Carl Gould #70secondCEO

We Brag About the Premium Purchases We Make Hi everyone, Carl Gould here with your #70secondCEO, just a little over a one-minute investment every day for a lifetime of results. Now think about this for a moment, because we all do it, right? Before I came into the Zoom room, I walked through your parking lot, right? I didn't see a lot of you -goes in the parking lot. Remember that car? I didn't see a lot of broken-down rust buckets in that parking lot. There's not one of you who drove to the meeting today that needs the car that you drove today. You don't need twin turbos and, you know, a Tesla and all-wheel drive. Oh honey, just in case I've got to go pick up the kids at school at 150 miles an hour in a driving range, I really needed to make sure that I got the Tesla S with ludicrous mode. It's all about family, honey. It's all about family, right? You don't need all those features. We all overbuy for the products and services that we are passionate about, or we place a high value on. And not only do we do that, we don't complain about the price, we brag about the price.  Like and follow this podcast so you can learn more. My name is Carl Gould and this has been your #70secondCEO.   

You are not Allowing Your Clients to Say They Are the Best Clients for You  Hi everyone, Carl Gould here with your#70secondCEO. Just a little over a one minute investment every day for a lifetime of results. Pricing might seem high, but as long as you match it in perceived value, you're going to differentiate yourself.    And here's why this is so important to have in place for the next five years and to prepare yourself for growth. Pricing is the number one language you will speak to your clientele, regardless of your business model.    There is no language stronger than your pricing. Because the moment you tell somebody what you charge, you've done two things. Number one, you've told them who you are. Am I the premium play, the middle play, or am I the economy play?    All are good. Just which one are you? More importantly, you've told them what kind of buyer they are. So my question to you is, are you giving your clients, your investors, a path to say that they are your best client or best investor?    Do you have that offering in place right now? Because if you don't, you are not allowing your clients to say that they're the best client for you.    Like and follow this podcast so you can learn more. My name is Carl Gould and this has been your #70secondCEO.   

Purchasers Decide on Their Purchases Based on Top 2 Complaints   Hi, everyone, Carl Gould here with your #70secondCEO, just a little over a one-minute investment every day for a lifetime of results. Number one, you wrote down your five complaints. Put a page on your website called Problems We Solve, Problems We Solve.    And go on chat GPT or Perplexity or Claude or whoever you're using and give them a prompt and write an 800-word blog on how you solve each of those five complaints, because that's what people are searching for, right?    You're probably all using a marketing agency, they've all told you about SEO, and they all said you have to have the right keywords. That's okay. You add the keywords into your prompts, right, then have somebody go through them so it's not user-generated content, so it's all original, you know, cite everything properly, all that sort of thing.    Now you've got five, these are the five top topics you talk about most of the time, but there are two topics you talk about all the time. 70%, sorry, purchasers with no buyer's remorse based on a purchase, decide on that purchase based on their top two problems.    Like and follow this podcast so you can learn more. My name is Carl Gould and this has been your #70secondCEO.   

What Kind of Buyer Takes Your Higher Priced Guarantee   Hi everyone, Carl Gould here with your #70secondCEO. Just a little over a one-minute investment every day for a lifetime of results. What kind of buyer says, I'll take your guarantee? They're not price-sensitive, right?    They care about what? Quality and getting it done? What else? Big one. They're a good client themselves. They understand the value. They don't want to do it with me. They want me to do it for them. One more.    It's a big one. It's the biggest one of them all. Well, they don't want a headache. You're all right, guys. Everything you're saying is true. The deciding factor most of the time was they were under some form of time pressure.    So they're building a commercial building and landscaping is not necessary because it needs to look pretty. Landscaping is necessary for soil erosion. They can't get their certificate of occupancy without it done, right?    So it was always me and the paver at the very end and we would always be working on the site at the same time. Don't stage your materials over here. Don't drive over this over here. We used to be working all the time because, without those two, you don't get a certificate of occupancy.    Like and follow this podcast so you can learn more. My name is Carl Gould and this has been your #70sec0ndCEO.   

Higher Quality or Lower Quality   Hi everyone, Carl Gould here with your #70sec0ndCEO. Just a little over a one-minute investment every day for a lifetime of results. How many of you have hired a contractor who said, if I don't perform, if you perform as the client, but I don't perform as the contractor, you get to keep the whole thing and I give you all your money back?    How many of you have hired contractors that have done that? Buy a show of hands. No hands, does that mean zero? Zero. So if I gave you a proposal, who am I competing with? No one. Now, think about it.    I charge a 35% premium for that. Now, what if you said, all right, that's pretty ballsy, Carl, but I'm not paying your 35% premium. What would you think of me as a contractor if I even offered it? Would you think, oh, this guy's incompetent, and has no clue what he's doing?    Or would you say, hmm, he's pretty confident about his process? If he's offering this out to other people, he must be pretty good. He must at least think he can put his money where his mouth is and he could perform.    Which do you think more of? Would you think that I'm likely more competent, higher level, better quality? Or would you think just on that alone, I'm less competent, less quality, and likely going to fail?    Which one do you think going in, I'm more likely to be? Higher quality, lower quality.    Like and follow this podcast so you can learn more. My name is Carl Gould, and this has been your #70secondCEO.   

Leverage the Complaints in Your Industry   Hi everyone, Carl Gould here with your#70sec0ndCEO, just a little over a one-minute investment every day for a lifetime of results. One of the ways to differentiate yourself now, and this will set us up for the other parts that we're going to talk about, is we need to leverage the complaints in the industry, the complaints about your industry.    So take a moment for a second and write down what are the top five complaints about your industry. Maybe not about you personally, but you've heard it about your competitors. If you're out there, your sales guys are coming back, like here's the objections we're getting.    Here are some of the reviews about other companies and ourselves. Or if you get hired or somebody either buys your service or takes you on, they'll tell you why they went with you. And along the way of doing that, they'll tell you what the other companies you were up against did not do all that well.    Like and follow this podcast so you can learn more. My name is Carl Gould, and this has been your #70secondCEO. 

Change Your Business Messaging Part 2   Hi everyone, Carl Gould here with your #70secondCEO. Just a little over a one-minute investment every day for a lifetime of results. There's been so much volatility and winter is all about volatility. Since 2005, think about what we've been witnessing and what the economic climate has been like and the political climate has been like.    So nobody knows who to trust and things are so polarized. So you coming out and making a bold claim to the positive doesn't necessarily differentiate yourself in this market today. So I'm going to give you a couple of tactics to use where you can start to differentiate yourself.    Now, this is a lesson I learned in my very first business, but I found that it's become more and more popular is when you in today's market, especially now that we have search and we have AI, right, people don't inquire based on the positives necessarily.    Unless it's something near me, right? I want to get barbecue ribs near me. I want to go, you know, I want to go to a movie near me. Other than that, we are negative and problem-based searchers.    Like and follow this podcast so you can learn more. My name is Carl Gould, and this has been your #70secondCEO.   

Change Your Business Messaging Part 2   Hi, everyone, Carl Gould here with your #70secondCEO, just a little over a one-minute investment every day for a lifetime of results. We have to differentiate our businesses. I remember watching a movie with my kids eons ago.    Do you guys remember the March of the Penguins? Any of you got kids that are like teenage years, college-age because if you do, you got dragged to that movie too, just like I did. I was the guy two rows in front of you complaining like, oh my God, you got to be killing me.    But the business lesson I took out of this was, I'm watching the movie and I see the penguin turn the corner in the beginning and walk into a colony. And that colony of penguins was 10,000 strong, and they were all screaming at the top of their lungs.    And I realized, I'm like, holy crap, that's business right there. That's the internet right there. Everybody goes on social media, goes on their website, goes to a networking event, or puts in their marketing, or their collaterals, how they're so great.    But we live in a world today where people are skeptical of that, and that's not the message they want to hear. And so during this time, if all you're doing is saying how great you are, come work with us because your business will skyrocket, and your efficiencies will go through the roof.    They don't believe that anymore. Like and follow this podcast so you can learn more. My name is Carl Gould, and this has been your #70secondCEO. 

Hi, everyone. Carl Gould here with your #70secondCEO. Just a little over a one-minute investment every day for a lifetime of results. What seemed to be those temporary requests during the pandemic, they're not temporary.  The pandemic accelerated the purchasing habits and the paradigm shift in the purchasing habits and expectations of all of our clients. What we took as annoying or maybe pesky requests at the time were permanent requests.  We find ourselves in a cycle of business that has about five more years left to it. It's the cycle of business we call winter. Winter started in 2005 and it's estimated to end in 2029. It's a 20 to 25-year cycle, but some of the entitlement programs during the Obama administration and early in the Trump administration kind of pushed that out a few years.  Remember cash for clunkers. Sorry, and even going back to 2008, cash for clunkers, cash for caulking of your homes. Remember all of those entitlement programs from 08 and through the pandemic, various times kind of pushed winter out a little bit. It kicked the can down the road a little bit. So we find ourselves in this season of volatility that's going to continue for the next five years. And a hallmark of this time is going to be these new consumer preferences. And so now let's take that to the next level and let's think about what happened during the pandemic. Like and follow this podcast so you can learn more. My name is Carl Gould and this has been your #70secondCEO.  

 How to be a High-Value Player Hi Everyone, Carl Gould here your #70secondCEO, just over a minute of  investment per day for a lifetime of results. You’re going to have a premium offering, that really high McDaddy offering, and then, once you’ve convinced them of the value of your brand, then they’re going to go and purchase off the menu. And on that menu is something for every appetite and something for every budget. You need to compete to be the best in your niche. Not the worst. And if you’re pricing is in the middle of your niche, consumers think you are among the worst. Because if you are the highest price in your niche, they’re going to think, “Wow! They can command those high prices, they must know something.” Conversely, if you are the lowest in your niche, that is the second way you assert your authority. How can they be doing all of this and not charging us? They must know something. But in the middle? Nobody knows anything. That doesn’t take any talent to be in the middle. But to be the top or the bottom in pricing that takes talent. That takes an expert, you need to be an expert. Ok, for most of you watching/listening today. It’s easier to be the highest price in your niche as opposed to the lowest price in your niche. You go low price, now you’re on a huge volume game. Now you’re competing with the real big boys.   Like and follow this podcast so you can learn more. My name is Carl Gould and this has been your #70secondCEO.  

Top 3 Traits You Admire Who do you Admire? -  Hi everybody, Carl Gould here with your #70secondCEO just one minute a day investment for a lifetime of results. Today’s topic, who do you admire? Take a moment and think about that.  What industry Titan, sports celebrity, political figure, historical figure do you really admire?  Write down the name of that person or persons. And, what I’d also like you to do is write down the key attributes that you admire about them.  Can you think about that for a moment, what are all the traits and attributes or personality styles and rules and values and guiding principles that really light you up? You look at the person and say, ‘Wow, that is somebody I really admire.’ OK, now what I’d like you to do is think of all the times in your life where having the resources of that person would be helpful and how those times in your life would be different.  So,  just below write down who do you admire and the top 3 traits about them, we are going to work on really growing and nurturing those traits in the future. Ok, I want to see your comments below. My name is Carl Gould and this has been your #70secondCEO.  

Cash Flow Positive, Buying Power, Operating Expenses Hey Everyone, Carl Gould here with your #70secondCEO, just a little over a one-minute investment every day for a lifetime of results. Today’s topic is - Cash Flow. All right so, give yourself a ranking here: To what degree are your cash flow positive on a monthly basis?  Do you have at least six months of operating expenses in reserve to whether a storm?  Do you have enough buying power in order to take advantage of an opportunity should it present itself?   One is low like, ‘Oh my God, help!’10 is high, were really good there. Anything 7.9 and below and we got to talk, OK? You want to have, you want to be able to manage credit, that’s your buying power. You know at this level of your business you know, just buying on cash and always being in cash isn’t always the way to go. You want to manage your credit and manage it so you are building assets. And are you setting it up, setting aside enough in your business, in your cash flow operations so that you are building a bit of a nest egg? Ok, so you can weather that storm and you must be managing your expenses so that you are cash flow positive each month.  So, are you cash flow positive? Have 6 months reserve? Enough buying power?   Like and follow this podcast below. Send me a comment, which of the 3 do you need to work on? I want to hear from you. I am Carl Gould and this has been your #70secondCEO.  

Building the Balance Sheet Hi Everyone, Carl Gould here with your #70secondCEO. That’s right just a 70 second investment each day for a lifetime of results. Today’s topic is - Building the Balance Sheet.  You know it’s interesting people come to me and say, ‘Carl, grow my business.” What they’re talking about though is their profit and loss, their income statement, am I making more than I’m paying out? But you know what, you’re not building wealth there, it’s your balance sheet where you start building wealth so, what we’re recommending here is taking up to 3% of your gross revenue putting it in a segmented account to build your assets.  Buy the building in which you are operating Invest in deferred comp Insurance policies Key man insurance Life insurance Other insurance and safety vehicles like that, that fall into deferred comp Your retirement plan Investing in stocks Investing in other businesses How are you building your balance sheet?  So, of the things I just mentioned, which are the ones you still need to do? Like, follow this podcast, comment below, and tell me which area of your balance sheet you still need to build. This is Carl Gould and this has been your #70secondCEO.

Being Obnoxious, Good? or Bad? Part 2 Hi everyone, Carl Gould here with your #70secondCEO. Just a little over a one minute investment every day for a lifetime of results.   And that, you know, remember, I'm seventh grade. I'm 11 years old, and I just got called what I now think is a swear word. So that whole night I remember it sitting with me and I was thinking, you know, what was she implying? Was she saying I was disgustingly objectionable? I was highly offensive. And I remember that night. I gotta tell you, I was pissed off at first, but then I went through a range of emotions. When I read this definition, mostly I was angry, right? If I was so out of bounds at that point, Shouldn't she have taken me aside and explain to me what she was observing, or offer guidance or coaching or teaching, you know, wasn't that a teachable moment that I was enrolled in this school to receive if it was so bad if I was disgustingly objectionable, right? I was a little bit more like that definition really sat with me that night, and when the full weight of the entire situation finally hit me, I gotta tell you, I was not very, very happy.   Like and follow this podcast so you can learn more. My name is Carl Gould and this has been your #70secondCEO.  

Being Obnoxious, Good? or Bad? Part 1 Hi everyone, Carl Gould here with your #70secondCEO. Just a little over a one minute investment every day for a lifetime of results.   They don't make obnoxious like they used to. I remember the first time I was called obnoxious. I was in the seventh grade. And I was joking in class with some of my friends. We were probably just being louder than we should have been, probably more inappropriate manner than we were in class. But I must have said something that my teacher overheard, you know, and she didn't like it because she came up to me and she said to me, Carll you’re being obnoxious. And I could tell that she wasn't happy with me or what I said, but I didn't know what the word obnoxious meant. I don't know what I may have said that upset her. And I certainly didn't see anything wrong with what was going on, right? But all my friends and I, we were just laughing and having a good time. So in the beginning, funny enough, I took it as a compliment. I thought obnoxious was a compliment. So talking about ignorance being bliss, I was out of my mind happy. So at first I could tell she wasn't happy. So I felt like I did something wrong, but I didn't really think I did anything wrong. So that night, I didn't say anything at the time. That night I go home, and I look up the word obnoxious. And you know what I found? I found that it meant odiously or disgustingly objectionable and highly offensive.   Like and follow this podcast so you can learn more. My name is Carl Gould and this has been your #70secondCEO.  

It is a Blind Spot. Functional Problems Hi everyone, Carl Gould here with your #70secondCEO. Just a little over a one minute investment every day for a lifetime of results. Complacency and cruise control can happen here. It is a blind spot. It is a functional problem, but you need to get back to it right away. If you're having cash flow problems, if you're having net profit problems at this point, that's very dysfunctional. This is almost like a second honeymoon for the business. Strong systems, strong controls, cosmetic enhancements, puts you back in the forefront in your market, sales should increase simply by making that change. If you go back to the team that you built earlier on, we talked about having somebody who's an expert in business evaluations. What is a business worth? Here is where one of your power tools will be doing an evaluation of the business. This is an add on and a logical progression to the benchmarking that you've done. Like and follow this podcast so you can learn more. My name is Carl Gould and this has been your #70secondCEO.  

The Business Runs the Owner Hi everyone, Carl Gould here with your #70secondCEO. Just a little over a one minute investment every day for a lifetime of results.  The challenge that you have here is that most of the time the business runs the owner in stage two, this is an area of concern. Part of your focus needs to be implementing your MVP planning, working with your strategic partner, your advisor, building those credentials and maximizing this stage by making sure you're among the highest compensated in your field, because in stage two, there is a limit to what you can earn. There is a limit, because there's only so many hours in a day, and there's only so many people you can reach. So if you are a tradesman, if you're a doctor, if you're a financial planner, if you're an accountant, if you're an attorney, there are only so many hours in the day and there are only so many clients who can service. So part of the equation is making sure that you are among the top paid in your field and to do that you need to build your credentials to become the highest certified or the highest acclaim in your field.  Like and follow this podcast so you can learn more. My name is Carl Gould and this has been your #70secondCEO.  

 Find Money in Your Blindspot Hi Everyone, Carl Gould here your #70secondCEO, just over a minute of investment per day for a lifetime of results. Results people sometimes struggle with their system’s people. Relationship people sometimes struggle with the detail’s people. Now again, I’m pretty sure this doesn’t happen in any of your businesses, but again you have heard a rumor this can saddle some other companies. Ok, and so, we want to be aware that we’re not saying we’re not in the camp of work on your weaknesses all day long so you can become a better-rounded person. That’s not what we are talking about. What we are talking about though, is becoming functional in your blindspot. So, I won’t be doing it with all of you but I can share a formula with the owners, give me 4 minutes and I can show you how much money I can steal from your company. You will actually tell me how much money I could steal from your company and you would never know it! Once you tell me that number, I will know the number I will tell you that I’m stealing and you won’t even know where to look. Right in your blind spot area. Now we kind of know the formula for most of you anyway, so that’s why we’re working on it. But the reality is, is that there’s a ton of money sitting in your blindspot area, that if you can mine that area of your business there’s a lot of value there.  Like and follow this podcast so you can learn more. My name is Carl Gould and this has been your #70secondCEO.

Hi Everybody, Carl Gould here with your #70secondCEO, just a one minute investment per day for a lifetime of results.  Today's talk is all about finding yourself in your work and lose yourself in your work. Find yourself in your work meaning, what are you passionate about? What are the things that are going to stretch you and are going to make you into the next chapter of the best version of yourself?   OK, in order to find yourself when you work, you have to lose yourself IN your work, in other words, you have to find out, what challenges you. And what stimulates you about your work?   There was a time I had a construction company that I hated. You know what I did like? Negotiating the deal, designing the site doing that work and then at the very end the completion. So, I stuck to those areas.  Write down below, comment:  What are the top three things you love about your job?  Top three things you hate about your job?  And, it’s your job to get rid of those 3 things as soon as possible!   This is Carl Gould and this has been your #70secondCEO.