Test Driving Success: How Our New Approach is Changing the Game

Intro: Broadcasting live from our flagship studio in Atlanta, Georgia. This is scaling in public. The next 100 Business RadioX markets, featuring founders Lee Kantor and Stone Payton, along with some of America’s top coaches, helping them grow the network with real strategy, real lessons, and real accountability, all shared in public. To learn more about the proven system that turns podcast interviews into a perpetual prospecting pipeline through generosity, not gimmicks, go to Berk’s HQ and download the free Business RadioX playbook. Now here’s your host.

Stone Payton: Welcome to another exciting and informative edition of Scaling in Public. Lee Kantor, Stone Payton here with you. Lee, we’ve we’ve been at this for several weeks now. We really have been working with some of the nation’s top coaches. This was your initial idea. And I just think it was a marvelous idea. And I think it’s proven to to really yield some real fruit for both of us personally and professionally. But let’s go back to the, the, the beginning when we were getting this off of the ground and when you were kind of refining the idea to present to me. And then later, Trisha, what, uh, what were we really trying to prove? What we were trying to accomplish? And, um, you know, has that changed? Maybe some.

Lee Kantor: Yeah. Um, it’s been an exciting, uh, what, 9 or 10 weeks now since we started or since we’ve been publishing these shows. And for me, uh, in my mind, I thought it would be great for us to, uh, get coaching because we were talking to so many coaches and they were really passionate and, and smart and insightful. And I thought, you know, it would be great if we could, um, you know, get some coaching ourselves, but in a way that we can use the platform to share how smart and insightful they, they were and us be kind of the guinea pigs in and actually let them coach us. So I thought that that would be a win for them, that that would be a great piece of content. And then I thought it would be also a good win for us because it would get us to think in, um, maybe in slightly different ways because we’re so immersed in the business that having putting fresh eyes on it, I thought would be useful. So I was excited about that opportunity. And this, I mean, it’s proven to be everything I had hoped for and more because it’s really upped my game in terms of really focusing on the things that matter and then making actionable Steps to take things out of my head and put them into practice. And I mean, I think it’s been pretty dramatic. Some of the, the things that we’ve put into place, uh, so far in this and it’s only been a few months.

Stone Payton: Well, I got to tell you, I thought it was a cool idea. I thought it would be sexy. I thought it would have some marketing legs and all of that, um, has has come true, but I don’t think I anticipated the actual real value for me to grow personally and for us to take action on several strategies, tactics, activities, disciplines that would actually, would really move the needle in what we were doing. So I knew it would. Well, I really felt like it would be fun. Um, I felt like it would it would look good to the marketplace, but I, I was really surprised. I continue to be surprised that it’s really helping. We’ve done, we’ve changed a lot of things internally. And I don’t mean radical. We haven’t changed our values. We haven’t changed the core methodology. We haven’t changed. Well, maybe a little bit. We haven’t changed much in the workflow of executing what we do or helping other people execute when they come join us. But we’ve certainly, uh, made some, some pretty radical shifts in the way that we try to go out there with this opportunity to be part of the part of the team. Would you agree with that? And if so, are there 1 or 2 of those shifts that you feel like, wow, man, I, I don’t know, can’t believe we didn’t see that to begin with, but I’m so glad we we’re doing it now.

Lee Kantor: Yeah. A lot of things that have occurred. And I want to get into a little bit of the specifics of it because I don’t want this to be one of those kind of generality, uh, podcasts where people talk in, in hypotheticals. I mean, we have real things that have happened in real, real activities that have been done and, and we’re getting real results from them. So I want to share some of that because we are scaling in public and public is an important component to this. But I think for me, what it did was it, it again, reinforced the importance of an accountability partner. And I think that that’s something that a lot of people neglect. And it’s shame on me for not emphasizing it more because that was at the heart. This business started because of my work with Doctor Fitness and The Fat Guy, that first podcast I did, and one of the things we did was write a book. And in that book, one of the key tenets was you have to have a support and accountability partner. And that’s something that we were neglecting in our business. We weren’t being held accountable for any of our work. And I think by putting this coaching in place, and it’s funny because not one of those coaches were actually the ones that were holding us accountable. But to me, just the concept of being coached, I felt a the responsibility of them, holding our feet to the fire and us having to execute.

Lee Kantor: And so that, to me was the biggest kind of breakthrough in the business for me is that we have an accountability partner, whether it’s Trisha and her team or but, but the, the totality of all of their work and their emphasis and their, uh, questions, um, are really doing a great job of holding us accountable. And the first thing that came to mind when you asked about what specific actions are we taking more of? It’s been for me is around email marketing. We are now sending out emails every week to for constituents. Those four constituents are business coaches, their associations, their franchisers, and then our general list. But we are sending tailored messaging every single week, uh, to those and those and we’re getting responses. We’re getting people saying, hey, how about this? Here’s an opportunity. I mean, somebody just recently, um, you know, asked us if we would be available to do a trade show in Vegas, and we hadn’t done a trade show in Vegas in forever. And that came about because we’re relentlessly doing email marketing now, so we can point a direct path to that action and that result. So I’m excited about continuing. But email marketing, to me, that was one of the biggest, uh, super real, um, efforts that we’ve done that has pointed to a real result.

Stone Payton: Well, it’s interesting that you mentioned accountability because I think this is in that same vein, but, uh, scorecarding just keeping track of, you know, what conversations are you having? Are you asking them if they’re interested in exploring, teaming up with you? Are you are you getting yes’s and no’s and not just yes in general? Yes. I had three pre calls. I had four post calls. I asked every one of them. Two of them said, well, nobody in our world really says, you know. No, no, but you know, not now, whatever. But and then two said, yes, I want to take the next step. But and it’s created more awe. It felt like it was going to create. I guess it has. It’s created a little more work up front, but everything I’m doing for me is also something that I can turn around. And it really does lend itself to scaling. As I’m getting the next studio partner or certified partner or, um, or, or market sponsor in place, I can give them scorecards and give them that structure right out of the box so that they have that, that map. So I mean, to me, all that fits very cleanly up under that accountability partner umbrella, but it’s nice to be able to see, okay, what did you do this week? What did you do last week? What’s the trend? Where is it going? So the, the accountability thing and at the very tactical level, just having a scorecard for all these different, uh, sets of activities. That’s, um to me that’s been a big shift for me.

Lee Kantor: Yeah. And, and it aligns beautifully with what we’re trying to do is create systems and processes that can be replicated because, uh, the way we do anything is the way we do everything, which we’ve been saying for years. And this is further demonstration of that. Everything we’re building for ourselves is something that we want to pass on to the next person that’s building out a Business RadioX studio in a local market. So it’s only adding value to our offering. It’s only adding value to our expertise. And by living it first, which is so important and something we’ve been emphasizing forever, is that it’s important for us to live it. So then we can share it with other people so they can benefit from what we’re learning. And there’s been so many learnings, uh, the score, uh, the scorecard, that’s super important. I think the email marketing is super important. I think by developing that, uh, recently, this test drive that you created was brilliant. And that’s a great way to implement. Um, to give people a taste of what they could get in a very safe, elegant manner. And it’ll lead them to a buying decision in a very short time. So why don’t you talk a little bit about that and why that’s important to now our process and and what a coach can benefit from kind of going through that test drive.

Stone Payton: Well, I got to tell you, it, uh, it is hugely beneficial and I see it two huge benefits from it. One is I’m leaning more and more into the why of what we do, our values and how and why that plugs into the way we choose to, to live into this mission of ours, of amplifying the voice of business and, and serving the community and supporting and, and celebrating the people in those communities doing good, good work. And to me, I can stay very, uh, well within that set of values and have an opportunity to demonstrate that set of values. When we get to the point where someone is genuinely interested in exploring, working with us. I, you know, I really, I don’t feel like I need to validate our methodology. I know it works and I don’t really feel like in most cases, by the time we get someone to that point in the conversation that we need to validate their work, but you definitely want to validate the fit, right? And so I think in the past, you got you, you had a great experience with us when you built relationship with us. Uh, you, you came through, uh, and were a guest on the show. We showed you how to leverage it. We told you we were doing this cool stuff and we’d love to do it in your community. And then I would just kind of let it taper off. But I think part of it is just it was such a big leap from having a great experience to, oh, well, now I want to run Business RadioX in San Diego. Well, this test drive idea is, is so core.

Stone Payton: And what we’ve been able to do and a lot of people are saying yes to this. And again, the whole frame of it is really not to prove our thing or prove their thing, but just to validate the fit and give them a chance to, to try it on a little bit and give us a chance to, you know, see what it’s like to work and play with so and so in a different market. And so yeah, man, setting them up, letting them invite a dozen people to be on a show that they are a sponsor of like a national show, like High Velocity Radio or like one of those shows. And then giving them a little bit of a job aid to, you know, with the right language to do the inviting, to have the conversation with them before they come on the air. I mean, those are two just marvelous relationship building moments. And they say pretty quickly that, oh, this thing really does work. It’s not this big, huge time suck. It’s not going to disrupt my workflow. If anything, it’s going to streamline it. And that has moved the, I guess the sales side Of of these conversations elegantly and quickly. And it’s just, it’s comfortable and easy. It doesn’t feel I it doesn’t feel salesy. And it just feels so wholly aligned with what we’ve been telling people and what we feel like we are all the way along. So, you know, most coaches that I’m talking to are jumping all over that and they’re and they’re seeing that, oh, yeah, that really does work. Let’s talk some more.

Lee Kantor: Yeah, that that to me, for them to experience it because a lot of times I think people self-select out because they think the work. This is just adding another job to what they’re doing. But in fact, it’s just replacing some of the work that they were doing or were just calling something a different thing. Like they were calling it a discovery call and we’re calling it an interview. And, um, they’re in essence kind of similar things. If you do them a certain way, which we teach them how to do it a certain way. So it’s one of those things where we’re just getting more at bats, you know? And sometimes that’s what you need are just more at bats. And to figure out a way to get more at bats. And that was something that came out of our coaching. I mean, that was one of the coaches that asked us that directly. You know, do you need more at bats? And that’s what we do need.

Stone Payton: Well, and we’re getting the at bats. And I’m excited about the at bats. I don’t feel particularly pressured with it. I feel like I’ve so much of our stuff was already so well baked, but now I feel like I can I can meet them where they are. That was huge for me too. We got some very specific counsel for me in particular to, to be, um, a little more invested in meeting them where they are. Whereas my attitude in the past has been, you know, I need to save you from yourself because you’re not doing it right. You ought to be doing it the way we do it. But, but this with all that in place, like that test drive, you can meet them where they are, ease them along. You can also leave them where they get because everybody in that equation really, uh. Continues to win, even if they sort of stay at that one level of, of partnership with us. Where they’re essentially sponsoring a national or a local show. There’s a couple of different options there on that. And they’re getting value. We’re getting value. Um, so that’s, uh, I don’t know, it’s, it’s a, it’s a level of comfort and, um, excitement toward new conversations that candidly, I haven’t had in a while, man.

Lee Kantor: Yeah. Uh, I’m, I’m really enjoying going through this. I look forward to the coaching every week. Um, I look forward to at the end of this first season, kind of, uh, talking to Trisha and reevaluating, is this something we want to do again? Is there value, um, for us to kind of go through more coaching like this, or do we have enough to get that kind of escape velocity? Um, or even is it going to be good for the next round of coaches? You know, are there coaches out there that say, hey, I want a shot at coaching these guys? It looks like I can benefit. It looks like they can benefit from my insights. So, you know, I don’t know if there’s coaches out there that want to do what the coaches we’ve had thus far do and invest the time in this. So I’m excited to see how that plays out. You know we don’t know if if coaches are you know, I don’t know if Trish has a waiting list of coaches that are kind of hankering to, uh, to coach us, but I’d be excited to find out.

Stone Payton: Well, it wouldn’t surprise me one bit that Trisha would. I mean, she is just so on top of everything that she does. But I will share with you this even back to my pre calls, you know, in our, in our, in our, our, um, our, our standard operating process where we are interviewing coaches and giving them an opportunity to share their story and promote their work in those prequels. Now, I often, I guess I do every time I mention the scaling in public series. And I think to a person so far, they all are interested in how they might participate in that. So I think there probably are a lot because I think a lot of coaches recognize, well, first of all, they have the value system of they want to help us. We’ve helped them. Okay. There’s that, which is just part of it. But I think they also recognize that, you know, it’s probably it may be one of the few ways, if not the only way for them to, um, really demonstrate the depth and breadth of their expertise in whatever that domain is. Then to have, you know, a few clips or the full segment of them actually engaged in coaching because you’re not going to, you know, you’re not going to ask your client, can we record this session and send it out in most cases? So I think, I think if we want to keep doing this, I think we’re going to get to and I think we’re going to want to keep doing this. And I think more and more coaches are going to want to, um, help us along the way, I know. I know one of the things we uncovered in my emotional intelligence, uh, survey thing assessment was sometimes I have a tendency to be a little overly optimistic. So take it with a grain of salt. But I think both of those things are probably going to unfold exactly like that.

Lee Kantor: So what do you think, uh, we should do next as we’re, you know, on the, on the kind of the last lap of, uh, of this series.

Stone Payton: So I, I think we have to continue to be vulnerable and share our concerns. And I’ll tell you right now, for me, I am doing more actual work, like designing job aids and things that will help make this test drive more successful as a result, I’m thinking, oh, you know what? There’s a few job aids and I may not even be using the right term, but some, some stuff that we do, we teach, but maybe it needs to be cleaned up a little bit and, and simplified. So I’m investing a lot of time and energy and actually sitting at the computer talking with you and like, okay, what’s the next thing that will really help this person or that person? Um, execute our methodology? So there’s a little bit of me that’s like, man, this is getting, it certainly could get a little overwhelming. You know, we already got this thing that works well, you know, it’s, it’s, um, so I’m a little bit leery of just creating a whole bunch of work for myself, but I’m not if a whole bunch of work for the next whatever, you know, six months to a year results in a lot of good systems in place where this thing is not even remotely dependent on stone or li to, you know, to help people and generate revenue. So I guess that’s a long answer to your question. I think keep doing the work that we’re doing. But I also don’t want to just pile up a whole bunch of work just because it’s a new idea. That might be a nice to have.

Lee Kantor: Yeah, we want to avoid the shiny object. Um, problem that a lot of businesses suffer from. But we also want to kind of double down on what is working. And there is a lot of things that are working that are kind of bubbled up from this coaching experience. And we definitely want to kind of lean into that. But I’m excited for the rest of the season. I’m excited for potential next season, and I’m just really looking forward to, uh, being coached.

Outro: Thanks for listening to Scaling in Public. The next Business RadioX 100 markets, are you ready to enjoy a steady stream of discovery calls and finally stop being a best kept secret? It’s time to step out of the shadows and watch your coaching business grow. Let’s fill your calendar ten discovery calls in a month, guaranteed. Go to Birr HQ to download the free Business RadioX playbook.