Ep 241: Double Your Profits With No Extra Marketing Or Ad Spend with Marcia Riner

Jaryd Krause:

How much more money can good branding make your business and what does that even look like? Hi, I'm Jaryd Krause. I am the host of the Buying Online Businesses Podcast. And today I'm speaking with Marcia Riner, who is the CEO of Infinite Profit Consulting. She's a speaker, three-time book author, podcast host, and a powerful visionary.

Business owners come to her looking to increase their revenue, boost profits, and maximize the value of their business. She gets proven results with her powerful PROFIT BOOSTER™️ System and she's able to show prospective clients a clear pathway to profit and a greater ROI by working with her team before they even decide to hire her as a coach at Infinite Profit Consulting.

Marcia and her team have been doing this for years. They're financial experts with an outside-the-box style of creativity, which helps her clients exponentially grow their company and maximize their value before an exit. Marcia also loves being active, traveling with her little dog and meeting interesting people. And she's got such a great podcast.

And in this episode, Marcia and I talk about specific finances and things business owners need to change to be able to be seen as more profitable for an exit, as well as what they can do to change things to grow as a company within their financial structure.

We also talk about strategies to get more leads with the same amount of effort and no extra marketing or ad spend. We talk about increasing your conversions and ways you can do that. We also talk about good branding and how it can increase conversions, retention, and even your average order value.

And then we move into my favorite thing, of course, mindset. We talk about self-made entrepreneurs. We talk about examples of how ego can be a good thing for business in some aspects on one side of the sword. And on the other side of the double-edged sword, it can really get in the way of growth.

And the last question I sort of talked to Marcia about is what her recommendations are for people that have sort of gotten to a stage in a business; it might be after one, two, three, four, or five years, they've gotten to a bit of a plateau, and they want more growth, but they don't know what to do next. So there's so much value in this podcast episode, and I'm sure you're going to love it. Let's dive straight into it.

Do you have a website you might want to sell either now or in the future? We have a hungry list of cashed up and trained up buyers that want to buy your content website. If you have a site making over $300 per month and want to sell it, head to buyingonlinebusinesses.co/sellyourbusiness. Or email us at [email protected] because we'll likely have a buyer. The details are in the description.

Marcia, welcome to the pod.

Marcia Riner:

Thanks, Jaryd. It is so exciting to be here. Coming to you from Las Vegas.

Jaryd Krause:

Yes, from LA to Australia. Most people that do listen to the podcast are in the States, in fact.

Marcia Riner:

Right.

Jaryd Krause:

Yeah. That's our biggest audience. Like most online businesses, I guess.

Marcia Riner:

We are a bunch of entrepreneurs, that's for sure.

Jaryd Krause:

And that's the culture. That's the culture of America. It's pushing for growth and it's cool. I really dig it. What I also dig is what you do for work, what you have done and what you continue to do. And that's why I wanted to get you on the podcast.

What stuck out to me hugely is that you help people scale their businesses without having to invest in marketing and advertising. And you've got a few different systems and a few different ways you can do this. When somebody first comes to you with a business and they say, “I want to scale this business,” what are some of the first questions you start asking them?

Marcia Riner:

Well, you know what? I think one of the weaknesses of most business owners is their financials when it comes to their business. They know their jam. They know what it is that they're great at. And oftentimes, I see that business owners have mistakenly wrapped a business around a job that they do, right?

And so, looking at the business from an outsider's perspective, I can see things that they can't. So right off the bat, I go into the financials, not like a CPA would and get all icky and talk in languages that they don't understand. But I look at it and I look for those gaps that are clear to me and oftentimes clearly missed by the business owner.

We're looking at the cost of goods sold; we're looking at operating costs; and the third factor that I really dig into is also how much they're selling their thing for, right? And if we can get in and tweak those things, then it's an instant boost right out of the gate.

Jaryd Krause:

Yeah. Awesome. So I was going to ask about finances a little bit later in the call, but let's bring it up now. What are some of the things that you are looking at when somebody comes to you with their business in terms of finances and what are some of the things that you would help people tweak?

Marcia Riner:

So the things that I'm looking at are gaps, right? The business owner often has at least in my space, and that's under $10 million in revenue, but they're already rolling in their business. They've got some momentum going, so it's not right out of the gate. So under 10 million is in this small, or even, depending on where you are, it could even be micro type businesses.

But what I'm looking at is that they're often told and coached by their accounting teams and tax teams to run their lifestyle through their business so they can get the maximum tax deductions. And that's not always the best path for looking at the profitability of a company. And when you want to sell a company, the buyer's looking at the positive increase in cash flow. Is it profitable? Is the owner getting paid? What are the expenses running through there?

So really, I'm looking at it from the angle of what the buyer wants to see to make sure that this is a viable company and that there's money flowing through it and there's profits on the other side. So I think that's really what I'm looking at—those gaps that they can't see. And clearing out all the junk and garbage.

Jaryd Krause:

I love where this conversation is going because we hear all about buying businesses and we know what we like to see when we are buying businesses. Some people are looking at buying businesses on a smaller scale; if they are under the $500k range, then you do have people buying them in the seven-figure range.

And typically, what happens is that the brokers or sellers of the business will have expenses that will be added back into the business, for example, like cars and lifestyle items. Are these the things that you're talking about or are there other ones as well? What are the most common things that would prevent people from getting a good exit price in terms of expenses?

Marcia Riner:

You nailed it right on the head with the lifestyle expenses. They have a boat that they bought in the company's name. They have an extra car. They put the kids on the payroll, even though they don't really do anything. The wife has a little something that she gets. Or the spouse has a little something that she's getting a stipend from.

So again, they're looking to milk the company for the most cash. But what it does is affect the company that's buying it because they have to add all that back in and say, "Okay, where does this go?” And it gets a little tricky.

And especially looking backwards—three solid years on the company's financials—in their due diligence when they're going to look at selling that company. And the buyer wants to know, does it make sense? What is it doing? Is it truly profitable? And could the buyer milk the cash coming out?

And that's often where you start to factor in the price, right? So if the buyer is going to get an instant return on their investment and they're going to be able to utilize that cash flow, well, then they're going to multiply that cash flow by the value that they're offering.

But again, if it's all taken out and slid under the covers and reduced for taxes, and they've got insane depreciation and just wonky stuff in there, it's going to be a little harder and they're going to negotiate that down.

Jaryd Krause:

We certainly do. We certainly did negotiate that down. Because it's one thing to see, yeah, okay, I can understand they've got a car expense that I'm not going to run through the business. I'm going to pay myself more of a wage or pay more money towards the marketing or whatever it is to grow it as a new owner.

But there's still that fear of, Hey, you're still spending the money. And you've got to spend a lot of money on a lot of different things—cars, boats, coaching, wages for kids, and partners. And you are still on the other end as a buyer, thinking, Is it actually that profitable if I take away all of these things? So there's still that bit of fear there and I totally get that.

Coming away from those finances and adding back expenses, removing those, and making the business look more profitable. And it's really only going to be more profitable because what we're talking about here is getting rid of those expenses. What other things do you look for? Like, are there fees—you know, merchant fees—and things that you can help with? I guess this is a micro-CFO role, right, chief financial officer?

Marcia Riner:

Yeah. That's grinding down on the numbers and the financials and looking for those gaps and stuff. But I think if we step away from the financials a little bit, I think another area that is really, really, really important when you're looking at—well, of course, depending on the buyer. There are multiple types of buyers, right? There's an internal buy where someone from inside or a family member takes over the company.

There's an external buyer who wants to take over and run the company as it is. It could be sold for parts. It could be sold to the client. It could be sold to assimilate the product into their new product. So, depending on the buyer,

But I think what really, truly makes a great company attractive is when they've got an opportunity with continuing purchases or sales coming through. So you've got that funnel and it's really flowing nicely. And you triggered it. Marketing, right? Marketing has to be solidly in place, with a consistent plan that makes the business continue to run.

So whoever buys it has an opportunity to step inside and it's still running, right? And so marketing and driving a new flow of consistent business running through the company, which feeds everything else, are really important.

Jaryd Krause:

Yeah. Keywords are, like you said, consistent. A buyer seeing that there's consistent sales and consistent money coming into the business means that if they stay on that same trajectory, they can achieve that.

And/or they could put more input and resources into what's being done to hopefully double that. But it depends on where things may break down in terms of scale. There might be some growing pains there that people don't often consider.

Marcia Riner:

Oh, yeah, absolutely. Adjustments are always uncomfortable, right? Change is the thing that everybody hates, but it's absolutely necessary to thrive.

Jaryd Krause:

Yeah. Yeah, absolutely. And we'll touch on mindset later. But the one mindset thing that I pick up on is that people might not like change. The only thing that ever happens and is constant is change. So just accept it anyway.

Marcia Riner:

Yes, roll with it.

Jaryd Krause:

You can try to fight it or not.

Marcia Riner:

Roll with it. If you've got the bumpers on your ego, then you can continue along and know that because your customers change, the economy changes, and the world changes, your business is going to change. So just roll with it.

Jaryd Krause:

Yeah, exactly. So I'd love to dive into your sort of profit booster and some of the strategies. I'll run through them for people and then I'll go through a brief after we chat about them. But you've got more leads, conversions, retention, average dollar per sale, what I like to call AOV for hospitality in the hospitality space that I learned, and then frequency of customers. We touched on that a little bit in terms of profit. So I'd love to just go through each one of those individually.

Marcia Riner:

Sure.

Jaryd Krause:

And speak about how we can increase or achieve that without an extra marketing budget. And the first sort of two are going to be—maybe for me and for a lot of other business owners—harder to understand how you can achieve more leads and more conversions with less dollars.

I know that there are great ways that can be done, which I have, but I'd love to hear some of the strategies that you have around that. Starting with, I guess, how do we acquire more leads with less money?

Marcia Riner:

Well, I didn't say less money. Without additional money.

Jaryd Krause:

Correct. Sorry.

Marcia Riner:

So I would assume you're running a business, so you're already marketing, right? You've already got some sort of marketing plan going, whether you're buying ads, networking, or doing something to grow your business through marketing.

But the fear is when customers come to you or come to me and they're like, “Well, I've got to grow my business.” So the first answer is, well, let's just spend a lot of money on marketing.

Well, that's not always the answer. The real, true answer that I feel is tied to how you're driving your messaging, right? So if you're just saying, "Oh, I sell this. Buy my stuff, buy my stuff.” Well, nobody's going to buy your stuff.

But if you have a way to change the way you're communicating with your ideal customer by not spending extra money doing it but continuously spending the money you are doing it, and you can reach that customer and address the problem that they have, that they don't want, and prove that you have a solution to their problem that they don't have yet and that you're the best laid solution and you've got a step-by-step method to do it, then they're going to feel more confident and open to buying.

So it's how you attract the leads and how you communicate to those leads that are going to increase the conversions and get more of those leads to come in. Whether it's from 5% to 7% or 10% to 20%, or even more so, to reach a better audience and get them to come into the next logical step in your funnel or your buying cycle,

That's all done with the way that you communicate your expertise and that you can get that buyer to go. Bing, my ears are perked now. You said something that I really want. Tell me more. And I think that's the difference. So that doesn't involve more spending. It just involves better communication.

Jaryd Krause:

Love it. Love it. And I also love that the hidden secret in this for businesses is that it can allow you to get more leads, but also better leads. And how is that the case? If you are putting out your branding and your message, some people are not going to like it. And that is absolutely excellent.

Marcia Riner:

Exactly.

Jaryd Krause:

Because then, through your content and through your marketing, you get to disqualify those people, and you don't need to bring them into your ecosystem. Or they disqualify themselves, I should say, outside of your ecosystem. So then you're only left with what's distilled down to the raving fans that are, like, “Please take my money. I want to work with you. I'll do anything you tell me to do.”

Marcia Riner:

Exactly.

Jaryd Krause:

Or “I'll buy your product and I'll use it how it's supposed to be used because you're telling me that this is what's going to get me the results and solve my problem.”

Marcia Riner:

Exactly.

Jaryd Krause:

And yeah, what are your thoughts on that?

Marcia Riner:

You're either attracting or repelling. But you never want to be in the middle. You never want to be stuck. You either want to repel your potential customer or that's fantastic.

Jaryd Krause:

And you can do both at the same time with one message, right?

Marcia Riner:

Exactly. Exactly. You know, it's so funny. So I do a podcast too. My podcast is called PROFIT WITH A PLAN, and I just had an incredible guest last week. Her name was Talia. And we talked about the funniest thing. Her hook was, What really pisses you off, right? And it's getting that emotion involved in the conversation.

Jaryd Krause:

How cool is that?

Marcia Riner:

Isn't that amazing? And it's getting the emotion involved in the conversation. It's not the action that anger takes, but it's the passion that anger brings in that will really polarize the conversation. So I learned so much from her. She was amazing. But it was so fun to be able to work through how the passion that we have for our business is actually either attracting or repelling our ideal customer.

Jaryd Krause:

It's so true. Because when I first started doing what I do, teaching people to buy businesses, I was frustrated that there was nobody out there teaching it. So my passion came through. It was like, This is ridiculous. I need to teach you guys not to get taken advantage of.

And then the passion became us versus them, sort of like us buying the businesses versus the brokers and the sellers, which were not against each other really, but us standing up for ourselves and saying, “No, we're not going to accept these prices” or “We're not going to accept this business or the way that you're selling the businesses because it's not actually valuable or worth that.”

And being passionate about that really allows people to come into the ecosystem and say, “Yep, that person or what you're doing is awesome” or “Hang on, nah. I don't agree with that.” And then cool. See you later. You don't agree? Move.

Marcia Riner:

Exactly. Exactly. You got to stand for your point. I mean, you're investing money in this company; it better make sense to you, right? If it doesn't make sense to you, then you've got to have reason, rhyme, and points as to why you're valuing it the way you are and what could change that. And then you've got the seller going, “Well, here's my point of view.” So it becomes a great debate. I guess it’s what it is. But stick to your guns.

Jaryd Krause:

Yeah. Stick to your guns. We have a lot of people listening who have blogs and do a lot of content marketing and articles and they may be thinking, How is this relevant to me if I don't have a product of my own to sell and they're just selling affiliate products or selling ad space on their sites?

Well, how it can ring true for somebody like that, in my opinion—I'd love to hear what you have to say about it—is that if you're trying to help somebody become better at surfing, you can be passionate about your message and how you can help people become better at surfing and tell people why they shouldn't buy this surfboard and they should buy this other surfboard instead and share your passion and that passion is your branding, which hooks people in to want to consume more of your content, which equals more affiliate sales and more ad revenue. What would you have to say about somebody running a blog in this light?

Marcia Riner:

Well, your message and the platform that you're on are super important to the engagement that you bring, right? So you're marketing yourself as the influencer and whether you're—forgive me, it's afternoon for me so my skill set changes in the afternoon than it does in the morning.

But if you're out there hawking your goods and you're like, “Well, I got this today and that tomorrow, and I think this guy's going to come in there,” people are following you because you are the brand and you represent the lifestyle and status that they want, desire, enjoy, and want to be with.

And if you drop a product that's your favorite, “This is my best surfboard that I've been using because of this, this, this, and that, and I'm going to drop a link, and you ought to go check it out,” the relationship and the engagement are how you would deliver your pitch, right? Versus just sticking the board up here and going, “Look at how cool this is.

It's green, and it's got purple stripes or dark blue stripes on it, and that's why I like it.” It's different because the influencer, the blogger, or so on becomes the product because of their status and who they are.

So it's still the same thing whether you're selling a service, a product, or somebody else's product or service. It is that attractive character that brings the person in. If values are the attractive character for your company, then the same messaging, values, beliefs, appearance, actions, and layers of people that you surround yourself with are all really important to your brand, and it's all tied to the messaging.

I mean, it seems like a spiderweb, right? It's all intertwined, but it really truly is. And it doesn't matter what your thing is. It's how you present it in a way that is attractive and persuasive, with a benefit to the audience that they're going to want because you have it.

Jaryd Krause:

Yeah. Yeah. And I was going to touch on retention next. And I guess a part of your branding helps retention too, right?

Marcia Riner:

No. I think when I talk about retention, retention is really important because oftentimes companies are always looking for the next new sale. When you're looking at your marketing, you're like, “New. Here, buy this.” I need new people, new leads, new sales, and new things coming in.

But it is significantly more expensive to obtain a new client than it is to nurture an existing client and get them to come back and buy again. Because they've already given you their credit card. They've already shown great buyer behavior toward you. And the loyalty needed to maintain that relationship is so very important.

So it has to be like a one-two punch, right? New client, existing client New client, existing client You've got to be able to package yourself in a way that can keep the existing clients that you already spent a ton of money to get, and they can come back and repeat buy and refer you and be great advocates for you at the same time that you're going out and getting the new client that's going to come in and turn into that existing client. Does that make sense?

Jaryd Krause:

Yeah, I totally agree. We focus heavily on retention in our business and I also help people do so when I'm coaching them with their businesses. Do you not believe that branding can help with retention? Because the way I see it is that—I know that a lot of people that are in my community, that are paying clients and even one-to-one coaching clients, listen to my content, listen to this podcast, and give me great feedback around it. And I feel like just this, itself, is good branding and brings people into my business.

But at the same time, it is good for retention because people are continually learning. And the more value I continue to add, it also just strengthens the relationship that I have with the people in my community, the people I do coaching with. And the stronger the relationship, the stronger your relationship with somebody, the greater the trust, right? It's more likely they're going to continue to want to stay working with you.

Now let's talk about retention within the business for people who are already paying customers. What are some of the things and ways that you can retain those clients?

Marcia Riner:

Absolutely. So you have opportunities to resell to those clients. So depending on your product or your service, do you have the opportunity? Is it consumable, where they need to come back and buy again? Or is there a next logical ascension that they would take? So maybe they bought product A and now they're ready to move into product B or service B.

Those are great opportunities to re-engage your customers. Because if they're already happy with you, they're surely going to be happy to buy from you a second or third time.

And the only way that you can do that is through nurturing, appreciation, and engagement, right? We don't want to just go, “Thanks for buying. Great, I'll see you whenever you need me again.” No, you want to continue to market and engage them and let them know of things that are going on so that they can continue to participate.

Like I said, if they bought product A, chances are they're going to want product B and C. They just need it when they're ready for it. So continuing that engagement is the best way to keep them.

Jaryd Krause:

And you mean engagement via email or content?

Marcia Riner:

Yeah. All. How about all of the above? We know that as consumers, our consumption style changes, whether it's email, text, or social engagement. It could be pieces that come out—content, educational pieces.

It could even be a Thank You party where you host a party and bring them back in. So however your clients prefer to be communicated with, sprinkle in some alternative ways on top of that.

But communication is key and if they're already a customer, you probably don't want to pound on them daily. But I think if you're in their sphere of remembrance, maybe every few weeks to, at the very least, monthly, then you're going to stay top of mind with them.

So when they are ready to move into the next product or service or buy again, they're not persuaded by your competition that's already hounding them when it's time for them to buy again. And they're going, “Wow, well, the competitors have a sale this month, so maybe I'll go try them.” If you are not staying engaged with them, they're going to walk.

Jaryd Krause:

Yeah, I love it. Because it's all about keeping the relationship alive. And I believe before the purchase, working back from another purchase or a first purchase, to get there, you need to get to trust. And before trust, you need to build a relationship.

So you've done all this work on building the relationship; they've got your trust; they've bought from you. Dropping the ball would be dropping the relationship and not having that engagement with them through continuing the relationship and continuing to keep the love alive.

So when they're ready for their next phase of their journey, like, oh, I need this thing because it's going to help me ascend and get to the next level and the next step where I'm at or what I'm trying to achieve. I've got a relationship with this person already.

I trust them. We hear from them regularly. Or we are consuming their content regularly or hearing from them via email. Or hopefully not text, because I'm not a big component of regular text from a company.

Marcia Riner:

Whatever your consumer—

Jaryd Krause:

Yeah. The next logical step is how could they not purchase from you when they trust you so much and you've got a good relationship with them? If anything, what may happen? They may actually feel bad for not purchasing from you if the relationship is that strong, right?

If you think about it in your own personal life, if you've got somebody that is doing something like a product or service and you know them and you've got a really good friendship with them, you may actually feel a little bit bad for going with another product or another service. And that can actually happen between two brands where you don't actually know people directly within the relationship.

Marcia Riner:

Well, and the worst part is that your competitors are going after your customers. I promise you. I promise you. So if you're not engaging with them with whatever they need—regular communications, opportunities, and appreciation—maybe it's a little something on the side. Hey, we got a brand-new t-shirt we thought we'd share with you. We appreciate that you've purchased from us in the past. Here's a t-shirt, right? Whatever it is that you can show and deepen that relationship with,

Then, when your competitors knock on their door, they're going to go. “No, I'm with Jaryd. I'm happy. I'm good. I'm taken care of. Thank you very much.” That's where loyalty comes in and they'll stay with you.

But if you ghost them, send the traditional holiday card or communicate with them four times a year, they're gone. I promise you. They have forgotten you and they're on to the next better price or sale price. Or someone made an offer that was attractive, and they took it and they're gone.

Jaryd Krause:

We really need to protect our brand, don't we? That's so important. I've got a few ways that I feel that you can protect your brand and one of which is sparked by what you just said is you don't want to drop the ball and not be in communication. But you also don't want to say the wrong thing.

If you're in a relationship with somebody, a friend, or whatever, sometimes if the words come out a little bit wrong and they just don't land correctly, they're like, “Oh.” There might be a little chink in the armor of the relationship there. And so we need to be pretty careful with what we do and say, right?

Marcia Riner:

Oh, absolutely. With everything. We're adults, right? We're professionals at what we do. And so having that, doing that little bit of research on yourself, your own values, beliefs, and morals, and what you stand for and represent, kind of goes back to that what pisses you off kind of thing.

But whatever you stand for, make sure it's consistent across your brand. And that piece will come out of your writing. It'll come out in the things that you do, the way that you say, and the way that you act—with the way that you act when you're not at work, whether you're a community involvement, charitable, or whatever—that all comes in.

People see you and they see you when you're not meant to be seen, right? You go to the grocery store, and you see a customer. You're always wearing that brand. And so when you are a business owner, you have to represent yourself constantly.

Jaryd Krause:

Yeah. I know that to be true. And it's easy to do when you know who you are as a person. And you know your own morals and your own values. But if you're questioning who and what you are, then it can be harder. Or if you're trying to hide things, then it can definitely be a lot harder if you're not living a life of holding yourself accountable regularly.

Marcia Riner:

We have a great company in Southern California that I really value. He runs a roofing company and he's had it for years. But the way he runs his business adds so much more to the branding than just being a good price.

So he'll go into the community and find needy people that need a roof repaired, and he'll repair it as part of his give back kind of thing. You always see him at charitable events and stuff like that.

Now, that's not always what you have to do as a business owner. But when you get involved in the community, however that may be, you could go out and do a food drive. As part of my business group, we made backpacks for the needy back-to-school drive, where we provided, gosh, 250 backpacks for kids with all the supplies inside that they would need to start their school year. And it was such a good feeling, and everybody contributed time, energy, money, and so on.

But that looks good. And people want to buy from people and companies that have the same values that they have, whether it's faith-based or community-based or brand-based or things that they believe in. That's where they're going to spend their money to support that belief. And so, yeah, you have to be on brand all the time.

Jaryd Krause:

Yeah. Love it. What about mindset? When you are coaching somebody, say, doing some one-to-one coaching, how much mindset stuff comes up when you're coaching people?

Marcia Riner:

One more time. Repeat that a little bit. We froze a little bit. I apologize. I'm in a hole.

Jaryd Krause:

Yeah. I was just asking, when you're coaching somebody one-on-one and they're trying to grow their business and just be better, what component and how much do you talk about mindset? Does it come up much? And if so, what are some of the common things that you work with people on in terms of mindset?

Marcia Riner:

I'm going to probably be a little controversial here with this statement. I work on my own mindset. I try to motivate myself in different ways and try to get through blockages and so on. We all have that. But you know what? Crazy as it may sound, I am very strategic. There are results that I'm going to produce.

And I have this kind of belief that if you've got a mindset problem, you probably shouldn't be an entrepreneur because it's a hard road. It's a big boulder to push up the hill if your brains are not in the game with you. You got to be a driver and you know you got to work extra hours. You have to do extra stuff.

So I've got dear, dear friends that are mindset coaches and there's a lot of beliefs and values and I have my own personal journey I kind of go through. But I got tactics and strategies, and I'm going, you know, there's things, action, do, pick up the phone.

Jaryd Krause:

Yeah. So for you then—I'm the same and I spot on agree. That boulder—as long as you're in business, you're pushing it, right?

Marcia Riner:

And it's always uphill.

Jaryd Krause:

And it’s going up the hill.

Marcia Riner:

Always uphill.

Jaryd Krause:

Yeah. Sometimes the hill is not as steep.

Marcia Riner:

Correct. Correct.

Jaryd Krause:

But you've still got to keep an eye on things, right? So I'm the same. I love the mindset. And mindset is an easy word to throw out there, but I love changing beliefs, having paradigm shifts, and building mental toughness within myself. You say you use some practices. Would you be open to sharing some of the things that you have done or been through that've helped you?

Marcia Riner:

Yeah. So continuous coaching has been super important to help me continue to move forward. I think that it came to me early on in my career that no successful business ever did it alone, right? You're not on an island all by yourself.

And so to reach out, whether it's through paid mentorship, the community, or whatever, reaching out to people that can shorten the trail, shorten the steps that you need to take.

That's always been a top priority for me. I've invested so much—hundreds of thousands of dollars—in my own growth. And where it's led me is to be where I am today, and I could never have gotten there without that.

It's funny. One of my coaches and mentors said that you're paying for speed, right? So when you get involved and you look to those that have done it and they can see the forest through the trees where you can't because you're up to your chin in the business every day, that person on the other side can go, “Hey, have you thought about this?” Or “Have you tried that?” Or “Let me introduce you to somebody that can help you with this.”

That kind of engagement has been a game changer for me in my career and in my life and even more so in my client's life, whether it's me or somebody else that has come in. Or often, it's somebody else who graduated from me that's going to leave me and graduate to the next person for the phase of their business.

But these kinds of things are incredibly important to the successful growth and scaling of any company. Nobody makes it alone. You don't have to shoulder it all or get help from people who know how to make it a little easier and have done it in the past.

Jaryd Krause:

Love it. The statement, and I've spoken about this before, that I really dislike is that of the self-made millionaire. There's so much ego in that. And that's where you can start to see where your ego really holds you back in your growth.

Your ego wants you to grow but it's also a double-edged sword because it can give you that inspiration and that energy to just force forward. That part can be good.

But it's also got that other edge where it's like, “No, I can do this on my own and I don't need to put my hand out for help,” which is ridiculous because, like you said, anybody who's achieved any level of success has not just one mentor; they have a freaking team, right? If you just look at an athlete—just one athlete—that is on top of their game—just an Olympic runner—they have a team around them.

Marcia Riner:

100%.

Jaryd Krause:

Just one surfer, they have a team around them. One swimmer, and they have a team around them. And they've always had a team. I think I'd be lost without my team. And I know that at times when I don't have a mentor, I choose to digest and process what I have learned and what I'm going through. And then once I've learned from everything I need and I've had that space, then I'm like, “All right. Who do I get on board here? Who else is on my team now in this phase of life?”

Marcia, what advice would you give to somebody who has been in business for maybe five years and might be on that plateau, right? They might've gotten over hard growth and they're on a plateau.

And maybe after a year or two, they're in business and they're at a plateau. What advice would you give to somebody who's there? They have the goals and the desire to grow the business and do good things, but they just feel a little bit stuck.

Marcia Riner:

Yeah. Stuck is an interesting word and it comes with a whole lot of different things. I mean, it could be a dozen different things that are causing them to be stuck. But more often than not, as we introduced earlier, change is really important.

Sometimes you just need to stand up and turn around or shake yourself a little bit and think about—it's funny, the phrase always sits with me—what got you here is not going to get you there.

And so you've always got to have that evolution, innovation, and improvement on what you're doing because the market is moving so fast these days that what used to be like, yeah, we'll evolve every couple of years is like, we got to evolve every quarter now.

And so I think the best thing that I do with my clients is to constantly plan, right? So I run a business plan for my clients, and I help them develop it. We build it out, usually in January, sometimes starting in September.

And so we started to plan it out. What are we going to do? And then that set of documents, which is a marketing plan, an organizational plan, a financial plan, and a growth plan, is all kind of stacked in there.

But those things are open and evolving, and they're living, breathing documents that need to be touched, massaged, and adjusted on a regular basis. And we're not talking just your regular quarterly; I’m talking like you're looking at it monthly, you're looking at it weekly, you're looking at it daily, right?

What are the three things today that I need to do that will help me get to my end goal? What do I need to do this week that will get me to my monthly goal? What do I need to do this month that will get me to my quarterly goal? What am I doing this quarter that will get me to my annual goal?

As funky as that is, and some people don't like the goals and that kind of stuff, but that puts you on track and allows you to be flexible and bendable. Because you can then anticipate changes that need to be made because you're working the plan as an active participant rather than just going, “Oh.

What did we do last month? Oh, well, let's see what happens this month. And if it's this month, then we can change it again, right? ” It's already too late. It's already too late.

And I think that's what helps to have that view of what my goals are, right? I got clear, smart, whatever active goals they're doing. And they're not ridiculous goals, but they're like some big goals. And then what are the little goals that you reverse engineer to get you to that big goal? And you work on them constantly.

And for me and for my clients, that’s been another game changer because we're active, right? We're anticipating and moving. We're dodging and weaving and seeing the things that need to be changed. And when you're stuck, it’s because you haven't done any of that most frequently, right?

Whether it's with the clients or the business or whatever parts of the plans need to be there, you didn't do your work. And that's why you're stuck. So sometimes it takes a little bit of standing up, turning around, getting back to work and reevaluating where you need to go.

Jaryd Krause:

Yeah. Or they did what they thought was the work that they needed to do, but what they may have been doing is getting the same results. Like you said, if you continue doing what you've always done, you’re going to get what you've always gotten.

Marcia Riner:

Exactly. The description is crazy, right?

Jaryd Krause:

Yeah, insanity. Marcia, where can we send people to find out more about you and what you're doing?

Marcia Riner:

Awesome. So thank you so much. This has been so valuable, Jaryd, to just have this conversation. And really, each time I communicate like this, it brings up new ideas. It gets me excited again when talking about it. But you can always go; I've got a website called infiniteprofitconsulting.com and that's where all of my stuff is. My podcast, my blogs, and my social media pieces

And I even have a course that I'm working on right now that is an entry level course to kind of shake up your business and get things going. And it's called the 30-Day Profit Booster. It's pretty amazing that I can stack three of my key strategies and produce a 45% boost in your net profit in just 30 days if you do what I tell you to do. It's pretty darn amazing.

Jaryd Krause:

I've got a link to that as well. So by the time this goes live, that should be finished, and I'll be able to send people to that.

Marcia Riner:

Awesome. Awesome. Yeah. So it's a lot of fun. I'm all over social. I'm always talking about increasing profitability, driving growth, and planning for a future sale. So those are the pillars I stand for.

Jaryd Krause:

Awesome. Love it. Marcia, again, thank you so much for coming on. Everybody that's listening, thank you for listening, and we'll chat with you on the next one.

Marcia Riner:

Awesome. Thank you so much.

Jaryd Krause:

Hey, YouTube watchers, if you thought that video is good, you should check out this video here on 2 Types of Websites Beginners Should Buy. Or check out my playlist on How I Made My First $100k Buying Websites and how to do due diligence. Check it out. It's an awesome playlist. You'll enjoy it.