Tag: Consulting

Start Your Business 😊

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Thinking about starting a business?

Reach out and talk with Brian at the link below.

link – https://brianjpombo.com/start-my-business/

Transcription

Start Your Business.

Hi, I’m Brian Pombo, welcome back to Brian J. Pombo Live.

So there are these different sections of my website and there are three main sections, which is kind of how I get in contact with people.

Yesterday, we talked about, you know, growing your business, and where you’d, you’d be able to contact me if you were looking for help with growing your business.

Another area, which is a very specific area, it’s a very different type of area, it’s starting your business.

So if you have an interest in starting a business, and doesn’t matter, even if you have zero ideas of what you would start it over. But you have an idea that you probably would like to go into business, and you’d like to live off from that side of life, as opposed to just get a paycheck all the time, and being an employee.

If you’d like to try that out and see whether you’d be a good fit or not, then I’d love to have a conversation with you.

I do not charge anything to be able to have that conversation but I also make no promises that I can help you whatsoever.

But I do have some tips, I do have some ideas and if it works out, I’m a Business Investor.

So I can help invest in your business, I’ll invest time and so forth. I’ll show you what it would take for you to be able to do it too. That’s if you if you would qualify for that type of thing. It’s not for everybody. Business Ownership is not for everybody.

But if you would like to have that conversation, then I’d like you to go to BrianJPombo.com.

Now from there, you can go to the menu and you can type in, you can click on start my business.

Speaking from your perspective, are you going to just BrianJPombo.com/start-my-business.

Real simple for those of you watching, you could see it across the screen. So hopefully that’s helpful for you.

That’s all I’m going to talk about today.

I’m a Business investor, I have these talks on a regular basis. But sometimes I don’t always just give a straight idea for something that you can do right off the bat.

So if you’d like to contact me, it’s another great way for you to reach out and contact me and I’d love I’d love to be able to talk with you and see see if there’s anything I can do to help. So go check that out.

Tomorrow, I’m going to be talking about the final way that people get in contact with me via my website.

We’ll continue talking about strategies, principles and tactics that you can use to grow your business every day and just make your life better.

So we’ll be talking about that more in episodes up ahead. But I have nearly 1000 episodes behind me. If you go and check out BrianJPombo.com.

In the media section, you’ll be able to see all these see and listen to all these episodes I have at both in audio podcast form and in video form. So go check it out.

We’ll be back tomorrow. In the meantime, get out there and let the magic happen.

Grow Your Business 📈

Posted on by brianjpombo

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Want to expand your business?

Reach out and talk with Brian at the link below.

link – http://brianjpombo.com/grow-my-business/

Transcription

Grow Your Business.

Hi I’m Brian Pombo, welcome back to Brian J. Pombo Live.

There’s some areas that I wanted to cover from this commentary that I got earlier last week.

I wanted to get to that but first, I wanted to cover some areas of my website that you may not have seen it on the front page, and in the menu, there are three significant sections there.

If you’re looking to reach out to me, the first has to do with growing your business, and it says, grow my business.

Now, if you click on grow my business that will take you to a page and you can go there directly from here. It’s BrianJPombo.com/grow-my-business/.

Brian J Pombo.com will get you there, if you click on the menu, you’ll be able to find it.

But it is the grow my business page where you can sign up, or at least apply to be to have a business strategy session with me. So go check that out, see if you can apply.

It does cost money but if you if you qualify, you may be able to qualify for a discounted rate.

So go check it out, apply and see if see if it’s even worth your while to be able to talk with me about how to grow your business from where it’s at.

You know, yeah, must have some idea of where you’re at and where you want to be and how soon you want to get there. Let’s have a chat about it. And you’re guaranteed to be able to walk away with some value, otherwise you don’t pay a dime.

So how’s that for a good deal?

Go check out BrianJPombo.com/grow-my-business.

That’s all I got for today.

Tomorrow, I’m going to be talking about another section of my website that you might be interested in. If you’re not interested in growing a business.

Maybe you’ll be interested in this one. We’ll see you tomorrow. In the meantime, get out there and let the magic happen.

The Dreaded Strategy Session 🙄

Posted on by brianjpombo

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Thoughts on Brian’s preferences when walking someone through a strategy session.

Transcription

The dreaded strategy session.

Hi I’m Brian Pombo, welcome back to Brian J. Pombo Live.

I’ve worked a long time as a strategist and one of the things that are very common in the field and in the field of consulting is the concept of the strategy session.

When I first started, it was an uncommon term, but it has become synonymous. It’s been everywhere, ubiquitous, I should say.

You see strategy sessions are offered all the time, are strategy sessions.

And I’m saying this from the perspective of somebody who uses strategy sessions, I still haven’t renamed my strategy sessions, maybe by the time you’re watching this will have a different name for it. Because I don’t like to be painted in the same sense of how other strategy sessions are.

So I’m going to tell you, for those of you who don’t know what they are, I’ll explain that this is for people who have either been through one worthy recipient of strategy sessions, or for those who are putting on strategy sessions.

I like to talk with you because this is a really interesting concept.

When I first started out, I’ll tell you how it happened is when I first started working in the field of consulting.

This concept of having a strategy session, and I can’t remember what we were calling it originally something like a discovery meeting or something of that sort. And there’s a handful of phrases that describe them out there.

And what they?

What they really are, in the long run is a sales pitch.

In most cases, they’re a disguised sales pitch.

I went through one today, and I wanted to tell you more about it.

I was interested to see where it was going to go based on who was putting it on it was by a rather large company. And also, I wanted to see, you know, the process, I figured there would probably be some type of pitch toward the end that’s in most cases, what happens. And I just wanted to see how that how it ended up working.

I love going in and being able to see this from the customer’s point of view as much as possible. Because one thing that I found that works in a strategy session is to not pitch at all, at the end you offer a doorway to walk through if they’re interested in having a further conversation about working with me, or what have you.

But try to offer as much value upfront, and then see where they go from there. That has worked out well for me, it’s allowed me to be able to set aside people who would not make good clients, and partners, and also be able to have further conversations with the people that would and so it’s really for my benefit, it’s for their benefit because they get something out of it.

And that was always my goal is that give something and to eventually get something from the right people.

So that’s kind of how business works, isn’t it, but it tends to be used more and more as a sales tool and that’s it.

And so you a lot of times people are put in this position, and there is a very specific process that they take you through of asking questions.

If the person’s very skilled, they’re good at asking questions following having follow-up questions, getting down to the meat.

And especially if you have a sale at the end, you want to make sure that the person qualifies for the sale.

One of the things that I think today the process that I was put there was interesting.

The person was very professional and had a lot of background in the marketplace. But one thing that I noticed is that if I were in charge of the process, I would have excluded myself pretty early on, I was not qualified to be able to move any further into the process if I was to be happy with the end result.

I didn’t know that at the time and so I was going along with it to see where we were going. When I saw when I researched the final product later I realized that would not have succeeded in getting what I wanted. But if your goal is to make more sales, then you will push people into a product or service that isn’t necessarily for them.

Whereas if you’re a business owner or the person in charge, more than likely you’re going to try to get away from a situation where a person is by purchasing something that they would not be a good fit.

So this was one of those scenarios and there tends to be a very clear cut, push at the end not only an offering but a push to get you over the edge.

It’s also a thing, it’s never been my cup of tea, it’s never really fit me to have a pushy salesperson.

I understand a lot of people need that and a lot of people respond actually well to it. And I get that.

And probably, it could be that in your marketplace that would work.

For me, it’s always been a turn-off. Even if I was interested in the thing, I wouldn’t be interested as soon as someone started pushing me toward it, like okay, so what’s wrong with this that there needs to be a push. I always enjoying the takeaway, I always enjoyed the process of Well, I’m not really sure if this would be a good fit for you and if they take it away from me, now I know I’m going to be more interested. Now I want to know more.

If the person is extremely friendly and straightforward, and opening up to further conversation, not just making a one and done sale, which I know is that’s another hot thing that’s promoted by people who promote any type of sales material assistance, that one-time sale.

The sit-down, we got one time we’re going to get through it, and you’re going to it’s all or nothing. And that’s fine. I guess for a lot of people.

For me, that was never, for me, it’s about the relationship. And if you’re putting on any type of discovery days, or strategy sessions, any type of one on one encounter, to open up the chance for the person to build a relationship with somebody.

And I know that doesn’t fit all business models, I get it or all products or services. But if you’re doing if you’re going that far, to begin with, to put on the show, that there’s a relationship blooming, that there are questions being asked and there are that the other person is actually listening to the answers.

If that’s actually being played out, you might as well go all the way with it.

It’s that whole concept of most things are not sold the first time that a person comes across it, you know, they got to come across it whenever they say 7, 8, 9 times, some people say a whole lot more than they got to be asked over and over and over again, they got to get comfortable with the person that they’re that’s doing the asking, they have to, they have to have basically been worn out in a sense, and that’s fine.

But you got to give people a chance to get worn out if that’s the case. And but this is an ongoing issue with sales and there’s always going to be a back and forth.

I realized that certain markets need to have that high-intensity situation for them to be able to move forward and I wouldn’t give any guff to them. It’s just never something that ever sat well with me and the services I provide.

So just as an example, if you were ever to sit down with me, I talk about strategy sessions in my book, 9 Ways to Amazon-Proof Your Business.

I actually have some free offerings. So if you go on my website, you can purchase a strategy session for $627, to sit down with me for an hour and go over, go over your situation, and you’ll walk away with something right off the bat.

But you get some free ones in here, very specific to these specific areas, you can go and check that out.

They’re only available in this book, they’re not available on my website and you can get a free copy of AmazonProofBook.com. I offer nine different strategy sessions in this book and you can go and check those out.

Those are not any type of sales deal. They’re in the sales process, in a sense that the only way that I’m able to ever get a person to purchase anything from me, for the most part, is to build a relationship.

And we’re either going to build a one-way relationship this way through podcasts and videos, or through my book, or we’re going to meet and talk have a conversation as the only way things tend to go especially if I’m looking for a long term relationship.

So in terms of business relationships, so if you would like if you’d like to talk further about the ideas in this book, go check it out, and then contact me through the ways provided in the book.

That’s all I got for tonight.

I’d love to find out, have you ever had a strategy session? Do you put on strategy sessions?

How have they been useful for you?

Let me know in the comments wherever you’re watching or listening to this, or you can comment over BrianJPombo.com. That’s all I got for tonight. You have a great one.

Get out there and let the magic happen.

When Problem Solving, Go Deeper 🤿

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Thoughts on digging deeper than the first response that comes up when talking with prospects about problems in business.

Transcription

When problem-solving, go deeper.

Hi I’m Brian Pombo, welcome back to Brian J. Pombo Live.

Hey, these episodes that I bring to you on a daily basis, they’re all brought to you, at least in the current time by AmazonProofBook.com.

AmazonProofBook.com is the only place you can go to get a free copy of, 9 Ways to Amazon-Proof Your Business, which is basically nine ways to be able to become absolutely competition-proof even if your competition is as big and bad as Amazon.com.

So go check it out, AmazonProofBook.com.

Let’s talk about problem-solving.

So I was having a great talk with a new friend tonight and she was discussing issues that they were having at their bank. And I was asking her very specifically, you know if there was one thing that you could change, what would it be?

And she said, If I could somehow make it to where we can hire credible people, that would really be best.

I asked her what kind of people and we went into depth on that. And I said, what’s holding that back?

What’s keeping that from happening right now?

And she said, Well, I think it is the leadership of the bank, not being willing to spend enough money on the right type of people.

I said, Okay, and then we talked about that for a while.

Then we talked about some other issues at the bank and so forth.

We went back to it and I said, Do you still think that’s the number one issue?

And she said, well actually come to think of it, we would probably if I had to replace all the people, a whole lot of them don’t really need replacing they need better training.

So what we really need is better training.

And I said, Okay, well, what’s it gonna take to get that and we started talking about the solution to that issue, and we started going a little bit deeper.

Never be satisfied when you’re working with someone on trying to solve a problem, whether it’s in your own organization, or whether attend somebody else’s, or whether someone else is helping you to bind the problem, don’t be satisfied with the first thing that comes to mind, or the first thing that comes to their mind.

What you have to do is go a little deeper, look at it from a couple of different angles.

Question the way you’re thinking about it, question the way you have thought about up until now, and question them in the same manner without being accusatory.

Because I don’t know what the right answer is. I don’t know if the right answer is what she’s providing. I do know that she thinks about it a little bit differently, just from me asking her questions about things that she already knew.

But most of us don’t take the time to dig down deep into solving a problem.

Most of us just get consumed with the fact that there is a problem.

We don’t like the problem and we tend to hold on to it and resent it throughout the day or what have you.

I’m working more and more with clients and with the people around my clients and partners who have issues that they’re not resolving. And they’re holding on to it and they’re holding it in their back pocket.

They’re not being honest with themselves and with other people for what that problem is. But it takes going a little bit deeper.

Don’t take the first idea as necessarily the right idea. Keep going a little bit deeper, because it might be something you don’t necessarily see.

Hopefully, that’s helpful for you. That’s all I have for tonight.

I’m here in sunny Alabama on the coast, the Oregon beach, over on the on the Gulf of Mexico, having a fabulous time going to be given a speech tomorrow morning, so I’m going to try and get some sleep. If it’s late where you are you get some sleep too but otherwise, we’ll see you tomorrow. Have a good one.

Get out there and let the magic happen.

The One Thing You Need, Is An Outside Man 🧑‍⚖️ (Benefits of a Consultant)

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Thoughts on having an outside consultant that understands your business and methods to provide objective advice.

Transcription

The one thing you need is an outside man.

Hi I’m Brian Pombo, welcome back to Brian J. Pombo Live.

Today, I want to talk with you about this concept of an outside man, because I was having a conversation with a friend and a potential business partner, we’re in the process of we’re looking at, some systems that he’s building.

And he said something that really stood out, he said, you know, I need help from somebody like you, because you understand the principles, but you’re also on the outside, I’m stuck on the inside of the business, looking at the inside of the business, and handling all the details. I know all this stuff about the inside but I need someone on the outside, that can tell me how it looks, it could tell me how it’s being viewed by the public and could tell me, you know, the consumer point of view.

It stuck in my head, and when I sat down to talk with you tonight, I wanted to bring this up, because that really is what everybody needs, myself included.

Everybody I’ve ever worked with needs at least one outside man.

And when I say man, I mean person, okay.

It doesn’t matter the sex or gender, okay.

You need somebody that’s on the outside that you have common principles with, that you know, that they understand business, they are and they understand the style of business that you have.

Maybe they understand the industry that you’re in, but they also can give you the perspective of the customer, they can give you the perspective of the just a different perspective, you need somebody that’s on the outside looking in because you are always on the inside looking out.

This is where masterminds have come in handy.

You know, sometimes, because that’s more than one person, you also have to take into account, I remember, one of the first masterminds I went to for business, I’d come away and I had a long drive to go to this one.

And I’d come back to driving home and going, especially when they really hit the nail on the head on something in my mind would tell me, well, they don’t know. They’re not in it every day like I am, they don’t get all the details of this business, they don’t understand the nuances and then all the things that I have to go through on a daily basis, they can’t possibly know.

But on the same end, what they were telling me I needed to hear. And that’s why it was sticking, and you have to go through that growth process of putting yourself in front of somebody else.

Now, everything they come up with is not going to be correct.

But the stuff that sticks, the stuff that you know is true, deep down, that’s the stuff you need to hear, and you need to hear it more than once.

Because chances are you hear at once it’s not gonna completely stick, you’re gonna easily be able to pass it by or get distracted by a shiny object, you know, we all do it.

But if you have someone there, that’s consistent, that builds with you, that understands where you’re going. But they’re still on the outside that they don’t have…sometimes they don’t excuse me, they don’t necessarily need a financial stake.

The best thing to do is to have them on some type of retainer, at least, you want to you want to encourage the best out of them.

And, and having that type of situation is really helpful.

But you need an outside person, find yourself an outside person, I’m happy to be the outside person for a lot of my clients. So I come in, and I’ll say the things that they weren’t ready to hear. But I’m consistent with it.

I’m consistent with repeating myself taking my time, I’m patient, I allow people to grow at their own speed and it’s a relationship.

It’s a give and take, but it’s very much an outside perspective.

It’s not everything, but it’s a huge piece that most business owners are missing. And you know, when you’re missing it when you just you can feel that you’re not seeing the whole picture, it’s nearly impossible to see the outside from the inside.

So hopefully that makes sense.

Hey, if you’d like to have more of a perspective, another great way to get perspective is by reading books, by reading books of people that you connect with, and reading ideas that kind of binge your mind a little bit.

This is a great book. I know because I wrote it. It’s nine ways to Amazon-Proof Your Business.

You can get a free copy at AmazonProofBook.com so you go check it out.

If you like it, you can always buy the hardbound version. Easy to get you to get it anywhere books are sold. It’s called, 9 Ways to Amazon-Proof Your Business. AmazonProofBook.com.

We’ll be back here tomorrow night.

In the meantime, you get out there and let the magic happen.

Business Coaching: Positioning To Win (Bob Regnerus: Feedstories)

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Bob from Feedstories talks about the importance of the role of the coach in sports and in your business.

Transcription

Brian: Coaching the sport versus coaching a business person with their marketing and so forth. What are the similarities, and what are the differences?

What do you like most about that aspect of it?

Bob: Coaching is the same, no matter what sports or business coach is not there to play the game coaches on the sidelines, the coach is preparing the players, the coach is coming up with plays and going over strategy, and putting the pieces in place to make a team more successful.

Same thing in business, right?

I’m not running your business, I’m not there, doing everything for you.

Like, if I’m there doing something for you, then I should be like an equity partner or a state, you know what I mean?

Like, I should be paid differently.

I come in as a coach, and it’s like, no, we’re going to talk about strategy. We’re going to talk about how you win. We’re going to talk about positioning people in the right place, we’re going to talk about things that have some lasting value.

But in the end, it’s really up to you to be successful, okay.

Now, a coach shares in the success probably shares in the blame more than the success. If a team loses, I try to absorb as much of that as possible, like I didn’t prepare you enough, or I didn’t put people in the right place.

But you know, there’s a shared sense of responsibility, but ultimately, the person playing the game, the person on the court, the person in that business is ultimately responsible.

And I think it’s a really good relationship for people.

I don’t want business owners advocating their responsibility to a consultant or something like that. It doesn’t make sense to me, because then ultimately, do you really own that business if you give up the responsibility for its success or failure?

A good relationship for me is going to be one that I may be doing some services for you but ultimately, we’re in a relationship where I’m giving you the skills and helping you win when it comes to business or a high school basketball game.

Brian: That’s great. It’s a great way of looking at it.

Outro: For full conversations, go to BJP chats.com.

Strategic Checklist: Part 3

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Sign up for a Strategy Session Today➡️ BrianJPombo.com/Amazon