Growth Levers

ASG 063 – Growth Levers

Chris L. Davis: [00:00:00] You’re listening to the All Systems Go podcast, the show that teaches you everything you need to know to put your business on autopilot, learn how to deploy automated marketing and sales systems in your business the right way with your host, the professor of automation himself and founder of Automation Bridge, Chris Davis.

Chris L. Davis: [00:00:30] Welcome to the All Systems Go podcast, I’m your host, Chris Davis, the founder of Automation Bridge, an online publication for small business marketing automation, where we focus on turning digital marketing professionals into automation service providers. And in this episode, I want to take a moment and prepare your mind and inform your approach, your approach to how growth takes place in business. OK, you may have seen people post online about how they experienced a certain amount of success after hiring a particular person or implementing a particular strategy. And what I want to do is just take a deeper look into what goes into such rapid growth and perhaps uncover what they’re not telling you, not in a malicious way, like they’re trying to fake you out or deceive you. But there’s always more to the story. So let’s look at that on this episode or less. Let’s cover that. Let’s talk through that. But before we get started, if you’re new to the podcast, first off, welcome. Thank you for tuning in to the All Systems Go podcast. Do me a favor. Listen to this episode in its entirety. At the end, you have an invitation to leave a five star rating review and more importantly, subscribe for those of you who have been listening and have not subscribed yet and left a five star rating and review. What are you waiting for? This is the time. I’m serious. Let this let the podcast continue to play. Go hit the home button out of this app. Go into wherever you’re getting your podcast, preferably Apple, because it’s the biggest right now. And go leave a five star rating and review for the All Systems Go podcast. It helps inform Apple that we are worth listening to. And if you’re listening to it, that’s proof right there that we’re worth listening to. All right. So help me spread the good news, spread the word about this podcast. We’re available on Apple podcast. Google podcast. You can subscribe on YouTube or wherever you get your podcasts. Take your five star ratings and reviews are greatly appreciated.

Chris L. Davis: [00:02:47] So let’s let’s talk about this. It’s it’s all about business growth, period. Right. And this is a simple formula. If you’re not growing in business, you’re shrinking there. There is no standing still. There is no stagnated. Dormont, you’re either growing or shrinking because the competition, it’s there’s too much there’s too much competition. The needs of of people and businesses there are right. There are rising. They’re rising, I should say, to to rapidly. Right. So if you just stay stuck serving a particular market in one way, it’s by the process of osmosis, you become outdated. Right. And again, you know, I’ve mentioned covid many times on the on the podcast. It has been a catalyst. Some of your outdated approaches. You were just kind of getting along. And here we have this shift in society that that causes you to make a new transition to to put forth new efforts that, let’s be honest, you should have done previously.

Chris L. Davis: [00:04:04] But what you did is you sat around and you watched everybody else getting prepared, everybody else taking on these new strategies. And you said, well, we’ve always done it this way. This has always worked for us. We’re ten years. Fifteen years. And some of those businesses are now struggling. I don’t say that, you know, to poke fun at them. You know, I sympathize with them, but it’s real. You’re either growing or you’re shrinking. That’s it. And it’s business growth that seems to be the most elusive. The most elusive element in business, right, you just there there are some people who experience it at large scales and others, they can be in the same industry and they just seem to continually struggle and ultimately fail. And there’s a lot there’s a lot that goes into it. Right. As much as I like formulas, there are some formulas you can apply to business growth, but there is no absolute right because you’re different. You’re different how you structure your business, you’re different, how you deliver the service. Right. You’re different and how you want to operate in and on your business. All of those things show up in the marketplace differently, even if you’re in the same industry with the same offer. Right, you may be more opposed to a certain style of advertising or marketing.

Chris L. Davis: [00:05:30] It all matters. The personality of your business matters. So so the real question is, is there a secret? What’s their secret to success? Chris, let us know. How do we achieve rapid growth? What is it? Well, the answer is yes or no, right? Yes, there is a secret because you need to know what to do and how to do it. That that is a a process in identifying the right minds to invest in to help, you know, what to do and instruct you on how to do it. And no, no, it’s there’s no secret, because if at least if you’ve been listening to this podcast, you know that you need strong systems in place. This is not a secret. You know this. And I’ve detailed what those systems are of even giving you insight on how to go about building them. Right, we’ve got tons of resources on the Web site that will walk you through these elements. So that being said, I like to look at growth with with a simple approach because a lot of things in business are complicated. They really are. So the more we can simplify, the better off will be. And here’s what I’m always thinking about is what can I do? That will produce the biggest result, because I’m thinking of time and effort here, right, because those are those are the time is finite.

Chris L. Davis: [00:06:53] So it’s not like I can sit around and do everything. And just do anything, some people out there just every day is a new strategy. And to prevent me from doing that, I have a follow up question, what have I done that has produced the largest result thus far? And more most commonly, what you hear is, well, what’s worked in the past, keep doing it. Well, we’ll see why that that necessarily doesn’t work in business. OK, and these may be be tough questions to ask and answer if you’re not growth focused because there’s a good chance that you haven’t been intentionally measuring the performance of your marketing and sales, which means you haven’t been making adjustments, which means without navigating by the numbers. You’re really. Guestimating your way to success at best, and businesses like this business will not penalize you for guessing the right answer. If you guessed the right answer, you will get the right result. But how do you build an empire on guesstimation and finger crossing and just hope marketing? Just really hope this works. Throw it out there and let’s see, especially if you’ve got finite funds. Right. A lot of us just don’t have those big deep pockets to be trying everything.

Chris L. Davis: [00:08:19] Ok.

Chris L. Davis: [00:08:21] So what I’m proposing to you is this this question, this approach, it’s really about pulling growth levers in your business. And these are these are levers of different sizes at different levels of success, so you can have this this is where it gets dynamic. Remember, I would love for an absolute answer for you, but here’s where it gets dynamic. You can pull the same lever in one business and have massive results and go into another business and do the same thing and it have minimal results. And and and what we’re seeing is the makeup of like a consultant. Right. Or a marketing professional that you hire and bring in when when a marketing professional tells you they neach they they have a niche audience. This means they’ve gotten really good at pulling a particular lever. And when they pull this lever, they can predict what’s going to happen. But in order for that to take place, you have they have to highly qualify you because there’s certain there’s a certain state that you have to be in business for me to be able to pull this lever. And if I pulled it prematurely, it won’t produce it if I pull it, you know, after the fact, when you’re beyond that stage, it still won’t have the same effect. OK. So when we look at pulling these levers in your business, it requires and, you know, with the podcast, we’ve we’ve got to be broad. I go as deep as I can. But, you know, these topics to do a deep dive, it really requires more of an intimate space like, you know, a course or community or, you know, something more hands on workshop, things of that nature.

Chris L. Davis: [00:10:09] But if we just think about it, to pull such a lever requires location, the ability to locate, the ability to project and or predict, the ability to take action, and then the ability to assess. Those are the four elements of pulling a lever, right, so location deals with the process of identifying what to do next. What do I need to do? This is literally what most what you’re going to hire a consultant for. Hey, you know, we’re experiencing some growth. I just I just can’t figure out how to get over the hump. What should I be doing when they come in and say, OK, well, look, then projection. This is an intelligent estimation of what you can expect from your efforts. And this estimation should be founded on baseline statistics data. OK, if you’re not measuring your marketing year, there’s no consultant that’s going to be able to come in, in and save the day you need data. So the first step may be just to collect some baseline data before you can even identify whether. Action is the work required. This is the actual pulling of the lever. What is that? What what does that require time wise, human resources wise? Technology wise? Right, and then assessment as you determine how well things worked or not, so you can make your adjustment.

Chris L. Davis: [00:11:36] So you hear this going forward. And I wanted to record this because I talked about it on a previous episode with Koranda, where we are talking about what was that leever? What was that thing that you did that just resulted in massive growth? So you hear this as a theme going forward as I bring on other entrepreneurs, CEOs and things of that nature to detail what was that single lever they feel led to the biggest growth in their business?

Chris L. Davis: [00:12:05] And as you’re listening to these answers, I also want you to pay attention to what stage was their business. Levers are contextual, right? They’re not just floating in the air. They’re they’re posted somewhere on some wall. In some room. Right. I’m I’m thinking of this. This is more it’s not like a physical room of your business, but you get what I’m saying. This is an analogy. It’s figurative speech. But there’s context to deliver. When you pull it, why did that work, why did that work for you? Because the blind mind will go and say, hey, well, look, look at the lever they pulled. They started promoting, let’s start promoting. And then when you don’t get that same result, you look at the tactic like it was something wrong with it or perhaps the person. And it’s important to be able to listen and look beyond the surface of the success stories and identify the mechanics behind the success. I’ll help you do it in the way that I ask questions, which is another reason why shameless plug you are should be sending your favorite to the CEO’s in the the sea level. Folks have your favorite tools to refer them to be a guest on the podcast so we can have this conversation. And I can guy I can ask these questions to really extract some of those mechanics for you all. There’s somebody experiencing a lot of a high level of success. Let them know, hey, you should really go on this podcast. I think it please. Right. Automation Bridge Dotcom for his last podcast.

Chris L. Davis: [00:13:46] Ok, but.

Chris L. Davis: [00:13:49] When you’re training your ear to listen. And look beyond the surface when you’re when you’re hearing or reading these success stories. You want you to know that there are different levers for different levels. Of success in business, so some of the more popular basic levers are updating your Web site and or landing page, right? That’s that’s a basically you have to pull that one. Right, start accepting payments online, is it is that even optional nowadays? Right, I don’t think that’s even optional. It’s not this is not a do you accept payments online? Yes or no? There is no no option anymore. It’s just yes. And it better be. Yes. Advertising on social media. Right. Targeting a new audience. Hey, you know, I think I want to shift to young young young men who are just out of college, aspirational, looking for that next leadership role in their community, whatever the case is. Right. Doing manual prospective outreach, maybe that’s what you just said, hey, look, let’s go old school. Let’s do some some LinkedIn in male, grab some list, let’s, you know, let’s just pound the pavement. You know, I understand landing pages, I understand all of that.

Chris L. Davis: [00:15:14] Let’s just get on the phone and send some cold emails. Right.

Chris L. Davis: [00:15:22] Start, start content marketing, blogging, writing articles, guest guest posting a podcast, these are all it doesn’t you know, it’s you could talk you could sit down and talk to any business owner and they would be aware of these things. Now, if you ask them how to do it and are they doing it themselves, that’s a different question. That’s a whole nother story. And then your most basic marketing professional will at least know these from just from an academic approach to marketing. You can enroll in enough courses and read enough blog posts to know all of these levers. Now, here’s here’s the next step, though, because remember, there’s four elements. You have to be able to do all of them proficiently to be qualified as a highly sought after marketing professional or automation service provider. You need to not only be able to say, hey, you need to update your website, but you also need to be able to project what updating that website will do for them. You know, we see that websites like yours and your industry have an average conversion rate of three percent. Based on your traffic, you’ll be able to properly project up to 100 new leads per week, which is about 400 a month. And based on your current conversion rate, that’s about three to five new clients just by updating your website. This is when an experienced consultant should be able to tell you this is what I mean when I say projecting, they’ve identified the lever, update your website. Now, the projecting setting a realistic expectation based on historical data. What you can expect, but all of that’s fine and dandy because who’s going to do the work?

Chris L. Davis: [00:17:03] Who’s going to do that? OK, I’m sold. Where you show me point me. Who do I sign up with? Who does this right?

Chris L. Davis: [00:17:14] So then the work is done and then there’s a settlement. All right, you said I would have about three to four more clients this month. Let me see. It’s been 30 days. Do I? Oh, I’ve got five. Hmm. And then what are you going to do? You’re going to go back and figure out why did that work so well over the elements there? Right, and again, I mentioned a few it’s not comprehensive, right, but these are pretty standard in doing any of the above will produce some form of result, like anything that I’m updating your website payments on advertising on social, a new audience outreach manual, manoir, prospective outreach, content marketing. They’re all produced some form of result. And no, it’s not it’s not a competition, it’s not a comprehensive list, but it does show some fundamental areas of business day that you should have shored up.

Chris L. Davis: [00:18:12] Ok.

Chris L. Davis: [00:18:14] And and to be honest, this is a consultant’s dream because you don’t have to when when it’s when it’s these fundamental levers that need to be pulled, you know, like the foundation that needs to be laid. They just come into a business and do the basics. They know the basics you need in place to implement. The basic growth happens, the success story is posted, and then it leaves all of these other business owners and all like, wow, and they updated their website. Look what happened. Unfortunately, without understanding that those same levers won’t produce the same results for your business. That’s where most people fall short with false expectations. Right there, like, well, they updated their was we’re going to get the same person to update and then you update yours, you don’t get the same result. That’s not how it works. Just imagine if it were that easy. Well, who wouldn’t be successful in business? There’s other elements. You’re at different stages. Perhaps you already pulled that lever. Which brings me to an analogy when we talk about the repeat pulling of levers. And just follow me here. This is not the let me just say this is the first one that came to mind. So, you know, the reason why drugs are so addictive is because the addict is always chasing that first high. You know, they they’ve gone it’s a scientific it’s physiological.

Chris L. Davis: [00:19:52] There’s something that happens when those elements enter your body for the first time. That’s really where the word high came from. You experience this level of euphoria and and and stimulation your first time that you that that that person will never achieve again, ever. It’s the highest that it will ever be. And they spend their life chasing what can never be caught. Chasing some to the grave, some finally realized, you know what, it is, I’ve got to stop this or it’s going to stop me, right? And levers are the same way you can’t keep pulling the same one, expecting the same results. That’s that’s actually insanity, right? Because the the first time may not be the best. Right. Like, you may pull it. It’s got some results. And as you keep pulling it, there’s a time where you’re like, man, this is really working. Wow. And guess what happens over time? Those results become more normalized in your business, I’m talking about in your business, so if you’re stuck, you’ve got one. They call it the one trick pony, right? Hey, this is all we do and we do it well. You just pulling the lever. I wake up, I go into my office and I pull the lever. Look at my shoulders. I’m just pulling my lever. Right. One trick pony. And that could work for a time.

Chris L. Davis: [00:21:26] Right, and again, the first time you do it may not be the biggest result. But as you continue to do it, it grows and grows, but it reaches some plateau. Right, and here you are, you keep pulling it, you’re like, come on, produce, produce, produce, and there’s a shift in the market. Right, there’s there’s more competition in the market. Technology has evolved. So what you once was were getting out of that lever, you’ll never get again, you’ll never get it again, you cannot launch a product the same way every time for years and expect the same results. You’re changing things. I guarantee you you are. Talk to anybody who’s done at least five to 10 product launches and they have changed. Well, this launch, what we changed was this, you know, like some of the core elements stayed the same. But they say, OK, for this one, we went international. For this one, we decided that we were going to go ten days on Facebook instead of seven on this one. We did some rooms. Right. You’ll see that within that that main strategy or main lever that they’re pulling, there’s like these sublevels, you know, that they’re saying, OK, this one is working. So we’re not going to stop pulling it, but we need to switch some things up in in between.

Chris L. Davis: [00:22:53] Right.

Chris L. Davis: [00:22:56] But you don’t want to be that one trick pony, you don’t want to be that person that has one lever to pull and that’s it. Because, again, once it has produced what it’s going to produce, it’s not going to produce anything more. Business is too dynamic, so as as you as your business grows, you need to identify the new levers to pull to produce the growth that you desire. And again, the lever that you pull that produces a result, it will always more than likely produce some results. So I’m not by any means telling you to to not pull them. Right. This is where this is where my my analogy breaks down from from the drug addict because the addict needs to stop. Right. Stop that behavior in business. No, you keep it up, but you just don’t rely on it. You understand what I’m saying? You’re pulling the same lever. But your expectation is informed that you know what, this is good. But I need to go find other levers. And those who are able to go and identify those new levers to pull are the ones that can take that that achieve continual growth. One model, one model that works really well in this approach is once you identify a lever that needs to be poured repeatedly. This is what automation is for. Literally, you build a system so that is continually pulling that lever because you don’t want to leave any money on the ground.

Chris L. Davis: [00:24:35] You don’t want to leave any you know, you don’t want to leave any lever unattended. So you put systems in place to just keep pulling it for you. Now, it’s not your effort. Right, and if it does plateau, it’s fine because you’re off to the next level. And what are you going to do? You can identify, you know, put a system around it so that it can continue to continually pull it. And now you see the the automation orchestra. You’re you are you know, you’ve got your you’re orchestrating the the the the choir, the band. And you’re just putting moving your hands in the air and all of these tools. Right. All of these systems. And it’s a beautiful sound. You just hear a click, click, click, click. Right. That that’s that’s the business owners orchestra. It’s not the violins and the flutes and all of these beautiful instruments. It’s the hearing the the clicks, click, click, click, click. Like that’s our orchestra. And we get excited over that because we know the systems are just pulling for us. Paw paw, paw paw. Right. And as your business grows, the need to identify those levers. Right, grows new levers, but guess what, they get harder to locate and harder to pull.

Chris L. Davis: [00:26:02] Because they’re smaller and they’re smaller, I should say, so, for instance, building a Web page, splash landing page, hooking up in autoresponder, sending out e-mails, follow up emails, getting getting your system set up. Those are all big levers.

Chris L. Davis: [00:26:19] Right.

Chris L. Davis: [00:26:21] But scaling from one million to five million or 500, let’s say four hundred and fifty thousand to five million or 10 million. Those are going to require different levers. Remember, growth requires new levers, if you want if you just want to say, hey, look, I’m at a particular level of business, I’m making 300000 and it’s fine. It’s a nice little simple lifestyle business. I’m country living, but I’m living like a king in a queen. And I just pull these three levers, right, if that’s you just know, again, at some point you’re going to have to adjust a bit. Those levers will work, but you’ll have to adjust. But if you’re trying to grow continually scale, we talk about scale all the time. And in me, when I think of scale, I’m thinking of in the millions. Right. Same systems apply to smaller businesses and enterprises. No. But when we talk about that type of scaling levers are different, they’re not as easily located or acted upon. In fact, the level of acumen of your marketing professional that you’re working with has to be extremely high to guide you to its location. For one, and then extra instruct you on the necessary action to take.

Chris L. Davis: [00:27:47] And and here’s what I mean, it was the dynamic that I’ve seen is the earlier in business you are the larger the levers are, but the smaller the result.

Chris L. Davis: [00:27:59] Right, and I say result. Comparatively, because in the moment those results are big to you, because you’ve never got them, you’ve never had those results. But as you grow, you’ll look back and be like, man, I remember that day when I thought 5000 dollars a month was a lot of money. It was for you at the time. But as growth ensues, you look back and say, Hmm. That was cute, right? I mean, wow, we’ve come a long way, right? So. Those those those early, early in business, those those big ones, you know, they’re easier to find. And and as you grow again, you know, they’re they’re they’re smaller and they’re harder. So for me, you have to have somebody that understands, like, OK, you’ve done this. You’ve done that. You’ve done this, OK, a checkbox, all of those levers, we need to first off make sure their systems in place to keep those levers, to keep pulling them, but the growth happens in these new ones. Right. So, you know, the larger the living in the beginning, the smaller the result. And then as you grow, the results grow as well. But the levers are smaller. That just means they’re harder to locate. And they don’t they don’t take a quantity of effort. They take more of a quality of effort. OK, and here’s what I mean for more established business, you know, you can see major profits from having a copywriter update a sales page where you can literally I’ve seen this. I’ve seen people pay copy writers up to 30000 dollars to write copy for sales page. And it turns out after it’s all said and done, it ends up producing.

Chris L. Davis: [00:29:59] Half a million, a million, right, but you getting started out, you don’t you dare don’t you dare think that just getting started out, you can go pay the top top dollar copyrighter and they come in recopy. You’re just going to make all this money. It doesn’t work like that because remember, in the copyrighter will tell you, because you have to meet their qualifications. Hey, look, you want to pull this copyrighter lever, all right? This is what you need in place. Once all of this is in place, I’m going to pull this lever and guess what this level is going to do? It’s going to produce this. Right. But it that’s only for an established business. Another thing, an established business may do something as simple as an online scheduler to increase their client acquisition. Starting out, don’t expect it, that’s all that that lever. It’s a good lever, but where you’re at in business, it’s empty. You pull it, you hear nothing, there’s no click, there’s no nothing you like. This doesn’t work. Yes, it does. Just not for where you’re at. So now we’re starting to see when someone says, hey, I hire so-and-so and we 10x our revenue. Think about the state that business was in and the lever that was pulled and just know if they wanted 10x their new revenue is not going to be from that lever. Right. What got you here won’t take you there. You’re not the lever that you pulled to 10x your revenue this year is not going to 10x your revenue next year is that’s just not how it works.

Chris L. Davis: [00:31:38] You have your outliers. I say, hey, look, man, speak for yourself. I put it three times and I’m thirty six in now. OK, but don’t bank on it. Do not bank on it, you’re not going to get the same amount of growth. From pulling the same lever repeatedly, it will produce results, but we’re talking about growth, you’re not going to get the same level of growth. So when someone says, hey, I got this, I did this, I enrolled in this program and got that. That’s why they pulled a lever and it worked. Guess what? They’re now to to to grow again. They’re going because because this lever, this growth lever now has become the foundation is become standard standard operating, hey, look, this is what we do. We pull these levers and we make 10000. Now I want to make 20000 is not pull the lever faster. It’s not that. Right. We need to identify the next lever to pull. So, again, back to my analogy with the attic. You pull that lever, it’s produced what it’s given you, it’s growth. You’ve got it. The lever has given you that amount of growth. Now, if you want more growth, you’re not going to be able to get it from that. Stop chasing it. You’ve got to identify new levers. And they’re not as easily identifiable. The bigger your business gets. When it when it when when we’re talking about millions on the line, you know, one of my favorite levers is segmentation. And the beautiful thing is segmentation works across any business of all sizes, but the big business is.

Chris L. Davis: [00:33:21] Oh, my goodness. Money in the bank.

Chris L. Davis: [00:33:24] Right, so small, smaller people like, well, I don’t really need that, I got a couple of lists in a few tags and those are my segments and I’m like, good for you. You don’t understand this segmentation lever. If I pull it in a bigger business, it produces millions in your business. Some leads, some, you know, some revenue. Right, but I know that I’m familiar with various types of levers for various types of businesses and various types of stages.

Chris L. Davis: [00:33:56] And I guess as I as I close on this podcast to the effort here was to inform you, those of you who are running your businesses, you’re the chief Eells, is what I call them, the true chiefs of your business. You’re not in the operations or anything like that. You need to understand that the person that you’re assessing to do your marketing needs to know beyond the basics. Needs to know some of you need the basic stuff in place, you put all those basic levers in place and systems around them and you start producing some revenue. And for some of you, that’s the 10K that you’re waiting on, just having the foundation in place and systems around it.

Chris L. Davis: [00:34:34] But now when we talk about growth. Growth. Well, we’re putting a number in front of that letter X one X 10x to X 3x for X, right? Those are new levers. And you need you need you need a consultant that can identify those levers, how how can one identify what what they’ve never done? Right. They need results, they need to show.

Chris L. Davis: [00:35:05] That, oh, I’ve pulled this lever. Look at this.

Chris L. Davis: [00:35:10] And then it also helps shape your expectation, because if somebody, let’s say, their lover is messenger marketing, so they do messenger Boston, this doesn’t understand the finite nature of that lever.

Chris L. Davis: [00:35:23] Do not do not expect for them to build out your entire customer journey. You’re paying them for that lever. That’s what experts get paid for, one lever, I’ll come in and do this maybe, maybe a few more. But there’s one thing that I’m really good at, and I will put this lever in your business and I will put a system around how to pull it. And when we pull it, you’re on to the next level. OK, don’t settle was the next lever lever. Right. So the game of growth is an ongoing effort of strategizing what to do. That’s the location piece estimating the return. That’s the projection piece. Right. Detailing how to do it. That’s the action. And measuring it’s measuring its success. That’s the assessment. And you re you rinse and repeat for the next lever, for the next level of growth. OK, so if you’ve been stuck, you just can’t seem to to again, because like in the beginning, we felt like every year, three x five x one year, we even had 10 X and we just kind of plateaued. There’s there’s new levers, new levers, and it’s and it’s going to take a highly skilled individual which may be ready to pay that highly skilled individual to locate them. Instruct how to pull them in to build a system around the continual execution of those levers for the continual growth of your business. So I hope that gave you some context and what you’ll be hearing going forward and just understand the growth journey. Remember, if you’re not growing, you’re shrinking. If you’re not living, you’re dying, OK? That this is just the reality with your business. OK, it’s either producing or not.

Chris L. Davis: [00:37:11] And as you continue to hear the interviews and some of my business buddies and people I respect in the field and the CEOs that you all will be referring to and you hear me ask about the lever, what lever did you pull?

Chris L. Davis: [00:37:27] Just listen to it. It’s going to be gold in these podcasts. Everybody, I’m intentional.

Chris L. Davis: [00:37:33] I know. I know the transformation I want to produce for you. All right. So so who needs to hear it? Who is that person besides you that has reached a plateau? They’ve they’ve had some amazing years behind them. They’ve worked with people. And just because they’re no longer working with those people who got them, they’re 10x are five X growth has nothing bad. It’s nothing against that person. It’s just their business needs something else. They need a new new new professional new expert to come in and identify other levers. Because for me, I’m systems, operational systems across your business from lead all the way to customer to be on.

Chris L. Davis: [00:38:11] I know those levers, H.R. I’m out of my listen. I don’t know, levers for finance. I don’t know. You’re right. So I’m good for the areas that I’m good for.

Chris L. Davis: [00:38:24] And you need to be able to say, OK, I worked with this person, they put these levers in place, we grew 10x five x, three X. All right, next. You see what I’m saying, this is the realistic approach to growth and investing in your business and yourself. Last thing I’ll say, we’re talking about who needs to hear this, that person who just won’t they they’re too nervous to get uncomfortable and invest in themselves and or their business to go to the next level. They’re either comfortable with the revenue that they’re making right now. Maybe they’re comfortable with their job and set up and they don’t really have that catalyst to push them forward and say, you know, what I got is now or never. They they’re scared. To go pull a new lever and what I found is that it’s not always about the money that they don’t have, it’s the it’s them walking into who they truly will become. It could be overwhelming. It’s a it’s mental mess that they haven’t worked through because it’s just like, man, can I do that? Am I that good? Do I deserve that? And it goes beyond, you know, just the technical acumen. So who needs to hear it? Just think about the people who are comfortable or, you know, they’re comfortable where they’re at or the people who have been putting forth so much effort. You’ve seen them hire agency after agency, marketing consultant after marketing consultant. And it just doesn’t seem to work. Share this episode with them. Let them know this may be the missing key. I’m being honest. This may be what they were missing. Right. And if you found value in today’s episode, please share it. On your social channels and make sure you you subscribe and leave a five star rating on review.

Chris L. Davis: [00:40:11] This is the time where I extend my invitation to you, new listener. Now’s the time to subscribe what you just listen to. There’s 60 plus more in the queue. And depending on when you listen to this, there may be 60 more ahead. So long story short, there’s more than enough where this came from. So jump on it and subscribe. Every Thursday we release a new episode and your five star ratings and reviews are greatly appreciated in Apple. Here IT Automation Bridge. We’re dedicated to training digital marketing professionals to become automation service providers. These are when we talk about levers. These are people who are proficient in installing automated systems for your marketing and sales to begin to help you achieve massive scale and growth.

Chris L. Davis: [00:40:55] But it doesn’t end there. We touch every operational area of your business with automation. That’s what an automation service provider does.

Chris L. Davis: [00:41:03] And businesses are in dire need of these people to know how to deploy these automated systems for rapid growth. So if you like to become an automation service provider, if when you listen to these podcasts, it just resonates on a different level. You see things, you can see it, you can visualize it. And, you know, you’ll be great at it. If also if you’re an AI, if you’re an expert in the space and your client’s systems are more fine tuned in your own, this is a perfect place, an opportunity for you to get those systems in place. What you need is help and accountability while you’re doing your client work to ensure that your systems are in place. OK, too often we see what is it the cobbler has. Everyone else has shoes but but their children. I don’t want that to be you.

Chris L. Davis: [00:41:58] So if you’re looking to establish a career in marketing and automated marketing, I highly recommend you become an automation service provider.

Chris L. Davis: [00:42:08] If you’re already in the space providing that service at a high level, you know, you’re you’re an expert. You’re at the top tier and, you know, you need systems in place yourself and they can be improved if you’re the only one that’s built your systems. I highly recommend that you also look at becoming an automation service provider so you can get those systems in place. And just by doing that, you’re going to witness the ability to increase your capability to scale immediately. It’s just what it is. So if that’s you, if that’s you. Automationbridge.com/asp . Someone, myself or someone on my team will assess all of all of the information that you provide. And if we say, look, this is a good fit, come on in, we have a program and a certification. Specifically for you, only for those who qualify. So make sure you go to automationbridge.com/asp, fill out your information and let us know. Hey look, I’m ready to become an automation service provider. Lastly, for those of you who need help, you’re listening to this and you’re like, look, I get it. Who’s going to do it for me? Show me the way. Who who are these people? Where do I find them? We have a jobs board, automationbridge.com/jobs. You’ll be able to submit your request, detail your your need as much as possible.

Chris L. Davis: [00:43:45] And we will do our best to connect you with a trusted resource in the space to build out your systems for. So that link is automationbridge.com/jobs. All of the links will be of and resources mentioned will be in the show notes and automationbridge.com/podcast.

Chris L. Davis: [00:44:06] You can subscribe there and listen to all other episodes at your leisure. So until next time I see you on line Automate responsibly friends.

ASG 063 – Growth Levers

Chris L. Davis: [00:00:00] You’re listening to the All Systems Go podcast, the show that teaches you everything you need to know to put your business on autopilot, learn how to deploy automated marketing and sales systems in your business the right way with your host, the professor of automation himself and founder of Automation Bridge, Chris Davis.

Chris L. Davis: [00:00:30] Welcome to the All Systems Go podcast, I’m your host, Chris Davis, the founder of Automation Bridge, an online publication for small business marketing automation, where we focus on turning digital marketing professionals into automation service providers. And in this episode, I want to take a moment and prepare your mind and inform your approach, your approach to how growth takes place in business. OK, you may have seen people post online about how they experienced a certain amount of success after hiring a particular person or implementing a particular strategy. And what I want to do is just take a deeper look into what goes into such rapid growth and perhaps uncover what they’re not telling you, not in a malicious way, like they’re trying to fake you out or deceive you. But there’s always more to the story. So let’s look at that on this episode or less. Let’s cover that. Let’s talk through that. But before we get started, if you’re new to the podcast, first off, welcome. Thank you for tuning in to the All Systems Go podcast. Do me a favor. Listen to this episode in its entirety. At the end, you have an invitation to leave a five star rating review and more importantly, subscribe for those of you who have been listening and have not subscribed yet and left a five star rating and review. What are you waiting for? This is the time. I’m serious. Let this let the podcast continue to play. Go hit the home button out of this app. Go into wherever you’re getting your podcast, preferably Apple, because it’s the biggest right now. And go leave a five star rating and review for the All Systems Go podcast. It helps inform Apple that we are worth listening to. And if you’re listening to it, that’s proof right there that we’re worth listening to. All right. So help me spread the good news, spread the word about this podcast. We’re available on Apple podcast. Google podcast. You can subscribe on YouTube or wherever you get your podcasts. Take your five star ratings and reviews are greatly appreciated.

Chris L. Davis: [00:02:47] So let’s let’s talk about this. It’s it’s all about business growth, period. Right. And this is a simple formula. If you’re not growing in business, you’re shrinking there. There is no standing still. There is no stagnated. Dormont, you’re either growing or shrinking because the competition, it’s there’s too much there’s too much competition. The needs of of people and businesses there are right. There are rising. They’re rising, I should say, to to rapidly. Right. So if you just stay stuck serving a particular market in one way, it’s by the process of osmosis, you become outdated. Right. And again, you know, I’ve mentioned covid many times on the on the podcast. It has been a catalyst. Some of your outdated approaches. You were just kind of getting along. And here we have this shift in society that that causes you to make a new transition to to put forth new efforts that, let’s be honest, you should have done previously.

Chris L. Davis: [00:04:04] But what you did is you sat around and you watched everybody else getting prepared, everybody else taking on these new strategies. And you said, well, we’ve always done it this way. This has always worked for us. We’re ten years. Fifteen years. And some of those businesses are now struggling. I don’t say that, you know, to poke fun at them. You know, I sympathize with them, but it’s real. You’re either growing or you’re shrinking. That’s it. And it’s business growth that seems to be the most elusive. The most elusive element in business, right, you just there there are some people who experience it at large scales and others, they can be in the same industry and they just seem to continually struggle and ultimately fail. And there’s a lot there’s a lot that goes into it. Right. As much as I like formulas, there are some formulas you can apply to business growth, but there is no absolute right because you’re different. You’re different how you structure your business, you’re different, how you deliver the service. Right. You’re different and how you want to operate in and on your business. All of those things show up in the marketplace differently, even if you’re in the same industry with the same offer. Right, you may be more opposed to a certain style of advertising or marketing.

Chris L. Davis: [00:05:30] It all matters. The personality of your business matters. So so the real question is, is there a secret? What’s their secret to success? Chris, let us know. How do we achieve rapid growth? What is it? Well, the answer is yes or no, right? Yes, there is a secret because you need to know what to do and how to do it. That that is a a process in identifying the right minds to invest in to help, you know, what to do and instruct you on how to do it. And no, no, it’s there’s no secret, because if at least if you’ve been listening to this podcast, you know that you need strong systems in place. This is not a secret. You know this. And I’ve detailed what those systems are of even giving you insight on how to go about building them. Right, we’ve got tons of resources on the Web site that will walk you through these elements. So that being said, I like to look at growth with with a simple approach because a lot of things in business are complicated. They really are. So the more we can simplify, the better off will be. And here’s what I’m always thinking about is what can I do? That will produce the biggest result, because I’m thinking of time and effort here, right, because those are those are the time is finite.

Chris L. Davis: [00:06:53] So it’s not like I can sit around and do everything. And just do anything, some people out there just every day is a new strategy. And to prevent me from doing that, I have a follow up question, what have I done that has produced the largest result thus far? And more most commonly, what you hear is, well, what’s worked in the past, keep doing it. Well, we’ll see why that that necessarily doesn’t work in business. OK, and these may be be tough questions to ask and answer if you’re not growth focused because there’s a good chance that you haven’t been intentionally measuring the performance of your marketing and sales, which means you haven’t been making adjustments, which means without navigating by the numbers. You’re really. Guestimating your way to success at best, and businesses like this business will not penalize you for guessing the right answer. If you guessed the right answer, you will get the right result. But how do you build an empire on guesstimation and finger crossing and just hope marketing? Just really hope this works. Throw it out there and let’s see, especially if you’ve got finite funds. Right. A lot of us just don’t have those big deep pockets to be trying everything.

Chris L. Davis: [00:08:19] Ok.

Chris L. Davis: [00:08:21] So what I’m proposing to you is this this question, this approach, it’s really about pulling growth levers in your business. And these are these are levers of different sizes at different levels of success, so you can have this this is where it gets dynamic. Remember, I would love for an absolute answer for you, but here’s where it gets dynamic. You can pull the same lever in one business and have massive results and go into another business and do the same thing and it have minimal results. And and and what we’re seeing is the makeup of like a consultant. Right. Or a marketing professional that you hire and bring in when when a marketing professional tells you they neach they they have a niche audience. This means they’ve gotten really good at pulling a particular lever. And when they pull this lever, they can predict what’s going to happen. But in order for that to take place, you have they have to highly qualify you because there’s certain there’s a certain state that you have to be in business for me to be able to pull this lever. And if I pulled it prematurely, it won’t produce it if I pull it, you know, after the fact, when you’re beyond that stage, it still won’t have the same effect. OK. So when we look at pulling these levers in your business, it requires and, you know, with the podcast, we’ve we’ve got to be broad. I go as deep as I can. But, you know, these topics to do a deep dive, it really requires more of an intimate space like, you know, a course or community or, you know, something more hands on workshop, things of that nature.

Chris L. Davis: [00:10:09] But if we just think about it, to pull such a lever requires location, the ability to locate, the ability to project and or predict, the ability to take action, and then the ability to assess. Those are the four elements of pulling a lever, right, so location deals with the process of identifying what to do next. What do I need to do? This is literally what most what you’re going to hire a consultant for. Hey, you know, we’re experiencing some growth. I just I just can’t figure out how to get over the hump. What should I be doing when they come in and say, OK, well, look, then projection. This is an intelligent estimation of what you can expect from your efforts. And this estimation should be founded on baseline statistics data. OK, if you’re not measuring your marketing year, there’s no consultant that’s going to be able to come in, in and save the day you need data. So the first step may be just to collect some baseline data before you can even identify whether. Action is the work required. This is the actual pulling of the lever. What is that? What what does that require time wise, human resources wise? Technology wise? Right, and then assessment as you determine how well things worked or not, so you can make your adjustment.

Chris L. Davis: [00:11:36] So you hear this going forward. And I wanted to record this because I talked about it on a previous episode with Koranda, where we are talking about what was that leever? What was that thing that you did that just resulted in massive growth? So you hear this as a theme going forward as I bring on other entrepreneurs, CEOs and things of that nature to detail what was that single lever they feel led to the biggest growth in their business?

Chris L. Davis: [00:12:05] And as you’re listening to these answers, I also want you to pay attention to what stage was their business. Levers are contextual, right? They’re not just floating in the air. They’re they’re posted somewhere on some wall. In some room. Right. I’m I’m thinking of this. This is more it’s not like a physical room of your business, but you get what I’m saying. This is an analogy. It’s figurative speech. But there’s context to deliver. When you pull it, why did that work, why did that work for you? Because the blind mind will go and say, hey, well, look, look at the lever they pulled. They started promoting, let’s start promoting. And then when you don’t get that same result, you look at the tactic like it was something wrong with it or perhaps the person. And it’s important to be able to listen and look beyond the surface of the success stories and identify the mechanics behind the success. I’ll help you do it in the way that I ask questions, which is another reason why shameless plug you are should be sending your favorite to the CEO’s in the the sea level. Folks have your favorite tools to refer them to be a guest on the podcast so we can have this conversation. And I can guy I can ask these questions to really extract some of those mechanics for you all. There’s somebody experiencing a lot of a high level of success. Let them know, hey, you should really go on this podcast. I think it please. Right. Automation Bridge Dotcom for his last podcast.

Chris L. Davis: [00:13:46] Ok, but.

Chris L. Davis: [00:13:49] When you’re training your ear to listen. And look beyond the surface when you’re when you’re hearing or reading these success stories. You want you to know that there are different levers for different levels. Of success in business, so some of the more popular basic levers are updating your Web site and or landing page, right? That’s that’s a basically you have to pull that one. Right, start accepting payments online, is it is that even optional nowadays? Right, I don’t think that’s even optional. It’s not this is not a do you accept payments online? Yes or no? There is no no option anymore. It’s just yes. And it better be. Yes. Advertising on social media. Right. Targeting a new audience. Hey, you know, I think I want to shift to young young young men who are just out of college, aspirational, looking for that next leadership role in their community, whatever the case is. Right. Doing manual prospective outreach, maybe that’s what you just said, hey, look, let’s go old school. Let’s do some some LinkedIn in male, grab some list, let’s, you know, let’s just pound the pavement. You know, I understand landing pages, I understand all of that.

Chris L. Davis: [00:15:14] Let’s just get on the phone and send some cold emails. Right.

Chris L. Davis: [00:15:22] Start, start content marketing, blogging, writing articles, guest guest posting a podcast, these are all it doesn’t you know, it’s you could talk you could sit down and talk to any business owner and they would be aware of these things. Now, if you ask them how to do it and are they doing it themselves, that’s a different question. That’s a whole nother story. And then your most basic marketing professional will at least know these from just from an academic approach to marketing. You can enroll in enough courses and read enough blog posts to know all of these levers. Now, here’s here’s the next step, though, because remember, there’s four elements. You have to be able to do all of them proficiently to be qualified as a highly sought after marketing professional or automation service provider. You need to not only be able to say, hey, you need to update your website, but you also need to be able to project what updating that website will do for them. You know, we see that websites like yours and your industry have an average conversion rate of three percent. Based on your traffic, you’ll be able to properly project up to 100 new leads per week, which is about 400 a month. And based on your current conversion rate, that’s about three to five new clients just by updating your website. This is when an experienced consultant should be able to tell you this is what I mean when I say projecting, they’ve identified the lever, update your website. Now, the projecting setting a realistic expectation based on historical data. What you can expect, but all of that’s fine and dandy because who’s going to do the work?

Chris L. Davis: [00:17:03] Who’s going to do that? OK, I’m sold. Where you show me point me. Who do I sign up with? Who does this right?

Chris L. Davis: [00:17:14] So then the work is done and then there’s a settlement. All right, you said I would have about three to four more clients this month. Let me see. It’s been 30 days. Do I? Oh, I’ve got five. Hmm. And then what are you going to do? You’re going to go back and figure out why did that work so well over the elements there? Right, and again, I mentioned a few it’s not comprehensive, right, but these are pretty standard in doing any of the above will produce some form of result, like anything that I’m updating your website payments on advertising on social, a new audience outreach manual, manoir, prospective outreach, content marketing. They’re all produced some form of result. And no, it’s not it’s not a competition, it’s not a comprehensive list, but it does show some fundamental areas of business day that you should have shored up.

Chris L. Davis: [00:18:12] Ok.

Chris L. Davis: [00:18:14] And and to be honest, this is a consultant’s dream because you don’t have to when when it’s when it’s these fundamental levers that need to be pulled, you know, like the foundation that needs to be laid. They just come into a business and do the basics. They know the basics you need in place to implement. The basic growth happens, the success story is posted, and then it leaves all of these other business owners and all like, wow, and they updated their website. Look what happened. Unfortunately, without understanding that those same levers won’t produce the same results for your business. That’s where most people fall short with false expectations. Right there, like, well, they updated their was we’re going to get the same person to update and then you update yours, you don’t get the same result. That’s not how it works. Just imagine if it were that easy. Well, who wouldn’t be successful in business? There’s other elements. You’re at different stages. Perhaps you already pulled that lever. Which brings me to an analogy when we talk about the repeat pulling of levers. And just follow me here. This is not the let me just say this is the first one that came to mind. So, you know, the reason why drugs are so addictive is because the addict is always chasing that first high. You know, they they’ve gone it’s a scientific it’s physiological.

Chris L. Davis: [00:19:52] There’s something that happens when those elements enter your body for the first time. That’s really where the word high came from. You experience this level of euphoria and and and stimulation your first time that you that that that person will never achieve again, ever. It’s the highest that it will ever be. And they spend their life chasing what can never be caught. Chasing some to the grave, some finally realized, you know what, it is, I’ve got to stop this or it’s going to stop me, right? And levers are the same way you can’t keep pulling the same one, expecting the same results. That’s that’s actually insanity, right? Because the the first time may not be the best. Right. Like, you may pull it. It’s got some results. And as you keep pulling it, there’s a time where you’re like, man, this is really working. Wow. And guess what happens over time? Those results become more normalized in your business, I’m talking about in your business, so if you’re stuck, you’ve got one. They call it the one trick pony, right? Hey, this is all we do and we do it well. You just pulling the lever. I wake up, I go into my office and I pull the lever. Look at my shoulders. I’m just pulling my lever. Right. One trick pony. And that could work for a time.

Chris L. Davis: [00:21:26] Right, and again, the first time you do it may not be the biggest result. But as you continue to do it, it grows and grows, but it reaches some plateau. Right, and here you are, you keep pulling it, you’re like, come on, produce, produce, produce, and there’s a shift in the market. Right, there’s there’s more competition in the market. Technology has evolved. So what you once was were getting out of that lever, you’ll never get again, you’ll never get it again, you cannot launch a product the same way every time for years and expect the same results. You’re changing things. I guarantee you you are. Talk to anybody who’s done at least five to 10 product launches and they have changed. Well, this launch, what we changed was this, you know, like some of the core elements stayed the same. But they say, OK, for this one, we went international. For this one, we decided that we were going to go ten days on Facebook instead of seven on this one. We did some rooms. Right. You’ll see that within that that main strategy or main lever that they’re pulling, there’s like these sublevels, you know, that they’re saying, OK, this one is working. So we’re not going to stop pulling it, but we need to switch some things up in in between.

Chris L. Davis: [00:22:53] Right.

Chris L. Davis: [00:22:56] But you don’t want to be that one trick pony, you don’t want to be that person that has one lever to pull and that’s it. Because, again, once it has produced what it’s going to produce, it’s not going to produce anything more. Business is too dynamic, so as as you as your business grows, you need to identify the new levers to pull to produce the growth that you desire. And again, the lever that you pull that produces a result, it will always more than likely produce some results. So I’m not by any means telling you to to not pull them. Right. This is where this is where my my analogy breaks down from from the drug addict because the addict needs to stop. Right. Stop that behavior in business. No, you keep it up, but you just don’t rely on it. You understand what I’m saying? You’re pulling the same lever. But your expectation is informed that you know what, this is good. But I need to go find other levers. And those who are able to go and identify those new levers to pull are the ones that can take that that achieve continual growth. One model, one model that works really well in this approach is once you identify a lever that needs to be poured repeatedly. This is what automation is for. Literally, you build a system so that is continually pulling that lever because you don’t want to leave any money on the ground.

Chris L. Davis: [00:24:35] You don’t want to leave any you know, you don’t want to leave any lever unattended. So you put systems in place to just keep pulling it for you. Now, it’s not your effort. Right, and if it does plateau, it’s fine because you’re off to the next level. And what are you going to do? You can identify, you know, put a system around it so that it can continue to continually pull it. And now you see the the automation orchestra. You’re you are you know, you’ve got your you’re orchestrating the the the the choir, the band. And you’re just putting moving your hands in the air and all of these tools. Right. All of these systems. And it’s a beautiful sound. You just hear a click, click, click, click. Right. That that’s that’s the business owners orchestra. It’s not the violins and the flutes and all of these beautiful instruments. It’s the hearing the the clicks, click, click, click, click. Like that’s our orchestra. And we get excited over that because we know the systems are just pulling for us. Paw paw, paw paw. Right. And as your business grows, the need to identify those levers. Right, grows new levers, but guess what, they get harder to locate and harder to pull.

Chris L. Davis: [00:26:02] Because they’re smaller and they’re smaller, I should say, so, for instance, building a Web page, splash landing page, hooking up in autoresponder, sending out e-mails, follow up emails, getting getting your system set up. Those are all big levers.

Chris L. Davis: [00:26:19] Right.

Chris L. Davis: [00:26:21] But scaling from one million to five million or 500, let’s say four hundred and fifty thousand to five million or 10 million. Those are going to require different levers. Remember, growth requires new levers, if you want if you just want to say, hey, look, I’m at a particular level of business, I’m making 300000 and it’s fine. It’s a nice little simple lifestyle business. I’m country living, but I’m living like a king in a queen. And I just pull these three levers, right, if that’s you just know, again, at some point you’re going to have to adjust a bit. Those levers will work, but you’ll have to adjust. But if you’re trying to grow continually scale, we talk about scale all the time. And in me, when I think of scale, I’m thinking of in the millions. Right. Same systems apply to smaller businesses and enterprises. No. But when we talk about that type of scaling levers are different, they’re not as easily located or acted upon. In fact, the level of acumen of your marketing professional that you’re working with has to be extremely high to guide you to its location. For one, and then extra instruct you on the necessary action to take.

Chris L. Davis: [00:27:47] And and here’s what I mean, it was the dynamic that I’ve seen is the earlier in business you are the larger the levers are, but the smaller the result.

Chris L. Davis: [00:27:59] Right, and I say result. Comparatively, because in the moment those results are big to you, because you’ve never got them, you’ve never had those results. But as you grow, you’ll look back and be like, man, I remember that day when I thought 5000 dollars a month was a lot of money. It was for you at the time. But as growth ensues, you look back and say, Hmm. That was cute, right? I mean, wow, we’ve come a long way, right? So. Those those those early, early in business, those those big ones, you know, they’re easier to find. And and as you grow again, you know, they’re they’re they’re smaller and they’re harder. So for me, you have to have somebody that understands, like, OK, you’ve done this. You’ve done that. You’ve done this, OK, a checkbox, all of those levers, we need to first off make sure their systems in place to keep those levers, to keep pulling them, but the growth happens in these new ones. Right. So, you know, the larger the living in the beginning, the smaller the result. And then as you grow, the results grow as well. But the levers are smaller. That just means they’re harder to locate. And they don’t they don’t take a quantity of effort. They take more of a quality of effort. OK, and here’s what I mean for more established business, you know, you can see major profits from having a copywriter update a sales page where you can literally I’ve seen this. I’ve seen people pay copy writers up to 30000 dollars to write copy for sales page. And it turns out after it’s all said and done, it ends up producing.

Chris L. Davis: [00:29:59] Half a million, a million, right, but you getting started out, you don’t you dare don’t you dare think that just getting started out, you can go pay the top top dollar copyrighter and they come in recopy. You’re just going to make all this money. It doesn’t work like that because remember, in the copyrighter will tell you, because you have to meet their qualifications. Hey, look, you want to pull this copyrighter lever, all right? This is what you need in place. Once all of this is in place, I’m going to pull this lever and guess what this level is going to do? It’s going to produce this. Right. But it that’s only for an established business. Another thing, an established business may do something as simple as an online scheduler to increase their client acquisition. Starting out, don’t expect it, that’s all that that lever. It’s a good lever, but where you’re at in business, it’s empty. You pull it, you hear nothing, there’s no click, there’s no nothing you like. This doesn’t work. Yes, it does. Just not for where you’re at. So now we’re starting to see when someone says, hey, I hire so-and-so and we 10x our revenue. Think about the state that business was in and the lever that was pulled and just know if they wanted 10x their new revenue is not going to be from that lever. Right. What got you here won’t take you there. You’re not the lever that you pulled to 10x your revenue this year is not going to 10x your revenue next year is that’s just not how it works.

Chris L. Davis: [00:31:38] You have your outliers. I say, hey, look, man, speak for yourself. I put it three times and I’m thirty six in now. OK, but don’t bank on it. Do not bank on it, you’re not going to get the same amount of growth. From pulling the same lever repeatedly, it will produce results, but we’re talking about growth, you’re not going to get the same level of growth. So when someone says, hey, I got this, I did this, I enrolled in this program and got that. That’s why they pulled a lever and it worked. Guess what? They’re now to to to grow again. They’re going because because this lever, this growth lever now has become the foundation is become standard standard operating, hey, look, this is what we do. We pull these levers and we make 10000. Now I want to make 20000 is not pull the lever faster. It’s not that. Right. We need to identify the next lever to pull. So, again, back to my analogy with the attic. You pull that lever, it’s produced what it’s given you, it’s growth. You’ve got it. The lever has given you that amount of growth. Now, if you want more growth, you’re not going to be able to get it from that. Stop chasing it. You’ve got to identify new levers. And they’re not as easily identifiable. The bigger your business gets. When it when it when when we’re talking about millions on the line, you know, one of my favorite levers is segmentation. And the beautiful thing is segmentation works across any business of all sizes, but the big business is.

Chris L. Davis: [00:33:21] Oh, my goodness. Money in the bank.

Chris L. Davis: [00:33:24] Right, so small, smaller people like, well, I don’t really need that, I got a couple of lists in a few tags and those are my segments and I’m like, good for you. You don’t understand this segmentation lever. If I pull it in a bigger business, it produces millions in your business. Some leads, some, you know, some revenue. Right, but I know that I’m familiar with various types of levers for various types of businesses and various types of stages.

Chris L. Davis: [00:33:56] And I guess as I as I close on this podcast to the effort here was to inform you, those of you who are running your businesses, you’re the chief Eells, is what I call them, the true chiefs of your business. You’re not in the operations or anything like that. You need to understand that the person that you’re assessing to do your marketing needs to know beyond the basics. Needs to know some of you need the basic stuff in place, you put all those basic levers in place and systems around them and you start producing some revenue. And for some of you, that’s the 10K that you’re waiting on, just having the foundation in place and systems around it.

Chris L. Davis: [00:34:34] But now when we talk about growth. Growth. Well, we’re putting a number in front of that letter X one X 10x to X 3x for X, right? Those are new levers. And you need you need you need a consultant that can identify those levers, how how can one identify what what they’ve never done? Right. They need results, they need to show.

Chris L. Davis: [00:35:05] That, oh, I’ve pulled this lever. Look at this.

Chris L. Davis: [00:35:10] And then it also helps shape your expectation, because if somebody, let’s say, their lover is messenger marketing, so they do messenger Boston, this doesn’t understand the finite nature of that lever.

Chris L. Davis: [00:35:23] Do not do not expect for them to build out your entire customer journey. You’re paying them for that lever. That’s what experts get paid for, one lever, I’ll come in and do this maybe, maybe a few more. But there’s one thing that I’m really good at, and I will put this lever in your business and I will put a system around how to pull it. And when we pull it, you’re on to the next level. OK, don’t settle was the next lever lever. Right. So the game of growth is an ongoing effort of strategizing what to do. That’s the location piece estimating the return. That’s the projection piece. Right. Detailing how to do it. That’s the action. And measuring it’s measuring its success. That’s the assessment. And you re you rinse and repeat for the next lever, for the next level of growth. OK, so if you’ve been stuck, you just can’t seem to to again, because like in the beginning, we felt like every year, three x five x one year, we even had 10 X and we just kind of plateaued. There’s there’s new levers, new levers, and it’s and it’s going to take a highly skilled individual which may be ready to pay that highly skilled individual to locate them. Instruct how to pull them in to build a system around the continual execution of those levers for the continual growth of your business. So I hope that gave you some context and what you’ll be hearing going forward and just understand the growth journey. Remember, if you’re not growing, you’re shrinking. If you’re not living, you’re dying, OK? That this is just the reality with your business. OK, it’s either producing or not.

Chris L. Davis: [00:37:11] And as you continue to hear the interviews and some of my business buddies and people I respect in the field and the CEOs that you all will be referring to and you hear me ask about the lever, what lever did you pull?

Chris L. Davis: [00:37:27] Just listen to it. It’s going to be gold in these podcasts. Everybody, I’m intentional.

Chris L. Davis: [00:37:33] I know. I know the transformation I want to produce for you. All right. So so who needs to hear it? Who is that person besides you that has reached a plateau? They’ve they’ve had some amazing years behind them. They’ve worked with people. And just because they’re no longer working with those people who got them, they’re 10x are five X growth has nothing bad. It’s nothing against that person. It’s just their business needs something else. They need a new new new professional new expert to come in and identify other levers. Because for me, I’m systems, operational systems across your business from lead all the way to customer to be on.

Chris L. Davis: [00:38:11] I know those levers, H.R. I’m out of my listen. I don’t know, levers for finance. I don’t know. You’re right. So I’m good for the areas that I’m good for.

Chris L. Davis: [00:38:24] And you need to be able to say, OK, I worked with this person, they put these levers in place, we grew 10x five x, three X. All right, next. You see what I’m saying, this is the realistic approach to growth and investing in your business and yourself. Last thing I’ll say, we’re talking about who needs to hear this, that person who just won’t they they’re too nervous to get uncomfortable and invest in themselves and or their business to go to the next level. They’re either comfortable with the revenue that they’re making right now. Maybe they’re comfortable with their job and set up and they don’t really have that catalyst to push them forward and say, you know, what I got is now or never. They they’re scared. To go pull a new lever and what I found is that it’s not always about the money that they don’t have, it’s the it’s them walking into who they truly will become. It could be overwhelming. It’s a it’s mental mess that they haven’t worked through because it’s just like, man, can I do that? Am I that good? Do I deserve that? And it goes beyond, you know, just the technical acumen. So who needs to hear it? Just think about the people who are comfortable or, you know, they’re comfortable where they’re at or the people who have been putting forth so much effort. You’ve seen them hire agency after agency, marketing consultant after marketing consultant. And it just doesn’t seem to work. Share this episode with them. Let them know this may be the missing key. I’m being honest. This may be what they were missing. Right. And if you found value in today’s episode, please share it. On your social channels and make sure you you subscribe and leave a five star rating on review.

Chris L. Davis: [00:40:11] This is the time where I extend my invitation to you, new listener. Now’s the time to subscribe what you just listen to. There’s 60 plus more in the queue. And depending on when you listen to this, there may be 60 more ahead. So long story short, there’s more than enough where this came from. So jump on it and subscribe. Every Thursday we release a new episode and your five star ratings and reviews are greatly appreciated in Apple. Here IT Automation Bridge. We’re dedicated to training digital marketing professionals to become automation service providers. These are when we talk about levers. These are people who are proficient in installing automated systems for your marketing and sales to begin to help you achieve massive scale and growth.

Chris L. Davis: [00:40:55] But it doesn’t end there. We touch every operational area of your business with automation. That’s what an automation service provider does.

Chris L. Davis: [00:41:03] And businesses are in dire need of these people to know how to deploy these automated systems for rapid growth. So if you like to become an automation service provider, if when you listen to these podcasts, it just resonates on a different level. You see things, you can see it, you can visualize it. And, you know, you’ll be great at it. If also if you’re an AI, if you’re an expert in the space and your client’s systems are more fine tuned in your own, this is a perfect place, an opportunity for you to get those systems in place. What you need is help and accountability while you’re doing your client work to ensure that your systems are in place. OK, too often we see what is it the cobbler has. Everyone else has shoes but but their children. I don’t want that to be you.

Chris L. Davis: [00:41:58] So if you’re looking to establish a career in marketing and automated marketing, I highly recommend you become an automation service provider.

Chris L. Davis: [00:42:08] If you’re already in the space providing that service at a high level, you know, you’re you’re an expert. You’re at the top tier and, you know, you need systems in place yourself and they can be improved if you’re the only one that’s built your systems. I highly recommend that you also look at becoming an automation service provider so you can get those systems in place. And just by doing that, you’re going to witness the ability to increase your capability to scale immediately. It’s just what it is. So if that’s you, if that’s you. Automationbridge.com/asp . Someone, myself or someone on my team will assess all of all of the information that you provide. And if we say, look, this is a good fit, come on in, we have a program and a certification. Specifically for you, only for those who qualify. So make sure you go to automationbridge.com/asp, fill out your information and let us know. Hey look, I’m ready to become an automation service provider. Lastly, for those of you who need help, you’re listening to this and you’re like, look, I get it. Who’s going to do it for me? Show me the way. Who who are these people? Where do I find them? We have a jobs board, automationbridge.com/jobs. You’ll be able to submit your request, detail your your need as much as possible.

Chris L. Davis: [00:43:45] And we will do our best to connect you with a trusted resource in the space to build out your systems for. So that link is automationbridge.com/jobs. All of the links will be of and resources mentioned will be in the show notes and automationbridge.com/podcast.

Chris L. Davis: [00:44:06] You can subscribe there and listen to all other episodes at your leisure. So until next time I see you on line Automate responsibly friends.