How to do business during the coronavirus pandemic with Suzanne Evans

Founder of Driven INC – Suzanne Evans

Suzanne Evans is an entrepreneur, risk-taker, and author. She is the founder of Driven Inc., which has been on the Inc 500/5000 list of fasting growing companies for 5 straight years, and the author of NY Times Best Selling book, “The Way You Do Anything is the Way You Do Everything”, which set hundreds of thousands of business owners on their fast path to success.

Suzanne Evans went from secretary to a 7 million dollar business in record time. Her work blends business, strategy, lifestyle, and storytelling in a way that allows people to build businesses that shape the world to be a better place.

“Never waste a tough time. Tough times are the richest times because they do create an urgency and discipline for you.” – Suzanne Evans

Episode Highlights:

Learn how Suzanne has the energy to work amid the Coronavirus pandemic
How to deal with exhaustion and frustration with our current situation
Learn how to pivot and be innovative in your business (Be on the right track with all the craziness)
Learn how to stand out in the crowd
Tips and tactics on content generation (The best ways to generate content)
What is the right thing to do when your head is all over the place
How to be invited on other people’s shows
Tips and tactics in getting sponsorship for your show
How much should you spend on your marketing

Transcript: Download

Video Transcription provided by GMR Transcription Services.

Jaime: Welcome to Eventual Millionaire. I am Jaime Masters. And today on the show I'm excited to have Suzanne Evans. She runs driveinc.com and I've heard so much about her. She was a secretary before and then has a $7 million company. So, I'm excited to talk to you. Thanks so much for coming on the show today.

Suzanne: Thanks. I'm glad to be here. It's Driven Inc. and I'm happy to be here.

Jaime: Oh, thank you. And I wrote that on my paper because I knew I was gonna say it wrong.

Suzanne: That's all right.

Jaime: How hilarious.

Suzanne: It's just an N. Just an N.

Jaime: Yeah. Well, that's a totally different website. So, Driven Inc. Thank you very much. So, beforehand I wanted to talk about your story about how you went from secretary. But because we're in the times that we are right now, you are a Master of Marketing and Sales. So, I would love for you to give me a temperature check on where things are right now. This interview's going live in May. And we're gonna be in sort of corona lockdown still for a little while. So, tell me what you... especially with working with so many different clients that you're work with, what are you feeling the energy is?

Suzanne: Yeah. So, I mean we all have been handed a shit sandwich. And our job as business owners is to do two things: To learn to digest it and to distract from it and get people to focus on the tater tots. So, I think that this will be in May. And I think you're gonna see a lot more frustration, a lot more anxiety, a lot more exhaustion in May even than we're seeing now because we did three weeks of cheerleading and people being really excited. Now, we're kind of moving into people going, "Tell me what to do because I've gotta keep the wheels on the bus." And then you're gonna get into, "I'm exhausted from all of this."

So, I've been telling all of our business owners that this was not assigned to you. This was not an arranged marriage. You chose to be in business, and this is what you signed up for. So, it's completely reasonable that you are exhausted, that you are fatigued, that you are sick of it, that you are overwhelmed. All of those things are accurate and shut up and get to work.

I mean that's just the time we're in right now. Shut up and get to work. Everybody's got problems. You are not unique. You are not special. And if you are a true business owner, and if you're really committed, you're gonna roll up your sleeves for the next 90 days to six months and you're gonna work harder than you've ever worked. And on the other side of it, you're gonna be more than okay.

Jaime: How do they deal with the exhaustion and then also knowing that they have to work as hard as they've ever worked right now?

Suzanne: Yeah. First of all, there's no such thing as burnout or exhaustion in the type of work we do. We're sitting at fucking desks. We're sitting at desks typing things and talking to people.

[Crosstalk]

Jaime: Really? Wow.

Suzanne: We are not in a field cropping tobacco. I'm a seventh-generation farm family. We are not walking through cotton fields in 100-degree heat picking cotton. We are sitting behind desks privileged. Privileged and lucky to be doing what we're doing. So, don't talk about your exhaustion. Don't address your exhaustion. You will get tired. Obviously take the time you need to take. Don't take more time than you need to take. And sleep well and eat well and find time to laugh and find time to connect with people.

But everyone watching this is extraordinarily privileged for the type of work we do and who we are. And there are people out there that are saving lives and are working 18-hour shifts. You're gonna be just fine.

Jaime: A very valid, valid point. Tell me a little bit about what people should do right. Because that's the other thing, they're looking for leaders and going what do I do right now? It's like grasping at nothingness.

Suzanne: Yeah. I mean I think there's a couple of things. First of all, don't go blow... well, one of the let me give you a little context. You don't treat a hairline fracture like an amputation. So, this is a hairline fracture. It is temporary. That doesn't mean we're not gonna see ripple effects and kind of aftereffects of this for a while, but it is temporary. People are gonna leave their homes again. They are going to go back to jobs again.

I think there's gonna be a catch-up of time in the economy and all of that, but we are people are like, "There'll be a new normal." Nope. It'll be the old normal. People will still be doing stupid things. People will still be at bars all night. I mean it's gonna go back to the normal as we knew it, I just think people won?t shake hands as much and they may have better hygiene.

And so, you just need to make sure that you're not blowing up your business to go do something new because of the time we're in. But you do have to pivot. You do have to be innovative. You have to have flexible and friendly payment plans. You have to really listen to where people are right now. Meet them where they are and tweak or innovate your offers to be to meet the times. And to meet the urgent needs of the times.

You have to be relevant. People that aren't watching the news and please do not watch the news all the time, but people who aren't watching the news and they're not bringing in a truth and a relevance to what's going on right now have just become irrelevant overnight. I mean you have to be relevant. You also have to be everywhere. And we know being offline is kind of limited right now. So, online I'm telling everybody you have to be doing three legion strategies a day. I'm doing this with you today. I have another podcast this afternoon. I'll do two Facebook Lives today. I'll hold a webinar in the afternoon. So, I'm telling everybody they have to do three a day and I'm trying to do four to six a day.

Jaime: I love it.

Suzanne: And you have to do that every single day because right now we really are in a time where you are so easily forgettable. But we're always forgettable in business. But right now, we're so easily forgettable. And remember, we're all in the same business. We're all in the real estate business. And the real estate business is we want to own as much real estate as we can to someone's mind right now. So, I recognize that it my job every single day to try to own as much of somebody's mental property as I can, which means I've gotta be everywhere, I've gotta know everything, I've gotta be better than everybody, I have to be more entertaining than everybody, and I have to be smarter than everybody.

Jaime: I love it. Especially because not only you doing this, I feel like the people that I've been trying to get on the show for years just came out of the woodwork and they're like, "Hey, can I come on now?" I'm like, "Of course." All the big guys are coming back out when they didn't have to beforehand. So, I love that you said that.

But I really wanna clarify what you mean by pivot. Because it sounds like, at least in the day and age that we're in right now, everybody's talking about pivoting. But it sounds like it's like a this a 90-degree pivot or a 180-degree pivot. And what you're saying though is just more of similar things that are slightly tweaked.

Suzanne: Yeah. You shouldn't be making big new offers. You shouldn't be changing your business. Even restaurants. Let's use a restaurant as an example because it's not kind of coaching or consulting or personal development. Restaurants aren't all of a sudden becoming tire companies. They're like, "Okay. We're only doing takeout." There's a local restaurant here that was... it was kind of like a pub and a burger place. That was all just too hard. So, they just pivoted and they're doing two burritos a day in a truck out front.

Jaime: Wow.

Suzanne: But it's still food. It's still similar ingredients to what they had. But it's like, "What can we do that's fast and easy and people... there's not a lot of interaction and people can pick them up and go." And so, it's taking what you are already doing, innovating it a little bit, tweaking it a little bit for the times, adding flexible payment plans to it. If you were offering something that was a year long and you were charging $10,000.00 for it, maybe offer it for three months for $4,000.00. That's not changing your cash flow structure month-to-month, but it just makes it something more digestible right now and possibly helping you get an easier sale.

Jaime: What are you seeing right now in the landscape? I've got tons of clients. Some are doing extremely well. Some are freaking out. Everybody's sort of handling it a little bit differently. But when it comes to retooling the offers and making sure that they're still on the right track with all the extra added marketing and craziness, how do we handle all of this work that you're talking about, like working 12 hours a day with our kids at home? Because that's fun.

Suzanne: Yeah. I mean I've got a three-year-old. I get it. But I am scheduled to within a breath of my life. And if you look at my schedule, my Google calendar takes me from 7:30-8:00 in the morning until 8:00 or 9:00 at night. And every moment of having a little free time, every moment of outbound calls, every moment of follow-up, every moment of serving my clients, every moment of doing something like this, all of it is scheduled. And I don't leave anything to be unscheduled right now because the only people that are going to grow through this are the disciplined.

Jaime: Good for you for having a three-year-old and doing all that. That's very impressive.

Suzanne: Yeah. And I always say, "Never waste a tough time." Tough times are the richest times because they do create an urgency for you. And they do create a need for discipline. And you have to also have your children be on disciplined schedules right now. You also have to realize that it's not gonna be what it always is. Nobody's kid's gonna become a serial killer because they watched a little more Disney the last the next 90 days. And nobody's kid is gonna not know how to add and never know how to spell because... We have to run our businesses. These are our livelihoods. I'm lucky to have some help. I do have somebody that's quarantined with us that is offering some help.

[Crosstalk]

Jaime: Oh, great.

Suzanne: So, I don't wanna not acknowledge that. But the flip side is that the disciplined have always been the winners. Now you just have a real reason to do it.

Jaime: External circumstances pushing you down. Awesome.

Suzanne: Yeah.

Jaime: So, tell me about how you get those three legion strategies a day? Give me some tactics. Everyone's like, "What do I do now? Tell me what to do, and I'll go do it."

Suzanne: Yeah. Well, you're gonna have to manufacture 30% of them, you're gonna have to buy 30% of them, and you're gonna have to land 30% of them.

[Crosstalk]

Jaime: Okay. 10 more.

Suzanne: So, manufacture means create your own stages. That's easy. You can go IG Live. You can go Facebook Live. If you've got a small list, be hosting a weekly webinar or a weekly networking group. Whatever resource you have in front of you, whether it's five assets or it's five million. Use that. So, that's kinda the one that you manufacture.

The ones that you buy is stuff is cheap right now. I mean we're going to people and saying, "Let us... can we be on and we'll be happy to pay. Can we do this with you, and we'll be happy to pay." Everybody right now needs leads in money. It's kinda what everybody needs.

And also, think about the right after. I'm coaching everybody right now that you have to have a strategy for the right now, the right after, and the forever. And so, the right now is a little more manufacturing, a little more landing. And I'll talk about that in a second. But the right after, we're trying to buy every sponsorship we can for when things do open back up. Be on any stage we can be on. Be a sponsor of anything we can be a sponsor of. The world is gonna open back up and will you be standing at the door shaking hands and kissing babies, or will you be waiting to get ready to get ready?

So, that's kind of the buying. And then the landing is so much has had to go virtual. Everything's had to go virtual. So, we're booking just as many gigs as we've always booked, we're just booking them virtually. And a lot of organizations and associations don't even quite know how to book people virtually because it's not what they normally do. So, if you say, "I'll handle it for you. I'll write the email for you that you send out to your people. I'll set up the Zoom. All you have to do is push a button." Do the work for people so that you can create opportunities for yourself.

Jaime: That's a great idea. I know there's so many associations and there's so many things that are so behind the times that you do this all day long. It should be easy.

Suzanne: Yeah. Yeah.

Jaime: That makes perfect sense. How do you actually stand out from the crowd though? I feel like everybody's saying similar but tweaked different things. How do you actually stand out in front of those people?

Suzanne: You have to have a really strong point of view. You have to have a really strong point of view right now about what's going on, about business, about everything that's happening. And for me, I'm just super, super clear that it's going to take a certain type of person to be... to grow through this. And I know that'll offend some people. I know that it will be off putting to some people. But I'm not trying to make people feel good right now, I'm trying to help people survive. And I'm not here to make friends, I'm here to try to make a difference.

And so, that's kind of my point of view around this. And everybody can have their own different point of view, but a lot of the same just becomes a lot of the same. So, make sure you're clear. Listen. For the most part I'm paid for my opinion. What a life that I live. I'm paid for my opinion. And that's my opinion on Facebook or my opinion on coaching someone one-on-one or whatever. So, there's never been a better time to have an opinion.

Jaime: I love it. Okay. Is it new content or are you retooling what you have? Is every single one these things you;re saying similar things? What are you doing as far as the content generation?

Suzanne: Yeah. It;s a couple of different things. We haven;t changed our content. I mean our content's our content. We did launch a program within about 36 hours of all of this going down called "The More Than Okay Club".

Jaime: I saw it on your website, and I was like, "She's good." That was a while ago. That was great.

Suzanne: And we within 10 days of launching it had about 2,100 members. And I think what's really interesting about that is more than 50% had never heard of us before. So, it was of course some of our people and our community, but it was also extended past that.

Jaime: How? I wanna know how.

Suzanne: We asked people to invite people. We ran a very small amount of ad spend on it. I mean I'm talking like $1,000.00. I mean nothing. A very small amount of ad spend. But it was really through organic. We came in and we said, If we're gonna do this? first of all, I think there's a lot of free stuff happening right now. And valuable and smart and intelligent. But it's one-offs. So, it's like I get this piece of information from you and then I forget you. And we knew if we were gonna do this it's like hold a container for people for eight weeks. Have them stay with you. Right now, people are picking someone to listen to. And if we give more value than anybody else then they're gonna pick us.

And so, it's a robust program that has private coaching in it and a daily coaching help hotline and modules that are going out. So, all of that is brand new. All of that is brand new. We didn't change anything else in our business, but we did that and launched it in 36 hours. My team kinda stayed up for 24 hours straight to get it out there. And we did that because I told my team and I knew this, if we're gonna put something out for free, which I think we should right now. I think people need it and I think we our main goal needs to be to serve and help people right now. This has to be the best program we've ever done if it's gonna be free.

Jaime: So, wait. The More Than Okay Club is free? No?

Suzanne: It's completely free. Completely free. Yeah. Morethanokayclub.com. Completely free and that's the whole purpose.

Jaime: Yeah. That makes sense.

[Crosstalk]

Suzanne: I mean the whole purpose is to support people, to help people. And obviously, we just wanted to be the go-to resource for people to have a community to because there's a lot of great information out there. And our information is great, but there is a tweak of the information that's needed for now. I mean that is a different set of information. And so, when we did that, it's yeah, it's been phenomenal. And of course, because of that people are like, "I want more than this."

And we launched a program on Monday morning that sold out by Monday afternoon. And we had to put a second thing of dates on the books. And I'm sharing that because you give this has always been the old adage, "You give away your best, they'll buy the rest." But honestly right now I think the free train is about to crash. I think there's so much free stuff.

Jaime: Yeah, there is.

Suzanne: People are just putting out free because they think it's the right thing to do. And it may be the right thing to do, but it's not necessarily the right thing for you. And a lot of people are spending their marketing time and money on giving away free stuff right now. And they don't have the marketing time and money to spend. I have a team of 20 fulltime people. I can do this.

Jaime: This is exactly what I was gonna ask.

Suzanne: And you've gotta figure out...

Jaime: Yes. Definitely.

Suzanne: Yeah.

Jaime: Tell me more.
?
Suzanne: Well, you've gotta have... you've gotta know who you are and the time you have and the money you have. And right now, I mean it's fine... I mean we've always offered free, long before Coronavirus people have offered free. It's pink spoon marketing. It's Baskin Robbins. It's like taste the ice cream and then you want the full scoop. Oh, God. It's really made me miss ice cream places.

So, we've always used that as a strategy, but right now it's a strategy that can really backfire if you don't have the resources and the team to be putting the time into that when you need to be putting the time into selling.

Jaime: Okay. I love that you're talking about this because I do find it's very curated per person. And because everybody is saying one big thing you should give away for free, you should pivot, you should blah, blah, blah.

[Crosstalk]

Suzanne: Absolutely.

Jaime: But people will realize... and again, I know you don't believe in burnout, but run themselves into the ground and not have any money leftover at the end of this.

Suzanne: Well, you can run yourselves into the ground financially, for sure. And I don't really look at a such a thing as burnout, but there are only 24 hours in the day. I mean you truly can only do so much. So, you have to be smart. And some of my clients I was like... they were like, "Should I do something?" I was like, "No." And all I've had them do is be following up with their leads and getting creative with flexible payment plans. And they fill programs and they are making great sales because they're like, I just need to keep my head down and make sure this happens.

Jaime: Yeah. Yeah. So, actually carry what you have.

[Crosstalk]

Suzanne: So, it's different for every person.

Jaime: I agree completely.

Suzanne: It's absolutely different. Yeah.

Jaime: So, what do you say then, especially if this comes out in May for the free area that we're going through, is it by May you don't think that'll be a big thing because people are already in their free programs?

Suzanne: I'm actually already seeing that they're over it. I mean this week I can feel that they're over it. I mean we're really fortunate because of the way we built this out. We built it out as a program. So, people are really committed to the program because they're getting modules and there's daily coaching and all of that. But I'm already seeing... we did a survey yesterday. And 70% of people are saying they're trying to ignore stuff because they're just information fatigued.

Jaime: Yeah. The amount of livestreams that are on my... on any of my platforms I'm like I can't. They're all just a mush.

Suzanne: Yeah. Yeah.

Jaime: It's so hard.

[Crosstalk]

Suzanne: Absolutely. Absolutely.

Jaime: Well, because then it's information overload. And then we sort of second guess ourselves and we don't know where to go. And there's just too much. So, what do you say for somebody that's listening that's a business owner on who to listen to? Do we just pick one random person?

Suzanne: Only listen to me. No. I mean it's not a bad idea. But no, choose one or two people. Seriously, choose one or two people. And don't choose things as one-offs. Go, "This person's doing a series." Or, "I've followed this person for a long time and I'm gonna listen to their angle." And some people aren't doing anything. I mean so that's okay too. Some people are just doing business as usual. And if that works for you, fine. And if it doesn't work for you find somebody else. But it's like anything. You have to just limit.

Right now, the No. 1 thing people need to be doing is limiting their input and upping their output. More calls to people. More connections. You being more places. And have some smart, intelligent... a couple of people you can trust. You feel like that they... and that they're being consistent. They're not just giving you information on occasion, but they're like, "Hey, I can tell you every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday I'm doing this." Or, "Every day I'm doing this." And just follow a couple of people consistently.

Jaime: There's a lot of people that are like, "I need to do something right," right now. Like, "Oh, I have to do it the right way," and then they get freaked out because it's not the right and we are saying, "Hey, don't do it free now." So, they might get, "Well, that's not oh, I thought that was the right way." Or, "Now that's the right way." What do you say when someone's head space is going all over the place to find the right thing?

Suzanne: Yeah. I'm not saying don't do free right now because you may have been doing free before that. And that's fine. I'm saying, "Don't do free for the sake of doing free." And so, there is no right way right now. It's really messy. Most of everything I'm doing is really messy. Remembering it's really key to remember that only 20% of anything you do will work. That's in good times and in bad times.

So, there's a great story about the Chief Marketing Officer of Coca-Cola going into the Board of Directors and he goes, "I have really good news." He said, "We spent about $500 million on advertising last year and we know 50% worked and we got great results." And they're like, "Awesome. Let's dig in. What 50% was it?" He goes, "The bad news is, we have no idea what 50%." And that's what marketing is.

Sometimes you can identify what works, but I remember years and years ago I had a client who was doing... she was filling her room. And she said, "I'm not gonna do videos anymore." And I said, "Why?" She goes, "Nobody's opting in from a video." And I said, "How do you know?" She goes, No one said, "I watched your video and I am coming." And I'm like, "But you don't know. You don't know if video was one of the seven touches or 12 touches or five touches that got them to come."

So, it?s a little bit of don?t do anything for the sake of doing it right now but do two or three right things consistently and you will get results.

Jaime: Okay. So, let?s break down sort of those two or three things every single day. So, for example, you were saying you giving away free content on your own platforms. What are the best ways? Short content? Long content? I know it is sort of a general question.

Suzanne: Short. Everybody?s attention span is so short right now. And unless you are a known entity that?s got a big following who people are committed to watching you, shorter the better. And it?s digestible and people can get in and they can get out. And they can get a nugget. They can get an idea. They can get inspired. They can get some information. I actually did a video on this yesterday and said, ?Keep stuff under a minute if you can. Like if you?re just putting out little content pieces, try to keep it under a minute.?

Now, a Facebook Live, if you go less than 11 minutes you kinda have an algorithm problem. And you won?t really kind of get traction. So, that?s a little bit of a different beast. But everything you can do you need to get in and get out. My Facebook Lives will go 25-45 minutes only because we?ll have 1,500 views and 24 hours of those. So, I have the audience to sustain that.

But I?m telling my clients, ?Be awesome. Be awesome in 15 minutes.? And remember, everybody?s saying, ?I wanna put out good content right now.? Yeah, we wanna put out good content right now, but actually engagement and entertainment is more important than content right now.

Jaime: Oh, tell me more. Yeah. That?s great.

Suzanne: People will watch one person over another person just because they?re more interesting right now. And we wanna be distracted. And we wanna be engaged. And we wanna feel something. Stephen King in his book on writing said, ?Nobody wants content. Nobody gives a shit about content. And I can prove it because if they did, textbooks would be bestsellers.? People wanna feel something. So, if you can?t make people feel something right now in a short amount of time, it?s a really good time to practice it.

Jaime: Can you give us some tips that we can practice? That would be great.

Suzanne: Yeah. Get away from the content and get into the storytelling. Be a great storyteller is No. 1. No. 2 is on video, on film, on Facebook Live, you have to have three to four times the energy you would in person. And so, actually a lot of people won?t do it because they feel silly. They?re like, ?Oh, I?m too hyper. And I look too crazy. This isn?t my emotions. This isn?t my style.? But on video, they say it adds 10 pounds. It also takes away 10 times kind of your energy. So, you have to be engaging. You have to have a presentation style.

And then the third tip that I would give is to really watch for reaction. And ask for feedback. And have a conversation over teaching. People are much more interested in a conversation than they are a lecture.

Jaime: How do you do that on a platform if it?s not live? So, if it?s a ? just a video, how do you do that?

Suzanne: Yeah. So, I?ll ask. I?ll say, ?So, take a moment right now and ask yourself this.? Or I?ll say, ?Just say this out loud right now.? Or I?ll say, ?Grab a piece of paper and write these three things down.? Or I?ll say, ?Is this something you?ve ever thought about?? Every video I?m doing, I?m doing for one person. I?m not doing them for the thousands of people that will watch them. I?m always building on a video as if it?s one person.

Jaime: I love this. Okay. So, now we?re talking about other people?s platforms and getting on shows. We?ve had this booked forever. So, there goes that. You didn?t push hard. But what are you doing right now to push hard to get on other people?s shows?

Suzanne: We just have somebody fulltime in our office that all they?re doing is reaching out to people and saying, ?We?re available. This is what we?d like. We would love to be a part of your podcast? Or, ?We?d love to be a part of your Facebook Live series.? Or, ?We?d love to be? ? and we?re probably making 50 outbound calls a day on that.

Jaime: Wow. That?s great. How do you get them to say, ?Yes?? My inbox is full of people that want to come on the show. It?s insane. So, how do you actually stand out in that crowd?

Suzanne: Yeah. So, we have a little bit of ? we do have a benefit. I mean I?m a New York Times bestseller and I am who I am. But if I?m telling my clients what to do, it?s to have a point of view that is relevant for now. It is. Your audience wants to hear this now. So, you wanna have me on in the next eight weeks because this is ? I have a client right now. She helps people get booked speaking gigs. Well, that?s relevant all the time. That?s amazing. Everybody always wants speaking gigs. But obviously she?s pivoting to booking people on virtual stages.

Jaime: Totally.

Suzanne: Whatever you do, whether it?s you work with anxiety or you work with business coaching or you work with health and wellness, how can you relate it to now? It?s no different than how you pitch yourself to media. They wanna know how can you make a relevant statement for what is going on today? How can it feel so fresh that you can?t say, ?No,? to me?

Jaime: So, on the virtual ? booking virtual site, there?s so many summits also. I?ve been invited to I don?t know how many summits, which is amazing. Don?t get me wrong. Are people actually paying for people to speak on virtual stages right now? Or is it mostly just the free side of things?

Suzanne: I think it?s both. I mean we?re seeing all of it. I mean we?re seeing all of it. We?re doing all of it. We?re gonna do something in May where we?re gonna sell sponsorship for a virtual event and virtual opportunity. So, yeah. I mean it?s all a mix. I don?t know that that?s changed that much in the sense that it?s always been a mix, but I just think there?s a little more urgency to it now.

Jaime: Definitely. Okay. So, now let?s talk about the sponsorship and the paid side of things. Because you said you wanted to sort of be that person that?s already there when things come back around. But of course, timing-wise, we don?t totally know when things are coming back around. So, what are you doing as far as timing-wise for getting sponsorships?

Suzanne: Yeah. But we do. But we do. I mean we do know. I mean there?s not a perfect timeline, but we know that we?re kind of here through May first. This is running in May. And I mean listen, maybe this runs and I?m totally wrong. But there?s a few ? again, you have to be very ? you have to be a savvy businessperson. And there?s a few indicators of things we know. One thing we can know is that there is a Republican National Convention happening mid-August. Our leader is going to have a Republican National Commission.

Jaime: No matter what.

Suzanne: Which means no matter what.

Jaime: Yeah.

Suzanne: That?s not a political study. That doesn?t matter if you?re pro our president, not for our ? whatever. That is gonna happen. And so, we know that there?s going to be a push to open before then. We also know that economic ? if you follow politically what the stimulus package is doing and what they?re saying that they?re probably gonna need another hit with the stimulus package, we?re really talking about eight weeks. So, June first, things are going to be reopening, if not before then. I think a lot of states are actually gonna reopen before then. I don?t know if that?s a good thing or a bad thing. I?m not a scientist or a medical doctor. I?m just telling you from the economic and political side.

And I think this is an important conversation to have because I don?t think people should be living in the ?But we don?t know?. Yes. It?s not a perfect timeline, but we can all assume that in June things are gonna start to open up. So, by July, we should be ? we may not be 100% there. And we?re all gonna have ? for those of us who do events or different things, there?s gonna be a sector of people who are afraid to travel for six months. That just is what it is. So, you?re gonna have to deal with that and work with that.

So, you need to be thinking about putting things on the books in the summer. And also, what does it matter if you book something June 12th and the world doesn?t reopen, you put a clause in that you get a refund or they?re gonna reschedule it. Don?t stop your life. You?ve gotta keep moving forward as if things are moving forward because they are going to. And if you don?t keep moving forward, they?re going to move over you.

Jaime: Yes. I have so many questions and I know we don?t have very much time. So, tell me more about what you?re doing on the sponsorship side.

[Crosstalk]

Suzanne: That?s okay.

Jaime: So, are you doing podcast sponsors? Give me a little bit more about what tactics you?re actually using?

Suzanne: Yeah. I mean right now we?re stepping up that we?ll be a sponsor for somebody?s podcast. If somebody?s got a virtual event, we?ll take the virtual stage. On our side we?re gonna do a May ? some type of probably two or three day ? not all day long, but event. A few hours each day. We?re gonna have virtual speakers for that. Virtual sponsors for that.

So, it?s about getting creative. And don?t wait to say ? to see, ?Oh, is somebody gonna take on? ? when do these virtual sponsorships come about? Call somebody and say, ?Have you thought about having a virtual sponsor for this? Because I?d love to sponsor.? It?s about creative timing right now.

Jaime: Are things on discount though like you said before? How do we negotiate those right now?

Suzanne: Yeah. I mean I don?t know that things are on discount. But we?re doing a lot of things we?ve not necessarily done before and we?re doing them in different ways. So, there?s a lot of opportunity for typically a smaller investment. So, you negotiate like you negotiate anything. What?s your budget and what can that person give you for the budget that you have?

Jaime: Great.

Suzanne: And some people might be able to give you a 45-minute speaking gig and some people might be able to give you a five-minute opportunity to be in front of their crowd. So, you?ve gotta have your budget and their needs and talk through that.

Jaime: What sort of budgets are we talking about? Especially for people that are cash-flow tight right now going, ?I know I can?t take away...?

Suzanne: It could be a couple of hundred bucks. It could be a couple hundred bucks to $20,000.00. But it really can.

Jaime: Yeah. Oh, I get it.

Suzanne: I mean it?s all about scope and scale and size and platform and all of that. But I say that even in good times. I?ll say, ?There?s local vendor fairs that for $75.00 you can have a booth in the afternoon. And then I?ve paid up to $70,000.00 to speak on a stage before.? So, it just depends.

Jaime: Do you feel like especially now with everything that ? when people?s cash flow are starting to go down, then they start of course getting scared and then don?t spend as much on marketing. But what do you say that they should be doing? Keeping the exact same marketing budget they had before? Doubling it? Tell me more about what you think in that.

Suzanne: I think that you should reallocate it. I mean I think that you have to be smart in terms of ? I mean, listen. Every family and every individual has to look at the landscape of their personal situation. But if you can, I don?t necessarily think that you should double it. I don?t necessarily think you should eliminate your marketing budget, but you should be intelligent about how you allocate it.

That?s why you need a right now strategy, a right after strategy, and a forever strategy. Right now, where I?m spending my money is not necessarily where I?m gonna spend my money right after. And those two things aren?t necessarily where I?m gonna spend my money forever. And some of it?s just staying the same. So, it really depends and it?s really unique to the individual business.

Jaime: What are you seeing right now in terms of the stimulus side of things? I know with my clients nobody?s actually gotten any money yet. And this is in April that it?s being recorded. Tell me a little bit about what you see for the next three months with this stimulus package?

Suzanne: Well, it?s challenging. I think there?ll be a second stimulus that goes through. So, this will go in May. And so, I think that something else will go through. I think it?s been challenging. I think it?s been a bit chaotic. And I think the biggest challenge is a lot of people are waiting. And in May it?s probably too late, to be honest, to talk about this in a really intelligent way.

On the day we?re talking about it now, which is the top of April, a lot of banks are already out of the money and the funds to appropriate. So, it?s like anything else. You always have to have your ducks in a row. You have to have your ducks in a row. You need a great attorney in business. You need a great accountant in business. You need a great business coach in business. You need a great financial advisor in business.

And these aren?t things that you try to get when you?re in crisis. These are the things you have in good times. So, when crisis comes, those people can quickly and swiftly help you navigate the things that you need. You wanna have projections in place. You wanna have a slush fund in place if ? for hard times.

All of those things that I talk and preach about all the time. I?ve been telling my clients, ?Remember when I said...? And this isn?t an I-told-you-so, but it isn?t like, ?Guys, this is what we?re talking about.? I mean the fact that, for me, I?m not lucky, I?m prepared. The fact that I can pick up the phone and I can call ? my banker and I talk to each other probably once a month. And we have an individual relationship. And I need what I need ? I get what I need when I need it. Everybody needs a relationship that ? like that if you?re gonna be in business. It?s critical.

Jaime: Yeah. And it?s these tough times and pain that makes you go, ?Ah.? So, I?ve been getting people going, ?Do you have a good attorney?? I?m like, ?Yes, I do.? That?s very easy right now. Yeah. There?s just a lot going on for everybody. And it is a little bit grasping at straws if you haven?t built up a foundation, but most business owners, you work with them, don?t really have that great of a foundation when they?re doing it on their own and not setting up shop.

Suzanne: Yeah. They don?t. And that?s why it?s so critical. My business partner and my wife and the president of my company, Melanie, she does all of our contracts. And she preaches this to myself and our clients all the time. She says, ?Contracts are not for the best of times. Contracts are for the worst of times.?

Jaime: Seriously.

Suzanne: ?Attorneys and accountants are not for the best of times, they?re for the worst of times.? And so, when you have them in place and the worst of times pops up ? and that can be a problem with a client in good economic times or it can be the situation we?re in right now. You have to have a solid foundation.

Jaime: Definitely. And everyone will remember this later when they?re like, ?Okay. Now, I?m building a better foundation for next time.?

[Crosstalk]

Suzanne: Yeah. For sure. For sure.

Jaime: Yes. Awesome. I love this. I know we have to start wrapping up. So, what is one action, out of everything, that listeners can take this week to help move them forward towards their goal of a million?

Suzanne: Yeah. If you?re not reaching out to ? we?re telling our people 50 people a day, but even if it?s a minimum of 25, you?re not doing what you need to grow through this. You?re just not. And every one of those reach outs can be a different intention. It can be to book yourself in a virtual gig. To follow-up with someone you need to follow-up with. To call somebody who you think may be a good referral source. But you need to be spending a little bit of time every night before you go to bed figuring out what the 25 is you?re gonna talk to the next day because it is the only thing that?s gonna get you through during this time.

Jaime: KPI. Mark it in your calendar people. Make sure you?re looking at it every day.

[Crosstalk]

Suzanne: Yeah. Absolutely.

Jaime: Thank you so much. And your website driveninc.com. But tell me where we can get more from you and find out all your stuff.

Suzanne: Yeah. Driveninc.com. And at this point when this lands More Than Okay Club is still gonna be going on. It?ll have a few more weeks in it. But all the content ? there?s a portal. So, all the content and the modules and all of that. So, best place to go right now is morethanokayclub.com. It?s completely free. It was eight weeks and you?ll still get all eight weeks of the information, daily coaching. That would be the best place.

Jaime: I love it. And I thought it was paid. So, you guys, go get it right now. Thank you so much for coming on the show today, Suzanne.

[Crosstalk]

Suzanne: Yes.

Jaime: I really appreciate it.

Suzanne: Thank you. Happy to be here.

Categories: All, Business, Featured Millionaire Interview, Millionaire Interviews

Millionaire Interviews

Websites:

Book:

Social Media:

Leave a Reply Cancel reply