Self Made Millionaire Interview: Dr. Len Schwartz – Creator of Pro2Pro Network and Professional Services Marketing Expert

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Dr. Len Schwartz – Creator of Pro2Pro Network and Professional Services Marketing Expert

Dr. Len Schwartz was started as a chiropractor and built one of the largest practices in the Philadelphia area. Now he’s a marketing expert for doctors, financial advisers and other professional services. Plus he’s a serial entrepreneur and created companies like Pro-2-Pro Networking and Automated Social Networking.

Listen to the end for a great contest to enter!

Details on the contest: Listen to the information at the end. Then email contest@monday-morning-marketing.com writing why you should be picked for the year of free marketing expertise and coaching!

Resources Mentioned in the Podcast:

• The E-Myth Revisited by Michael Gerber
• Guerrilla Marketing, 4th edition: Easy and Inexpensive Strategies for Making Big Profits from Your Small Business by Jay Conrad Levinson
• Chet Holmes
• Jay Abraham
• Tony Robbins

Check out Drlenschwartz.com, Pro2pronetwork.com, Automatedsocialnetworking.com, and Monday-morning-marketing.com

Thanks so much for listening! If you like these interviews subscribe via iTunes.

Any questions or comments on the podcast let me know!

Transcript:

Welcome to the Eventual Millionaire Podcast. I'm Jaime Tardy and today we have Dr. Len Schwartz on the show. He runs Pro to Pro Network, the largest professional to professional referral network in North America and he also has a great blog at DoctorLenSchwartz.com that I'll link to and has a ton of expert knowledge in marketing and getting referrals, especially for business professionals and I'm really excited to learn more from him today. So thanks so much for coming on the show.

DR. LEN SCHWARTZ: Thank you, Jaime. Glad to be here.

JAIME TARDY: Excellent. So first I'd love to know how did you even get involved in being sort of the professional to professional marketing guy?

DR. LEN SCHWARTZ: Great question. Well, I started out as a chiropractor in the early to mid '90s and I was able to build one of the biggest practices, if not the biggest practice in my city, after just a couple of years and what happened, you know when you open up your practice as a chiropractor, you don't get to do rounds in a hospital. So I started writing direct mail copy and ad copy and started implementing and integrating different marketing initiatives and strategies and it worked.

I automatically assumed that every other chiropractor knew how to build their practice in this way and that they too had similar success. What happened, of course, is not normal and most doctors and professionals do not have the marketing, copywriting and advertising skills that I accidentally discovered that I had and as I started to build my practice and had more professionals doctors, financial advisors, attorneys, accountants, etc. as patients, they started asking me to help them build their practice.

The short answer, if you could believe this is a short answer, is that I sort of accidentally found myself in a position of working with local doctors and professionals and helping them build their practice and that has mushroomed into now the marketing company that I own.

JAIME TARDY: That's a great story. Of course, everyone asking you to do something you see that there's a market, you do it and you have tons of clients. That works out really well. So how did you even know that you were good at copywriting? Did you read books? How did you get into to begin with?

DR. LEN SCHWARTZ: Again, I was a biology major so I didn't know that I was good at copywriting but, of course, when you open up a new business or a new practice, you don't have much money and so which I didn't have a lot of money to hire anybody to write copy for me so I just wrote what was in my head. I just wrote down the message I wanted to deliver/communicate and it worked. So that's how I discovered I was good at writing copy.

JAIME TARDY: You make it all sound way too easy.

DR. LEN SCHWARTZ: I wish I could give you a fancy shmancy story about how this all got started and I read a hundred books and I tested it but that's not how it happened.

JAIME TARDY: Inner genius. Oh darn! We can?t attain that. So what do you teach people? How do you teach them or do you do their marketing for them or do you just teach them what you do?

DR. LEN SCHWARTZ: There are times when I provide answers or solutions or direction or strategy for sure. But I am of the mindset that our culture wants it done for them and I believe most doctors, professionals and business owners really just want to have it done for them because they're spinning 32 plates as it is. They don't have the skill set. They don't know how to market themselves properly and there's a lot of confusion out there. So I have embraced the do it for you or do it as much as I possibly can for you mindset and mentality and so the answer to your question is that the businesses or the services that I have pretty much do it for them.

JAIME TARDY: Great. Just tell me a little bit more about that so I get what your business actually does.

DR. LEN SCHWARTZ: Sure. So we do a couple of different things. You had mentioned Pro to Pro Network. As you mentioned, Pro to Pro Network is the largest professional referral network in North America. So what we do here at Pro to Pro is we provide doctors and professionals with prescreened, prequalified meetings to meet with other professionals in their city who have already identified themselves to Pro to Pro as being interested in meeting, working with and/or referring to that professional.

So we're like a Match.com for professionals. If, for example, you were a financial advisor your biggest and best referral sources are going to be CPAs, accountants and attorneys. So what we do is we would schedule meetings for you as financial advisor to meet with a CPA, accountant and/or an attorney in your city who has already raised their hand and expressed an interest in wanting to meet or refer to you. That's how Pro to Pro works.

JAIME TARDY: Okay. So why can't people just do that themselves then?

DR. LEN SCHWARTZ: You know people can try to do it themselves. You might find this interesting to know that we have had over 17,000 calls since we started this service and business in 2004 and we?ve asked every one of the 17,000 doctors and professionals the same question which is ?How many referral relationships do you have with other professionals in your city that refer to you on a regular basis?? And 98.2 percent of those 17,000 doctors and professionals have said zero. So it is very difficult to get past the gatekeeper.

Most doctors and professionals consider that particular effort to be beneath them so there is an ego driven component here. It is an effort that quite frankly takes time, energy and very thick skin and so fortunately we have the network and we have the ability to go ahead and make this happen and we are the only company in North America that delivers this service.

JAIME TARDY: Great to be the only one in your market. I hear that too, I hear the exact same thing when I start working with clients. Well do you have anyone that refers you? Well I did once for a little while and then it didn?t really work out and I hear a lot of things like that. What do you give for advice for someone who is in professional services that really wants to have these go to referral people? How would they set that up or how would they, I mean I understand that yes they could just go with you guys and that works out well but give some advice too on how people could go ahead and do that.

DR. LEN SCHWARTZ: Sure. I think the most effective way to go about initiating these referral relationships yourself is tap into your existing patients or clients or even customers depending on what business you?re in but if you?re a professional listening, tap into your existing patients or clients and connect with or reach out to their professionals ? the professionals that they work with that you would want to establish a referral relationship with ? and I cannot think of a better more effective way to initiate an effort to establish these referral relationships than by tapping into your own people.

JAIME TARDY: That?s a great piece of advice because usually when I hear from people either online or clients of my own, they say it takes a long time to build a relationship with someone. So if I want Joe the CPA down the street to refer me and I don?t know him yet, how am I going to get him to be friends with me so that way he?ll refer? But what you?re saying is going through the clients that you already have and maybe they?re a client of Joe too and they can sort of give you the referral that way?

DR. LEN SCHWARTZ: Absolutely. Being able to name names carries a lot of weight and a lot of credibility. So I use the example of the financial advisor for a second. So if you?re, again, a financial advisor and you have a client that you work with and they know, like and trust you and you would simply ask them who is your CPA and it is likely that is a financial advisor you already know the name of their CPA.

But to be able to reach out to their CPA and mention the name of your client, ?Hi I?m Jaime Tardy?s financial advisor and I wanted to reach out, say hello and see if there might be a chance for us to talk.? That?s going to carry a lot of weight. That?s going to bring a lot of interest because you share a client and that mutual client could bring a lot of business to each other.

JAIME TARDY: That?s a great idea. So now I know you have many other things besides just Pro to Pro Network, right? I mean you do a lot of online marketing and stuff like that too. Did you start with Pro to Pro Network and then sort of branch off from there?

DR. LEN SCHWARTZ: No, what happened, I actually started by creating products initially for the chiropractic and dental professions. I essentially just sold products when we first launched the company in 1999. Then I was speaking around the country and I was stuck on a plane and I sort of had this vision for what is now Pro to Pro Network but that?s how Pro to Pro Network was born. I was on a plane stuck, getting ready to take off. I just started writing and didn?t stop for about an hour and a half to two hours and here we are nine years later and Pro to Pro Network is and does what it does.

JAIME TARDY: That?s great. So it sounds like you have a thousand things going on too; just like you said, 34 different things that each professional is dealing with. I get this question so much and so I need to ask ? what can you do to sort of balance that? How do you know when you?re wearing yourself too thin or how can you focus on anything when you have so many things in the air?

DR. LEN SCHWARTZ: I think that most entrepreneurs and all of the doctors, if you?re a doctor, professional or business owner listening to this call, congratulations, you?re a typical entrepreneur who wants to learn how to do it better, smarter, faster, etc. So when you have a lot of things, I talked about plates spinning in the air, I think you?ve got to pay attention to focus. You got to pay attention to clarity. You?ve got to make a conscious effort to discipline yourself not to dilute your efforts.

I?ve learned that the hard way as well where I was involved in so many different things that I got a little bit done of a lot and I couldn?t figure out why I wasn?t getting things done, why I wasn?t able to finish an effort, a project, an initiative, etc. So then after the fact, it became incredibly obvious to me that I just was diluting myself and my efforts and my focus and my energy so much so that I was just spinning plates and getting nowhere. So, for all of you listening that are like that and/or have experienced that, please embrace the value of extreme focus.

Although it sounds like I have a lot of things going on, my entire focus or the big umbrella that I have is in just helping doctors, professionals and business owners build their business. So that?s my advice. Just embrace the value of focus and in focusing on what?s going to serve you well now and I know you have a lot of great ideas because you?re entrepreneurs. You have a lot of ideas, you have a lot of strategies, you?re coming up with inventions every other day. I get it. Focus on what?s serving you well now and do whatever you possibly can to grow that as big as you possibly can and you will reap the rewards both in success, financially, professionally, personally, etc.

JAIME TARDY: So what I would love to know then is how you do that. Do you like set a meeting with yourself and really schedule your priorities? Do you say no a lot to other opportunities that come in? What do you do yourself to really do that?

DR. LEN SCHWARTZ: That?s a fantastic question and you asked me do I say no. I remember the first time I started saying no because, you know, when you?re either new in business or you?re hurting and you need money, you need cash, you need deals, you find yourself saying yes to a lot just because you figure it?s another pole in the water and so when I started saying no because I just realized I could not and would not dilute myself anymore, it actually felt strange. It felt weird. It felt uncomfortable because you got so used to saying yes to as much, yes, yes, yes I?ll do it, I?ll do it, I?ll do it and you work 18 hours a day just to try to make something work and what you don?t realize is you?re just spinning your wheels by doing so.

So the answer to your question is yeah you just start saying no. If it doesn?t fit in your model, you?ve got to have some sort of mission statement. You?ve got to have some sort of purpose in your mind. Again, I say this a conscious awareness of what you?re looking to accomplish personally, professionally, financially, even spiritually and if what?s being brought to you, what?s being offered to you business wise, if it doesn?t, well actually in any aspect of those four umbrellas, if it doesn?t fit what you?re looking to accomplish in your life, or it doesn?t support you accomplishing your goals with what you?re working on in your life, the answer has to be no and you?ve got to be okay with that.

JAIME TARDY: That?s sort of the key, right? And you?ve got to be okay with that. I have a client that I was working with last week who couldn?t say no and we decided for him to say maybe and that was even hard. Like why is it so hard for us to say no? It?s kind of ridiculous. It?s an easy statement except it?s totally not.

DR. LEN SCHWARTZ: Yeah. It?s not because it?s your mindset, it?s your beliefs, it?s your thoughts that drive what you?re looking to achieve or receive and saying no typically does not get you to where you want to go but, in this case, it absolutely will.

JAIME TARDY: Great. Do you set goals? Do you have like a weekly reminder of what that mission statement is? Do you do anything to sort of keep yourself accountable to what that mission is?

DR. LEN SCHWARTZ: I do. I have an ongoing to do list for lack of a better title or term. I call it a to do list and I actually have goals. I have daily goals. I have weekly goals. I have monthly goals. I have six-month goals, yearly goals, three-year goals and so I feel like if you don?t have a goal, that?s a goal. So you?ve got to have a list of what you?re looking to accomplish, achieve or receive in a certain amount of time. Each day my mindset is do the best I can possibly do today. That?s it.

I want to do the best I can possibly do today and so when you have written goals and you have them whether you call it a to do list, you call it a daily goal sheet, they?re not necessarily one in the same but they can be. You?ve got to just put yourself in a position and provide yourself with the best opportunity to achieve those goals or complete those tasks or both on a given day. If you add up all the successful days, you cannot help but have a successful week that leads into a successful month that leads into a successful quarter, six months, twelve months, etc. So I say break it down to short term so that you can accomplish your goals for the long term.

JAIME TARDY: That?s excellent advice because we don?t see that today makes up what the future becomes. Unfortunately, it just seems like one puny little day in all of it and if we don?t get what we get done, we don?t get what we get done but they really, really add up. So that?s a really good point.

DR. LEN SCHWARTZ: Well we?re big picture people, right? Everybody listening, we?re all big picture people. We?re not really, entrepreneurs are not the best detail oriented people. So you?ve got to force yourself to become more detail oriented and break it down to, as you said, break it down to the day-to-day task.

JAIME TARDY: You said force yourself. So how do we force ourselves? Is it like every Monday we do this, this and this? How did you sort of get that to cultivate instead of or did you just sort of do it every single day and force yourself and you still do it? Force yourself every single day to do it now?

DR. LEN SCHWARTZ: No, we used to wing it. If I am being 100 percent honest, we would just wing it on a day-to-day basis and so what I started doing was making a list of all that I wanted to accomplish on Mondays, all that I wanted to accomplish on Tuesdays or I should say all that I wanted to have in place for Monday, have in place for Tuesday, have in place for Wednesday. That?s the way we run every single week.

We?ve broken down all of the different specific marketing, email, social networking, social marketing, etc. initiatives and we now have a specific task or tasks to do on a specific day of the week. I?ve delegated accordingly so that I don?t drop the ball. Nothing falls through the cracks. Everything gets done and then get this, you can actually automate the growth of your business.

JAIME TARDY: Yay! You just said something that everybody absolutely loves, right? Number one, nothing gets dropped which is amazing especially for people just starting or trying to juggle everything but number two, having something else and you not have to do it having it be automated. So let?s talk about that a little bit. Let?s talk about what you do online because I know a lot of your stuff is actually online marketing. You guys are national all over North America too so what are you doing and how did you sort of get started online?

DR. LEN SCHWARTZ: Well, I realized a long time ago, actually in 1999, 2000 I mentioned I started my marketing company and I was collecting email addresses at a time when most of my colleagues, other people in marketing and marketing to different doctors and professionals, really had not embraced the value of direct email campaigns and, of course, now that?s ever present. So growing my list, building my list, connecting with my list, establishing a rapport and a relationship with my list is and was my number one priority. So we do a lot of email.

I also, as you already know, I own a social networking company so we provide solutions for other doctors and professionals but we also embrace the same solutions which is article marketing, press release marketing, video email, videos on You Tube, blog posts, forum posts, etc. We do all of that every week.

JAIME TARDY: That?s impressive. Okay. And I?m sure you have a team of people now that probably help you with all that stuff. What would you do, and you can definitely answer that too, but what would you do if you were just starting again and you didn?t have your team of people, you were a new service provider and you wanted to go ahead and sort of start online marketing and really do that. What would be the first like three steps that you would do?

DR. LEN SCHWARTZ: Step number one is you have to realize and understand no one looks in the yellow pages anymore.

JAIME TARDY: I throw my yellow pages away, yeah. Recycle it.

DR. LEN SCHWARTZ: If you?re a doctor, you?re a professional, you?re a business owner, I don?t care whether you?re a dry cleaner or restaurateur or a rap artist, no one is finding you in the yellow pages. So that?s step number one. Connected to step number one is realize and embrace the value of social networking and marketing and getting to the top of Google. Everybody knows and wants to be, knows the importance and wants to be at the top of Google but nobody knows how to get there and so you have to understand that when you start to market yourself online, again I mention broadcast email campaigns.

If you don?t have a list, you can?t create a list, by tapping in again to your own existing patients, clients or customers. By befriending them or friending them on Facebook or having them join your Twitter group, LinkedIn, etc., you are able then to reach out and connect to their friends, their family members, their coworkers so you continue to spread your web, if you will, and all of this can be targeted. So, for example, let?s talk about Facebook. Can I segue into Facebook marketing for a second?

JAIME TARDY: Yes, I would love it.

DR. LEN SCHWARTZ: So you establish a profile on Facebook and you start to reach out to your friends, your family members, your patients, clients or customers and then you could befriend, I say befriend, we all know what I?m talking about. You friend somebody on Facebook that?s your patient, for example. It is likely that they have 50, 100, 200, 300, 400 whatever friends and the majority of them probably live and/or work in your city. So just spending 15 minutes a day friending their friends, they?re going to see that you have a mutual friend and that mutual friend, of course, is your patient and they are likely to say yes and accept your friend just because they see that you?re friends with one of their friends.

It?s very easy, even just within a month?s time to friend thousands of people who live and work in your city and because they?re in your group, you can send a marketing message to your group that advertises your product or service and that alone can perpetuate a steady flow of leads, of traffic to your website of interest, of referrals, etc. and that?s just working with Facebook.

Again, there are several different ways to establish back links a back links, I won?t get into the whole search engine optimizations process but basically you want to have as many links out there and the link meaning your website as possible so that the more people that click on that back link and go to your website, the higher your website will be ranked and, of course, when people do a search for you, whatever it is that you do in your city, you want to be at the top of Google because nobody really looks at page 2. They?ll look at maybe the first half of page 1, maybe the entire 8 or 9 or 10 people listed on page 1, but very few people go to page 2. So you want to be at least on page 1 of Google.

So I mentioned I do article marketing when you have articles out there that have specific keywords and Jaime tell me if I am starting to get in too deep. This is one long answer.

JAIME TARDY: No, no, we?ve actually had a couple of SEO experts and stuff come on the show too. So hopefully I?ll refer them back to that if they don?t know what you?re talking about so yes, go ahead.

DR. LEN SCHWARTZ: Okay, good. I just had to interrupt myself there to make sure we were still good. So when you have articles that have specific keywords. So, for example, if you?re a chiropractor in Sheboygan, Michigan, that is if somebody was going to look up a chiropractor in that city, they would likely put in chiropractor in Sheboygan, Michigan. You want to be at the top. So the more articles or videos or forum or blog posts that you have that contain that particular keyword phrase, chiropractor in Sheboygan, Michigan, the higher the likelihood of you appearing at the top of Google.

So you asked me what are my top three ways, don?t look at yellow pages anymore, embrace the value of social networking and marketing. Start to friend and cultivate more connections with the friends, the family members, the coworkers and neighbors of your existing patients, clients or customers and I don?t know if that?s three or four or ten but that?s what I would recommend for this conversation.

JAIME TARDY: Beautiful. I really like that Facebook tip too. That?s great. Well and it?s funny as far as the SEO, I want to ask a little bit more about competition in just a second but I also wanted to mention I have a friend who built her entire, she had a million dollar business, built it entirely on, I think it was like 20 searches a month because she was number one for one keyword that only had like 20 searches a month.

DR. LEN SCHWARTZ: Wow.

JAIME TARDY: But that didn?t matter, she had a great product and those 20 she was able to convert and I think that makes a big difference. We don?t need huge numbers especially if you?re just talking about in your local area but you can really do a lot.

DR. LEN SCHWARTZ: True.

JAIME TARDY: But then I want to ask you though about competition because number one there?s a lot of competition, especially in professional services and how do you really set yourself apart, whether it be online or not online so that way people know that you are the guy to go to (or girl)?

DR. LEN SCHWARTZ: Okay, well, I have to admit something and I feel, I?m just going to say it and that is that with regard to competition, when I mentioned that I started practicing in the early to mid ?90s and I was in a part of Philly that had about 10 to 15 chiropractors within a mile of me and I chose to move in that area and so my patients would say, ?Aren?t you afraid of all the competition?? My answer, my honest, genuine, sincere answer was, ?I am the competition.?

Now, I share that, in spite of what people may think of me, because my mindset and my beliefs dictated my actions and so I know that?s not the answer you?re looking for right off the bat but first let me share that. Now, the real answer you?re looking for is it?s proper positioning. You want to make an effort to continuously position yourself as being better/different than all of your competitors in your town. You don?t want to look like or sound like everybody else. In fact, I spoke to a client this morning and she has a brand new marketing campaign that she wanted to run by me and she has some really big competitors in her town and her entire marketing effort centered on or focused on how she too is big just like them.

I told her how while that may seem to make sense on the surface, it?s incredibly flawed because you don?t want to appear just like all the rest. You want to appear better/different, that you?re the leader of the pack and that they?re following you. So I love giving the example of Kentucky Fried Chicken. There are plenty of companies and restaurants that sell chicken out there but the reason they?re number one in the world and have been is because their chicken has 11 secret herbs and spices and no one else does. So where?s the connection? Let?s bring this all back around.

Whatever it is that you do, you need to find a way to position yourself as being better/different. Is it your knowledge? Your experience? Is it your staff?s knowledge and experience? Is it the products and/or services that you sell? What do you do that?s better/different. What do you offer that?s unique/better/different? You need to sit down either by yourself or with your team and my exercise for you is to come up with no less than 25 different items, different things that make you better/different than everyone else. Maybe it?s your hours of operation. Maybe it?s the days you?re open. Maybe it?s the guarantee you offer. Maybe it?s the whatever. If you can?t come up with 25 different reasons, you are blending in for sure. I guarantee it.

JAIME TARDY: That?s great advice and something we don?t pay attention to. We all want to be different but we don?t actually take the time to go ahead and write those 25 things down and make a focused effort of being different when you?re actually doing marketing and stuff like that.

DR. LEN SCHWARTZ: Without a doubt.

JAIME TARDY: Excellent. So what about, do you have any stories of your clients and customers that have had success or failures or anything they came back from too and, of course, I?ll ask you about your failures in just a minute. But I?m wondering sort of what you?ve seen in the professional services industry on what your clients have done.

DR. LEN SCHWARTZ: Well that?s a loaded question. Now when you say what they?ve done are you talking about how they failed in business?

JAIME TARDY: I?m looking for either failures or successes because what we want to know is, you know, if I?ve got a financial advisor listening to this, they want to go okay tell me about someone who maybe started where I am and how they either overcame a failure, failed so I don?t do that too or had some success.

DR. LEN SCHWARTZ: You know, I feel like the average doctor professional or business owner listening to this can relate to thinking to themselves probably several times a day, definitely before they go to sleep and when they wake up is I need new business. How do I get new business? So there?s a lot of effort and energy put into thinking about and worrying about and knowing that they?ve got to generate new patients, clients or customers. But what?s supposed to follow that is action.

What action steps, what action items, what things can you do today that will help you achieve that goal of generating new business whether it be referrals from your existing patients, clients, or customers or just people that call your office, call your business and want to sign up or want to buy your product or service whatever it is. So it?s that inactivity. It?s that lack of action or effort that, in my opinion, is the real cause of stagnation and/or lack of success. I guess you can call that failure or depending on where they are, lack of growth.

So it may sound incredibly simple and you?re probably all listening saying well I know that. Well, if you know that, why don?t you have 5, 10, 15, 20 marketing efforts and initiatives in place helping you generate a steady flow of leads, traffic, interest, sales, referrals, etc.? That?s my number one piece of advice. Start to put stuff in place that?s designed to generate new business. Delegate as much as you possibly can so that you?re not doing it yourself because Jaime that?s the other problem. No one will ever do it better than us. Why? Because we own the business.

JAIME TARDY: We?re awesome that?s why, right?

DR. LEN SCHWARTZ: You know what it is? We?re awesome but also no one cares as much as we do. I get it. So it took me years to learn how to delegate because I know and I knew that no one will ever do it the way that I?ll do it. So, most people listening, again, entrepreneurial spirit understand that they?re the best at it. No one is going to do it as well as they can because no one cares as much as they do. Get over it and put the best person you possibly can in place because right now you?ve got nothing. So rather than have nothing, it?s better to have something even if it?s not perfect than to have nothing at all.

So I can?t tell you, and I?ll let you ask me the next one, I can?t tell you how many people I talk to that willingly and readily agree with me that they?ve got, you?re right I?ve got to do that, you?re right. I know, you?re right and that?s the answer, right? And then I talk to them a week later and they haven?t done anything about it.

JAIME TARDY: Yeah, I think that?s, I mean extremely invaluable the fact that we all sort of know. Yeah, I know. But a lot of our perfectionist tendencies, I mean I used to work with a lot of entrepreneurs too and no offense, quite a few of them are perfectionists that sort of go well, if I can?t do it right, I?m going to wait a little while until this happens and this happens but what you just said, which I need to highlight, is that something is better than nothing. So give it to someone who actually has the time to do it so you can focus on your stuff and then you can always improve it and make it better. That?s huge. I hope everybody goes away with that and goes, ?Okay, I?m actually going to do something.? That?s great advice. Perfect.

So what about failures for you because it sounds like everything was way too easy, by the way, you were a chiropractor, it worked out great. You made this huge practice. You started getting into marketing and that went really well. You know what I mean? What have you run up against as far as obstacles or challenges or failures?

DR. LEN SCHWARTZ: All right, well let me explain how I lost it all because it was not easy and it was not fun losing it all. So I was a pretty successful chiropractor and I realized, I mentioned I started the marketing company in ?99 and so I was really serving two masters. I was serving my practice. During all my downtime at home, I had two small children, I was also working on this marketing company. So working that 15, 16 hours a day, eventually my wife is like you know you got to pick a path.

So once I made the decision to pick a path, I chose the marketing company because I feel like I could help more people help more people by choosing the marketing path and so I literally did not have enough time to sell my practice and I was paying rent at a location, so my lease was up and it just did not work out that I was able to sell my practice so I lost a lot of money by not being able to sell it and by making this transition, I will tell you that I did not, it was not conversely proportional in terms of my income. I didn?t end my practice one day, start this marketing company and my income was the same. It didn?t happen that way.

In fact, it took me years after and I just used all my savings to continue to support myself and the marketing company and so, as I mentioned, I preceded this statement by saying that I lost it all. I mentioned earlier in this conversation when I had diluted my efforts. I was the guy in the position that needed to make money to feed my family because when I say I lost it all, I mean I lost it all. So I took on so many projects, so many partnerships, so many joint ventures, so many initiatives and I couldn?t figure out why I wasn?t making it and I was exhausted and I was getting nowhere fast.

So that was one of my big discoveries. Man, maybe this isn?t the right thing to do. I know it sounds simple and sounds easy and everybody gets it now but when you?re in that position, it?s tough to see that. So when I started to focus my energy, focus my efforts and really tap into the skill sets and my passion for doing what I really love, all of the other good stuff, all the good things, started to happen. So that was from ?99 to about 2003/4, we struggled quite a bit and then everything started to turn around when I started saying no.

I mentioned this earlier. We?re coming full circle now and I started to just focus. That?s such a hard thing to do for entrepreneurs and it was for me. I started to just focus and all of that focused energy, time, effort, energy and so forth has now taken me to where we are today and so that is how I succeeded. I failed and now we?re enjoying success again.

JAIME TARDY: That?s a great story because from the beginning I wouldn?t have assumed that any of that happened. I would have assumed you would have sold a very well established chiropractic office and made some money and then relaxed and then started your marketing company.

DR. LEN SCHWARTZ: That really was the plan but it didn?t work out that way and that?s another piece of advice. That?s another lesson that I learned and that is man you?ve got to plan your transitions because I did not plan mine well and it hurt me.

JAIME TARDY: Good to know. So what are some of the resources that you?ve turned to? I know you said at the beginning you didn?t read a ton of books on copywriting to learn how to do it but I?m sure you?ve gone to resources or books or something like that that have really helped you out. What are some really good resources that you can give to everybody listening?

DR. LEN SCHWARTZ: Well, let?s see. If you can find done for you services and I know this may not be what you?re asking but if you can find good quality, dependable companies that provide done for you solutions, that is probably my first big piece of advice. Let the experts at whatever it is that they do go to work and do it for you. I know you have great intentions and doing whatever that is yourself. You want to do it yourself. You mentioned setting up appointments for yourself to meet with other professionals.

Whether it?s that, whether it?s press or publicity, whether it?s online, social networking and social marketing, whatever it is that you know eventually you?re going to get to because you want to do it yourself and save money, trust me when I tell you if you can find somebody that offers a guarantee and that will provide you with trackable, measurable done for you solutions, embrace that because that will provide you with the marketing you know you?re never going to get to and the business building efforts or initiatives that are consistent and in place to generate that steady flow of leads, traffic, sales, referrals, etc.

As far as people, I have worked and partnered with some great people like EMyth?s Michael Gerber, Chet Holmes, Jay Abraham, Tony Robbins. These are some pretty heavy hitters that will give you some great advice on, Jay Levinson on guerrilla marketing; some great people that have written some great books and have some great solutions for you with regard to building your business.

JAIME TARDY: Actually I wanted to ask you about that too. I read in your bio all these amazing names. How did you even get started to work with them? What did you do in order to sort of have them, be able to list them on your bio?

DR. LEN SCHWARTZ: You know, as I started the Pro to Pro Network service I mentioned in 2003/2004, I started to make a name for myself. I?ve always put a guarantee behind every service or product that I offer because so many people have been screwed before by the people, coaches, companies, gurus and so I?m always the one that puts my guarantee out there so that people feel protected. I have always embraced the value of a good name and so I?ve done everything I possibly can to ensure that people who work with me, people who buy from me know that my word is my bottom, my guarantee holds water and you know that if you buy something from me and it doesn?t work out within 30, 60, 90 days, whatever the guarantee is, I?m just going to refund your money and I wish you the best.

So as I started to develop this area of expertise and, of course, working with doctors and professionals, there are not too many Fortune 500 trained in marketing people that have worked exclusively with doctors and professionals. So people started to notice. I initiated a relationship and a friendship with Jay Abraham and Chet Holmes in the mid ?90s that has carried on to this day and as people started to notice I was working with Chet and then I worked with EMyth?s Michael Gerber and then other people came to the table and I started to be invited to by invitation only events where you had to be a leader in your field and I started to meet and work with all of these other big time names, marketers, business builders, etc. and connected the dots and here we are.

JAIME TARDY: Wow. So you started in ?99. So we?re talking 12 years into it. When did you start working with some of the bigger names?

DR. LEN SCHWARTZ: That started in 2005, 6, 7, somewhere around there.

JAIME TARDY: So you really made a name for yourself especially since you said from ?99 to 2003 you were kind of limping along and then 2005 you were working some amazing people. So change can happen pretty darn quickly.

DR. LEN SCHWARTZ: Change happens in an instant. You snap your fingers and your life can be completely different.

JAIME TARDY: That?s great. So what is one action that everyone can take this week, that way to move them forward towards their goal of a million?

DR. LEN SCHWARTZ: Well, we mentioned during this call about a to do list or action items, things to do, etc. I think if everybody just walks away from this call knowing that it?s time to take action, it?s time to do something, it?s time to make a list of things they want to put in place that can generate new business, growth, expansion, relationships, connections, etc., that?s the foundation for everything else you?ll do is just your thoughts are fantastic but writing it down as Mark Victor Hanson said, ?If you think it, ink it.?

So write it down. Make a list. Sit with yourself. Turn your phone off, turn your computer off and just make a list of what you would like to accomplish next week and then again break it down to a daily basis, on a weekly basis, on a month and for the next quarter. What would you like to accomplish? As Steven Covey says, ?Let?s work backwards and let?s figure out what we need to do in order to accomplish those goals.? Then once you?ve identified all that you need to do in order to accomplish that goal or those goals, put it into place. Commit to either you putting into place or to delegating and/or working with other people or companies in order to put those things in place so you can achieve your goals because doing nothing will get you nothing. I guarantee it. I promise it all day every day. Let me leave everybody with that.

JAIME TARDY: That?s great. I loved how you also said turn off your computer. We always think that we need to do it on the computer and we totally don?t. We get distracted when we?re on the computer. So turn off stuff and really make it a point to focus on that one thing so that way you can actually commit to it. That?s great advice. Thank you so much. Can you tell us where we can learn more about you online? I know you have a bunch of different websites and we?ll definitely link to all of them in the show notes but tell us how we can get in contact with you.

DR. LEN SCHWARTZ: Sure. Okay. Quickly I will tell you if you are a doctor or a professional and you like the idea of meeting with other professionals in your city, you can go to www.pro2pronetwork.com. So pro2pronetwork.com. If you like the idea of having the world?s largest team of computer geeks take care of all of your social networking and marketing for you, I am happy to tell you I own the largest most comprehensive everything done for you social networking service in the world. It?s called Automated Social Networking and that is our website ? automatedsocialnetworking.com.

The last thing I will share is that after working with business owners for the last 13 years, I have found that 97 percent of all business owners do not have a week by week, year-long marketing and business building plan in place. If you?d like to have all of your marketing created and delivered to you on a weekly basis, you can check out Monday-morning-marketing.com. So it?s Monday-morning-marketing.com and you can learn how to have all of your marketing delivered to you week by week throughout the entire year and that?s about 15 minutes a day.

JAIME TARDY: See I love how you?re like I love automated people that do things for you kind of stuff and that?s exactly what you?ve created for all the things that you have done and I wish we had more time to get into the automated social networking so that way we could have delved into that but maybe we can chat again. What I will definitely do though is put up links to all them so if anyone wants to check those out, definitely do. Thanks so much, Dr. Len Schwartz. It has been a wonderful, amazing conversation. Take care.

DR. LEN SCHWARTZ: Thank you so much. I appreciate it.

JAIME TARDY: Thanks. Have a great day.

DR. LEN SCHWARTZ: You too. Bye-bye.

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Tags: Business Coach, Business Marketing, Finance, internet marketing, Len Schwartz, millionaire interview, Personal Finance

Categories: All, Business, Finances, Marketing, Millionaire Interviews

Hi I’m Jaime. Each and every week I bring you the top business advice from the people who know best.

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