Podcast: Play in new window | Download
Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | RSS
CEO Space and Secret Knock With Greg S. Reid
Hey guys. This week’s podcasts are dedicated to a couple weeks I spent at CEO Space and Secret Knock. And I was at these events, both speaking but most importantly, really listening. I had the Q-Tips out. So, this podcast would be called getting paid for stuff you are already doing. I got the idea for 
this podcast cuz I was sitting at Secret Knock and I was overhearing Bernie Doorman the founder of CEO space talk about he was taking counsel. I want to back up and put a parenthesis. “Bernie Doorman has been counseling some of the biggest businessman”. He is sitting in a corner with a bunch of guys around him, he said: When I was taking counsel, meaning he was getting advice from other people. One of the gentlemen on the board that was giving Bernie sound counsel that day. He said, Bernie, we noticed you have been doing a lot of this, this and this on a regular basis. Bernie said I have fallen in love with coaching people on these points. The counsel said why aren’t you getting paid for that? Bernie said, I guess I never thought about it. The long and short of it is, Bernie, in a short time has put into play another revenue stream for himself and CEO Space centered around this process. From what I have heard, and it’s only been a few days, he already has multiple people who are very excited to pay $25,000 a year for the counseling on that specific topic. So kudos to Bernie Doorman for giving counsel for 25 years and also realizing that iron sharpens iron.
I want to do a back step here and I want to preface this podcast with the fact that 8 months ago we had a new pastor come into our church. I think Pastor Kurt was 37 last year. His very first sermon went like this. You have to remember, this is his first sermon.
We Work From Rest Here In The U.S.
I am assuming there are a lot of people here today who work very hard 5 or 6 days a week. They look forward to the weekend. Resting, being with family, barbequing. He said, how many people in here, really look forward to resting on the weekend? A lot of people raised their hand. He said I am here to 
tell you something, we have never rested from our work. Every person in this room works from their rest. And he let that sink in. He went on into a 30 minute sermon on how when we rest, when we stop, when we slow our minds down, when we meditate, when we sit and stare out the window, that is when God and the Universe is able to talk to us in a way we can hear the message. It doesn’t matter if you are Catholic, Christian, Muslim, it doesn’t matter. The point is he is trying to make it Universal.
At a recent panel. A question was asked: “What is the most important thing in how they structure their work week? Ron Fossum, said about a year ago as he was on a panel. He said that is an awesome question. One of the most famous books in world history is called Think and Grow Rich. The point Ron was trying to make was further explained in that he said he structures his week in a way that he has a thinking chair. On Fridays, he does not allow anyone in the office. On Monday through Thursday, he has little sticky notes that whenever he has a question he needs to think about, he writes it down. On Fridays, he goes to his thinking chair and he ponders upon all of those questions until he has an answer.
This podcast is dedicated to the concept of what are you already doing? Where are you blind? Where is your blind spot? What activities during the week and the month that you are already doing that you are not charging for? We have had 5 huge bursts of growth in the last five years. We started authority websites, huge burst in growth for us. We added a double digit guaranteed so people could will these assets to their kids. They can still make money. Even if the site went down which has happened 3 times out of 700. We have to build or buy another one so they can get their financial returns. That started a huge burst of growth. Then we started Income Store totally separate company. People didn’t want to write content and partner up and do the work. They just wanted to give us money and get the double digit returns. That had huge growth. Then we started holding our own digital footprint events teaching the world how do we build these websites and keep them growing. Then we came up with a hybrid product that melted our two companies today. Every one of these 5 things of which 3 times now in 5 years, we were in Inc. Magazine as an Inc. 5000 company. These things came because we were already doing these things. We just weren’t charging for it. We were already counseling people on how to generate traffic and revenue from their websites. We started to build them. We were already building the authoritative websites giving good returns. We just weren’t locking it up in a contract and guaranteeing our work. We were already doing it. We were already building revenue generating websites. Why couldn’t we just buy one making money and fix it where it made more money. We were already doing the concepts of that. We were already teaching the world what we do on nights and weekends just as a favor. Why can’t we charge a couple grand for people to sit in an audience for 3 days and hear how to do it the right way? We were already doing it. When we combine the two companies and make the hybrid, that’s just what it is. We were already doing it. We repackaged it and gave it a fancy name. We were already doing it. So let’s look at what everybody on this podcast might already be doing.
Is There Anything You Do On A Weekly Basis You Can Package?
How can we look at the weekly or the monthly routine and start charging for what you are already doing. Are you ready? Do you sell a product? In that process, do you or any of your sales reps, when you are preparing to sell, when you are going about your month, by any chance, do you knock on 50 doors a day out in the field. Do you physically knock on doors and get business cards. Is it possible that you can start accumulating a city business directory and come up with a fancy name for it and maybe charge people for it? There is a company out there called Manta.com I think it does a half a billion a year. To a degree on concept it was started sort of like that. So could you put your own little business directory and then you would have this powerful tool after 6 to 12 months that you could share. You could email it starting with an email first. You could give it away on your website. There are so many things you can do to monetize that list. But you have to think outside the box a little bit. Do you coach or manage other people? During your week are you holding any type of sessions that could be video recorded. Maybe if people give you a dollar and sign off on certain things, but maybe you could gather a bunch of recordings and then start a website similar to lynda.com that just sold to LinkedIn for a billion and a half. How did Linda pull that off? She got 27,000 people to donate free teaching videos that she could charge people a rent of $9 or $39 a month for people to access.
Do you flip houses? During your month, could you be scouting for hard money lenders, angel investors or other real estate groups that pay large, finders fees for properties, that are not quite what you are looking for but perfect for them. Since you are already in the auctions, could you be scouting for them and have a huge revenue stream coming in just for scouting. So the point is, can you examine your routine microscopically. What are you already doing that you are currently blind to that others would pay for. Here are a few more:
Do you create monthly videos for teaching or training? Do you make videos on a weekly or monthly basis, could you strip out your mp3? And drop the audios into ITunes in a podcast form. Could you transcribe those MP 3s into a blog post? Could you chunk out paragraphs and put them into social media. Could you go back to your blog post, and every 18 months scrape all of those transcripts and send them to an editor and have someone put them into a book. I know someone who does that. Here is a mega million dollar idea. Do you know anybody who works in senior housing? They went in and built friends with these people and they brought in a flip cam. Like Gary Vaynerchuk at winelibrary.tv a little $90 flip cam and they started videotaping some of the seniors that wanted to participate in something cool and they asked them 20 questions. Hey where is your family from? Why did your family come to the US? What is your greatest memory? How about this one: What is your greatest accomplishment? Could you imagine those videos? I think it would make you cry just watching people answer those. Then you package them and give them to family. Here is the million dollar idea. Can you imagine a library of these videos and walk into Ancestry.com and show them. What a partnership there! Somebody please run with that and email me when you get your first check.
Find Another S-Curve In What You Already Do
You get the idea. My first podcast was dedicated to this subject. It was called s-curves. 100% of households and companies with 1 main source of income fail. 100% of households and businesses with one main source of income fail. That does not leave a lot of wiggle room. I would go back and re listen to s-curves. My embryonic podcast. The one I knew would always be number one. I am most passionate about. Our company has close to 700 different revenue streams. I would go back and listen to podcast #1 and I would listen to it a couple times. Make your management listen to it, your spouse, have teenagers listen, it will make your skin crawl when you realize you have no choice but to add multiple revenue streams to your household or business. It will also get you excited when you hear the legacy question. The major companies ask their management and staff every another year. It’s called the legacy question. It simplifies how Jack Welch went into GE and had 2 revenue streams doing about 4 billion. Left there with 14 revenue streams doing close to 40 billion market cap. So you don’t have to panic or get nervous. It is so exciting. It’s liberating when you realize the simplicity of business. It’s simple. It’s not easy but it’s oh so simple if you just know the angles to look at things. So, here is the key.
Don’t get good, get done.
Leave a Reply