Explore every episode of the podcast Productive Insights Podcast — Actionable Business Growth Ideas — with Ash Roy
| Title | Pub. Date | Duration | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 228.Achieve Financial and Personal Freedom by Growing Your Brand and Your Business Online | 22 Apr 2024 | 00:48:09 | |
Summary: In this episode, host Ash Roy engages with entrepreneur and content creator Justin Welsh, delving into unique content creation strategies and the art of building genuine connections on social media platforms like LinkedIn and Twitter. Justin shares insights into his Creator Funnel concept, the LinkedIn funnel, and practical tips for crafting compelling content. He emphasizes the importance of authenticity, empathy, and consistency in building a personal brand and fostering meaningful relationships online. Throughout the conversation, Justin shares personal anecdotes, valuable advice, and actionable strategies for aspiring content creators and entrepreneurs. | |||
| 225. Profitable Scaling, AI, and Content Marketing | 27 Dec 2023 | 00:47:25 | |
Dive into the riveting journey of digital marketing maven Neil Patel on the Productive Insights podcast, expertly guided by the dynamic host Ash Roy. From toilet scrubber at an amusement park to the architect of NP Digital's $100 million annual revenue, Neil shares gripping stories, challenges, and golden insights in the ever-evolving world of digital marketing. This lively conversation spans the realms of business growth, scaling strategies, and leadership, peppered with Neil's practical tips for content creators. Buckle up for a rollercoaster of inspiration as Neil's narrative unfolds, offering entrepreneurs a thrilling ride. Key points: 00:00:42 Neil's Humble Beginnings
00:01:27:05 Building NP Digital
00:02:03:08 Neil's Expertise in Digital Marketing
00:02:29:08 Dealing with Growth Slowdown
00:02:41:19 Leveraging Technology and Staying on the Cutting Edge
00:03:23:22Scaling Internationally
00:15:52Starting Out and Scaling
00:18:43 The Challenge of Saying "No" and Focus
00:19:33 Saying "No" and Focus on Profitability
00:21:34 International Expansion and Growth
00:23:31 Balancing Revenue and Profit
00:26:26 Hiring Strategies for Success
00:30:57 Generosity, Empathy, and Content Creation
00:35:15 Choosing to Stay Private
Links mentioned: www.productiveinsights.com/147 www.productiveinsights.com/200 www.productiveinsights.com/222 Quotes:
Introduction 00:00:00:02 - 00:00:25:10 Ash Roy If you're looking to build your brand using digital marketing strategies, then you're in for a treat. Today's episode on the Productive Insights podcast features the legendary Neil Patel. Neil is someone I'm proud to call a friend. He's received multiple awards over the last 20 years and has also been recognized by President Barack Obama for his incredible contributions in the field of digital marketing and entrepreneurship. Neil happened to be the first guest on the Productive Insights podcast. You can go back and check it out on episode one and you can listen to how green I was back then. And in this episode, Neil shares his story, which starts from a very humble beginning, where he was picking up trash at an amusement park. 00:00:42:04 - 00:01:10:14 Neil Patel I'm 38. That was when I was 15 and a half. I was able to get my first job and it was from minimum wage at that time was $5.75 an hour. Technically, they're able to pay me a little bit under minimum wage. I don't know why. Maybe because I was at 16 and it was clean restrooms and picking up trash at a theme park. And I loved cleaning the restrooms because when I clean the Russians leave, they're paying extra $0.25 or $0.50 an hour to clean the toilets was a really messy job because of the theme park. 00:01:10:16 - 00:01:27:04 Ash Roy He worked his way through some very challenging situations. He started KISSmetrics, he sold it, and then he built his own consulting business, which later on turned into an agency now known as NP Digital, and it currently makes around about $100 million a year in revenue. 00:01:27:05 - 00:01:44:20 Neil Patel It tried to create a cloud computing company before that was really popular. Before there's Amazon Web Services. From my understanding, maybe I'm getting my timing off, but I'm pretty sure before this was big, we're trying to do cloud computing and it didn't work out and burn $1,000,000 of borrowed money and eventually had to pay it back. So it's like NAYLOR. 00:01:44:20 - 00:02:03:07 Ash Roy Shared his entire story from his very humble beginnings all the way through to where he is today. He shares what he's done to become a dominant force in his chosen industry, which is digital marketing. Neil is an expert in search engine optimization, content creation, pay per click advertising and lots more. 00:02:03:08 - 00:02:15:14 Neil Patel I don't really see being able to have six months to year ahead where they're integrating stories that are so amazing that people want to read. I think people under or overestimate what I can do in the short run and they underestimate what it can do in the long run. 00:02:15:18 - 00:02:29:07 Ash Roy In this episode, we also talk about what you can do when growth starts to slow down and how you can stay on the cutting edge of your field while still producing results and leveraging technology efficiently. 00:02:29:08 - 00:02:41:18 Neil Patel I learned this great piece of advice. I'm going to use it. If your company is growing at a nice pace, just tell these folks and keep doing what you're doing. The moment here, growth slows down. Start looking at other things to do to speed it up. 00:02:41:19 - 00:03:02:07 Ash Roy In today's world of AI. This is particularly important and relevant. And finally, we talk about how to build amazing products, create great user experiences, and build services that your customers continue to come back for and enable you to build a brand that prevails and succeeds against all the odds. 00:03:02:08 - 00:03:23:16 Neil Patel Let's give you a hypothetical right here. If someone's established business, you make over $100 million a year in a market like the United States. When you have a bad market, it most likely your numbers are going to start getting hurt your growth. Then suddenly number three and start going backwards. But on the flip side, if you're in a new market, let's say you could just expand to the United Kingdom, which has a good GDP and you're at $0 in revenue. 00:03:23:22 - 00:03:42:01 Neil Patel Good market, bad market doesn't matter. You're going to close something you shouldn't be. So you're going to be better off than where you were before. And in a good market, close more in a bad market cause that'll be slower. And that's why we're growing still at a decent clip is because we're adding a ton internationally. 00:03:42:01 - 00:04:20:02 Ash Roy So tune in and enjoy. Before we go, there's one more thing I wanted to share with you. Only about 10% of you that are watching this video have actually subscribed to our YouTube channel. So please go ahead and subscribe. Because the more you see these videos, the more you like them and the more you leave comments under the videos on YouTube, the more likely they are to be seen by more people. The bigger our audience gets and the better quality guess we can get you. You've got some great guests lined up for 2024. Please do like and subscribe and share this with other people who might benefit so we can get you more content just like this. Thanks again. Thanks again. I appreciate your support and I look forward to seeing you in the comments. 00:04:20:04 - 00:05:20:23 Ash Roy Welcome back. Today, I am delighted to welcome the oldest friend of the Productive Insights podcast, our very first guest from episode number one, and that's Neil Patel, the founder of NPR Digital. The Wall Street Journal calls him the top influencer of the Web. He's a New York Times best selling author and was recognized as a top 100 entrepreneur under the age of 30 by President Obama and a top 100 entrepreneur under the age of 35 by the United Nations. He's received congressional recognition from the United States House of Representatives, most recently AMP Digital. That's Neil's company was awarded Best Workplace in 2023. For the second year in a row, they were chosen out of 591 applicants as an MP digital partner. We add productive insights are delighted and proud to welcome back Neil Patel from NPR Digital dot com. And today we're going to talk about profitable scaling, artificial intelligence, content marketing, and lots more. So welcome back, Neil, to the Productive Insights Podcast. 00:05:21:03 - 00:05:28:04 Neil Patel Thank you for having me. And if I can keep in mind, it's not you, it's me. I have jetlag. So I just got back from the UK. 00:05:28:06 - 00:05:37:18 Ash Roy Wow. So you've been traveling a lot and actually I was watching a conversation you had with Matt Gray and you were saying you travel 35 weeks of the year, which is a lot. How do you manage that? 00:05:37:18 - 00:06:32:06 Neil Patel You get used to it over time, but right now it's a little hectic because I'm traveling every single week internationally. So it was funny because one of my buddies has a private jet and he's just like, Do you know the average person? It takes flights that are under 3 hours. And I'm looking at my most recent flights over the last like ten flights. And I think my average is a little bit above 10 hours. Wow. So it's very heavily international in London and a few days off to go to Germany. Then I think after going to Dubai after that, then Romania, then Dubai again. And when I do these trips, keep in mind, I go there, I fly back to the States, I go there, fly back to the States. Well, when I was single, without children is easier because I just go from location to location, which saved a lot of time. But I miss my kids and my wife and my family also misses me. So I can go back for a few days and then I'm back on the road. 00:06:32:08 - 00:06:45:03 Ash Roy I was going to ask a really young family that must be hard. And just to give our listeners some context, I want to put some clarity around the private jet remark because a lot of people would take the wrong idea from it. 00:06:45:04 - 00:06:52:09 Neil Patel I'm flying commercial, by the way. I was saying, my friend as a private jet was telling me the average flight that someone takes is under 3 hours. 00:06:52:13 - 00:07:05:08 Ash Roy Thank you for clarifying that. And that's something that I really like and admire about you, which I don't think you do a lot of justice in your content because focused on technical value driven. 00:07:05:10 - 00:08:00:20 Neil Patel I've thought about a private jet. So I go to India. India is roughly, call it 40 hours total roundtrip. I'm around me, it's roughly 40. If I get a deal on a plane, that can take me far enough. You're roughly looking at $10,000 an hour because keep in mind, there's cost for landing and fuel and plane maintenance putting up the pilots and the crew. You need multiple pilots. When you go to India, you need a massive plane because it's such a far journey. But when you just think about that just for a minute, you're talking about the musical cost me $400,000 for a round trip. I'm not saying I do this, but if I wanted to splurging on first class on Emirates, which has a shower and everything, 20 grand, they're better off donating. The $380,000 is someone who needs the money. Then you're waste 400 grand on a flight that long. Now, if I was Elon Musk or Bill Gates, it probably doesn't matter at that point in life, but I'm not them. For me, I'd rather donate the. 00:08:00:20 - 00:08:15:21 Ash Roy Money, and that's what I want to talk about a little bit. You donate a lot of your money and your wife specializes in this and I really like that you guys have this sort of combination, right? You're the guy who makes the money and your wife gives the money away a little bit like Warren Buffett and Bill Gates. 00:08:16:02 - 00:08:54:18 Neil Patel So talk to us and then clarify. I does not specialize in it. That's what she focuses on. She's been learning quite a bit over the years, but she loves it. It makes her happy. It also makes her cry a lot. So we joke is my wife's donation varies a lot based on the tier factor that my friend and I joke with my wife about this. The more she cries, the more she does. She don't. It's from her heart. I donate based on logic. I'm like, you want the money? Okay, you're trying to solve poverty. How much more? Our kids were less hungry in the last 12 months because of your efforts. Like I look at the stats in the data and my wife who genuinely donates from the heart, I'm not saying my approach is right or my wife's approach is right, but a combo of both them is genuinely pretty good. 00:08:54:22 - 00:08:59:14 Ash Roy So at what point did you start donating money like go? 00:08:59:16 - 00:09:04:04 Neil Patel When we first started this interview, I was donated. Back then I wasn't donating as much. 00:09:04:04 - 00:09:07:13 Ash Roy Right? Approximately what proportion of your wealth you give away? 00:09:07:19 - 00:10:02:13 Neil Patel Not that much. Right now. Presented to the world that single digit for percentiles really, really tiny on an annual basis. And it's actually very, very low single digit percentile just be super clear. Even when I look at portion of income I generate on an annual basis, I'm donating less than 10% of my income on an annual basis. By the time my wife and I pass away, we will end up donating close to 100%. Right. But I do hold most my cash. I'm not the most generous person. I'm not trying to paint myself out to be a saint. I'm not that I'm capitalist, just being transparent. I love making money for the sport of it and I don't know why, but I can't stop. And sometimes I wish I could just stop and just be that dad because it plays soccer football with my kids and go to the park. That's honestly not me. I just love business and making more money. I'll spend time with my kids. I read puzzles with my kids or random stuff. 00:10:02:13 - 00:10:04:18 Ash Roy You're a good driver, is that correct? 00:10:04:20 - 00:10:05:05 Neil Patel I'm good. 00:10:05:06 - 00:10:06:20 Ash Roy Off the blood, man. 00:10:06:22 - 00:10:36:02 Neil Patel Yeah. I should donate more. I'll donate more before we pass. I keep majority of the cash for more business to grow and make more money. And again, I should change that. But it's hard right now in my prime when I love what I'm doing. And I hope that by me investing more into business, it compounds faster. We still give some every year, but maybe at the end when we give it all away, it'll have a much greater impact. My wife is on the flip side. She's like, People need it now. We should give more of it now. So just to try to find a balance. 00:10:36:04 - 00:10:51:10 Ash Roy Well, I just want to thank you for your transparency and your honesty. I really appreciate that. I know you also said in the first million podcast that you don't want to just give money away to your kids, which I deeply admire and respect. 00:10:51:15 - 00:11:27:05 Neil Patel The biggest mistake I made was I put one of my businesses shares in a trust for my children. As my children are walking around in Elizabeth, they're too young to understand. I put some shares of a company in a trust and I ended up giving them too much. You know, at this point, I don't know what happened, but in theory, my kids will walk away with nine figures each at the age of one and three right now. So I wish I had that as much in a trust. So when I say I don't want to give them anything, some of it's already too late. Legally, I can't just break the trust. It's irrevocable. That was the biggest mistake. 00:11:27:07 - 00:11:31:01 Ash Roy Your view is to give away the money where it's needed most. Is that right? 00:11:31:06 - 00:11:36:12 Neil Patel That's right. And when I made those changes, I was much younger and it was a big mistake. But living life. 00:11:36:17 - 00:11:37:16 Ash Roy Yeah, well. 00:11:37:19 - 00:13:12:02 Neil Patel So my goal is to give it away. And for the people running the trust to also use it for nonprofit and donation purposes and instilling that in my children, I'm not going to be a co-parent. And what I mean by that, and that's actually a bad way to put it. I don't think that if someone doesn't give their kids anything that's not called, that's actually a very incorrect statement to me to say I will give my kids something if they need it. And here's what I mean. If my kids are on the street with no food and they're sick, you better bet I'm going to give them a house. I'm going to give them a house in Beverly Hills, but I give them a normal house and food and shelter. Or like if my kids are cancer and they can't afford a treatment, I will gladly pay for that treatment. So, like, there is nothing and more importantly, what they don't even understand the amount of relationships and business connections that they've already met at their young age is quite ridiculous. Imagine a three year old and a one year old doing dinner with your friends, and your friends are billionaires and they've done this multiple times with different people who have billions of dollars. And I'm not saying having those dollars makes you great or not having it makes you bad or good. Those who have lost sight. But if you look at it from a neutral perspective, typically people for that wealth are usually business owners of the people I know who are that wealthy are business owners. And if my kids want to do anything in their life, they're getting to know these parents for willing. Well-off parents are getting to know the kids. The kids are getting to know their kids, and their kids are getting like they're building amazing network and Rolodex at such a young age. 00:13:12:04 - 00:13:14:05 Ash Roy And hopefully they'll use it for good. 00:13:14:07 - 00:14:08:21 Neil Patel That's correct. You never know. The time will tell. And I'm still bad. Like the other day, I was at a jewelry store and as expensive when I was called Harry Winston and they had a mother's Day present for my wife. They give mothers a present like a gold plated plate or whatever it was, cookies and stuff. My little three year old love story and her birthday's coming up soon. I was like, What's the cheapest jewelry you have in here? And there's like, this pendant for 30 $500. I show it to my trailer and she's like, I love it. And she's turning four tomorrow. And I'm like, You want my honey? And then she's like, She looks like a princess. And then, here you go. So I'm like, not again. I'm not a saint. I shouldn't be buying a little kid that 30 $500 a jewelry piece and a butter, many pieces of jewelry to probably break it up for a month and that's it. But like the see the smile on my little kids face? And she's like, I'm going to be a princess for my birthday. And I was like, You go get it, honey. 00:14:08:23 - 00:14:49:08 Ash Roy Fair enough. So let's switch back to when you started. You started from very humble beginnings, and I want to sort of undo this million dollar this and million dollar that. And everyone's talking about revenue and not talking enough about profit or cash flow, which we'll touch on a little bit later. But you started cleaning toilets at an amusement park. So talk to our viewers about that. And at one point, if I'm not mistaken, you were $1,000,000 in debt. So let's talk about the really difficult side of business. You're doing $100 million a year now, but that's not how it always was. And I want people to hear and understand that it doesn't happen overnight. So can you talk to us a bit about that? 00:14:49:12 - 00:15:52:11 Neil Patel I'm 38. That was when I was 15 and a half. I was able to get my first job and it was from minimum wage at that time was $5.75 an hour. Technically, they're able to pay me a little bit under minimum wage. I don't know why. Maybe because I was at 16 and it was cleaning restrooms and picking up trash at a theme park. And I love cleaning the restrooms because when I clean the restrooms, the paying extra $0.25 or $0.50 an hour to clean the toilets was a really messy job because of the theme park. You can imagine a theme park with roller coasters and kid roller, not the little kids. So I did it to make more money. I wanted a better life. So you do whatever for the cash and eventually I tried starting some businesses. My first one was the job board failed miserably. Eventually, I tried to create a cloud computing company. Before that was really popular. Before there's Amazon Web Services for my understanding, Maybe I'm getting my timing off, but I'm pretty sure before this was big, we were trying to do cloud computing and it didn't work out and burning million dollars of borrowed money and eventually had to pay it back. So it's like. 00:15:52:13 - 00:15:54:00 Ash Roy How did you get yourself out of that hole? 00:15:54:05 - 00:15:58:20 Neil Patel I was doing consulting at the same time and helping people grow their traffic on the Internet, so that helped a lot. 00:15:58:22 - 00:16:14:10 Ash Roy So that brings up another question, and this is about scaling. I have found that there's a lot of talk about blitz scaling and scaling, but before you scale, you have to own scalable stuff. Would you agree or you don't agree? And why or why not? 00:16:14:12 - 00:16:48:11 Neil Patel Depends on the business. If I'm trying to start a software company from day one and it's a meta software company, I'm creating a CRM. Let's take a deal with Salesforce and HubSpot and the list goes on and on. Zoho Sugar CRM, you may not need to do as much manual stuff because you're in a older industry that's established that already has a lot of systems and processes built. So you may not have to worry too much about scalability because you can get that early on. On the flip side, if you're doing something new, a lot of times you're going to have to grind it out and things aren't as scalable as they should be. 00:16:48:11 - 00:16:54:01 Ash Roy So when you started, did you start off with scalability in mind or did you start off with. 00:16:54:07 - 00:17:15:03 Neil Patel Wanting to wrap up by just thinking about making money? And how has it there is no like, I need to make it scalable or I need to make it super efficient. And so my marginal profit, I'm just like, how much revenue can I make and how much of that drops to the bottom line and goes in my pocket? That was it. When you're starting off, it's for most people it's much more basic. 00:17:15:08 - 00:17:39:18 Ash Roy Yeah. And in your conversation with Matt Gray, I noticed you said one of your pet peeves is people don't make revenue fast enough and they don't ship fast enough. They sort of sit in paralysis for a long time. And I have to confess, I was guilty of this and I'm still sometimes guilty of it. How do you bring yourself to get too done and not get caught up in the whole perfection thing? 00:17:39:20 - 00:18:43:19 Neil Patel That's a tough one. And I don't know the honest answer for that. And here's why I'll say that when you're going out there and just trying to get things done, you just have to have the mentality that it's okay not to be perfect and just ship stuff and get feedback. I don't know the real secret or solution. I think it's more the mentality than anything about putting a rocket into space that falls. There's not that many repercussions. First rocket into space. Sure, people could die, but you know, when you're talking about building a software company, you have no paying customers. Who cares? Just get it out there and give feedback. What do you have to lose? And I think that's where people make the mistake because they overanalyze. They genuinely just overanalyze. And I don't know why. Instead of just trying to get it out there, get no secret shit out there, you do. Okay? You don't get other you don't do those, okay? Like not rocket science. If it's not perfect, you got it out there. You're dead. You learn from your mistakes if it's great. lucky you, because most people don't experience that right away. Right? Like it's more of a mental thing. Can you get over it? 00:18:43:21 - 00:19:14:13 Ash Roy I really like how honest and open you're being in this conversation, So thank you. Something you also said was one of your biggest mistakes was not being focused enough when you were younger and you are more focused now. In episode 147, I spoke to Noah Kagan about this as well, and he said, you know, being able to say no is an important skill. How do you say no? And more importantly, what things do you say yes to? What sort of filters do you have in business when picking projects? 00:19:14:17 - 00:19:33:11 Neil Patel I say no to most things and I'll say yes. So my main business and that's it. So I was at dinner one time and this guy does not remember there was a guy named Brian Leder, Brian Lee, critic. She does a lot with Kim Kardashian, legalism and honest company and a few other companies. Honest companies with Jessica Alba. 00:19:33:15 - 00:19:34:09 Ash Roy That's right. 00:19:34:11 - 00:21:34:18 Neil Patel Brian taught me something and I didn't understand it back then. And they took their advice for granted. And when I say I took it for granted, I was like, yeah, I learned this great piece of advice. I'm going to use it. And I didn't take it from Brian from a mental note standpoint, but like bullshit on me for not using it, right? I did not use it and I was super arrogant. I was going, Do you know, I know what I'm doing. But Brian once said, If your company is growing at a nice pace, just tell these folks and keep doing what you're doing. The moment your growth slows down, start looking at other things to do to speed it up. So. NP Digital. All right, you're based in Australia, right? We have Australia Division. I don't know if you knew that we have anti digital in Australia as well. I do because there you go. And Dan ends up running it. That's right. So now and we have a lot of different divisions economy is bad. I'm not here to tell you we're booming when a lot of people in marketing are struggling animals, competitors and they know a lot of their numbers because they share. Did you know our internation when you look at year to date numbers and you compare the year to year has grown roughly 74%. Wow. In this economy. So what are we doing to create more growth? We started the year with Australia, the UK, Brazil, India, Canada, the US would make it six. We also had Germany, but the Germany guy didn't work out and he didn't want to do any work. We both decided to part ways, not try and talk trash is the reality. Yeah, so he just wants something else alive. So those are the five regions right now. We're in roughly May 19, May 28 that in a year timezone is May 20th while recording this. So you got those by region six if you include the United States. We've already added Italy, Spain, Singapore, Mexico, Colombia, Malaysia, Hong Kong, Japan. We're about to add France. So now you're looking at nine regions that we've topped up in roughly five months. 00:21:34:18 - 00:21:35:18 Ash Roy Wow. 00:21:35:20 - 00:22:12:01 Neil Patel Because we're seeing growth and the growth isn't coming from these new nine that we've popped up. It's coming from the existing five and we're like a half the revenue really is international, which we knew, but we need to see the data because it's expensive to spend all this money to expand overseas. It cost millions of dollars per region. Our original projections are nothing for region, but that's not the case, sadly. It's much more by the end of this year, including the United States will probably be somewhere around 23 to 25 regions that will be in countries. When I say regions like we're pushing hard for future growth and international expansion. 00:22:12:04 - 00:22:17:07 Ash Roy So what's driving this growth? How are you having this success when the rest of the market is shrinking? 00:22:17:09 - 00:23:12:07 Neil Patel We're not just focused on the US. If you're established business, let's give you a hypothetical right here. If some of the established business you make over $100 million a year in a market like the United States, when you have a bad market, most likely your numbers are going to start getting hurt. Your growth is going to suddenly start going backwards. But on the flip side, if you're in a new market, let's say you could just expand to the United Kingdom, which has a good GDP and you at $0 in revenue, good market, bad market, it doesn't matter. You're going to close something you shouldn't be, so you're going to be better off than where you were before. And in a good market. Close more in a bad market, close a little, be slower and that's why we're growing still at a decent clip is because we're adding a ton internationally. You are not seeing the revenues from all these international regions yet because we've been adding so many. I think not next year, 2025 will be our year is not done with, but. 00:23:12:13 - 00:23:31:04 Ash Roy Okay, let's talk about revenue versus profit. You know, I put on my CPA or my MBA hat and I can tell you that if you're doing and I'm not talking about you, I'm saying if a business is doing 10 million, 100 million, whatever a year, but if they're spending 11 million or 111 million to make that revenue, you're worse off than the guy on the side of the street in the cardboard box. Ash Roy Right? 00:23:31:04 - 00:24:16:15 Neil Patel Because you're broke in theory, yes. Unless your company is valued on revenue, which some are like a lot of SAS are. But the public markets now want profit and investors now want profit unless you're growing like 40, 50% year over year. They're a little flexible. But if you don't have the growth numbers, which most people don't have the profit. And then the other problem that's changed is before there were okay with no profit, we have 40, 50% growth. But if you keep having 40, 50% growth and your losses just keep compounding each year faster than your growth, there is a problem. So that's why yeah, I'm a good draw. The end you're familiar with with my kind that we were to a young age that a business is someone that makes profit, not revenue irrelevant number. 00:24:16:19 - 00:24:42:04 Ash Roy So let's talk about that. I want to just drill down to that. How do you ensure profitability? Because I'm sick and tired of hearing people talking about revenue numbers. Revenue is not important and it doesn't impress me. What impresses me is profit. And I know you're profitable, but my question is how do you focus on profitable revenue, as it were, and as importantly, if not more importantly, how do you ensure cash flow is always healthy. 00:24:42:09 - 00:25:59:06 Neil Patel Good financial team? They do going to economics and they make sure everything we do is profitable and good leadership. See, my CEO was president of I Prospect, which is an agency global agency. He managed I don't know how many thousands of people, but a lot and he works at a publicly traded company and one of them was one of their best divisions. So he had to run things based on a quarterly basis. Now, we don't run things on a quarterly basis, but you got to optimize for revenue and profit and things like that. So that's important. The other one to think about for us is in this economy, our profit is going down drastically, not because we can't maintain it and grow it. It's going down because we're investing so heavily internationally and technically that's not considered profit. When you look at accounting rules, we still have great profit, but we're taking the cash flow, we're looking at the profit, we're paying taxes on it, and then we're reinvesting it for international growth based on our auditors. RSM and BDO. That's the correct way we need to do it. So technically we still have great profit, we have terrible cash flow because we're taking all the profits and reinvesting them for international expansion and growth, which is going to make us suffer from an income standpoint for the next two years, which I'm okay with. 00:25:59:06 - 00:26:12:19 Ash Roy And you know, I've got to say that I double revenue for a few years in a row, which was great, but I was reinvesting all of my profits back into the business. And that is what I've found. If you want to drive growth, you've got to reinvest. Would you agree? 00:26:12:21 - 00:26:26:18 Neil Patel You do. It's painful. Hey, you got it. I wish that wasn't the case. I'll be much happier with my pocketbook if that wasn't the case. But it's like. And you know what? If you love what you're doing and you believe it, then go for it. 00:26:26:18 - 00:27:02:23 Ash Roy As you say, if you love what you're doing and you don't work a day in your life, which is the case for me. I used to hate working in the corporate world as an analyst, but ever since I started Productive Insights, I've never been happier, so I couldn't agree more with that. You mentioned you have hired good quality financial people. Tell me a little bit about your approach to hiring, because I think hiring is one of the most important skills when it comes to building a great company with a great culture, which also your press release said that one of the reasons you were voted for the INC workplace thing for the second year in a row is because you have a good culture. So talk to us about hiring and culture. 00:27:03:02 - 00:28:35:19 Neil Patel I'm not the right person to talk to about culture. I don't want to bullshit you and tell you this are critical to good culture. My co-founder does all that hiring. We use one simple strategy. We look to see who's worked for multiple of our competitors because if they worked for multiple competitors, they know your space. We look for people who stay there for a while because that means they're loyal and we look for people who got promoted consistently at our competitors. So if you're hiring someone for a role that they've done in the past and they worked at your competitors and they've continually got promoted, that means other people found them valuable. See, when you interview people, people tend to bullshit. I did really well and I dropped this revenue and I'm the boss and this is why this company was successful. The truth is usually somewhere in between of what they're saying, what the company says and when you hire someone who's worked at your competition or multiple competitors, they've gone continually promoted at both places. It means other people found them to be valuable. Those are the people you typically want because when they say they can do something, usually they can or else they want to be continually promoted. That's the strategy to hire, hit them up on LinkedIn, and we don't ever say, Hey, Ash, love what you're doing. We want to hire you. That we found that doesn't work. We'll be like, Hey, Ash, love what you done in Australia. This ad agency, assuming we're hiring you to run an ad agency in Australia, we're actually looking for someone just like you because your skill set. Do you know anyone who would be a great fit? And that's it. And then a lot of times you ask, we'll be like, Actually, I'm interested, but that's a job to people. 00:28:35:19 - 00:28:37:19 Ash Roy And it's also a great way to actually. 00:28:37:19 - 00:28:44:15 Neil Patel Sort of go directly and say, Come work for us. We found that to be too direct and not reference. Well, that. 00:28:44:15 - 00:29:20:15 Ash Roy Also applies very well to sales, right? Because when you say to somebody, I'm looking for some I have a membership program, for example, I often reach out and say, I'm looking to get other members just like you because similar to a company, I think if you want to build a great membership and I've got some really great members in my membership program, you got to hand-pick the people and you got to build a good culture. You've got to bring the right members in because one crappy member can just poison the well. So that's a great way to ask them if they know other people like them. And it's a very nice, noninvasive way to recruit members, as it were. 00:29:20:17 - 00:29:21:06 Neil Patel Yes. 00:29:21:06 - 00:29:25:13 Ash Roy I didn't know you had a co-founder. I assumed you were the only founder of NP Digital. 00:29:25:14 - 00:29:38:03 Neil Patel I owned the majority of the company by far, and I have a co-founder. His name is Mike. Amazing Guy has done an extremely well in operations, great background for recruiting and sales. And then funny enough, my CEO is also named Mike. 00:29:38:07 - 00:29:45:08 Ash Roy Okay, right now tell me about NP Digital's mission and how did you arrive at that mission? 00:29:45:11 - 00:30:32:09 Neil Patel When we started, our overall goal was to do marketing. I'm a marketer and I was tired of paying marketing people to help us out and they just weren't doing it right. And when I say right, it was just to my standards, whatever they may be. And I'm not saying my standards are great or bad or good, you know, people can judge them on their own. And I was just looking for people who are scrappy. I was tired of hearing like, you need more budget, you need to spend more. I'm like, okay, how about you get creative, You need budget. Your competitors spend way more than you. So then I want to build a team that was creative and and who were willing to try cutting edge experiments and tactics. Not unethical because I know a lot of marketing stuff can be unethical, but more cutting edge and try to produce results for people and be super creative while doing it and leverage technology to be more efficient. That's how we ended up starting. 00:30:32:13 - 00:30:57:11 Ash Roy On the ethical point, I spoke to Seth Godin about this in episode 200, and we talked a lot about empathy and he talked about generosity. Now, I noticed that you are very generous, not just in terms of, say, donations. You're more generous than most people I know, but also in terms of your content and in terms of the value you're trying to give to your audience. So can you talk a little bit about that? It's not spoken about enough generosity and empathy in business.& | |||
| 224. How to Grow Your Brand and Authority Using Content with Bernadette Schwerdt | 24 Nov 2023 | 00:34:27 | |
If you are looking to grow your brand and authority using content then join us as we dive deep into the world of copywriting mastery with our game-changing episode!
Uncover the blueprint for crafting content that captivates and converts.
We will unravel the strategies to understand your audience at a deep level and turbocharge your copy for success!
In this video, we'll explore how Bernadette Schwerdt founder of Copyschool empowered business owners.
Join us on a journey through insights and techniques that have proven to be instrumental in fostering brand growth and establishing a compelling presence in the market. | |||
| 223. How Primal Video built their YouTube community from 0 to 1.5 million subscribers | 19 May 2023 | 01:04:04 | |
Looking to obtain a massive YouTube following? Look no further than Primal Video! This YouTube channel combines fitness, food, and travel content in an engaging and entertaining way, which has helped them gain a subscriber base of 1.5 million people.
In this video, we'll take a look at how Primal Video built its 1.5 million subscriber YouTube community, from start to finish. We'll explore their unique style of content production, their strategies for engagement and amplification, and the tools and strategies they use to grow their channel. By the end of this video, you'll have everything you need to build a successful YouTube channel of your own!
This is an absolute masterclass on how Justin Brown and his brother Mike took Primal video from 0 subscribers to 1.5 million subscribers. | |||
| 222. How Derek Sivers grew CD baby to $22m using a customer-focused and generous approach | 05 Mar 2023 | 01:15:40 | |
222. How Derek Sivers grew CD baby to $22m using a customer-focused and generous approach | |||
| 221. Lessons learned in Business and Action Steps for 2023 | 25 Jan 2023 | 00:11:10 | |
221. Lessons learned in Business and Action Steps for 2023 | |||
| 220. Get Back On Track With Your Goals : 7 Strategies That Work | 26 Sep 2022 | 00:19:22 | |
220. Get Back On Track With Your Goals : 7 Strategies That Work | |||
| 219. 12 Steps to Goal Setting | 14 Jun 2022 | ||
219. 12 Steps to Goal Setting | |||
| 218. Building connections on LinkedIn for consultants and coaches Part 2 | 25 Mar 2022 | 00:44:41 | |
Let's continue with the 5 Steps To Improving LinkedIn Connections with Adam Franklin | |||
| 217. LinkedIn for consultants and coaches | 28 Feb 2022 | 00:34:51 | |
Why LinkedIn? | |||
| 216. Smart Goals For Business | 13 Jan 2022 | 00:10:21 | |
216. Smart Goals For Business | |||
| 215. David Meerman Scott on Fanocracy | 25 Oct 2021 | 00:38:10 | |
The digital marketing landscape appears to be changing | |||
| 214. Joe Pulizzi on Content Marketing | 05 Aug 2021 | 00:53:29 | |
214. Joe Pulizzi on Content Marketing | |||
| 213. Youtube Tips with Derral Eves | 30 Jun 2021 | 00:49:49 | |
213. Youtube Tips with Derral Eves | |||
| 212. Neil Patel on SEO strategies (Ubersuggest) | 18 May 2021 | 00:25:30 | |
212. Neil Patel on SEO strategies (Ubersuggest) | |||
| 211. Relationship Marketing with Emmy-nominated producer, Bill Dolan | 04 May 2021 | 00:51:53 | |
211. Relationship Marketing with Emmy-nominated producer, Bill Dolan | |||
| 210. Guy Kawasaki on Entrepreneurship | 13 Apr 2021 | 00:34:41 | |
210. Guy Kawasaki on Entrepreneurship | |||
| 209. Inbound vs Outbound Marketing Strategy | 15 Mar 2021 | 00:16:01 | |
What works best for your consultancy business? | |||
| 208. Risk Forward with Victoria Labalme | 03 Mar 2021 | 00:37:41 | |
208. Risk Forward with Victoria Labalme | |||
| 207. Brian Tracy on Goal Setting | 15 Feb 2021 | 00:35:12 | |
207. Brian Tracy on Goal Setting | |||
| 206. Buying And Selling Websites - with Matt and Liz Raad | 29 Jan 2021 | ||
206. Buying And Selling Websites - with Matt and Liz Raad | |||
| 205. Roam Research vs Notion with Nat Eliason | 23 Dec 2020 | 00:29:03 | |
205. Roam Research vs Notion with Nat Eliason | |||
| 204. Small Business Essentials With Ramon Ray | 02 Dec 2020 | 00:37:21 | |
204. Small Business Essentials With Ramon Ray | |||
| 203. How To Create A Minimum Viable Offer with Shelley Brander | 30 Oct 2020 | 00:57:23 | |
203. How To Create A Minimum Viable Offer with Shelley Brander | |||
| 202. The Offer Creation Process in 5 steps with Michael Maidens | 01 Oct 2020 | 00:56:54 | |
202. The Offer Creation Process in 5 steps with Michael Maidens | |||
| 201. Should You Launch Your Own Online Course? Take This 2-minute Quiz With Amy Porterfield Now (See the Links Mentioned Section) | 07 Aug 2020 | 00:40:18 | |
201. Should You Launch Your Own Online Course? Take This 2-minute Quiz With Amy Porterfield Now (See the Links Mentioned Section) | |||
| 200. Seth Godin On Marketing — With Ash Roy | 25 Jun 2020 | 00:37:09 | |
200. Seth Godin On Marketing — With Ash Roy | |||
| 199. Email Marketing Tagging Strategies with Barry Moore | 06 Jun 2020 | 00:25:27 | |
199. Email Marketing Tagging Strategies with Barry Moore | |||
| 198. Product Launch In 7 days with Barry Moore | 28 May 2020 | 00:36:22 | |
198. Product Launch In 7 days with Barry Moore | |||
| 197. How To Create Irresistible Offers with Deadline Funnel Founder Jack Born | 20 May 2020 | 00:42:32 | |
197. How To Create Irresistible Offers with Deadline Funnel Founder Jack Born | |||
| 196. Subscription Business Strategies With Robbie Baxter | 11 May 2020 | 00:40:47 | |
196. Subscription Business Strategies With Robbie Baxter | |||
| 195. Dean Jackson 9-word Email And Referral Marketing Strategies That Work | 28 Apr 2020 | 00:54:36 | |
195. Dean Jackson 9-word Email And Referral Marketing Strategies That Work | |||
| 194. Business Continuity Planning During A Crisis — A 3-Step Framework Part 3 of 3 | 20 Apr 2020 | 00:57:11 | |
194. Business Continuity Planning During A Crisis — A 3-Step Framework Part 3 of 3 | |||
| 193. Business Continuity Planning During A Crisis — A 3-Step Framework Part 2 of 3 | 13 Apr 2020 | 00:46:58 | |
193. Business Continuity Planning During A Crisis — A 3-Step Framework Part 2 of 3 | |||
| 192. Business Continuity Planning During A Crisis — A 3-Step Framework Part 1 of 3 | 03 Apr 2020 | 00:59:33 | |
192. Business Continuity Planning During A Crisis — A 3-Step Framework Part 1 of 3 | |||
| 191. Productivity In 2020 — Part 5 — Mindfulness | 02 Mar 2020 | 00:15:48 | |
Productivity In 2020 — Part 5 — Mindfulness - What does mindfulness have to do with productivity? On the face of it, they seem like opposing concepts, don't they? - Mindfulness (for most of us) is associated with pensive reflection and not a whole... | |||
| 190. Productivity In 2020 — Part 4 — Pomodoro Technique | 14 Feb 2020 | 00:12:19 | |
Productivity In 2020 — Part 4 — Pomodoro Technique - Links Mentioned: www.GetMeToDone.com www.Productiveinsights.com www.YouTube.com/ProductiveInsights https://productiveinsights.com/the-eisenhower-matrix/ Related Episodes: - | |||
| 189. Productivity In 2020 — Part 3 — How To Use The 80/20 Rule To Grow Your Business | 30 Jan 2020 | 00:13:55 | |
Productivity In 2020 — Part 3 — How To Use The 80/20 Rule To Grow Your Business
Links Mentioned:
* www.GetMeToDone.com
* www.Productiveinsights.com
* www.YouTube.com/ProductiveInsights
* https://productiveinsights.com/the-eisenhower-matrix/
Related Episodes:
* 175. James Clear On Atomic Habits : An Easy Way To Build Good Habits And Break Bad Ones
* 187. Productivity In 2020 — Part 1 How To Grow Your Business Effectively And Fast
* 188. Productivity In 2020 — Part 2 Systems
Ash Roy Video Transcript (This transcript has been auto-generated. Artificial Intelligence is still in the process of perfecting itself. There may be some errors in transcription):
Ash Roy:
00:01 Welcome to the third episode in the productivity 2020 series. By the end of this episode, you will learn how to use the 80 20 rule, also known as a Pareto efficiency theory to help you to grow your business profitably and fast. I'll show you one simple way to use the 80 20 rule using just a pen and a paper and that's coming up very shortly. But before we dive into this episode, let's do a quick recap on the first two episodes in this series. In part one we talked about the Eisenhower decision matrix and why it's important to focus on quadrant two activities, the important but not necessarily urgent tasks that appear in your workflow. Why is it important to focus on these quadrant two tasks? Because focusing on these tasks while they're still in quadrant two means that you get to handle them before they get to a crisis situation.
Ash Roy:
00:56 Also known as a quadrant one situation where they are important and urgent. You see quadrant one situations tend to be a huge drain on your resources, so it's best to deal with them while they're still in quadrant two before they are a crisis. Then in part two of the series, which you can check out here, we talked about systems and why they are a classic quadrant two activity. You know, episode 175 I spoke to James clear the author of the book atomic habits and in that conversation, James explained that he felt that habits are the compound interest of personal productivity. Well, I believe systems are the compound interest of business productivity and of helping you to grow your business fast and profitably. I explained that systems are a sequence of processes that may or may not include people and these processes when executed consistently in a particular sequence, produce a predictable outcome every time.
Ash Roy:
01:59 Creating systems allows you to leverage your time and your resources most effectively and helps you to achieve your goal of building a business that's profitable, scalable, and that can work independently of you. How does it do this? It helps you to outsource certain tasks within your business at a... | |||
| 188. Productivity In 2020 — Part 2 Systems | 22 Jan 2020 | 00:18:45 | |
Productivity In 2020 — Part 2 Systems
Links:
* Screenflow
* app.Asana.com
* Camtasia
* www.GetMeToDone.com
* www.Productiveinsights.com
* www.YouTube.com/ProductiveInsights
* https://productiveinsights.com/the-eisenhower-matrix/
Related Episodes:
* 076. Ari Meisel On How To Be More Productive With The ‘Less Doing’ Approach
* 030. How to Use Frameworks to Take Your Business to the Next Level – with Taki Moore
* 175. James Clear On Atomic Habits : An Easy Way To Build Good Habits And Break Bad Ones
* 187. Productivity In 2020 — Part 1 How To Grow Your Business Effectively And Fast
Ash Roy Video Transcript (This transcript has been auto-generated. Artificial Intelligence is still in the process of perfecting itself. There may be some errors in transcription):
Ash Roy:
00:00 Productivity, 2020. Part II. Systems.
Ash Roy:
00:12 By the end of this video, you'll learn how to create systems that help you to automate, outsource, and delegate repetitive tasks in your business so you can spend more time doing the things you love, including growing your business profitably and fast. Be sure to watch this video all the way through to the end so you can learn how to say goodbye to dragging yourself through the daily grind, working in your business, into the early hours of the morning and free yourself up so you can spend more time working on your business and enjoying the benefits of your efforts. I've used this exact system to help several of my clients grow their businesses profitably and fast. I'm looking forward to helping you do exactly the same thing. Be sure to subscribe to this video to make sure you don't miss out on any future episodes just like this and do leave a comment below letting me know what your biggest challenges when it comes to growing your business profitably right now.
Ash Roy:
01:15 To get results from this video, all you need to do is take action. Are you ready? Let's begin. Now in the first video in this series on productivity 2020 which you can check out here. We talked about the Eisenhower matrix and it's four quadrants specifically we focused on quadrant two and explain why it's really important to focus on activities that are important but not necessarily urgent. Why? Because these activities tend to be strategically very critical in your business and if you ignore them for long enough, you'll end up in a quadrant one situation which is typically a crisis. Now, systems are a classic example of this quadrant 2 type activity. See, | |||
| 187. Productivity In 2020 — Part 1 How To Grow Your Business Effectively And Fast | 01 Jan 2020 | 00:13:56 | |
Productivity In 2020 — How To Grow Your Business Effectively And Fast — Part 1
Links:
* www.GetMeToDone.com
* www.Productiveinsights.com
* www.YouTube.com/ProductiveInsights
* https://productiveinsights.com/the-eisenhower-matrix/
Related Episodes:
* 142. Harvard Asst. Professor of Psychiatry — Dr. Srini Pillay — On The Power Of The Unfocused Mind and Productivity – Part 1 of 2
* 143. Harvard Asst. Professor of Psychiatry — Dr. Srini Pillay — On The Power Of The Unfocused Mind and Productivity – Part 2 of 2
| |||
| 186. How To Use The 80 20 Principle For Business Growth By Working Effectively with Perry Marshall | 19 Dec 2019 | 01:01:11 | |
How To Use The 80 20 Principle For Business Growth By Working Effectively with Perry Marshall
Links Mentioned:
* www.perrymarshall.com
* www.sell8020.com
* www.GetMeToDone.com
* www.Productiveinsights.com
* www.YouTube.com/ProductiveInsights
* www.CallAshRoy.com
* www.PremiumProductivity.com
Books Mentioned:
* 80/20 Sales and Marketing: The Definitive Guide to Working Less and Making More
Related Episode:
* 142. Harvard Asst. Professor of Psychiatry — Dr. Srini Pillay — On The Power Of The Unfocused Mind and Productivity – Part 1 of 2
* 143. Harvard Asst. Professor of Psychiatry — Dr. Srini Pillay — On The Power Of The Unfocused Mind and Productivity – Part 2 of 2
* 145. Amy Porterfield Video Strategies
Ash Roy and Perry Marshall Video Transcript (This transcript has been auto-generated. Artificial Intelligence is still in the process of perfecting itself. There may be some errors in transcription):
Perry: 00:00:00
Yeah. And the wealth distribution was always 80 20 and it doesn't matter if they're Marxists or socialists or capitalists or whatever. It's a law of nature, right? So as a business owner, you're either fighting it or you're harnessing it. And the difference between fighting and harnessing is 16 to one because if you do the math if 20% of the people have 80% of the money and 80% of the people have 20% of the money, that means whether you're the in-group or the outgroup is 16 to one. Yep.
Ash: 00:00:35
So here's my question, Perry. How do you know who that 1% is or what that 1% is of your activities that deliver 51% of your results or which is that 1% of your clientele that delivers 51% of your revenue?
Ash: 00:01:00
Hello, and welcome back to the productive insights podcast. My name is Ash Roy. I'm the host of the productive insights podcast and the founder of productiveinsights.com and more recently the founder of getmetodone.com which is where you can find out more about the productive insights membership program that helps you to grow your business profitably and fast. Speaking of growing your business profitably and fast, today's guest is one of the most expensive business strategists in the world. He's been endorsed by Forbes and Inc magazine. He's guided clients like FanDuel and Infusionsoft from startup to hundreds of millions of dollars. He founded the $10 million evolution 2.0 prize with judges from Harvard, Oxford, and MIT, launched at the royal society in London. It's the world's largest research science award. NASA's jet propulsion labs use his 80 20 curves as a productivity tool. He's reinvented the brighter principle and that has been published at the Harvard business review magazine. His Google book laid the foundations of the $100 billion pay-per-click industry. The ultimate guide to Google ads is the world's best selling book on internet advertisi... | |||
| 185. Content Strategy With Russ Henneberry | 29 Nov 2019 | 00:57:41 | |
Content Strategy With Russ Henneberry
Links Mentioned:
* www.modernpublisher.com
* www.GetMeToDone.com
* www.Productiveinsights.com
* www.YouTube.com/ProductiveInsights
* www.CallAshRoy.com
* www.PremiumProductivity.com
Books Mentioned:
* The Automatic Customer: Creating a Subscription Business in Any Industry
Related Episode:
* 038. Rand Fishkin – How To Create Great SEO-Friendly Content Plus Key Trends In Search
* 039. Podcasting for Entrepreneurs with John Lee Dumas
* 001. Neil Patel (Kissmetrics Founder) On How To Make Better Decisions Around Client Selection, Branding and Investing
* 003. Jon Morrow (Copyblogger) On How To Use Blogging To Build A Highly Successful Business Online
* 116. Brian Clark — Co-Founder of Copyblogger — On How To Create Content That Converts, Empathy Maps, How To Use Content To Build An Eight Figure Business and Lots More!
* 075. Joe Pulizzi — Founder of Content Marketing Institute — Does Your Content Fit Into Your Buyer’s Journey?
* 171. Email Marketing Success Strategies Revealed with Co-Founder of Digital Marketer Richard Lindner
* 160. GDPR Made Easy: How To Meet Your Legal Obligations As They Relate To The General Data Protection Regulations Which Takes Effect On 25th May 2018
* 177. Active Campaign Email Automation Strategies with Barry Moore from The Active Marketer
* 140. Andre Chaperon — Email Marketing Genius And Creator of Auto Responder Madness
* 170. Ryan Deiss From Digital Marketer Reveals The 5-Step Conversion Funnel That Turbo-Charges Your Business Growth
* 150. [Case Study part 2] How A Lawyer Uses Podcasting To Get 10 New Leads And 2 New Clients Each Week
* 080. [Case Study] From $0K – $10K In Six Weeks Without Spending A Cent On Traditional Advertising
* 073. Darren Rowse — Problogger Founder — Shares His Secrets Around Prolific Content Creation, Podcasting, & Facebook Live (Part 1 of 2)
* 074. Darren Rowse (Problogger) Shares His Blogging Success Secrets (Part 2 of 2)
* 014. Facebook Advertising With Keith Kranc and Ralph Burns (Part 1)
* 021. | |||
| 184. The Billion Dollar Mistake With Hiten Shah | 15 Nov 2019 | 00:33:37 | |
The Billion Dollar Mistake With Hiten Shah
Links Mentioned:
* The Billion Dollar Mistake
* Hiten Shah - @hnshah
* www.usefyi.com
* www.producthabits.com
* www.GetMeToDone.com
* www.Productiveinsights.com
* www.YouTube.com/ProductiveInsights
* www.CallAshRoy.com
* www.PremiumProductivity.com
Related Episodes:
* 044. Hiten Shah — Cofounder of Kissmetrics — How To Assess If The Software As A Service (SAAS) Business Model Is Right For You
* 145. Amy Porterfield and I Reveal (And Confront) Our Deepest Fears Around Creating Video Content And Share Actionable Tips Around Mindset
* 159. Rand Fishkin Discusses His New Book Lost & Founder And Reveals The Truth About Startup Culture in Silicon Valley. (Why Venture Capital Or External Funding Isn’t Always The Right Answer)
* 001. Neil Patel (Kissmetrics Founder) On How To Make Better Decisions Around Client Selection, Branding and Investing
Ash Roy and Hiten Shah Video Transcript (This transcript has been auto-generated. Artificial Intelligence is still in the process of perfecting itself. There may be some errors in transcription):
Hiten Shah: 00:00
When we learned that people's problems is about finding documents right away. We researched what was out there and we learned that everyone built a search box. Yeah. Most of the products in the market were a search box like, Oh, how fast can we build a search box? We actually built a search box that searched G suite, Dropbox, Onedrive and I think box in realtime. After you typed in a keyword. Once you've authenticated those services and we built that in five days, we shipped it. We just put a lot of constraints on it because most people would assume we need to find all their documents. No, we just need to find enough of them.
Ash Roy: 00:45
Welcome back to the productive insights podcast. Today's episode is brought to you by the productive insights membership program, which helps you to grow your business profitably and fast using online and offline strategies that actually work. Head over to getmetodone.com to find out more about how to get started today. Today's guest is Hiten Shah and he's co-founded CrazyEgg, Kissmetrics and QuickSprout and he is no stranger to business growth. In fact, he's an expert in growth hacking. He also specializes in software as a service which we spoke about in episode 44 when we had him on as a guest back then on this productive insights podcast. Today we are here to talk about a very important article that he wrote called my billion dollar mistake, which I was very moved by personally. I'm really looking forward to digging a bit deeper into some of the nuances of that article. He then shared the article in his blog called producthabits.com which actually sounds a little bit similar to productiveinsights.com so I feel pretty chuffed about that. So Hiten would you like to, just to kick off and tell us a little bit about this billion dollar mistake you made and give us a bit of context around the article for those who may not have read it. | |||
| 183. Amazon Strategy With Greg Cassar | 16 Oct 2019 | 00:34:23 | |
Amazon Strategy
Links Mentioned:
* www.rainmakerpartner.io
* www.amazing.com
* www.smartmarketer.com
* www.advertisingboost.com
* www.collective.com.au
* www.GetMeToDone.com
* www.Productiveinsights.com
* www.YouTube.com/ProductiveInsights
* www.CallAshRoy.com
* www.PremiumProductivity.com
Related Episode:
* 055. Ezra Firestone on How To Use Ecommerce To Take Your Business From Six Figures To Seven
Ash Roy and Greg Cassar Video Transcript (This transcript has been auto-generated. Artificial Intelligence is still in the process of perfecting itself. There may be some errors in transcription):
Greg Cassar: 00:00
Amazon doesn't allow you to track conversions like when you got a sale from an outside traffic source so it is a little bit harder and they don't allow you to do remarketing except for if you're a big seller and you're using their tools. So Amazon, the only way we do that is like we drive traffic from the videos out on social media about key products. We do like Facebook video view ads and we send them in but we can't really track and measure. We can just see that if we turn that off, their sales go down and the social buzz goes down and that kind of stuff.
Ash Roy: 00:35
Welcome back. This is Ash Roy. I'm the founder of productiveinsights.com and the host of the productive insights podcast. And I'm delighted to have Greg Cassar back on the podcast from Rainmakerpartner.io. Now, Greg recently was on the podcast and he talked about some high level strategies around building a successful online business and we talked through the various kinds of business models, starting with a local business where you're trading your time for money and then a more services based business where it's a little bit higher end. Then we talked about having an information product business, which was a bit further up the line way. You're not trading time for money as much and it's a bit more leveraged. And then we talk about Amazon and SAS being at the top of that succession where you build something that is more of an asset and something that tends to generate income more on automatic.
Ash Roy: 01:29
In this episode, Greg and I are gonna dig a bit deeper into the tactical aspects of building an Amazon based eCommerce business that will enable you to create a lifestyle that Greg currently enjoys, which means that he is free by 9:00 AM every morning from all his commitments that generate his income. And he is pretty much free to do whatever he wants to do with his time after that. So I'm sure all of us would like to establish that lifestyle. Uh, it isn't something that's gonna happen overnight. I'm not gonna lie to you. This is not one of these get rich quick schemes. It takes a long time to do it. It took Greg about 15 years and I suspect it would take most of us around that long. That said, Greg has worked with some of the smartest people online, including people like Ryan Deiss, Ezra Firestone, and many others, several of whom have been guests on this podcast. And so I'm delighted to have Greg back on once again from Rainmakerpartner.io. Welcome back, Greg.
Greg Cassar: 02:34
Hey, | |||
| 182. Types Of Business Models: Which Of These 5 Types Is Best For You With Greg Cassar | 23 Sep 2019 | 00:27:33 | |
Types Of Business Models: Which Of These 5 Types Is Best For You With Greg Cassar
Links Mentioned:
* www.rainmakerpartner.io
* www.advertisingboost.com
* www.collective.com.au
* The Billion Dollar Mistake
* www.GetMeToDone.com
* www.Productiveinsights.com
* www.YouTube.com/ProductiveInsights
* www.CallAshRoy.com
* www.PremiumProductivity.com
Related Episodes:
* 170. Ryan Deiss From Digital Marketer Reveals The 5-Step Conversion Funnel That Turbo-Charges Your Business Growth
* 055. Ezra Firestone on How To Use Ecommerce To Take Your Business From Six Figures To Seven
* 122. Shark Tank Judge — John McGrath — On How To Cultivate A Success Mindset And Build An Enduring Brand
* 001. Neil Patel (Kissmetrics Founder) On How To Make Better Decisions Around Client Selection, Branding and Investing
* 044. Hiten Shah — Cofounder of Kissmetrics — How To Assess If The Software As A Service (SAAS) Business Model Is Right For You
* 176. The Alter Ego Effect With Todd Herman
Ash Roy and Greg Cassar Video Transcript (This transcript has been auto-generated. Artificial Intelligence is still in the process of perfecting itself. There may be some errors in transcription):
Greg: 00:00
I'm kind of lucky now that I've achieved a higher level of freedom in my life at 44 then most people will ever really achieve in their lifetime. But when you talk about luck, I think luck can also be labor under correct knowledge. You can do things to engineer luck if that makes sense.
Ash: 00:25
Welcome everyone. Welcome to the productive insights podcast. This is Ash Roy, your host and today's guest is Greg Cassar. Greg Cassar started selling online in 2003 after he left his fulltime role in 2009 which was in it in the corporate world. He left to run his own digital marketing agency, which specialized in traffic and conversion. Greg has invested over $250,000 in his education, has worked with 300 businesses and driven over 2 million leads. He's responsible for over $500 million in online sales and has worked with some online marketing greats who have previously been on this podcast, including Ryan Deiss. In episode 170 and Ezra Firestone and episode 55. Greg is a master at performing split tests and has recently been doing a lot of work in the ecommerce space. So Greg has some great knowledge to share with us in terms of the various business models out there and what really lends itself to creating a life of freedom. So I'm delighted to welcome Greg Cassar from collective.com.au Welcome Greg.
Greg: 01:41
Hey Ash. Thank you very much for having me. It's a real pleasure. I've uh, we've known each other for many years. I've always found you to be a stand up guy. And I was talking to another guy today, guy, so home and he said, Ash, he always comes from just such a place of giving. So I think that's a, a true compliment that, you know, people talk about you like that. | |||
| 181. How To Create Great Marketing Offers Using Eugene Schwartz’s 5 Stages of Buyer Awareness | 26 Aug 2019 | 00:59:19 | |
How To Create Great Marketing Offers Using Eugene Schwartz's 5 Stages of Buyer Awareness
Links Mentioned:
* www.fubbi.co
* www.GetMeToDone.com
* www.Productiveinsights.com
* www.YouTube.com/ProductiveInsights
* www.CallAshRoy.com
* www.PremiumProductivity.com
Books Mentioned:
* Content Hacking: How Companies Are Achieving Explosive Growth With Content
* Breakthrough Advertising
Related Episodes:
* 177. Active Campaign Email Automation Strategies with Barry Moore from The Active Marketer
* 170. Ryan Deiss From Digital Marketer Reveals The 5-Step Conversion Funnel That Turbo-Charges Your Business Growth
* 117. How to Create An Empathy Map
* 180. Market Research Masterclass with Copywriter — Alexi Neocleous A 3-Pronged Approach
* 129. PPC (Pay Per Click) Advertising – A Holistic Approach with Ilana Wechsler – Part 1
* 130. Ilana Weschler on Google Ads and Holistic Pay Per Click (PPC) Advertising – Part 2
* 145. Amy Porterfield and I Reveal (And Confront) Our Deepest Fears Around Creating Video Content And Share Actionable Tips Around Mindset
Ash Roy and Alexi Neocleous Video Transcript (This transcript has been auto-generated. Artificial Intelligence is still in the process of perfecting itself. There may be some errors in transcription):
Ash Roy:
00:00:00 He wrote to Warren Buffet and got a personal response from Warren Buffett inviting him to the Berkshire Hathaway annual general meeting. I was blown away by the story and I really want you to hear it. So Alexi, would you like to tell us how all this happened? How did you get Warren Buffet to write to you personally?
Ash Roy:
00:00:26 Welcome back to the productive insights podcast. I'm Ash Roy, the founder of productiveinsights.com and the host of the productive insights podcast. I'm delighted to welcome back Alexi Neocleous, who was a guest very recently on the productive insights podcast and we had a conversation about how to create compelling content by doing excellent research, excellent market research. | |||
| 180. Market Research Masterclass with Copywriter — Alexi Neocleous A 3-Pronged Approach | 28 Jul 2019 | 00:41:54 | |
Market Research Masterclass with Copywriter — Alexi Neocleous A 3-Pronged Approach
Links Mentioned:
* www.fubbi.co
* www.backlinko.com
* www.GetMeToDone.com
* www.Productiveinsights.com
* www.YouTube.com/ProductiveInsights
* www.CallAshRoy.com
* www.PremiumProductivity.com
Books Mentioned:
* Content Hacking: How Companies Are Achieving Explosive Growth With Content
Related Episodes:
* 061. Why Attention Is The New Currency — With Kevin Rogers
* 038. Rand Fishkin – How To Create Great SEO-Friendly Content Plus Key Trends In Search
* 001. Neil Patel (Kissmetrics Founder) On How To Make Better Decisions Around Client Selection, Branding and Investing
* 040. Eisenhower Matrix – How To Use The 4-Quadrant Matrix For Business Success
Ash Roy and Alexi Neocleous Video Transcript (This transcript has been auto-generated. Artificial Intelligence is still in the process of perfecting itself. There may be some errors in transcription):
Alexi
00:00
Cause if you can understand and crystallize the intent behind the search, you can start to predict behavior. Yes. That's a whole separate thing that I'm not even gonna try and get into. Now, this is where you have an incredible advantage. If you really understand your audience's intent, you could start to anticipate what they're gonna think or what they're gonna search for.
Ash Roy
00:24
Welcome back to the productive insights podcast. My name is Ash Roy. I am the founder of www.productiveinsights.com and the host of the Productive Insights podcast. And I am delighted to have a very special guest today. And his name is Alexi Neocleous and he is the founder of fubbi.co. He's also the author of this very cool book called content hacking, which I received when I attended the superfast business live event recently in Sydney. And it is filled with awesome little tips and tricks I highly recommended. So Alexi is a master copywriter and he's also elicited a response from Warren Buffet, a personal response. Alexis view is that if you can say the right thing in the right way, you can achieve almost anything. So we'll be talking about that a bit later in this episode and really excited to welcome Alexia to the podcast. So welcome Alexi
Alexi
01:20
Hi Ash. Good morning. How are you?
Ash Roy
01:22
Good, great to have you here, man.
Alexi
01:24
Thank you.
Ash Roy
01:26
So, Alexi, we’ve been talking about content hacking in the past and you’ve talked about how you can create great quality content using the strategies explained in this book, which has very little fluff. It’s very actionable stuff, again, are highly recommend it. | |||
| 179. Justin Herald On A Customer Focused Approach To Business Growth | 25 Jun 2019 | 00:32:26 | |
Justin Herald On A Customer Focused Approach To Business Growth
Links Mentioned:
* Click here to download the podcast shownotes
* www.justinherald.com
* www.customerculture.com
* www.GetMeToDone.com
* www.Productiveinsights.com
* www.YouTube.com/ProductiveInsights
* www.CallAshRoy.com
* www.PremiumProductivity.com
Related Episodes:
*
075. Joe Pulizzi — Founder of Content Marketing Institute — Does Your Content Fit Into Your Buyer’s Journey?
*
116. Brian Clark — Founder of Copyblogger — On How To Create Content That Converts, Empathy Maps, How To Use Content To Build An Eight Figure Business and Lots More!
*
117. How to Create An Empathy Map
*
166. How To Use Referral Based Marketing To Grow Your Business – With Robert Gerrish
*
168. How to Overcome Implementation Paralysis with Sonya Keenan – Part 1 of 2
*
169. How to Overcome Implementation Paralysis with Sonya Keenan – Part 2 of 2
Justin Herald and Ash Roy Video Transcript (This transcript has been auto-generated. Artificial Intelligence is still in the process of perfecting itself. There may be some errors in transcription):
Ash Roy: 00:00
Welcome everyone. Today's guest is Justin Herald and he's passionate about business growth and customer service and he's accumulated a lot of knowledge in these areas over the years. His expertise is in helping businesses to connect and engage with their customers and to do so in a more meaningful and productive way. I recently saw him speak and I found his no BS approach to being very refreshing and very entertaining. He's also created customer culture which focuses on helping businesses deliver amazing experiences to their customers. He's the author of eight international bestselling books and is regarded as one of Australia's best and most sought after speakers. He speaks in front of about a hundred thousand people each year. I'm delighted to welcome Justin Herald to the Productive Insights podcast. Welcome Justin.
Justin Herald: 00:50
Thank you, man. Thank you.
Ash Roy: 00:52
Great to have you on the show, Justin. So let's kick off straight away and start talking about customer culture. This is something you teach. So could you share with our listeners what customer culture means and how it can tran... | |||
| 178. Molly Pittman & I Discuss Messenger Marketing, Facebook’s Future And Lots More | 13 Jun 2019 | 00:33:51 | |
Molly Pittman & I Discuss Messenger Marketing, Facebook's Future And Lots More
Links Mentioned:
Click here to download podcast shownotes
www.course.manychat.com
www.trainmytrafficperson.com
Perpetual Traffic Podcast
www.digitalmarketerdownunder.com.au
www.digitalmarketer.com
www.GetMeToDone.com
www.Productiveinsights.com
www.YouTube.com/ProductiveInsights
www.CallAshRoy.com
www.PremiumProductivity.com
Related Episodes:
038. Rand Fishkin – How To Create Great SEO-Friendly Content Plus Key Trends In Search
160. GDPR Made Easy: How To Meet Your Legal Obligations As They Relate To The General Data Protection Regulations
061. Why Attention Is The New Currency — With Kevin Rogers
How To Use FB Messenger Marketing To Grow Your Business Profitably — Key Insights And Action Steps
Get clear on the marketing implications of the key difference between Facebook and Google (user intent)
There are some key differences between Facebook and google when it comes to your marketing strategy. And it really comes down to user intent:
When someone uses Google, they typically go there to find a solution. This means your ads for your products and/or services are more likely to convert buyers into paying customers.
When a user logs in to Facebook, she or he is there to be entertained. So by definition, any advertisement is “interruption-based”. The customer is there to experience some sort of entertainment rather than buy a product or service.
That said, Facebook has better targeting options which offset the challenges around interruption-based advertising
Facebook and google have their own advantages the combined effect is greater than the sum of the individual parts
Action step: Listen to this podcast episode where we talk about holistic advertising https://productiveinsights.com/129/
2. Adopt a holistic approach to marketing - combine Facebook and google ads (and any other platforms you choose to advertise on)
Having understood how the platforms work, you now need to understand that it's important to use MORE than one platform. The combined effect of multiple platforms is powerful. In a market saturated with messages and information, it helps to be present on multiple-platforms
Definitely consider using Instagram. Molly spends more time on her Instagram feed than she does on Facebook.
There’s one thing you should be aware of though, and that is this. The best advertising campaigns in the world won’t make up for a poor offer that doesn’t deliver on its promise. In fact, advertising a poor offer is only going to accelerate damage to your brand. Always ensure that you have an excellent offer that delivers on its promise. You can do this by taking the time to understand your audience and the problem you’re helping them to solve.
Action step: Speak to your advertising specialist about creating a holistic approach to advertising that works across multiple platforms. Use different modalities (video, audio and written) with your advertising where possible
3. Molly and I discussed the fact that ‘the conversation’ on Facebook appears to be moving off of the feed and onto Messenger.
Molly and I talked about some very clear actionable steps you can take to get started with messenger marketing. You can start by going to course.manychat.com and learn about howManychat works.
Action step: Go to www.courses.manychat.com and sign up to learn about messenger marketing and how to use it in your business
| |||
| 177. Active Campaign Email Automation Strategies with Barry Moore from The Active Marketer | 14 May 2019 | 00:47:21 | |
Active Campaign Email Automation Strategies with Barry Moore from The Active Marketer
Links Mentioned:
* Click here to download the podcast shownotes
* Free Onboarding Automation
* Free Coupon for ActiveCampaign Quickstart Training
* www.TheActiveMarketer.com
* www.GetMeToDone.com
* www.Productiveinsights.com
* www.YouTube.com/ProductiveInsights
* www.CallAshRoy.com
* www.PremiumProductivity.com
Related Episodes:
*
001. Neil Patel (Kissmetrics Founder) On How To Make Better Decisions Around Client Selection, Branding and Investing
*
005. Jake Hower (Fuzed App Creator) On How To Increase Customer Retention Through Automated Marketing
*
170. Ryan Deiss From Digital Marketer Reveals The 5-Step Conversion Funnel That Turbo-Charges Your Business Growth
*
171. Email Marketing Success Strategies Revealed with Co-Founder of Digital Marketer Richard Lindner
How to set up your marketing automations to mirror real life sales situations using a clear tagging strategy
Imagine this.
It’s 1995.
You're looking to buy a pair of shoes so you walk into a shoe store.
You’re greeted by a salesperson. He’s polite and genuinely tries to help you solve your ‘problem’.
He asks you what you‘re after. Do you need dress shoes? Or running shoes? Or casual wear?
He asks you if you have any special requirements. Do yo have flat feet?
After having carefully understood your needs, he shows you the right pair of shoes to suit your specific needs and explains why these shoes are the best solution for you.
Would you buy the shoes from him?
You’d probably buy the shoes from that salesperson, right?
Well, it’s no different in the online world.
Sales funnels work in the same way. Except they typically happen online via email marketing automation.
When you build a sales funnel, you first build trust with your customer by understanding their problem.
You then send them solutions (often in the form of online content) that’s specifically targeted to their problem.
You deliver some a meaningful transformation through that content in the context of that problem they’re trying to solve.
After having delivered value to the customer you then (and only then) offer them a product that’s relevant to them and their specific problem.
In this episode, | |||