Listen to the full interview here ( 41:22 minutes)

 

Full Transcript

Welcome to first 100 k, the show where I interview successful entrepreneurs about how they made their first $100,000. Digging deep to find the tools, tactics, and superpowers that you can use to go from a to 100 k. I’m your host, sugarcoat your friend Joseph Warren. I’m also the owner of two coworking spaces here in Tampa, Florida, where I have the honor of coaching a hundreds of entrepreneurs on how to start, launch and grow their businesses. Today our featured guest is courageous entrepreneurial Tom Swab and Tom is the owner CEO of interview Valet Dot Com. That’s interview valet.com. You don’t know how to spell Valet v, a l e t.com, and what time does there is tom helped small businesses, entrepreneurs, solopreneurs get featured on leading podcasts that their prospects, their future clients are ready to listening to. Then he shows them how to turn those listeners into customer’s time is also the author of podcast guests.

Profits grow your business with a targeted interview strategy. Tom, welcome to the show. I’m excited to get into some podcasting talk, hear how you built this, and go ahead and fill in some gaps in that intro. Would you, uh, Joseph [inaudible]. I am thrilled to be here. It’s great. And yeah, we all struggled going from that zero to 100 k and sometimes that’s 100 k is trying to make it profitable to um, I, I have an interesting background from the standpoint of I wasn’t always an entrepreneur. I started out, you know, in the navy, then went to a corporate job and uh, I grew up where it’s like we got to find a stable job, find a stable job and retire from it. What I realized was, is the best stability is working for yourself and serving customers, right? If you can serve, you’ve got stability.

Stability comes from a serving lots of customers, not just one that’s called an employer. I get that and it takes time and hard work. It’s not just instant, right? You don’t just go out and serve and all of a sudden you’re a millionaire. Right? That’s not how it works. Well, everybody has overnight success. You know, work like a dog for years and then one day you’ll wake up with overnight success, you know, I say it this way. Um, I was like, when people say, wow, you’re like an overnight success. And I go, yeah, five years of overnights and got successful. Yeah, that’s, that’s what it takes, right? So Tom, take a minute and share with us something personal that very few people in your business life know about you that it would probably be where I started out. Um, I’m an engineer by degree. So my Undergrad is from the Naval Academy in Mechanical Engineering.

My first job out of college was running nuclear power plants on an aircraft carrier and it taught me no stress. Right? Well, yes, but the amazing part is, is that when people start to say, well, you know, you don’t understand my business, it’s too complicated to systematize and all the rest of that, I’m like, Dude, there are 20 year old high school educated, highly motivated people that are running a nuclear reactor right now. And they’re doing it safely. If they can figure out how to systematize that, you need to figure out how to systematize your business. Uh, so that is not a magic trick. Every time that you can scale it up.

Love that. So startup nation, tom is just shoving the mic in your face right now. Hitting you over the head and saying, stop making excuses. You can systemize almost any business out there the same way that these young guys can do it on a ship. Right? So, Tom, let me ask you this. We got a little background feedback there on your mic. Um, how much, uh, my audience loves context, right? How much revenue did you gross in the past 12 months?

Yeah. So, uh, for 2017 we ended up at seven 8,700. 80,000.

Fantastic. And how many, how much time in before you started the business? Uh, we’re, we’re two years in three years. Then you reach 700. 80,000. How long did it take you to hit the first one? Hundred K,

a first 100 k while we were in Beta. And then we pulled out of that. We were probably the first hundred k within the first six months, but I always, I always say that it’s like, is that the first hundred k of um, of sales or is that the first dollar of profit? Right. I see a lot of people that they say they’ve got a million dollars in sales and they’re still unprofitable. So, um, I try to focus more on the profits then the top line.

Yeah, I got that. Cool. So, uh, what do you want to track for the next 12 months? What’s the goal there?

Yeah, so we’re shooting for one point 8 million and really that comes down to seven percent growth a month, you know, that’s our, our number to hit.

Got It. And I’m guessing you’re probably systematized it on a monthly basis so you know that it’s not only

doable but it’s probable. Well, it very much so. And we were actually, our, our stretch goal for last year was a million. Uh, and we actually pulled that back probably with about four months left in the end of the year. Um, and really, cause we didn’t have the systems to keep going, you know, once you get to a certain level, all your systems break because they’re not built for that scale. So we pulled back and said, hey, let’s, let’s make sure we have this right, that we’ve got the quality of the product a great, uh, so that we can, you know, I’m a ramp it up from there.

I love that. So, startup nation, as you grow, as you expand, make sure you’re backfilling your foundation so that you have that support to keep going further. Uh, the same way that Tom has done. Tom, here’s the question, why do you think 90 percent of entrepreneurs struggle to make their first 100 k?

I think part of it is not sticking with it and not focusing on it. I mean, you can hustle, but are, you’re hustling on the right things. Um, and to me, I, this is the best time to be alive, right? There’s a lot of problems in the world, but the resources that we have and the feedback that we get from customers and they’ll tell you the right answer. You know, you’ve got an opinion, I’ve got an opinion, it’s the customers that have the right answer. And in the navy we used to have a joke that says you have to be smart enough to know right answer when told. So customers will tell you what they love and what they load and you just got to do more of what they love and less of what they loath and you know, um, simple, uh, well, yeah, but the problem is, is a lot of times we have these one, three and five year goals and these business plans and say, well, this is where I’m going to go.

And we put our heads down and go and when the customers are telling, now the riches are over here, this is what I need. So to me, sometimes it’s, you know, it’s the hustle. It’s the hard work, but also hustling in the right direction. Man, that’s everything. So many times in my career I’ve hustled in the wrong direction, uh, creating products and services that I thought the customer wanted. And they had no intention of paying me for those things because they didn’t want them. And taking the time to admit you’re wrong and to listen to your customer, just like Tom Saying, startup nation, that’s where it’s at. So check yourself right now. How are you doing in your business as far as listening to your customers? Do you really have a pulse of what it is that they want and they’re willing to pay for? Great, great.

A little insight there. Tom. We’d love to listen to millionaires and billionaires, right? Because we’re like, someday that’s going to be me. So we’d love to hear their stories, how they got there, all that success. However, their struggles at that level are not even close to the struggles that we have at this level. Completely distinct from each other. So Tom, I’d like you to take us back to when you were struggling to make that first 100 k, the first six months in business and anus, a vivid picture. And tell us that story. Yeah. And you’re so right, because you know, there’s a difference between a Biggie Entrepreneur, Richard Branson and we’re, we are all starting out there, the little e entrepreneur. And to me it was how to build something that people wanted that was scalable. And you know, I, I got it wrong the first time because we were doing this with a handful of clients and I thought, boom, the way to do this is to sell it as an online course.

And for two and a half months I sold it as an online course. It sold, well, I’m probably sold about $50,000 worth of the course. Never had any returns, but nobody ever had success with it. And as I started to listen to the people and ask them, you know, how did it go, you know, most of the people didn’t finish the course. And those ones that, um, we’re really honest with me. He said, you know, I understand it, I understand how podcasts interview marketing works, but you know, I don’t want to do it. You, I want to be a guest. You take care of all, all the rest. And I’m like, I don’t want to build an agency, you know, I, that’s not, that’s not what I want to do. And they kept saying that and I just realized I can either go ahead and sell this course and feel bad about it, right?

Because I’m selling it, but nobody’s getting results with it or I can give people what they want. So that’s where we said, okay, let’s do this for 90 days. We’ll do a Beta test and see if this works out. And, you know, um, it worked out. The customers loved it and you know, they gave us the best copy, you know, the Tagline, you guests, we do the rest that came from them, you know, when the customer said, um, you know, I, I want to, um, you know, I just wanted to be Sinatra. But the problem was, is that my ego was there because I had already put this time in this effort into building this course that we’re selling. Well. But I had to take that ego back and saying, well, this isn’t what the customers want. And it’s so tough. I mean, I’m in Kalamazoo, Michigan.

Um, I don’t have to answer to anybody but myself, right? I don’t have a team or at that time didn’t have a team around me, but I ultimately I had to answer to the customers. So at that point, you know, high, I did $50,000 and probably the first three months, but realize this is the wrong track and I’ve got to go down another track that the customers are asking for that I honestly didn’t want him to go down, but I thought, hey, let’s give it another 90 days. See how this works out. And how did it, it worked out for you. Uh, it worked out wonderfully. Um, you know, we could see that we were getting results with it. The feedback from the customers were all we were good and we thought we had a scalable product there and you know, at that point, at the end of 90 days, uh, it was myself part time, uh, one other person a that was doing it, a working full time in it and for the Beta test.

And that’s at that point we decided, okay, we’re to take it out of Beta, we’re going to launch it. And then, you know, that’s when we start to need to bring on more team members. Yeah, I got that. So for I would say many, many of my audience, 90 days is a very quick turnaround to launch a product stale at right and um, and make profit on it. Uh, how did you market that? How did you get that product out to your audience? How did you identify your audience? Was the audience already in play a kind of, paint us some of those details, would you? Right. So I already had the advantage of that when I pivoted from one to another. I was bringing some audience with me, but I, uh, but I had built up that audience the same, you know, drinking the same kool aid, um, that we sell from the standpoint.

I think every business, their biggest problem is that they’re obscure. I don’t care what you have today, a product or service, it might not be, it might be great, it might be not be version seven point. Oh, but there are people that it could help. Right? So the problem is, is how do you find those people? And it’s not improving the product, you know, you can keep improving the product, but if the people don’t know about it, you know, you’re obscure. So the question is, is how do you go from being obscure to be known by your customers? So really, I was on podcasts. I’m talking about the course, you know, talking about how you could use podcast interview marketing to, to really leverage somebody else’s audience. So I already had that. I’m coming from, from there. And really to Beta test a product, you don’t need that many people, right?

And granted it’s the price point different. If you’re selling something for $9, it can be different than if you’re selling something for $500, but really just need a handful of those people and you don’t need no more leads, you need more ideal leads, you need more ideal customers. So to me, it’s getting that word out there in any way you can, you know, through facebook video, something that’s extended because at the end of the day, people are going to work with you because they know, like, and trust you, right? Um, we’re all, you know, we’re all selling a product or service, but if you can talk to what their pain is and they’re like, Yep, this person understands me, uh, I think they can help me. Then they’ll start to work with you. So what I’m hearing you say is that in order to accelerate that know, like, and trust that is needed to build that or start that relationship with your prospect or your future customer video is a great way to do it because they get to see, you, feel you experienced, you.

Podcasting is a great way to do it because they hear your voice, right? It’s very intimate. It’s like they’re in the same room with you even though you’re on the other side of the planet. Um, and it really just accelerates that know, like, and trust rather than maybe they just read a series of blogs that you put out there that takes a lot of time for them to really extend that trust. Would you agree with that? Anything you want to add to that? Very much so. And, you know, um, if you just sell in the little widget and doing a transaction, you can go onto Amazon, you know, it’s never been easier to sell something online now, but it’s never been harder to make a, uh, to build a business, right? If you want to sell something, just be a penny penny cheaper than the other person and you’ll get some sales.

But if you actually want to build customers and lifetime value, then you’ve got to differentiate yourself. And to me that comes from people know, liking and trusting you. And so you’ve got to find a medium that allows them to do that. Um, and the more intimate and personal, the medium can be a, I think the better chance and also the longer, longer format it can be, you know, if it’s a 60 seconds snippet, I don’t get really get to know, you know, your heart, who you work with, all the rest of that. Um, videos, especially if they’re, I’m not over edited, I think can be great. But to me, podcasts are great because I think it’s the most intimate form of marketing or communication, right? Because if I’m doing a video and you know, you never know it’s cue cards, you know, do I have my, my, my video voice on is this take one, take three.

But Joseph is right now and you know, the best podcasts are like two guys sitting down at a denny’s right? And we’re just talking and somebody else’s in the booth next to us and to be really rude for them to turn around and get in on the conversation. So they’ll just sit there and listen. And, you know, uh, I always say that at the end of a podcast, if somebody goes, oh, that was interesting, that’s fine. If somebody goes, you know, tom was full of, you know, whatever, that’s fine, but there’s going to be certain people that go, wow, I like that, you know, um, I want to learn more at that guy understands me because at the end of the day, we don’t need more leads. We need more customers.

Yeah. I’d like to market this, a podcast as, you know, I put you in the same room with a successful entrepreneur and, and you get to sit in and be that fly on the wall and hear that conversation without, you know, eavesdropping, you know, like in a denny’s like you said, because that’s just be rude, but this isn’t right. So, uh, you said standing out earlier, and let’s talk about that for a second. So I mentioned this on this show, uh, often. Uh, your superpower, right? I believe that we all have a superpower, meaning just like Spiderman, he’s got the spider sense or you could climb buildings. Superman’s got is his strength and he can fly. What is your superpower in your business, Tom, that sets you apart from everybody else? That’s the one thing that you’re naturally gifted at. ‘Em and everything else. You just need to outsource to someone else. What’s that super power for you?

To me it’s the crosspollination. And by what I mean by that is that taking ideas from one area and putting it into another, right? So podcast, interview marketing, you know, it’s not something that’s totally new. It’s basically guest blogging right 10 years ago, um, you can either start your own blog and have it read by yourself and your mom or you could put that blog on Huffington post or whatever. And I just looked at that and said, well, blogs aren’t working nearly as well as they used to. Podcasts are taking off, you know, I could start a podcast, but that would be just like, you know, just like starting to blog. So how could we use, you know, sort of that guest blogging for podcast interviews. And so for me, it’s that idea of we can take something from one, one area, put it in another area I call crosspollination and uh, start something different because to me, you know, competition is for losers. Um, if you think you’re just going to be competing with somebody else, what do you call it? Red Ocean strategy, or I’m better than this person. No you’re not. You know, there’s a million million of they’re out there. Uh, the world doesn’t need another copy. It needs something different. So instead of just trying to be, I’m a little bit better, say I’m different and a lot of people that know me will tell you, tom is different. Some of them mean it nicely.

Got It. Time to describe to us your biggest fail. I’m mistake or setback that you had your first year in business.

Oh, it’s the one I continually have. Um, and it’s that voice inside my head, you know, um, imposter syndrome. If you could read my, um, my mind, they would, they would change it in the dictionary to Tom Schwab Central, right? Because when I went to the Naval Academy, I kept thinking, oh, there’s got to be a technical error here, right? Because I should not be here. You know, when I, when I started to sell, um, you know, and had success with it, I was scared to death. People are going to figure this out. You know, I’m going to figure out what’s the voice in the head saying to you that I don’t know enough. I’m not ready for this. Um, uh, that, that people think I’m more than I am because, you know, I look in the mirror and I see all my floor flaws, you know, um, as opposed to you look in facebook and you see everybody’s best image there.

So it seems like everybody is nailing kicking it out of the park. You know, they started a 30 days ago and they’ve already made six figures and, um, and all the rest of that, and you know, that, that voice inside my head and it’s awful because if, if you just stay with yourself in your own mind, that’s the only voice you’re going to hear. So going out and hearing from customers, hearing from, I love mastermind groups, getting in there from that standpoint because, uh, uh, you know, that that voice in your head is not you and it’s not the truth. And think about it. If, if anybody would talk to me the way I talked to myself in my mind, I’d probably punch them. I definitely wouldn’t be friends with them anymore. Uh, but, uh, you know, I’ve got to live with this guy all the time. So to me, um, that’s, that’s the problem that I’ve had from my zero to a hundred k from 100 k to a million in any business that I’ve ever been in. There’s always that, that imposter syndrome, and I think the studies show that men have it more than women and successful people have it more than on successful people. So, um, that’s, that’s something that I continually struggle with.

I get that right. And Startup nation, I know you’re, you’re hearing Tom Right now and you’re going, oh my gosh, I have that same voice in my head that says if people find out they’re going to find out I’m a fraud, right? They’re gonna have, they’re gonna think I’m a fraud because I am a fraud. Like I, I’m, I don’t even know what I’m doing half the time. It’s like I don’t deserve success, but yet I’m still striving for it. And there’s this whole like internal dialogue going on. And Tom, I think he said it really well. Um, the reason why we started coworking spaces here in Sanford, Florida is when you sit at home and you bounce ideas off the mirror, as I say, uh, you’re sitting with your own noise,

your own voices, and you’re sitting with that person that you want to punch, right? The one that keeps insulting you 24 hours a day in your head. And it’s like you need to get away from that and get around other people that are out there doing things that can uplift you. You can uplift them, serve each other, and all of a sudden you find you’re very powerful as a human being when you’re around other powerful human beings. What do you want to add to that? Well, there’s a great book called the enemies of excellence. I’m sorry, I can’t remember the author’s name now, but one of the things that he points out there is that isolation is the enemy of excellence, right? So think about it. What’s the cruelest punishment you can do to anybody? You know, most countries solitary confinement is cruel and unusual punishment, but so many of us that are starting business do that to ourselves, right?

So we don’t, we don’t have the time or the money for an office. So we’re working out of, you know, a bedroom, working out of our home, doing all the rest of that. We’re isolating ourselves and driving ourselves crazy. Right? So you need to go out there and if it’s a coworking space, that’s great. If it’s, if it’s working at a library so you can be around other people. Uh, I think a coworking spaces is better because it’s, it’s likeminded people. Um, and it’s creative and that’s cross pollination. But, or even, you know, getting on a skype call, you know, talking to somebody and uh, and realizing that we’re, uh, you know, that there are people are like, you, I’m, I’m from western Michigan here. Great, great people. But I think most of my neighbors think I’m a drug dealer, right? Because I never leave, leave my house through their hard work in agricultural people here, but they’re like, he doesn’t go to a factory, he doesn’t go to a job, you know, he must be laundering money or selling drugs. So Tom, I have to ask you, are you very delighted follows?

I am not there. That would probably be a quicker way to make money but not sustainable longterm. I’m glad you answered. No, because I’m not sure how I would’ve responded. That’s cool. You know, you’ve talked about isolation. Uh, you know, I give a lot of talks as a speaker and one of the things I start a lot of my talks with is, is clearly this say, uh, most people think, many people think that the number one reason why small businesses fail is because of lack of funding that’s inaccurate. I believe the number one reason why small businesses fail is because of isolation, because they’re isolating themselves from people with funding from people with resources, people that can help them, people that can uplift them, encourage them, etc. And they’re, they’re bouncing the ideas off the mirror, like we said earlier. So isolAtion is the cause of all of the crap going on in your business and your startup and it’s holding back right now, startup nation from a crossing that level of your first 100 k, anything you want to add there, tom, uh, that I think it was so, so on.

Point with that because you think about it. We live in such a great time, right? That there is more money out there than, than ever. I’ve got some friends in boston and you know, they’ll come up with an idea and next thing you know, they’ve got, you know, a million or $10,000,000 behind it to test the idea. And so there’s a lots of money out there, but the difference between them and b is they know the people that have the money, you know, um, uh, if you want to learn how to do something, there’s lots of people out there that have already done it. They’ll help you, they’ll teach you, um, you know, there’s no reason to reinvent the wheel. I always say the stupidest thing in the world is learning from your mistakes. I’ve done it and it’s painful, right? Why not learn from somebody else’s mistakes and if you’re just isolated, you’re not going to be able to do that.

So that’s the start startup nation. Get out there. Alright tom, how many hours did you put in your first put in per week? Your first year in business? This is, this is a tough question because when people ask how many, how many hours a week do you work? I’ll say, oh, about 10. If you ask my wife, she’ll say it’s probably more like, oh, 50 or 60. The difference is, is that there’s 10 hours of stuff that I do each week that you would have to pay me to do. That’s work. The, the other 40 or 50. To me that’s fun. You know, if I was retired I’d start a business because that’s what I love doing this. So I think this idea of where people say, well it’s, you know, it’s a lifestyle and you know, the four hour work week and stuff like that.

I don’t think tim ferriSs works four hours a week. Uh, I hear it’s actually about 80. Yeah. And, but maybe he’s looking at it the same way that there’s only four hours of stuff that he doesn’t like to do. And so for me, I’m an early riser. I love to get up and get to get to work, um, and, and doing fun things. So, um, yeah, I think that, uh, uh, I think that’s a benefit that I had coming out of the military because we were taught that if you worked half days, that meant 12 hours. Right? And so I came out of there with that mentality of, oh, I only had to work a half day today. So that’s a good perspective. So we all have fear, right? Tom, um, things, you know, that top thing that just scares the heck out of us. What would you say was the number one fear that really messed with your head back then though?

I still, I still messes with my head, my head, and it’s not that voice inside my head, but it’s the fear of disappointing people, you know, that’s the, that’s the, that’s crushing to me. Um, it’s not so much fear failure, but you know, I’d never want to lose investor’s money and disappoint them. I’d never want to disappoint my wife that something didn’t work out. And ultimately I don’t want to disappoint a customer. Right. That’s why we, that’s why we, that’s why we slowed down last year we had, we had people that were lining up to sign up with us and I’m like, I don’t think we have the staff, the systems, all the rest of this to bring them on right now. And I had to tell them, no, no, no, not right now. Um, we’ve got, uh, we’ve got to do this because what I didn’t want to do is say yes and then just disappoint them and now they’re, now they’re thrilled they’re coming on board and uh, uh, we’re ramping up and serving them better than ever.

I get that from hearing, you know, that it’s like, how impactful was it for you when you did that, that a training course and they didn’t get the results. Right. That’s a let down, right? You let them all down. Like, how did that impact you personally? I felt guilty, right. And I had some people tell me, you know, if you can sell $50,000, of course in, uh, in under 90 days and never promoted, basically just take it, you know, it’s still in beta. They’re like, why would you pull that down? and I said, because I felt guilty with the money. Right. I’m like, blood money. It’s like selling drugs. I shave every day, you know, I’ve got to look at this guy and you know, uh, they’ve got a, they’ve got a word for people that do things for money that they don’t like. I don’t want to look at myself as a whore.

And so from that standpoint, I would talk to these people and I’m like, please just ask for your money back. I would give you your money back. You know, when you run into a course, you can always see the outside, uh, or the, the back analytics and you talk with somebody and you’re like, well, how’s the course going? Oh, it was wonderful. I really enjoyed it. Um, like, did you have any questions? Did she get through it all? And then they’re like, oh yeah, I’m just waiting to, to get some time to, to really execute on it. And I’m like, dude, there was seven chapters. I’m looking at the back end. You got through one stop lying to me and ask for your money back and I’ll give it to you, you know? And they’re like, no, no, it’s not, it’s not your fault, it’s my fault on that.

But I just felt guilty on that. So, um, you know, I never really looked at it that way until you pointed it out. But yeah, I’ve got to be proud with the money that I earned. I got that. so I acknowledge you for having that real conversation with your customers and saying, hey, it’s not you actually, it’s the product, right? The product is not getting you what I promised I promised was going to take you from here to there and it’s not. Right. So that’s, that’s really awesome that you took responsibility for the product not being a what was promised and then recreated it right to something that actually did work for them. So fantastic job on that. Yeah, and for some the product may still work right, because I wrote the book, I put that out there, um, you know, it’s like the recipe, it’s everything we’ve learned how to do podcasts, interview marketing, and just like the chef, the chef will put his recipe out there and some people are the do it yourselfers and, and we’ll Try to do it.

God love them, but there’s a lot of people that are our clients that they’re like, I don’t want the recipe, you know, I, I don’t want to learn how to do thIs. I don’t want to go through all of this and then not get the results, you know, I just want to go to the restaurant and enjoy it. Right? I just want the, the finished product, how can you deliver that to me and I’m willing to pay you for it. so. Exactly. Yeah. I think it’s getting clear on that. So tom, what would you say is the best business advice you received so far in this business? I, can I fliP that around and say the worst business advice I ever got. It has a really good story to it. It does, and I’m the worst business advice I ever got was from my grandfather and it was the only wrong thing that old irishman ever told me.

You know, I think I was 17 years old going to the naval academy, having a beer with him. I think he thought it was my first beer. But, um, he said, choose carefully who you drink with because you can’t choose who you work with now. For him it was, it was his reality, right? He was a mechanic in a small town. If you came to him with your, uh, with a car, you were a customer. For us, it’s different, right? We’ve got access to the entire world now. So I think you should choose carefully who you work with it more carefully than you, uh, who choose who you drink with, right? because if you don’t want to be them, be around them. You don’t want them around your business. Because we’ve got so many customers out there. We get to choose why not choose the people that are ideal customers.

The people you choose to love to work with because you’re going to do better work for them. They’re going to enjoy it. You’re going to enjoy it, uh, it be more profitable and it won’t be so much stress and you know, it doesn’t mean they’re a bad person, but they’re just a bad fit for your company. So go ahead and find somebody that’s a better fit. Startup nation. Listen to the wisdom bomb that tom just exploded right on your head. They’re a surround yourself with people you actually want to spend your days with, right? Because you become the average of the five people closest to you and if you believe that you normally spend the most time with the people at work, yes. Choose them wisely. I think that’s great advice. Tom shared with us one of your daily habits that has helped you to get to where you are today. To me, it’s being an early riser. I’m, you know, I, most mornings I get up about 5:00 AM and I love that because it’s before the email starts to go crazy. I can focus on my priorities and get those big things done before I have to start serving. Um, you know, my team, my customers, all the rest of that. Um, you know, uh, I’ve never seen somebody, uh, that successful that sleeps in til 10 or 11:00.

Got it. Um, and what is your favorite website app or digital resource and why?

Temi.com. A few months ago I would’ve said rep.com, which is a, uh, a transcription service will transcribe anything for a dollar a minute. The same company came out with one that’s ten cents a minute and instead of people doing it, it’s just artificial intelligence. You know, I’m, I’m an engineer by degree. Uh, english is my second language. I’m not sure what my first one is, but for me to write a blog post is homework, say and, but for me to, to, to talk with you is fun. So I can take anything, do a rant, transcribe it for ten cents a minute, I’m in seconds, it comes back and then I can have someone else a lot smarter than me. Clean it up, put the punctuation in there, a takeout, my arms and all the rest of that stuff and really make it into a great blog post. So I love temi.com. How does, how is that spelled? T e, m i.com.

That’s a good one. I haven’t heard of that. And man, that’s the same exact paIn point I have. So I’m a better with the spoken word than the written word. And uh, now this gives me access to both. So thank you for that. And I know startup nation, you’d probably just got value out of that. That’s why I asked that question. Tom, what is the one thing that you want start up nation to know about being successful in business?

Yeah, you have something great to offer the world to help people with, right? A product, a service, whatever. The only thing that is keeping you from it is your ideal customers. Um, knowing aBout you, right? so you can help them and guess what? They’re going to show their appreciation by giving you money. You know, rabbi daniel lapin calls money certificates of appreciation. So what you have right now can help people just go out and find those people. Stop the isolation of trying to make it perfect. It never will be, but it’s good enough now to help people. So find those people.

Love it. So start up nation. We are speaking with tom schwab and tom is the founder of interview valet. That’s interview valet.com. And what they do there is concierge, concierge level booking service, right? So get you on podcasts where your ideal clients are so that they can hear you, they can know, like, and trust you in one podcast interview like I’m doing with tom right now. You’re really getting to know tom. You’re getting to know his heart, who he is, what he stands for. That’s why I asked these provocative questions to really unpeel the onion, to give you access to tom so that you know if you want to work with them or not, right? Or just learn from him, right? And see him as a mentor per se. Tom has a great book out there, podcast guest profits. Tom, where can they find that is on amazon is in the bookstores. Where’s it at? It’s probably

in some bookstores. Uh, I don’t know if anybody go to those anymore. It’s on amazon and I’ll tell you what, I give away more of these than I sell, which is fine. Uh, you know, I believe podcast interview marketing is going to be huge. Last year we did a study called the state of podcast interviews. Uh, we reached out to about 10,000 different marketers. I’m a podcast host podcast guests and one of the questions we asked was rank, um, these different marketing channels for return on investment podcast. Interview marketing came number one, facebook advertising was number two, email marketing was number three. So from that standpoint, I think podcast interview of marketing is, you know, is the future there. So if you want to learn more about it, you can buy the book or tell you what a joseph, I’ll put up a page, interview valet.com, forward slash hundred k, and I’ll just put the book there. So go there and you can download it for free

later. That startup nation, tom has given you. Freebies are ready. He must know, like, and trust you. So tom, welcome to the hustle round. I’m going to ask you 12 quickfire questions. You’ll have about three seconds to answer each. Don’t overthink it. Just say the first thing that comes to you. Are you ready sir? Let’s do it. Let’s do it. Tom, what’s your favorite sound? My granddaughter. What’s your least favorite sound? My grandson. Crying when you were a child. What did you want to be when you grew up on I a pilot? What are you most afraid of? Letting people down. What did you spend? Way too much time doing your first year in business. Trying to learn and master things that other people already knew. Like the county. Yeah. What’s secret fear do you have about people that they will see the real me and then find out that we’re a fraud, right? Yeah. It’s. Say this, that old imposter syndrome there. Got it. What do you wish that you had learned sooner in your business? Um,

people there that want to help you and that you’ve got a zone of genius work in your zone of genius and then find other people and bring them in for their zone of genius.

That is so well said. Got that. What does a new habit you want to form a working out every day and what’s a bad habit? Do you want to break drinking a two plus pots of coffee a day? Wow, that’s a lot. That’s when I was in the navy. It was probably five. Oh my gosh. Pick three words to describe who you are now, tom. These come from, from the gallup survey, individualized sir, maximizer and achiever. those are those, the three of my top strengths and I think they’re true. And pick three words to describe who you were your first year in business. I’m scattered. I’m confused

and overworked the silverware counters to. I’m not sure.

No, that’s fine. Imagine sometime in the distant future and there you are standing in front of your tombstone, read to us what it says on it.

I hope there’s people around telling stories. It’s not so much what I say about it, but what other people say about me. Um, I’m not so much worried about what’s on my tombstone or my obituary, you know, it’s like your brand, your brand is what you see is not what you say it is, is what other people. So what I’m worried about or concerned about is people standing around the coffin, a telling good jokes and good stories on how I helped them help their life, help their business. If that happens, I’m a blessed, blessed man.

So maybe on your tombstone you’d have like a whiteboard with a sharpie markers and like, people can like write what they thought about you. There you go. Just a thought. And tom, last question, if you could come back to life after you died and share with your family, your friends and loved ones, only one piece of advice, what would you say to them?

Enjoy the ride. We’re, we’re, we’re on this earth. A short, short time. Uh, everything that god brings us this for a reason. There are no curses. There are blessings that we don’t understand. So, uh, enjoy the ride. That’s awesome. So um, what’s the best way for our listeners to get in touch with you? Sure. I don’t know if you’re listening to a podcast, you’re multitasking so I’ll just make it easy. Everything will be@interviewvalet.com forward slash 100 k. So the book will be there. I’ll put some other resources, the six secrets to get on your first podcast, the checklist I use a and all our clients use before their, their podcast interviews and it’ll have all my social media in there, my email, you know, I’m the only tom schwab and all of kalamazoo Michigan, so I’m easy to find. But you know, what’s ordinary to you is amazing to me. So if I can help you in any way, please, please connect.

That’s awesome. So if you’re a small business owner and entrepreneur, a solo preneur and you want to get featured on leading podcasts, uh, where you or your prospects are ready are listening and you want to turn those listeners into clients of yours and then go to interview valet.com. Pick up tom’s book, podcAst, guest profits. Tom, thanks for joining us today. And I wish you peace, love, and superpowers. thank you joseph. You’re welcome. Startup nation. Head over the first 100 k.com for even more tools, tactics, and tricks that you can use to go from a to 100 k. I’m Joseph Warren. And you were made for greatness. So stop being a wuss and start being a winner. Have a blessed day and I’ll catch you on the next show. Cheers.