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Episode 1486:
Matt McWilliams shares valuable insights on how entrepreneurs can attract and nurture a loyal following through authentic engagement and relationship-building. His advice focuses on the importance of creating meaningful connections, using personal stories to inspire, and consistently providing value to grow your influence and business.
Read along with the original article(s) here: https://www.eofire.com/help-start-alone-build-team/
Quotes to ponder:
"People don’t follow you because of your success; they follow you because of how you make them feel."
"Your personal story is the key to attracting and inspiring your audience - it’s what sets you apart."
"To grow your influence, you must engage authentically and consistently provide value to your audience."
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
[00:00:00] This complex financing talk is very challenging. Do I get my depot ever?
[00:00:06] But you already have a depot.
[00:00:08] No.
[00:00:09] Yes, you have the Vodafone Gigadepot.
[00:00:11] That's right! And I have myself in the hand how big my depot is.
[00:00:15] Now with the Vodafone Gigadepot and the data volume of the next month. Go on in the 5G network of Vodafone.
[00:00:22] Vodafone. Together we can.
[00:00:26] This is Optimal Work Daily.
[00:00:28] Help, Start Alone, or Build a Team by Matt McWilliams with EOfire.com
[00:00:36] Navigating the entrepreneurial waters can be overwhelming, especially at first.
[00:00:40] I recently received an email from a brand new entrepreneur asking a common and important question in the early stages of building a business.
[00:00:48] If you're a new or aspiring entrepreneur, you've probably found yourself asking the same question or you'll be asking it soon.
[00:00:54] The person asked,
[00:00:56] I'm in this ocean of entrepreneurship dilemmas. I'm just starting my business.
[00:01:01] I've been told that I need to outsource certain things to offer a full range of services.
[00:01:06] Should I start out doing it all myself, contract out more complex projects, or hire someone?
[00:01:12] Here's part of what I wrote in response.
[00:01:15] Always start out doing it yourself. As long as you don't undercharge or overpromise, you'll be fine.
[00:01:21] There are three huge benefits from doing it this way.
[00:01:24] One, you keep all the profits.
[00:01:27] When you are first starting out, you probably need all the money you can get.
[00:01:31] I remember when I started my first business in 2003.
[00:01:34] Soon after I started it, my dad fired me from my full-time job.
[00:01:37] I offered a narrow range of web design services and had only one client at the time.
[00:01:43] Overnight, what was a fun side project became my sole source of income.
[00:01:46] I needed more funds and I needed them fast.
[00:01:49] Not only could I not afford to hire freelancers before I was actually paid by my clients,
[00:01:54] I needed all of the money I could get.
[00:01:56] So initially, I learned how to do everything myself.
[00:01:59] I expanded my services, picked up a bunch of new clients,
[00:02:03] and spent half my time learning how to do the things I said I could do for them.
[00:02:07] Not only did I get to keep all of the profits early on and build my emergency fund up,
[00:02:12] but I also discovered benefit number two.
[00:02:14] Two, you broaden your skill set and learn new things you like to do.
[00:02:19] The day after my dad fired me, I started reading everything I could about web design.
[00:02:24] I also started selling my services to a broader range of customers.
[00:02:28] I went from only offering basic design services for small businesses
[00:02:31] to doing online fundraising for political campaigns and non-profits,
[00:02:36] building elaborate, by 2003 standards, e-commerce sites,
[00:02:40] and running these shiny new things called weblogs.
[00:02:43] The typical conversation with the prospective client went like this.
[00:02:47] Prospect.
[00:02:48] Here's what I'm looking to do.
[00:02:50] Can you do X, Y, and Z?
[00:02:52] Me.
[00:02:53] Absolutely.
[00:02:54] And I hung up, wrote up a proposal, and proceeded to learn how to do Y and Z.
[00:02:59] With each sales call and each new client,
[00:03:02] the amount of new stuff I had to learn dwindled.
[00:03:04] And along the way, I was building my skill set up.
[00:03:07] I was learning all kinds of new technologies and expanding the possibilities of what I could
[00:03:12] offer potential clients.
[00:03:13] I became an expert in online fundraising.
[00:03:16] In an era when most candidates didn't even have an online presence,
[00:03:19] and Howard Dean was just beginning to revolutionize the internet in politics,
[00:03:23] I had local congressional candidates raising tens of thousands of dollars per week online,
[00:03:28] an enormous amount back then.
[00:03:30] I learned new skills that I loved using.
[00:03:33] I found that I loved writing.
[00:03:34] I discovered what I enjoyed doing and what I hated.
[00:03:38] Eventually, these discoveries became the basis for what I would choose to outsource
[00:03:42] and what I would choose to do myself.
[00:03:44] As I built these skills and grew my client roster significantly,
[00:03:48] I reached the point where I was simply unable to do everything myself.
[00:03:51] I was working 16 hours a day, 7 days a week.
[00:03:54] So I began to outsource some things.
[00:03:57] It was then that I found benefit number three.
[00:04:00] Number three.
[00:04:01] You learn how to communicate with your team.
[00:04:03] Whether you outsource or hire in-house,
[00:04:06] it really helps to be able to communicate in the language of your team.
[00:04:09] I don't mean their native tongue, though that does help.
[00:04:12] I'm referring to the languages of coding, design, marketing, and the like.
[00:04:17] When you start off outsourcing or hiring, you learn nothing new.
[00:04:21] Often you'll find that communicating with your programmers is difficult
[00:04:24] or that your marketing people use a bunch of fancy-sounding jargon
[00:04:27] to talk over your head and hide the truth,
[00:04:29] but not if you start off doing it all yourself.
[00:04:32] Because of my background in basic coding, design, and marketing,
[00:04:35] I was, and still am, able to effectively communicate with programmers, designers, and marketers.
[00:04:42] I know when they're talking out of both sides of their mouth, and I avoid bad hires.
[00:04:46] I have rarely made a bad hire in those areas thanks to this.
[00:04:50] Doing it all yourself is not a permanent solution.
[00:04:53] If it stays that way for five years, you aren't an entrepreneur.
[00:04:56] You just own your job.
[00:04:58] You want to build a team, in-house or virtually.
[00:05:01] You do want to pay others to do the stuff you can't stand to do, and focus on what you're best at.
[00:05:08] But first you need to keep the money for yourself, build your skill set,
[00:05:12] and learn things that will serve you greatly down the road.
[00:05:19] You just listened to the post titled,
[00:05:21] Help! Start Alone or Build a Team?
[00:05:23] By Matt McWilliams with EOfire.com
[00:05:26] This show is sponsored by BetterHelp.
[00:05:29] We're all marveled at how quickly kids learn,
[00:05:32] and that sense of wonderment they have while doing it.
[00:05:34] But as adults, sometimes we lose that curiosity.
[00:05:37] Well, if there's something you've been wanting to learn,
[00:05:40] know that therapy can help you reconnect with your sense of wonder,
[00:05:43] because your back-to-school era can come at any age.
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[00:06:17] Visit BetterHelp.com slash WorkDaily today to get 10% off your first month.
[00:06:22] That's BetterHelp, H-E-L-P dot com slash WorkDaily.
[00:06:28] And thank you to Matt, who is actually a guest writer on EO Fire, which, by the way, stands for Entrepreneur on Fire.
[00:06:36] Matt McWilliams is a well-known marketing consultant who has won numerous awards for affiliate management.
[00:06:42] He's a featured author in the book Internet Marketing from the Real Experts,
[00:06:45] and he writes daily on his blog about life, leadership, and love learned the hard way.
[00:06:51] You can find that blog at MattMcWilliams dot com.
[00:06:54] He's really got an interesting story.
[00:06:56] He was arrested at the age of 25 and faced up to 42 years in prison.
[00:07:01] But by the age of 27, he was an executive in a thriving startup.
[00:07:05] So come by his site or you can also check out his show, The Affiliate Guy Podcast.
[00:07:10] You should be able to find that wherever you get your audio.
[00:07:13] And that's going to do it for today.
[00:07:15] I thank you so much for being here on this Friday edition of the show.
[00:07:18] Have a great rest of your day and a good start to your weekend.
[00:07:22] And I'll be back here with you tomorrow.
[00:07:24] That's where your optimal life awaits.
[00:07:25] You should be able to find a great place for the best of your potential.
[00:07:25] And so he actually I can be able to find the best of a wide range.
[00:07:26] If it's easy and great, it's okay?