registered.
Speaker 2 (01:58):
Welcome, Welcome, Welcome to just Mind in my Business.
Speaker 3 (02:02):
I hope you're having an amazing day.
Speaker 1 (02:05):
And our guest today is James Brown, who is the CEO,
founder of Business Accelerator Institute and Perseverance Squared. With the
background in law and business, James launched his first successful
business in nineteen ninety four and later transitioned to coaching,
(02:26):
where he has driven significant growth for over three hundred
and fifty business owners nationwide. He's also the co author
of the best selling book Shift Happens, and a recognized
industry expert get Ready for insights on strategic management, marketing,
and building a thriving business.
Speaker 5 (02:48):
Welcome, James, thank you so much Adah for having me today.
What an introduction?
Speaker 2 (02:53):
Yes, well you did you did it?
Speaker 5 (02:56):
Yeah? You know, I tend to not play all the
things that I that I've done. I know it's a
blessing just to be able to help other people.
Speaker 1 (03:07):
Yes, yes, and that's what we're here for to be,
to be a light flow of humanity.
Speaker 3 (03:14):
Yes, for sure. Wow, so let's jump right in.
Speaker 5 (03:19):
Okay, okay, you talk.
Speaker 1 (03:20):
About the seven essential parts of every throb in business.
You want to tell us what that is?
Speaker 5 (03:27):
Yeah, So you know, when I launched my first business,
it was my law firm. I went into consumer bankruptcy law,
mostly because my background was I worked at General Motors
on the assembly line through undergraduate in law school, and
I saw a lot of like bad stuff happen to
(03:48):
good people through no fault of their own. So I
sent out two hundred resumes when I graduated law school
and passed the bargazam and I got zero response us.
And in hindsight, I wouldn't have hired me either because
I had no legal experience. But what that did was
it forced me to jump into owning my own place,
(04:09):
and so I had no clue. I had no clue.
Alls I know is I wanted to help people, and
so let's just hang up my shingle and people will come.
And so everything was kind of jumbled together, right, trying
to get the revenue coming in. Do we need to
hire people? Do we have systems in place. All of
(04:31):
this stuff was just all jumbled together. And through that process,
through some difficult times and learning the hard way, I
figured out that my business had seven parts. Really. The
first is marketing. The second is sales. The third is
(04:54):
what I call the factory or how we're going to
deliver what it is as we sell. The fourth is
the people to run the factory. The fifth is your
physical plant and it could be virtual or it could
be a brick and mortar place. The sixth is money
and metrics. And the last and final piece of the
(05:18):
business is you the owner. Because without that piece, the
business doesn't exist. So when I started looking at that,
it's like, Okay, this tells a story, right of where
do I want to go as the owner? And when
I work with business owners, I always start with the
U part and what is it you're trying to accomplish
(05:41):
and how much revenue does the business need to generate
in order for you to be able to do that. Like,
one of the things that was really important to me
was buying back my time so that I could volunteer
with the Red Cross, and I've been on fifteen deployments
the Red Cross Hurricanes wildfires, tornadoes, and when they call you,
(06:06):
it literally is like a military deployment. They'll call and say, Hey,
can you go to Florida for hurricane Yes? I can, Okay,
you have to leave in twenty four hours. Wow, there's
an eight hundred number to call where you can get
your air ticket and all that stuff. But I had
to have my business in a place where it could
(06:26):
run without me, right, And so I would be gone
for thirty thirty five days at a time, and the
business didn't miss a beat. And because my factory was
well thought out and the systems and procedures, and then
I had the people plugged in to run the factory,
and if anybody was ever not there, there was a
(06:48):
backup person that knew how to do that job. So
they just stepped in their shoes and did it, so
it didn't involve me.
Speaker 6 (06:55):
Right.
Speaker 5 (06:55):
So, as I kind of figured out that the business
has seven parts. If I start with the gross revenue
that I need to run my business, the next thing
I want to do is how do I tell my
sales team how many sales we need? Right? So the
first thing is what is my average sale value? So
(07:17):
if I want to build a million dollar firm, and
my average sale value is five thousand dollars, then I
need two hundred sales. All right, I just told my
sales team exactly what they need to do. Now, how
do I tell the marketing part of my business how
many leads to generate? And so you can just reverse
(07:38):
engineer that based on conversion rates and things like that
and figure out, Okay, if I want to get two
hundred clients next year, two hundred sales, I need eight
hundred customers coming in potential customers. In order to get
eight hundred potential customers, I need fifteen hundred leads, So
(08:01):
where are they going to come from? So now I'm
building out the marketing section of my plan. Then it's like, okay,
if I go from one hundred sales this year to
two hundred next year, is my factory going to break?
Do I have the systems, the software, the technology, or
(08:24):
do I need to upgrade some things? And does the
capacity of my current team can they take on another
one hundred sales a year? Maybe not? Well, then who
do I need to hire and when? So now I'm
building out the people section of my plan. So and
then I started comparing this to other businesses and all
(08:47):
the other businesses have the same seven parts. The only
thing that's different is what we set right. And when
you look at it that way and you put together
a business plan that addresses all seven parts of the business,
it tells a story of exactly what you're going to
do and when in order to achieve this goal. And
(09:11):
to me, now you have something that you can pull
out every month and then look at your actual data
and compare it against your projected plan data and then
make adjustments. Are we on track or are we not
on track? Are we ahead of it? If we're ahead
of it, hey, let's adjust our goal. If we're behind,
(09:33):
what adjustments do we need to do to get there?
Speaker 2 (09:36):
Right?
Speaker 5 (09:37):
And so when you look at it that way as
a business owner, it takes a lot of the overwhelm.
A way of running the business. The concept of running
a business, a successful, profitable business is simple. Okay, nobody
said it's going to be easy. That's two different concepts.
Speaker 3 (09:58):
Yes, when you.
Speaker 5 (10:00):
Follow the seven parts and you see how they all
play together, the concept is simple.
Speaker 3 (10:07):
Yes, And so that's kind of a.
Speaker 5 (10:09):
Cornerstone of everything that I do when I work with
business owners now, and I.
Speaker 1 (10:15):
Like how you brought all that together, and that's exactly
what it is.
Speaker 5 (10:22):
It is, you know. And for me, a lot of
times where business owners get in trouble is we're great technicians.
We're really good at what we do. Okay, so we
think we have this thought, oh, I can just go
start my own business and I'll make a lot more money, right,
But we're stuck in technician mode and most of us
(10:42):
have not been trained to manage people to be an entrepreneur,
and how to drive in new business, how to set
up systems, or how to read financials so you understand
the data and you're making decisions based on data. We
haven't been trained in anything like that. When I went
to law school, they didn't give me any training on
how to start a law firm. I had to figure
(11:04):
it out right. And most business owners are that way.
So where they get caught in a trap is they're
working forty fifty hours for this person and they're like, man,
I could go start my own place and make more money,
and then they find themselves trading that job for a
seventy to eighty hour week business that's tied to them
(11:29):
twenty four to seven and they're not making any money
to show for it. So it's like, why did we
even do this?
Speaker 1 (11:38):
Right?
Speaker 5 (11:38):
And what I want people to know is there's a
different way. There's a different way to do it. It's
just we don't know what we don't know. And until
you start learning other possibilities and testing them in your business,
all of a sudden you have these light bulb moments, right,
and it just is like, oh my gosh, I didn't
(11:59):
even think about it this way, you know. And so
that's what I try to empower business owners to do
is really think in terms differently of the business and
how it all plays together.
Speaker 2 (12:13):
Yes, because it's a lot to take on a business.
Speaker 1 (12:16):
It's more than an idea, it's more than a passion.
Speaker 2 (12:20):
Of course, all of that is involved.
Speaker 1 (12:23):
But the logistics of it can be overwhelming if you
don't have.
Speaker 3 (12:31):
If you don't know what to do.
Speaker 5 (12:32):
Yeah, yeah, you know. And we get caught also in
the trap of making decisions based on emotion in our business,
like we don't have the data at our fingertips, so
then we're shooting from the hip and we're like, well,
my gut feeling is we should do this, And that's
ultimately how you make a lot of really expensive, either
(12:57):
in terms of money or time mistakes in your business
because we don't have the data to look for. An
example of this is I had an attorney that worked
for me and he wasn't getting his work done. He
was like three or four days behind everybody else's current.
And I went in and I asked him and I said,
what's going on? Why are you behind? He said, well,
(13:19):
I'm constantly on the phone, incoming outgoing calls. I can't
get to my work. Naive me had an emotional decision,
so I walked across to my office manager and I said,
let's put an ad out for another attorney. And this
is an eighty thousand dollars a year decision, right. So
(13:40):
she looked at me and she said why. I said,
because Joe can't keep up with his work because he's
always on the phone. And then she just sat there
and she said, did you look at the phone records?
And I was just silent. I'm like no, And she said,
don't you think you should? And I'm like, yes, ma'am.
(14:02):
You know. And so I went and looked at the
phone records, and the day before, incoming and outgoing calls,
he was on the phone for five minutes and thirty seconds.
I went back three weeks and it was never more
than seven minutes a day.
Speaker 2 (14:17):
Oh, so he rights not doing.
Speaker 5 (14:20):
Yes, And so I almost based on gut feeling or emotion,
pulled the trigger on an eighty thousand dollars year employee,
which would reduce my profits as a business owner because
I didn't I didn't know the data right, right, So
we always when we can get in a position where
we're making decisions based on data, you will avoid a
(14:44):
lot of headaches, a lot of wasted money, a lot
of wasted time in growing your business.
Speaker 1 (14:51):
Yes, yes, you definitely have to look at the data to.
Speaker 3 (14:56):
See what you need.
Speaker 5 (14:57):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (14:58):
And it's like it's so Tim was fixing a meal.
You can't just say you're going to fix a meal.
Speaker 2 (15:05):
And number one, you don't know what you're going to fix.
Speaker 1 (15:09):
Number two, you don't know the ingredients that you're going
to need to prepare it. So when you think about
it in blaming terms, it makes sense. Well, a lot
of times people go into businesses and they don't think
that way about.
Speaker 5 (15:26):
It, right, right, And you know, for me, I take
the business owner as I find them because a lot
of times I find that they just don't know. I
had a business owner that just started working with me
in the last two weeks and I do a first
initial call to kind of deep dive into the business,
(15:47):
and I said, Okay, how much is your revenue so
far a year to date? And he said, well, I
don't have my books yet, all right, So that was
little red flag number one. I'm like, okay, fine, how
much was your revenue in twenty twenty four. I don't
have that done yet either. Oh wow, how about twenty
twenty three? I don't have that either, right, I said,
(16:13):
how much is your payroll ratio to your revenue? He said,
I have no clue. I said, okay, we're going to
stop right here because I don't want you to feel
like you're being judged. I'm literally asking you questions that you,
as the owner should have your fingers right on that information.
Since you don't, we're going to start putting things in
place going forward, and that's never going to happen again. Right.
(16:36):
But that's how bad sometimes it is. He just didn't
know what he didn't know, and he's trying to run
it on his own, and he's not not keeping up
with this stuff.
Speaker 1 (16:46):
Yeah, and that's one of the drawbacks of being a solopreneur.
You know, you wear a lot of hats. You know,
you're delivering a product, you're getting a product, and you
know you don't get you don't have enough time to
do all this su stuff. Well, you haven't made time,
(17:07):
even though it's really.
Speaker 3 (17:08):
Important for you to know all of that.
Speaker 1 (17:11):
So that's I mean, so how do you get that
solopreneur that is weighing all these heads to focus on
these things.
Speaker 5 (17:22):
It's a very good question. Ida the actual amount of
time I spend on the seven parts of the business,
I would say seventy five to eighty percent of it
is you and it's the mindset that they have. It's
walking them through some examples like I just did with
(17:45):
that attorney that wasn't getting his work done, you know,
And I said, if I would have added eighty thousand
dollars to my payroll, my payroll ratio would have been
much higher than it needed to be, which is normally
between thirty three and forty three percent. Right. If it's
higher than that, then you're losing money. So when I
walk them through some examples like that, and I put
(18:06):
myself in their shoes, because I literally will tell people
I've made more mistakes in business than you've even thought of, right,
And so I want you to run these things by
me so that I can say, hey, look, I've been
through that already, and here's what you want to avoid. Right.
So it's getting them to think differently. And the hard
(18:30):
part about that is, ida is when they have limiting beliefs, right,
limiting beliefs based on a certain experience, or they heard
about somebody else having an experience, so they automatically in
their mind adopt that position. Oh, I said, okay, well,
(18:52):
have we tried pay per click? Oh, pay per click
doesn't work. I've done that before. A colleague of mine
tried paper click. It didn't work. So they're dismissive. And
then I'll walk them through what exactly did you do? Yes?
And what was the click through rate? And I asked
them about the data, and they don't know the answers.
(19:14):
They just know that they did. And I said, how, okay,
so how do you judge that it wasn't successful? They said, well,
I didn't make any money off of it. I'm like, okay,
but does that mean your marketing wasn't working or maybe
your intake wasn't handling the appointments and not getting them
to set an appointment, and then they weren't showing up,
(19:35):
or maybe your salesperson sucks and so you're not making
any money. And I literally had a business owner who
I got on the phone with her one day and
she said, I'm right off the bat. She was really energetic,
and she said, I'm canceling paper Click, and I knew
(19:56):
right then it's an emotional decision. I said, okay, walk
me through why. And she said, I spent five thousand
dollars last month on pay per Click and I didn't
get a single dollar from it, so I'm canceling it.
I said, let's walk through the numbers, and I said,
how many impressions did you get? And she said ten
thousand something impressions I don't remember. And then I said, okay,
(20:18):
how many clicks? She said seven hundred and eighty two.
So immediately I'm thinking that's almost an eight percent click
through rate. The average click through rate for pay per
click is like two point nine percent, so that tells
me the ad is working right now, the click goes
(20:40):
to a landing page, right the average landing page converts
ten percent. So I said, out of the seven hundred
and eighty two people that hit your landing page, how
many of those called your business? She said one hundred
and fifteen. Wow, I'm like, that's fourteen point nine percent.
(21:00):
So that's enough to tell me the marketing is successful.
It delivered the right person, in the right frame of
mind at the right time to her doorstep. I said,
out of the one hundred and fifteen phone calls, how
many appointments were set? She said four and two of
them didn't show up and the other two they didn't
(21:20):
hire us. So I'm canceling paper click. I'm like, you
don't have a paper click problem, you have an intake problem,
right right. So the ROI that we make on our
advertising spend, there's a lot of moving parts, and when
we don't know that data or we're not looking at it,
we make an emotional decision just to cancel it, and
(21:42):
then we have a limiting belief that it doesn't work
right right, So overcoming those I have to give them
other examples of how it can work, or what if
we tried this? Are you willing to do that? And
we can do a split test? Yeah, I can do
that I had one where his landing page was converting
(22:05):
at seven percent, so the average is ten. So I said,
let's take the navigation options off the top so that
they can't leak off of this landing page, and let's
test one without. And he was reluctant to do it,
and then we put it out there, and within two
weeks the new landing page was converting thirty nine percent. Wow.
(22:27):
And now all of a sudden, he's like, crap, why
didn't I do that earlier? I said, because you had
a limiting belief, right, So I have to find ways
to get them to overcome limiting beliefs. And a lot
of times it's also terror barriers. Yes, you know, as
human beings, we get very anxious when we're about to
(22:49):
face something we've never done before. Yes, And that's the
that's the side of the brain that's designed to keep
us safe and comfortable. Right. So I've had I have
business owners who keep hitting a certain revenue three hundred thousand,
four hundred thousand, three hundred thousand, but they want to
make a million dollars, but they can't seem to break
(23:09):
through it. And when I start talking to them about it,
there's something in their childhood where they're almost embarrassed if
they're too successful because their siblings all make twenty dollars
an hour and they don't want to be perceived as
a snob, and so they fear taking the next step.
(23:31):
And it's total illusion. Right. Even after twenty years in
representing eighty thousand people in bankruptcy cases, every time I
would go to federal court, I would get sick to
my stomach and I'd have to go throw up. And
in my mind, I was thinking, all my colleagues are
going to think I'm stupid when I get up there. Right,
(23:54):
I was told my whole life that I won't accomplish anything,
and so that's stuck, right. Our subconscious mind is developed
before we're seven years old, yes, and so when I
was told you can't do this, you can't do this,
you're not good enough for that, that's I was fifty
years old and I'm going into court, and that's in
(24:15):
my mind. But then I had to step back and
I said, wait a second, when's the last time I've
ever lost an argument? And I couldn't remember it. Honest
to god, I couldn't remember it. So the facts were different.
The illusion I said this is bull, and then I
just forge your head, right, And so you have to
(24:37):
break through those terror barriers because most of the time
it's just an illusion.
Speaker 1 (24:42):
Yes, absolutely, absolutely, And I think we've all had those
talks with ourselves like that.
Speaker 5 (24:49):
Absolutely.
Speaker 1 (24:51):
You know, whether it was at your home or teacher
or even on a job, somebody says something to.
Speaker 3 (24:59):
You that just altered the way you thought about yourself.
Speaker 1 (25:03):
Yeah, yeah, it was not which was not true and
never was true.
Speaker 5 (25:10):
No, but you adopted it as true. Yes, you know,
and now you have this subconscious belief throughout your whole
life that that is true. As successful as I am
right now, and it's hard for me to even say that, right,
But my law firm I built to about eight million
(25:32):
dollars a year, and then I sold it and I
went into working with business owners and I've helped over
four hundred and fifty business owners do exactly what I did.
And I still to this day think why am I
worthy to do this? I'm not any different than anybody else,
you know, but that's my subconscious mind.
Speaker 3 (25:54):
Yes, yes, wow, James. So if people want to work
with you, how do they do so?
Speaker 5 (26:00):
Yeah? So the best way we built a landing page
just for your listeners. It's called Business Accelerator dot Institute,
so not dot com, it's dot institute, forward slash, mmb okay,
and they can find out information about Business Accelerator, you know.
(26:25):
They can reach out to me through there. You can
find us on LinkedIn and I answer all the messages
on LinkedIn, you know. And so anybody who wants to
find out more, you know, please reach out. Don't try
to struggle yourself and figure things out, because I can
tell you that's the long road, and it's one of
(26:47):
the reasons why most businesses will ultimately fail or take.
Speaker 3 (26:52):
Forever to see you revenue.
Speaker 5 (26:55):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (26:56):
Absolutely, Wow, that's amazing, and everything is you have to
work from the inside out, you know, you do every day.
Speaker 3 (27:07):
It's a struggle.
Speaker 5 (27:09):
And when I when I work with business owners, before
I even get into their financial goals, I talk to
them about what's your personal and professional goals? Right? What
are you going to do to improve your mindset in
order to become a three million, five million, ten million
(27:30):
dollar business owner? How do you start thinking like the
owner of a ten million dollar business? Now?
Speaker 4 (27:38):
What?
Speaker 5 (27:38):
And so we work on that a lot before we
ever get into the financials because if you, if most people,
if you don't grow personally and professionally, you'll never grow financially.
Speaker 3 (27:51):
Right, So connected, yeah, all connected?
Speaker 1 (27:56):
So how do how do a person, uh, how does
the business own to get into your program?
Speaker 5 (28:02):
So we have several different ways. Right now, I have
one on one clients that I work with. I do
a handful of those where I'm doing three calls a
month with them and so we're putting their business plan together,
We're putting their marketing plan together, their budget, and then
(28:22):
every month we're tracking their data and we're looking at
their financials and we're making adjustments, and that's what those
calls are doing. I have Mastermind groups, so some people
will get involved in a one to many type situation.
So four times a year, I have Mastermind meetings that
people come in ones next week and that's another way
(28:45):
to get involved. And then Business Accelerator Institute. What I'm
trying to do there is more of the one to
many because I can't work with everybody right right, So
I'm developing a think of a Harvard Business School catalog
of courses, and there's going to be level one hundred,
(29:08):
Level two hundred, Level three, hundred four hundred graduate level,
and at each level there's going to be courses on
all seven parts of the business, and we're setting them
up as four week courses, so that's going to be
on a very low entry price of like two forty
nine a month, and you have access to all of
(29:30):
those courses. The first course that you'll go through is
called five Weeks to Launch, Crafting your Winning Business Plan,
and it'll show you how to walk through those seven
parts of the business and have a plan put together
so that you can really launch your business and get
up to a good start. Then as you stay in
(29:50):
the courses, you know, maybe you're getting ready to hire,
so you can go to hiring and staffing or you know,
or compensation models course things like that. So that's what
I'm we're doing now with Business Accelerator Institute is really
building out the online education.
Speaker 1 (30:09):
As awesome, James, because a lot of businesses need all
of it, Yes, all of that, and I mean and
they may have even been.
Speaker 2 (30:18):
In business for a while, yeah and still needed.
Speaker 5 (30:22):
Yeah. And anybody who comes in through you know, Business
Accelerator Institute, you'll have access to a weekly open office hours,
So every Wednesday morning from eight to ten am. I
open my zoom room, and anybody who wants to jump
in there and ask questions can ask questions, right, And
(30:43):
it's first come, first serve, So even though you're going
through the courses, you'll be able to come and say, hey,
I'm not sure I understand this concept, right? Can you
walk me through it? And so we give them access
to that kind of thing so that we make sure
they're progressing forward.
Speaker 3 (31:00):
Yes, yes, wow, So five weeks.
Speaker 5 (31:04):
To launch, five weeks to launch? Yep.
Speaker 3 (31:08):
I heard you talk a.
Speaker 1 (31:09):
Lot about a winning business plan, so I'm sure it
could consist of the seven pillars. Yes, okay, but as
we all know, business plans are I call them.
Speaker 3 (31:23):
Living documents, correct.
Speaker 1 (31:26):
Because you start one place and then you end up
another place.
Speaker 3 (31:32):
Yeah, so what does that look like with your students?
Speaker 2 (31:36):
How do you understand that concept?
Speaker 5 (31:40):
And that's why we want to have regular check ins, right,
because where people if they put it together a business plan,
a lot of people are doing it just because they
think they have to, or they're presenting it to a
bank for some seed money, right, and then they take
it and they put it in a drawer and they
never look at it. Okay, and so this is a living,
(32:04):
breathing business plan. And every month, Like I just got
off the call with somebody who our goal revenue for
June is two hundred and fifty seven thousand based on
our business plan, She's at two hundred and sixteen thousand
right now. We're only we're only halfway through the month, right,
(32:27):
so we're on pace, we're ahead of pace. So my
conversation with her is, let's not get comfortable, right, Let's
keep let's look at analyze what we did right and
what cause, and now let's repeat it in July.
Speaker 2 (32:41):
Right.
Speaker 5 (32:41):
And then I do the same thing with people. If
they have a two hundred and fifty seven thousand dollars
goal for this month and they're only at one hundred
right now, then I'm like, where are we falling short?
Is it sales? Is it not setting appointments, not not
being able to close the sale? Are we collecting the
(33:02):
money from people? Or is our leads down? And if
our leads are down, from what source? And then let's
make adjustments there. So the key to a successful business
plan is regularly measuring actual data versus your projections and
(33:23):
then making adjustments every month. Yeah, and by doing that
you will drastically reduce the chances that you don't end
up at least close to where you wanted to be. Yeah.
Speaker 3 (33:37):
Absolutely, got to keep looking at the data.
Speaker 5 (33:40):
Yes.
Speaker 3 (33:40):
Sure, Now let's talk a little.
Speaker 1 (33:42):
Bit about your best selling book, Shift Happens. Yes, tell
us about that and what people can take away from that.
Speaker 5 (33:51):
Yeah. So that was a book that I was approached
with back in the early right at the end of
right at two thousand and eight, two thousand and nine,
my firm was at its peak. I had offices in
four different states, and the economy was going in the
(34:11):
wrong direction, and it was the housing mortgage bubble burst
at that time. So there was this big shift in
the economy. So the company that wanted this book, they
reached out to several experts that were seeing shifts in
the economy to write about it and what to do.
And so I wrote a chapter in that book about
(34:36):
business owners and when you see a shift in the economy,
things that you should be doing or things you should
be looking out for. And let's say, establishing multiple sources
of revenue instead of just one. Right, and the worst
number in business is one. And the kind of technical
(35:00):
name for that is concentration risk. So if I have
I just looked at somebody's data earlier today and seventy
eight percent of their leads are coming from one source,
and I'm like, we need to diversify that, right, because
if Google ever changes their algorithms like they always do,
and all of a sudden you stop getting leads, You're
(35:21):
going to go bankrupt really quick. You know, if you
have one staff member who's a key staff member, but
nothing's documented and it's all in their head. They've been
with me ten years, I'm good, and then they quit
or God forbid they pass away, We're screwed, right, because
(35:43):
we don't have we have concentration risk. So the goal
of that book was to help business owners identify when
shifts are going to happen that can affect their business
and how to insulate them from that.
Speaker 3 (36:05):
And it's just common sense. I mean, you have to
do that in your home.
Speaker 5 (36:12):
Well, and I think, what the reason it happens? And
it happened to me too, And you know, I only
did consumer bankruptcy cases, no other type of cases. And
in two thousand and five they revamped the federal bankruptcy
laws and it was the first time they changed the
laws in twenty years and they developed this means test
(36:34):
and you had to pass a means test before you
could file a bankruptcy and so there was all this
media attention about it on how you could no longer
file bankruptcy. And I didn't make any changes. Right in
two thousand and six, I lost sixty percent of my business,
you know, and so I struggled. It was the first
(36:55):
time I had to lay some people off and then
I had to add another practice area, right when I
should have done it proactively because they have been talking
about the changes for a couple of years. Yes, right, well,
I didn't do it. So we get stuck in those
situations where we find ourselves that, uh oh, we get comfortable, right,
(37:20):
things are working very well, I don't have to do
much and then boom, something changes.
Speaker 1 (37:25):
Yes, and you always have to stay educated as well,
you know, forecasting and things like that. Always because I'm
in the tech field, so I've always got to say
what's coming, what's happening right now, what could change to
change the landscape of different things.
Speaker 3 (37:47):
So for me that's just in my DNA.
Speaker 1 (37:52):
Yeah, because of the field that I am in. But yeah,
it's easy to get stuck, especially when you're doing right.
Speaker 5 (38:01):
Yep, because you haven't. And that was the one time
in my career where I got caught by it. My
wife has always told me, she's like, you always have
this knack for knowing when something is going to change,
and you do something else just to make sure that
it's not going to affect us. I'm like, yeah, but
I got caught with my pants down on that one. Yeah.
Speaker 6 (38:24):
But I was comfortable, yes, And that's what comfort does,
you don't you in the back of your mind you
know it can change, yes, but at the moment, you
enjoying the comfort you are.
Speaker 5 (38:40):
And I find that too when business owners have too
much cash coming in right. I have one business owner
right now that you know. The cash balance in his
bank account is like two point nine million, and his
to run his business is about seventy five thousand a month.
Speaker 6 (39:00):
Wow.
Speaker 5 (39:01):
And I'm like, you're you're what's going to happen is
you're going to stop making the decisions you need to make, Yeah,
because that money is sitting there and you don't have
to worry about it. And that's exactly what happened with
him as he stopped making decisions. So when I see
something like that, I literally will force them to take
a distribution, right, get that money out of there. Have
(39:25):
one and a half to two times your monthly expenses
in there, but sometimes three. But for the most part,
if you've got ten fifteen times in there, you're not
going to make the decisions with the urgency that you
need to make to keep your business moving forward.
Speaker 3 (39:42):
Wow. And that's that's true, James, it is, it's right.
Speaker 1 (39:47):
Just it's funny how you know you need at one
end of the spectrum or another end of the spectrum.
Speaker 5 (39:55):
Yes, yeah, And we don't really until we're too far
to the other end of the spectrum, and now all
of a sudden, where you are grasping at straws trying
to get back to break even.
Speaker 3 (40:10):
Yes, you know, so you always got to be on
the lookout. Yes, I always got to look out.
Speaker 2 (40:18):
Wow, Jay, this was very very very good and very deep.
Speaker 1 (40:23):
You know, this is the kind of conversation that you
have to look inside.
Speaker 5 (40:29):
M h.
Speaker 1 (40:31):
And I love those because it definitely solidifies what I'm
doing or it makes me think, what about what I
need to do?
Speaker 5 (40:43):
Yeah, yeah, you know. And that's the thing I learned
a while back that I love helping people. So when
we first started it with me and my wife, and
we're helping about two to three clients a week, and
then all of a sudden, I changed my marketing and
the first week I ran the new marketing, we signed
(41:04):
sixty eight clients and I had to hire people. Right now,
I can help that many. Then I opened an office
in Detroit, and I can help this many more, and
then in Kansas City and this many more. And then
when I sold my firm, what I realized is I
like building businesses. The practice of law was just a
vehicle to get there, right, So when I sold it,
(41:26):
and I've gone into working with over four hundred and
fifty businesses helping them help more people. And so that's
where you know, I get my joy is seeing people
have those light bulb moments so that they can help
more people.
Speaker 3 (41:43):
Yes, that's a blessing. Yeah, so I thank you for
all that you do. And again, how can our audience
connect with you?
Speaker 2 (41:52):
Yeah?
Speaker 5 (41:53):
So the easiest way is go to Business Accelerator dot
institute and there's a four forward slash. Oh it looks
like it's j MMB, so I said MMB earlier. So
it's just minding my business just the first letter of
each word JMMB. Yeah, and then that'll take them to
(42:13):
a landing page we've built out just for your listeners
and they can find out more. They can set up
a free discovery call with me. There's a free download
top ten mistakes that you're probably making in your business
that they can get that there, and then they can
find out more about the offerings through Business Accelerator Institute.
Speaker 2 (42:35):
Well, I thank you, James.
Speaker 1 (42:38):
You're welcome a less in the audience because I'm definitely
going to jump over there and get my goody all right,
do that, and I hope everybody else does the same,
because we can never be too smart.
Speaker 5 (42:52):
Yes, you know I've been doing. I'm at level sixty
now and I never say I'm sixty years old, as
I am at level sixty. And whenever you hit a
new level, you still have to learn how to get
through that level.
Speaker 3 (43:06):
Yes.
Speaker 5 (43:06):
So we never will stop learning.
Speaker 3 (43:09):
Never.
Speaker 5 (43:11):
Yeah. And so anything that I can find or look
at or compare my business to another business and take
something from them, and how do I implement that in
my business. I'm constantly looking for ways to learn.
Speaker 1 (43:27):
Yes, I love learning. Yes, And one of the things
about doing what I do. I always learned something.
Speaker 2 (43:36):
Always it just makes you feel empowered.
Speaker 5 (43:41):
Well, and here's the thing, ida is I learned not
to label anything. Right. There was times where I had
payroll due on a Friday, it was fifteen thousand dollars
and I look at my bank account on Wednesday and
there was a thousand bucks in there. And I first started.
When I first was doing that, I was like, oh
(44:03):
my gosh, this is horrible. I don't have the money.
How am I going to do this? I have no
way to get the money. And when that happens, you
start blinding yourself to opportunities. Yes, but it doesn't change
the facts. Right. So even if I try something, I
have an expectation of what I want it to produce.
(44:26):
But if it doesn't do that, that's also a learning opportunity. Yes,
why didn't it produce what I thought it was going
to produce? And what could we do differently to change
that outcome? Right? So, when you look at learning, even
if a lot of people will be paralyzed on attempting
something because they're afraid they will fail, there is no failure.
(44:49):
There's just an opportunity to learn how not to do
it the.
Speaker 3 (44:52):
Next time, right, exactly, you know, so it.
Speaker 5 (44:56):
Takes all the pressure off of learning.
Speaker 1 (44:59):
Yes, absolutely, well, James, this has been amazing. I really
appreciate you, and we are definitely going to have to
do this again because I think you know, when you're
working from the inside out, it's never ever a one
and done ever. I agree, it's consistent work, daily work,
(45:23):
daily putting the right things into your brain.
Speaker 3 (45:28):
So you're definitely coming back. I say that.
Speaker 5 (45:31):
Okay, awesome, Yeah, just reach out. I'll come back anytime.
Speaker 3 (45:35):
Okay.
Speaker 1 (45:35):
Thank you so much, James, and thank you so much, audience.
Thank you to our guests and you our values.
Speaker 3 (45:47):
Audience. Let's stop you by. We truly appreciate you. Many
blessings to you and yours.
Welcome to Just Minded My Business Media LLC, where you
get information that you can use. I'm your host, Ida Crawford.
Speaker 2 (00:12):
But before we dive in, subscribe.
Speaker 3 (00:15):
To Just Minding My Business on YouTube.
Speaker 1 (00:18):
And wherever you get your podcasts shape Just Minded my
Business with your family, friends, and pile leaders. Engage with
us by leaving a review or comment. Your support keeps
this podcast going and growing. Visit our website at JMMB
mediac dot com to learn how we can support you
(00:42):
and get more visibility on.
Speaker 3 (00:44):
Your products and services.
Speaker 1 (00:46):
So grab a cent of paper and get ready for
information that you can use.
Speaker 4 (00:56):
Are you a woman owned business ready to amplify your
VOE and grow your business? Join assist as Circle Empowerment
Network and step into a community that truly supports you.
Boost your visibility with our SEO optimized platform and connect
in our vibrant LinkedIn group. Showcase your achievements in our
(01:17):
quarterly magazine and shine in live interviews. Want a broader platform,
Gain access to exclusive discounted opportunities to feature your brand
or insights on conversations that matter that airs on Roku
and fireTV. Join us on September seventeenth, twenty twenty five
at seven pm Eastern Time. To learn more about assist
(01:41):
us Circle Empowerment Network, visit our website at https colon
slash slash Asistcircle dot org. That's Asistascircle dot oorg. Click
on the What's going on tab and get registered.
Speaker 2 (01:58):
Welcome, Welcome, Welcome to just Mind in my Business.
Speaker 3 (02:02):
I hope you're having an amazing day.
Speaker 1 (02:05):
And our guest today is James Brown, who is the CEO,
founder of Business Accelerator Institute and Perseverance Squared. With the
background in law and business, James launched his first successful
business in nineteen ninety four and later transitioned to coaching,
(02:26):
where he has driven significant growth for over three hundred
and fifty business owners nationwide. He's also the co author
of the best selling book Shift Happens, and a recognized
industry expert get Ready for insights on strategic management, marketing,
and building a thriving business.
Speaker 5 (02:48):
Welcome, James, thank you so much Adah for having me today.
What an introduction?
Speaker 2 (02:53):
Yes, well you did you did it?
Speaker 5 (02:56):
Yeah? You know, I tend to not play all the
things that I that I've done. I know it's a
blessing just to be able to help other people.
Speaker 1 (03:07):
Yes, yes, and that's what we're here for to be,
to be a light flow of humanity.
Speaker 3 (03:14):
Yes, for sure. Wow, so let's jump right in.
Speaker 5 (03:19):
Okay, okay, you talk.
Speaker 1 (03:20):
About the seven essential parts of every throb in business.
You want to tell us what that is?
Speaker 5 (03:27):
Yeah, So you know, when I launched my first business,
it was my law firm. I went into consumer bankruptcy law,
mostly because my background was I worked at General Motors
on the assembly line through undergraduate in law school, and
I saw a lot of like bad stuff happen to
(03:48):
good people through no fault of their own. So I
sent out two hundred resumes when I graduated law school
and passed the bargazam and I got zero response us.
And in hindsight, I wouldn't have hired me either because
I had no legal experience. But what that did was
it forced me to jump into owning my own place,
(04:09):
and so I had no clue. I had no clue.
Alls I know is I wanted to help people, and
so let's just hang up my shingle and people will come.
And so everything was kind of jumbled together, right, trying
to get the revenue coming in. Do we need to
hire people? Do we have systems in place. All of
(04:31):
this stuff was just all jumbled together. And through that process,
through some difficult times and learning the hard way, I
figured out that my business had seven parts. Really. The
first is marketing. The second is sales. The third is
(04:54):
what I call the factory or how we're going to
deliver what it is as we sell. The fourth is
the people to run the factory. The fifth is your
physical plant and it could be virtual or it could
be a brick and mortar place. The sixth is money
and metrics. And the last and final piece of the
(05:18):
business is you the owner. Because without that piece, the
business doesn't exist. So when I started looking at that,
it's like, Okay, this tells a story, right of where
do I want to go as the owner? And when
I work with business owners, I always start with the
U part and what is it you're trying to accomplish
(05:41):
and how much revenue does the business need to generate
in order for you to be able to do that. Like,
one of the things that was really important to me
was buying back my time so that I could volunteer
with the Red Cross, and I've been on fifteen deployments
the Red Cross Hurricanes wildfires, tornadoes, and when they call you,
(06:06):
it literally is like a military deployment. They'll call and say, Hey,
can you go to Florida for hurricane Yes? I can, Okay,
you have to leave in twenty four hours. Wow, there's
an eight hundred number to call where you can get
your air ticket and all that stuff. But I had
to have my business in a place where it could
(06:26):
run without me, right, And so I would be gone
for thirty thirty five days at a time, and the
business didn't miss a beat. And because my factory was
well thought out and the systems and procedures, and then
I had the people plugged in to run the factory,
and if anybody was ever not there, there was a
(06:48):
backup person that knew how to do that job. So
they just stepped in their shoes and did it, so
it didn't involve me.
Speaker 6 (06:55):
Right.
Speaker 5 (06:55):
So, as I kind of figured out that the business
has seven parts. If I start with the gross revenue
that I need to run my business, the next thing
I want to do is how do I tell my
sales team how many sales we need? Right? So the
first thing is what is my average sale value? So
(07:17):
if I want to build a million dollar firm, and
my average sale value is five thousand dollars, then I
need two hundred sales. All right, I just told my
sales team exactly what they need to do. Now, how
do I tell the marketing part of my business how
many leads to generate? And so you can just reverse
(07:38):
engineer that based on conversion rates and things like that
and figure out, Okay, if I want to get two
hundred clients next year, two hundred sales, I need eight
hundred customers coming in potential customers. In order to get
eight hundred potential customers, I need fifteen hundred leads, So
(08:01):
where are they going to come from? So now I'm
building out the marketing section of my plan. Then it's like, okay,
if I go from one hundred sales this year to
two hundred next year, is my factory going to break?
Do I have the systems, the software, the technology, or
(08:24):
do I need to upgrade some things? And does the
capacity of my current team can they take on another
one hundred sales a year? Maybe not? Well, then who
do I need to hire and when? So now I'm
building out the people section of my plan. So and
then I started comparing this to other businesses and all
(08:47):
the other businesses have the same seven parts. The only
thing that's different is what we set right. And when
you look at it that way and you put together
a business plan that addresses all seven parts of the business,
it tells a story of exactly what you're going to
do and when in order to achieve this goal. And
(09:11):
to me, now you have something that you can pull
out every month and then look at your actual data
and compare it against your projected plan data and then
make adjustments. Are we on track or are we not
on track? Are we ahead of it? If we're ahead
of it, hey, let's adjust our goal. If we're behind,
(09:33):
what adjustments do we need to do to get there?
Speaker 2 (09:36):
Right?
Speaker 5 (09:37):
And so when you look at it that way as
a business owner, it takes a lot of the overwhelm.
A way of running the business. The concept of running
a business, a successful, profitable business is simple. Okay, nobody
said it's going to be easy. That's two different concepts.
Speaker 3 (09:58):
Yes, when you.
Speaker 5 (10:00):
Follow the seven parts and you see how they all
play together, the concept is simple.
Speaker 3 (10:07):
Yes, And so that's kind of a.
Speaker 5 (10:09):
Cornerstone of everything that I do when I work with
business owners now, and I.
Speaker 1 (10:15):
Like how you brought all that together, and that's exactly
what it is.
Speaker 5 (10:22):
It is, you know. And for me, a lot of
times where business owners get in trouble is we're great technicians.
We're really good at what we do. Okay, so we
think we have this thought, oh, I can just go
start my own business and I'll make a lot more money, right,
But we're stuck in technician mode and most of us
(10:42):
have not been trained to manage people to be an entrepreneur,
and how to drive in new business, how to set
up systems, or how to read financials so you understand
the data and you're making decisions based on data. We
haven't been trained in anything like that. When I went
to law school, they didn't give me any training on
how to start a law firm. I had to figure
(11:04):
it out right. And most business owners are that way.
So where they get caught in a trap is they're
working forty fifty hours for this person and they're like, man,
I could go start my own place and make more money,
and then they find themselves trading that job for a
seventy to eighty hour week business that's tied to them
(11:29):
twenty four to seven and they're not making any money
to show for it. So it's like, why did we
even do this?
Speaker 1 (11:38):
Right?
Speaker 5 (11:38):
And what I want people to know is there's a
different way. There's a different way to do it. It's
just we don't know what we don't know. And until
you start learning other possibilities and testing them in your business,
all of a sudden you have these light bulb moments, right,
and it just is like, oh my gosh, I didn't
(11:59):
even think about it this way, you know. And so
that's what I try to empower business owners to do
is really think in terms differently of the business and
how it all plays together.
Speaker 2 (12:13):
Yes, because it's a lot to take on a business.
Speaker 1 (12:16):
It's more than an idea, it's more than a passion.
Speaker 2 (12:20):
Of course, all of that is involved.
Speaker 1 (12:23):
But the logistics of it can be overwhelming if you
don't have.
Speaker 3 (12:31):
If you don't know what to do.
Speaker 5 (12:32):
Yeah, yeah, you know. And we get caught also in
the trap of making decisions based on emotion in our business,
like we don't have the data at our fingertips, so
then we're shooting from the hip and we're like, well,
my gut feeling is we should do this, And that's
ultimately how you make a lot of really expensive, either
(12:57):
in terms of money or time mistakes in your business
because we don't have the data to look for. An
example of this is I had an attorney that worked
for me and he wasn't getting his work done. He
was like three or four days behind everybody else's current.
And I went in and I asked him and I said,
what's going on? Why are you behind? He said, well,
(13:19):
I'm constantly on the phone, incoming outgoing calls. I can't
get to my work. Naive me had an emotional decision,
so I walked across to my office manager and I said,
let's put an ad out for another attorney. And this
is an eighty thousand dollars a year decision, right. So
(13:40):
she looked at me and she said why. I said,
because Joe can't keep up with his work because he's
always on the phone. And then she just sat there
and she said, did you look at the phone records?
And I was just silent. I'm like no, And she said,
don't you think you should? And I'm like, yes, ma'am.
(14:02):
You know. And so I went and looked at the
phone records, and the day before, incoming and outgoing calls,
he was on the phone for five minutes and thirty seconds.
I went back three weeks and it was never more
than seven minutes a day.
Speaker 2 (14:17):
Oh, so he rights not doing.
Speaker 5 (14:20):
Yes, And so I almost based on gut feeling or emotion,
pulled the trigger on an eighty thousand dollars year employee,
which would reduce my profits as a business owner because
I didn't I didn't know the data right, right, So
we always when we can get in a position where
we're making decisions based on data, you will avoid a
(14:44):
lot of headaches, a lot of wasted money, a lot
of wasted time in growing your business.
Speaker 1 (14:51):
Yes, yes, you definitely have to look at the data to.
Speaker 3 (14:56):
See what you need.
Speaker 5 (14:57):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (14:58):
And it's like it's so Tim was fixing a meal.
You can't just say you're going to fix a meal.
Speaker 2 (15:05):
And number one, you don't know what you're going to fix.
Speaker 1 (15:09):
Number two, you don't know the ingredients that you're going
to need to prepare it. So when you think about
it in blaming terms, it makes sense. Well, a lot
of times people go into businesses and they don't think
that way about.
Speaker 5 (15:26):
It, right, right, And you know, for me, I take
the business owner as I find them because a lot
of times I find that they just don't know. I
had a business owner that just started working with me
in the last two weeks and I do a first
initial call to kind of deep dive into the business,
(15:47):
and I said, Okay, how much is your revenue so
far a year to date? And he said, well, I
don't have my books yet, all right, So that was
little red flag number one. I'm like, okay, fine, how
much was your revenue in twenty twenty four. I don't
have that done yet either. Oh wow, how about twenty
twenty three? I don't have that either, right, I said,
(16:13):
how much is your payroll ratio to your revenue? He said,
I have no clue. I said, okay, we're going to
stop right here because I don't want you to feel
like you're being judged. I'm literally asking you questions that you,
as the owner should have your fingers right on that information.
Since you don't, we're going to start putting things in
place going forward, and that's never going to happen again. Right.
(16:36):
But that's how bad sometimes it is. He just didn't
know what he didn't know, and he's trying to run
it on his own, and he's not not keeping up
with this stuff.
Speaker 1 (16:46):
Yeah, and that's one of the drawbacks of being a solopreneur.
You know, you wear a lot of hats. You know,
you're delivering a product, you're getting a product, and you
know you don't get you don't have enough time to
do all this su stuff. Well, you haven't made time,
(17:07):
even though it's really.
Speaker 3 (17:08):
Important for you to know all of that.
Speaker 1 (17:11):
So that's I mean, so how do you get that
solopreneur that is weighing all these heads to focus on
these things.
Speaker 5 (17:22):
It's a very good question. Ida the actual amount of
time I spend on the seven parts of the business,
I would say seventy five to eighty percent of it
is you and it's the mindset that they have. It's
walking them through some examples like I just did with
(17:45):
that attorney that wasn't getting his work done, you know,
And I said, if I would have added eighty thousand
dollars to my payroll, my payroll ratio would have been
much higher than it needed to be, which is normally
between thirty three and forty three percent. Right. If it's
higher than that, then you're losing money. So when I
walk them through some examples like that, and I put
(18:06):
myself in their shoes, because I literally will tell people
I've made more mistakes in business than you've even thought of, right,
And so I want you to run these things by
me so that I can say, hey, look, I've been
through that already, and here's what you want to avoid. Right.
So it's getting them to think differently. And the hard
(18:30):
part about that is, ida is when they have limiting beliefs, right,
limiting beliefs based on a certain experience, or they heard
about somebody else having an experience, so they automatically in
their mind adopt that position. Oh, I said, okay, well,
(18:52):
have we tried pay per click? Oh, pay per click
doesn't work. I've done that before. A colleague of mine
tried paper click. It didn't work. So they're dismissive. And
then I'll walk them through what exactly did you do? Yes?
And what was the click through rate? And I asked
them about the data, and they don't know the answers.
(19:14):
They just know that they did. And I said, how, okay,
so how do you judge that it wasn't successful? They said, well,
I didn't make any money off of it. I'm like, okay,
but does that mean your marketing wasn't working or maybe
your intake wasn't handling the appointments and not getting them
to set an appointment, and then they weren't showing up,
(19:35):
or maybe your salesperson sucks and so you're not making
any money. And I literally had a business owner who
I got on the phone with her one day and
she said, I'm right off the bat. She was really energetic,
and she said, I'm canceling paper Click, and I knew
(19:56):
right then it's an emotional decision. I said, okay, walk
me through why. And she said, I spent five thousand
dollars last month on pay per Click and I didn't
get a single dollar from it, so I'm canceling it.
I said, let's walk through the numbers, and I said,
how many impressions did you get? And she said ten
thousand something impressions I don't remember. And then I said, okay,
(20:18):
how many clicks? She said seven hundred and eighty two.
So immediately I'm thinking that's almost an eight percent click
through rate. The average click through rate for pay per
click is like two point nine percent, so that tells
me the ad is working right now, the click goes
(20:40):
to a landing page, right the average landing page converts
ten percent. So I said, out of the seven hundred
and eighty two people that hit your landing page, how
many of those called your business? She said one hundred
and fifteen. Wow, I'm like, that's fourteen point nine percent.
(21:00):
So that's enough to tell me the marketing is successful.
It delivered the right person, in the right frame of
mind at the right time to her doorstep. I said,
out of the one hundred and fifteen phone calls, how
many appointments were set? She said four and two of
them didn't show up and the other two they didn't
(21:20):
hire us. So I'm canceling paper click. I'm like, you
don't have a paper click problem, you have an intake problem,
right right. So the ROI that we make on our
advertising spend, there's a lot of moving parts, and when
we don't know that data or we're not looking at it,
we make an emotional decision just to cancel it, and
(21:42):
then we have a limiting belief that it doesn't work
right right, So overcoming those I have to give them
other examples of how it can work, or what if
we tried this? Are you willing to do that? And
we can do a split test? Yeah, I can do
that I had one where his landing page was converting
(22:05):
at seven percent, so the average is ten. So I said,
let's take the navigation options off the top so that
they can't leak off of this landing page, and let's
test one without. And he was reluctant to do it,
and then we put it out there, and within two
weeks the new landing page was converting thirty nine percent. Wow.
(22:27):
And now all of a sudden, he's like, crap, why
didn't I do that earlier? I said, because you had
a limiting belief, right, So I have to find ways
to get them to overcome limiting beliefs. And a lot
of times it's also terror barriers. Yes, you know, as
human beings, we get very anxious when we're about to
(22:49):
face something we've never done before. Yes, And that's the
that's the side of the brain that's designed to keep
us safe and comfortable. Right. So I've had I have
business owners who keep hitting a certain revenue three hundred thousand,
four hundred thousand, three hundred thousand, but they want to
make a million dollars, but they can't seem to break
(23:09):
through it. And when I start talking to them about it,
there's something in their childhood where they're almost embarrassed if
they're too successful because their siblings all make twenty dollars
an hour and they don't want to be perceived as
a snob, and so they fear taking the next step.
(23:31):
And it's total illusion. Right. Even after twenty years in
representing eighty thousand people in bankruptcy cases, every time I
would go to federal court, I would get sick to
my stomach and I'd have to go throw up. And
in my mind, I was thinking, all my colleagues are
going to think I'm stupid when I get up there. Right,
(23:54):
I was told my whole life that I won't accomplish anything,
and so that's stuck, right. Our subconscious mind is developed
before we're seven years old, yes, and so when I
was told you can't do this, you can't do this,
you're not good enough for that, that's I was fifty
years old and I'm going into court, and that's in
(24:15):
my mind. But then I had to step back and
I said, wait a second, when's the last time I've
ever lost an argument? And I couldn't remember it. Honest
to god, I couldn't remember it. So the facts were different.
The illusion I said this is bull, and then I
just forge your head, right, And so you have to
(24:37):
break through those terror barriers because most of the time
it's just an illusion.
Speaker 1 (24:42):
Yes, absolutely, absolutely, And I think we've all had those
talks with ourselves like that.
Speaker 5 (24:49):
Absolutely.
Speaker 1 (24:51):
You know, whether it was at your home or teacher
or even on a job, somebody says something to.
Speaker 3 (24:59):
You that just altered the way you thought about yourself.
Speaker 1 (25:03):
Yeah, yeah, it was not which was not true and
never was true.
Speaker 5 (25:10):
No, but you adopted it as true. Yes, you know,
and now you have this subconscious belief throughout your whole
life that that is true. As successful as I am
right now, and it's hard for me to even say that, right,
But my law firm I built to about eight million
(25:32):
dollars a year, and then I sold it and I
went into working with business owners and I've helped over
four hundred and fifty business owners do exactly what I did.
And I still to this day think why am I
worthy to do this? I'm not any different than anybody else,
you know, but that's my subconscious mind.
Speaker 3 (25:54):
Yes, yes, wow, James. So if people want to work
with you, how do they do so?
Speaker 5 (26:00):
Yeah? So the best way we built a landing page
just for your listeners. It's called Business Accelerator dot Institute,
so not dot com, it's dot institute, forward slash, mmb okay,
and they can find out information about Business Accelerator, you know.
(26:25):
They can reach out to me through there. You can
find us on LinkedIn and I answer all the messages
on LinkedIn, you know. And so anybody who wants to
find out more, you know, please reach out. Don't try
to struggle yourself and figure things out, because I can
tell you that's the long road, and it's one of
(26:47):
the reasons why most businesses will ultimately fail or take.
Speaker 3 (26:52):
Forever to see you revenue.
Speaker 5 (26:55):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (26:56):
Absolutely, Wow, that's amazing, and everything is you have to
work from the inside out, you know, you do every day.
Speaker 3 (27:07):
It's a struggle.
Speaker 5 (27:09):
And when I when I work with business owners, before
I even get into their financial goals, I talk to
them about what's your personal and professional goals? Right? What
are you going to do to improve your mindset in
order to become a three million, five million, ten million
(27:30):
dollar business owner? How do you start thinking like the
owner of a ten million dollar business? Now?
Speaker 4 (27:38):
What?
Speaker 5 (27:38):
And so we work on that a lot before we
ever get into the financials because if you, if most people,
if you don't grow personally and professionally, you'll never grow financially.
Speaker 3 (27:51):
Right, So connected, yeah, all connected?
Speaker 1 (27:56):
So how do how do a person, uh, how does
the business own to get into your program?
Speaker 5 (28:02):
So we have several different ways. Right now, I have
one on one clients that I work with. I do
a handful of those where I'm doing three calls a
month with them and so we're putting their business plan together,
We're putting their marketing plan together, their budget, and then
(28:22):
every month we're tracking their data and we're looking at
their financials and we're making adjustments, and that's what those
calls are doing. I have Mastermind groups, so some people
will get involved in a one to many type situation.
So four times a year, I have Mastermind meetings that
people come in ones next week and that's another way
(28:45):
to get involved. And then Business Accelerator Institute. What I'm
trying to do there is more of the one to
many because I can't work with everybody right right, So
I'm developing a think of a Harvard Business School catalog
of courses, and there's going to be level one hundred,
(29:08):
Level two hundred, Level three, hundred four hundred graduate level,
and at each level there's going to be courses on
all seven parts of the business, and we're setting them
up as four week courses, so that's going to be
on a very low entry price of like two forty
nine a month, and you have access to all of
(29:30):
those courses. The first course that you'll go through is
called five Weeks to Launch, Crafting your Winning Business Plan,
and it'll show you how to walk through those seven
parts of the business and have a plan put together
so that you can really launch your business and get
up to a good start. Then as you stay in
(29:50):
the courses, you know, maybe you're getting ready to hire,
so you can go to hiring and staffing or you know,
or compensation models course things like that. So that's what
I'm we're doing now with Business Accelerator Institute is really
building out the online education.
Speaker 1 (30:09):
As awesome, James, because a lot of businesses need all
of it, Yes, all of that, and I mean and
they may have even been.
Speaker 2 (30:18):
In business for a while, yeah and still needed.
Speaker 5 (30:22):
Yeah. And anybody who comes in through you know, Business
Accelerator Institute, you'll have access to a weekly open office hours,
So every Wednesday morning from eight to ten am. I
open my zoom room, and anybody who wants to jump
in there and ask questions can ask questions, right, And
(30:43):
it's first come, first serve, So even though you're going
through the courses, you'll be able to come and say, hey,
I'm not sure I understand this concept, right? Can you
walk me through it? And so we give them access
to that kind of thing so that we make sure
they're progressing forward.
Speaker 3 (31:00):
Yes, yes, wow, So five weeks.
Speaker 5 (31:04):
To launch, five weeks to launch? Yep.
Speaker 3 (31:08):
I heard you talk a.
Speaker 1 (31:09):
Lot about a winning business plan, so I'm sure it
could consist of the seven pillars. Yes, okay, but as
we all know, business plans are I call them.
Speaker 3 (31:23):
Living documents, correct.
Speaker 1 (31:26):
Because you start one place and then you end up
another place.
Speaker 3 (31:32):
Yeah, so what does that look like with your students?
Speaker 2 (31:36):
How do you understand that concept?
Speaker 5 (31:40):
And that's why we want to have regular check ins, right,
because where people if they put it together a business plan,
a lot of people are doing it just because they
think they have to, or they're presenting it to a
bank for some seed money, right, and then they take
it and they put it in a drawer and they
never look at it. Okay, and so this is a living,
(32:04):
breathing business plan. And every month, Like I just got
off the call with somebody who our goal revenue for
June is two hundred and fifty seven thousand based on
our business plan, She's at two hundred and sixteen thousand
right now. We're only we're only halfway through the month, right,
(32:27):
so we're on pace, we're ahead of pace. So my
conversation with her is, let's not get comfortable, right, Let's
keep let's look at analyze what we did right and
what cause, and now let's repeat it in July.
Speaker 2 (32:41):
Right.
Speaker 5 (32:41):
And then I do the same thing with people. If
they have a two hundred and fifty seven thousand dollars
goal for this month and they're only at one hundred
right now, then I'm like, where are we falling short?
Is it sales? Is it not setting appointments, not not
being able to close the sale? Are we collecting the
(33:02):
money from people? Or is our leads down? And if
our leads are down, from what source? And then let's
make adjustments there. So the key to a successful business
plan is regularly measuring actual data versus your projections and
(33:23):
then making adjustments every month. Yeah, and by doing that
you will drastically reduce the chances that you don't end
up at least close to where you wanted to be. Yeah.
Speaker 3 (33:37):
Absolutely, got to keep looking at the data.
Speaker 5 (33:40):
Yes.
Speaker 3 (33:40):
Sure, Now let's talk a little.
Speaker 1 (33:42):
Bit about your best selling book, Shift Happens. Yes, tell
us about that and what people can take away from that.
Speaker 5 (33:51):
Yeah. So that was a book that I was approached
with back in the early right at the end of
right at two thousand and eight, two thousand and nine,
my firm was at its peak. I had offices in
four different states, and the economy was going in the
(34:11):
wrong direction, and it was the housing mortgage bubble burst
at that time. So there was this big shift in
the economy. So the company that wanted this book, they
reached out to several experts that were seeing shifts in
the economy to write about it and what to do.
And so I wrote a chapter in that book about
(34:36):
business owners and when you see a shift in the economy,
things that you should be doing or things you should
be looking out for. And let's say, establishing multiple sources
of revenue instead of just one. Right, and the worst
number in business is one. And the kind of technical
(35:00):
name for that is concentration risk. So if I have
I just looked at somebody's data earlier today and seventy
eight percent of their leads are coming from one source,
and I'm like, we need to diversify that, right, because
if Google ever changes their algorithms like they always do,
and all of a sudden you stop getting leads, You're
(35:21):
going to go bankrupt really quick. You know, if you
have one staff member who's a key staff member, but
nothing's documented and it's all in their head. They've been
with me ten years, I'm good, and then they quit
or God forbid they pass away, We're screwed, right, because
(35:43):
we don't have we have concentration risk. So the goal
of that book was to help business owners identify when
shifts are going to happen that can affect their business
and how to insulate them from that.
Speaker 3 (36:05):
And it's just common sense. I mean, you have to
do that in your home.
Speaker 5 (36:12):
Well, and I think, what the reason it happens? And
it happened to me too, And you know, I only
did consumer bankruptcy cases, no other type of cases. And
in two thousand and five they revamped the federal bankruptcy
laws and it was the first time they changed the
laws in twenty years and they developed this means test
(36:34):
and you had to pass a means test before you
could file a bankruptcy and so there was all this
media attention about it on how you could no longer
file bankruptcy. And I didn't make any changes. Right in
two thousand and six, I lost sixty percent of my business,
you know, and so I struggled. It was the first
(36:55):
time I had to lay some people off and then
I had to add another practice area, right when I
should have done it proactively because they have been talking
about the changes for a couple of years. Yes, right, well,
I didn't do it. So we get stuck in those
situations where we find ourselves that, uh oh, we get comfortable, right,
(37:20):
things are working very well, I don't have to do
much and then boom, something changes.
Speaker 1 (37:25):
Yes, and you always have to stay educated as well,
you know, forecasting and things like that. Always because I'm
in the tech field, so I've always got to say
what's coming, what's happening right now, what could change to
change the landscape of different things.
Speaker 3 (37:47):
So for me that's just in my DNA.
Speaker 1 (37:52):
Yeah, because of the field that I am in. But yeah,
it's easy to get stuck, especially when you're doing right.
Speaker 5 (38:01):
Yep, because you haven't. And that was the one time
in my career where I got caught by it. My
wife has always told me, she's like, you always have
this knack for knowing when something is going to change,
and you do something else just to make sure that
it's not going to affect us. I'm like, yeah, but
I got caught with my pants down on that one. Yeah.
Speaker 6 (38:24):
But I was comfortable, yes, And that's what comfort does,
you don't you in the back of your mind you
know it can change, yes, but at the moment, you
enjoying the comfort you are.
Speaker 5 (38:40):
And I find that too when business owners have too
much cash coming in right. I have one business owner
right now that you know. The cash balance in his
bank account is like two point nine million, and his
to run his business is about seventy five thousand a month.
Speaker 6 (39:00):
Wow.
Speaker 5 (39:01):
And I'm like, you're you're what's going to happen is
you're going to stop making the decisions you need to make, Yeah,
because that money is sitting there and you don't have
to worry about it. And that's exactly what happened with
him as he stopped making decisions. So when I see
something like that, I literally will force them to take
a distribution, right, get that money out of there. Have
(39:25):
one and a half to two times your monthly expenses
in there, but sometimes three. But for the most part,
if you've got ten fifteen times in there, you're not
going to make the decisions with the urgency that you
need to make to keep your business moving forward.
Speaker 3 (39:42):
Wow. And that's that's true, James, it is, it's right.
Speaker 1 (39:47):
Just it's funny how you know you need at one
end of the spectrum or another end of the spectrum.
Speaker 5 (39:55):
Yes, yeah, And we don't really until we're too far
to the other end of the spectrum, and now all
of a sudden, where you are grasping at straws trying
to get back to break even.
Speaker 3 (40:10):
Yes, you know, so you always got to be on
the lookout. Yes, I always got to look out.
Speaker 2 (40:18):
Wow, Jay, this was very very very good and very deep.
Speaker 1 (40:23):
You know, this is the kind of conversation that you
have to look inside.
Speaker 5 (40:29):
M h.
Speaker 1 (40:31):
And I love those because it definitely solidifies what I'm
doing or it makes me think, what about what I
need to do?
Speaker 5 (40:43):
Yeah, yeah, you know. And that's the thing I learned
a while back that I love helping people. So when
we first started it with me and my wife, and
we're helping about two to three clients a week, and
then all of a sudden, I changed my marketing and
the first week I ran the new marketing, we signed
(41:04):
sixty eight clients and I had to hire people. Right now,
I can help that many. Then I opened an office
in Detroit, and I can help this many more, and
then in Kansas City and this many more. And then
when I sold my firm, what I realized is I
like building businesses. The practice of law was just a
vehicle to get there, right, So when I sold it,
(41:26):
and I've gone into working with over four hundred and
fifty businesses helping them help more people. And so that's
where you know, I get my joy is seeing people
have those light bulb moments so that they can help
more people.
Speaker 3 (41:43):
Yes, that's a blessing. Yeah, so I thank you for
all that you do. And again, how can our audience
connect with you?
Speaker 2 (41:52):
Yeah?
Speaker 5 (41:53):
So the easiest way is go to Business Accelerator dot
institute and there's a four forward slash. Oh it looks
like it's j MMB, so I said MMB earlier. So
it's just minding my business just the first letter of
each word JMMB. Yeah, and then that'll take them to
(42:13):
a landing page we've built out just for your listeners
and they can find out more. They can set up
a free discovery call with me. There's a free download
top ten mistakes that you're probably making in your business
that they can get that there, and then they can
find out more about the offerings through Business Accelerator Institute.
Speaker 2 (42:35):
Well, I thank you, James.
Speaker 1 (42:38):
You're welcome a less in the audience because I'm definitely
going to jump over there and get my goody all right,
do that, and I hope everybody else does the same,
because we can never be too smart.
Speaker 5 (42:52):
Yes, you know I've been doing. I'm at level sixty
now and I never say I'm sixty years old, as
I am at level sixty. And whenever you hit a
new level, you still have to learn how to get
through that level.
Speaker 3 (43:06):
Yes.
Speaker 5 (43:06):
So we never will stop learning.
Speaker 3 (43:09):
Never.
Speaker 5 (43:11):
Yeah. And so anything that I can find or look
at or compare my business to another business and take
something from them, and how do I implement that in
my business. I'm constantly looking for ways to learn.
Speaker 1 (43:27):
Yes, I love learning. Yes, And one of the things
about doing what I do. I always learned something.
Speaker 2 (43:36):
Always it just makes you feel empowered.
Speaker 5 (43:41):
Well, and here's the thing, ida is I learned not
to label anything. Right. There was times where I had
payroll due on a Friday, it was fifteen thousand dollars
and I look at my bank account on Wednesday and
there was a thousand bucks in there. And I first started.
When I first was doing that, I was like, oh
(44:03):
my gosh, this is horrible. I don't have the money.
How am I going to do this? I have no
way to get the money. And when that happens, you
start blinding yourself to opportunities. Yes, but it doesn't change
the facts. Right. So even if I try something, I
have an expectation of what I want it to produce.
(44:26):
But if it doesn't do that, that's also a learning opportunity. Yes,
why didn't it produce what I thought it was going
to produce? And what could we do differently to change
that outcome? Right? So, when you look at learning, even
if a lot of people will be paralyzed on attempting
something because they're afraid they will fail, there is no failure.
(44:49):
There's just an opportunity to learn how not to do
it the.
Speaker 3 (44:52):
Next time, right, exactly, you know, so it.
Speaker 5 (44:56):
Takes all the pressure off of learning.
Speaker 1 (44:59):
Yes, absolutely, well, James, this has been amazing. I really
appreciate you, and we are definitely going to have to
do this again because I think you know, when you're
working from the inside out, it's never ever a one
and done ever. I agree, it's consistent work, daily work,
(45:23):
daily putting the right things into your brain.
Speaker 3 (45:28):
So you're definitely coming back. I say that.
Speaker 5 (45:31):
Okay, awesome, Yeah, just reach out. I'll come back anytime.
Speaker 3 (45:35):
Okay.
Speaker 1 (45:35):
Thank you so much, James, and thank you so much, audience.
Thank you to our guests and you our values.
Speaker 3 (45:47):
Audience. Let's stop you by. We truly appreciate you. Many
blessings to you and yours.
Popular Podcasts
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
I’m Jay Shetty host of On Purpose the worlds #1 Mental Health podcast and I’m so grateful you found us. I started this podcast 5 years ago to invite you into conversations and workshops that are designed to help make you happier, healthier and more healed. I believe that when you (yes you) feel seen, heard and understood you’re able to deal with relationship struggles, work challenges and life’s ups and downs with more ease and grace. I interview experts, celebrities, thought leaders and athletes so that we can grow our mindset, build better habits and uncover a side of them we’ve never seen before. New episodes every Monday and Friday. Your support means the world to me and I don’t take it for granted — click the follow button and leave a review to help us spread the love with On Purpose. I can’t wait for you to listen to your first or 500th episode!
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
The Joe Rogan Experience
The official podcast of comedian Joe Rogan.