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Intro: [00:00:08] 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 Burks Intercom and download the free Business RadioX playbook. Now here’s your host.

Stone Payton: [00:00:56] Welcome to another exciting and informative edition of Scaling in Public. Lee Kantor, Stone Payton here with you. Please join me in welcoming to the broadcast our coach for this session, Maggie Ishak. How are you?

Maggie Ishak: [00:01:09] I’m good. How are you, Stone?

Stone Payton: [00:01:11] I’m doing well. Really been looking forward to this session, and I’m going to turn it over to you and let you do your thing.

Maggie Ishak: [00:01:16] Likewise. It’s great to actually be with both of you. Um, here, look, I’m looking forward to this. So I want to pick up where you left off with Todd in session number two around your unique approach. So tell me what’s what’s been percolating in your minds about your unique approach since that conversation? And maybe how has that changed your thinking towards this goal to 100 studio partners?

Stone Payton: [00:01:45] Well, for me, I don’t know that it’s changed my thinking as much as it has just reinforced some really closely held beliefs. So we may need to work on that. But I walked away from that session just thinking about the way we approach leveraging these tools, the methodology, the opportunity to give people, uh, this platform to share their story and promote their, their work the way we do it still, to me, to this day, and we’re 20 plus years into this, other people who are using some of these same items, you know, and recording conversations, I don’t think we’re doing it at all the way they are. And maybe we’re just not, uh, articulating that clearly enough or enough, and maybe we just got to get a lot better at that. I mean, these most I can’t find anybody that’s doing it the way we’re doing it.

Maggie Ishak: [00:02:43] I agree, I don’t think there is anybody doing it the way you’re doing it. Um, Lee, how about from your perspective?

Lee Kantor: [00:02:49] Um, my biggest takeaway was, um, kind of what Stone was saying in that I don’t think we’re doing anything wrong in terms of our methodology. What I think we’re doing wrong is not articulating how quickly we can get somebody going and seeing tangible results. And that was what I started working on immediately after. I was like, okay, let me break down our process and let me start building playbooks to get people to see results as quickly as possible. And that, that that was my big epiphany moment from the work with Todd, because I think that is something we’re lacking. We take for granted a lot of the methodology that we do and the work that we do every day to kind of fill our pipeline. And I don’t think that people realize that they can be filling their pipeline as easily if they could leverage a platform like the Business RadioX platform.

Maggie Ishak: [00:03:48] Okay. All right. So that’s where we’re going to be talking about today is kind of the value that you bring to your clients and how to articulate that. So thinking about that topic, by the time we’re done, uh, in whatever the 30, 45 minutes that we’ve got today, what would be an ideal outcome for you as you think about the value that you bring?

Stone Payton: [00:04:08] So for me, specific language, or at least a path to specific language that is succinct, that can communicate very quickly, uh, at least enough of the idea, enough differentiation from what people think they know about this platform or what they have seen, or what their nephew’s podcast is like enough for them to want to know more, to have a deeper conversation. If I could walk out with that, uh, then I would feel I would feel like we’ve really made some real strides.

Maggie Ishak: [00:04:38] Okay. That’s great. Lee, how about you?

Lee Kantor: [00:04:40] Yeah, it’s. I think we’re working on this clarity of messaging so that we can communicate our value proposition as quickly as possible so people understand, Um, what we do, why we do it, and how it works faster. And I think one of our challenges is that in a studio environment like we’re in now, it’s it becomes clearer what we do and why it works and how a person could benefit if they viscerally feel what happens in a studio where most of the work we’ve been doing lately is virtual, where that’s a little trickier and they don’t. It’s hard to differentiate what we’re doing in a virtual setting as to what we do in an in-person setting.

Maggie Ishak: [00:05:24] Okay. Got it. All right, so, Lee, I want to come back to a point you made just a couple of minutes ago around how quickly you can get studio partners ramped up and seeing some value. What do your studio partners see in 90 days?

Lee Kantor: [00:05:38] In 90 days, they see quite a bit. Um, and I think Stone’s a better person to illustrate this, because he moved to this community, this studio that we’re sitting in now. We both started out. He was in East Cobb and I was in Sandy Springs. He moved up to Woodstock and and he kind of started from scratch. Woodstock, you know, is, you know, where it is relative to Atlanta. It’s it’s it’s not it’s not nearby.

Maggie Ishak: [00:06:03] Right.

Lee Kantor: [00:06:04] It’s part of the metro Atlanta. But that’s, you know, kind of being generous. So, Stone, why don’t you share about how quickly leveraging this platform enabled you to kind of immerse yourself in the business community?

Stone Payton: [00:06:17] Sure. And had I come here two years prior, I would have come and gotten this space and then followed our methodology to build things out. We were kind of on the heels of Covid when we moved here. And so I did develop some degree of comfort doing some virtual interviews. So the way I decided to launch was we already had a home bought here, but we were still in the home in East Cobb. So I started Cherokee Business Radio as a virtual show to get my first 10 or 12 interviews. And so I reached out using our processes to invite people to come on the show, share their story, promote their work. Of course, as always, people are like, yeah, what do I gotta do? I’d love to come on and talk about me, you know? And so I had a dozen interviews with local Woodstock and Cherokee County people already in the can by the time I got here. Right. So because I’m inviting them on the show, I’m doing all the things that we that we do. And then so once I got here, I already had some momentum. And then when I reached out to those people again to tell me, you know, to recommend other people that we should maybe have in the studio, they were thrilled that we were here, that we had the studio.

Stone Payton: [00:07:25] And then from that point, I invited people to come on Cherokee Business Radio and, you know, be right here at the Innovation Spot in the studio. So I got going very quickly. And it’s going to it’s going to sound like I’m on my soapbox, but I also just I followed our methodology to the letter. You know, I invited people the way we recommend that you invite people. I said things before we went on air that we recommend you say to people before we go on air. I conducted the interview, including all of the hosting mechanics that we’ve refined over the last 20 years, in that exact way. I didn’t try to get creative. I just followed the methodology. And in the span of a few weeks, I had a handful of clients. I had a great reputation when and I’m not a networking guy because for a lot of reasons. But I don’t need to be a networking guy because I have this. This is my net, this is my network thing. But there was one group that I wanted to go check out, Young Professionals of Woodstock. It’s when all this young folks get together on Thursday morning. Maggie, uh, I don’t know why they let me in, but when I walked in, I was a known quantity.

Stone Payton: [00:08:32] I was just boom, right out of the box. You know, you join a networking group or something, it takes you a while. You probably ought to volunteer. You might want to help out on the events and all that. I was a known quantity right out of the box. And so it just all happened very quickly. And now I’m what, three, three and a half years in. I mean, everybody knows Stone. I know every bartender in town, of course, but I don’t have to buy a drink if I don’t want to. And everybody knows that I’m a good guy doing good things. And yes, I, you know, in in concert with our methodology, I do make sure that I have prospective clients in the studio every week. But I also have, you know, the lady who runs the, you know, the flower shop or the nonprofit. So this thing of ours lets you be so nice, so often, so easy, so fast. And to me, if you can do that consistently, um, you can’t help but grow your business. And so that was my experience in getting this studio off the ground. And, uh, it was it just it’s it’s fast and it’s easy.

Maggie Ishak: [00:09:37] Okay. I want to repeat back some of the things that I’ve heard both of you say. So within 90 days have a steady stream of interested prospects, clients, and you don’t have to sell a thing.

Stone Payton: [00:09:55] Yeah, absolutely.

Lee Kantor: [00:09:57] 100%.

Maggie Ishak: [00:09:58] And Stone, you said it made me be known. So easy, so nice, so often, so fast. What would somebody have to pay for that? I’m not talking about your your partner fees. What would what would that cost somebody doing it in another way?

Stone Payton: [00:10:17] 2 to 3 years. It cost them time.

Maggie Ishak: [00:10:20] Absolutely. Well. And money.

Stone Payton: [00:10:22] And money and all.

Maggie Ishak: [00:10:23] Networking fees and buying people coffee and lunch and.

Stone Payton: [00:10:27] But to me, the big price is time. You know, you might could get to my reputation and my networking in this area, um, a different way, but it’s going to take you 2 or 3 years that, that I got to 290 days. Absolutely. No question.

Maggie Ishak: [00:10:44] So I’m going to flip the script for you a little bit. So I started my business a couple of years ago, and I’ve been joining the bass, joining the associations and joining a number of other networking groups and volunteering to do things and taking people to lunch. And it has taken me time. If you had told me two years ago, I could have gotten exactly where I am today, 90 days from when I started with a much smaller investment and a lot less headache, I would have said, sign me up.

Stone Payton: [00:11:19] Well that’s encouraging. That’s that’s great. But let me ask you this. You’ve actually been in the studio as a guest before. You’ve gotten to know us a little bit. You know, other people that are affiliated with us and doing great things, you know, like in Houston.

Maggie Ishak: [00:11:32] John.

Stone Payton: [00:11:33] Ray and Tricia. Uh, but if you didn’t have the benefit of all that, does it maybe sound too good to be true, though, does it? I mean, is it because I mean this, I know this, I know a lot of coaches, consultants, fractional execs, all these people in the professional services arena. And I feel like, you know, for so much of their career, they’ve been scratching and clawing to build these relationships. It’s hard. And then I come along and say, well, you know, just take this little red pill and you don’t have to do all that. Does it sound too good to be true?

Maggie Ishak: [00:12:01] Maybe a little bit. But I will tell you, there’s a lot of other organizations and people out there with other offers that also appear too good to be true. And in my mind, some of it is kind of the what you put in versus what you get out. Right. So you could tell me, come be a studio partner, and if I don’t follow your methodology and use your script and use your process, I may not get the results that you promised me.

Stone Payton: [00:12:32] Yeah, you won’t, you won’t. And that’s another question. I don’t know if it’s for this session or not. I think Lee and I were such, um. I don’t even know what the label for it is, but we’ve been we’ve pretty much said, here’s our best practices, here’s our methodology, here’s what we know works. Uh, don’t break a couple of rules over here that these are non-negotiable. But here’s what we recommend. But you be you and go do your thing. And so there’s part of me that wonders if we shouldn’t be a little more stringent and say, no, this is the way you got to do it, at least for a while. Um, because because, no, they’re not going to get the results that they do it their way. At least that’s my experience so far.

Maggie Ishak: [00:13:06] Okay, so let me let me maybe turn this a little bit and think about of your existing studio partners, what makes a good one. How would you define a good studio partner.

Lee Kantor: [00:13:19] One that really immerses themselves in the business community?

Maggie Ishak: [00:13:22] Okay.

Lee Kantor: [00:13:23] Like they have to kind of be all in in that they have to say, okay, I really believe it’s important to serve the business community. I believe that, um, by supporting and celebrating business, That’s good for the community, and it’ll be good for me if they want to do this in a transactional manner, like what’s in it for me? How can I make money off of you? Um, it’s not going to work. I mean, you have to have a heart of service if you want to do this, and it can’t be a transactional experience. It has to really be an experience where you’re trying to serve and just kind of, oh, by the way, this is what I do. And and maybe there’s a fit and then maybe we can work together rather than, I did this for you. Now I need you to do this for me. It can’t be a quid pro quo relationship. It has to be. I’m here to serve. And this is how I serve. And if we want to work together, that’s great. But if we don’t, that’s great too. And I just want you to win. And I think you can win with me. But I’m not going to say you have to win with me. You do you. I’m going to do me. And I believe if I’m relentlessly doing this service, I’m going to win. Enough.

Maggie Ishak: [00:14:37] Okay, so thinking back to your discussion on your ideal client profile. And what are those maybe attributes? Lee I think that’s super important, what you just described. You’re looking for.

Lee Kantor: [00:14:51] Servant leaders, right?

Maggie Ishak: [00:14:52] Yeah. But that align with your values 100%. And I would expect that you could see evidence of that from these prospects before you even have a conversation with them. So I’m going to go back to two sessions ago. One of the things that you were talking about was not wasting your time with those who may not be a fit and trying to recognize that upfront. So it’s have maybe I want to ask this the other way, have you run into people that have been interested in you, but then you kind of get this, hmm. I’m not sensing there’s a fit here because maybe they are too transactional, or they are looking for a get rich quick scheme, or they’re looking for, you know, the magic pill, right?

Lee Kantor: [00:15:34] If somebody I mean, one of the clues for me at least, is I’m doing this because I want to be famous and this is about me. And then my guests are just props for to make me look good. They’re not going to be a fit for what we’re trying to do. If you want to to do a podcast or you want to have a show that makes you the smartest person in the room, do that on your own. You don’t need us to do that. If you want to do a show that grows your business, that serves your community, we can help you there.

Stone Payton: [00:16:03] Yeah, I think that’s incredibly well said. I you’ve heard me on my soapbox a little bit on in terms of, uh, repeatable processes and transferable tools for key tasks. But I think also at the heart of it is someone who is willing to take personal accountability for helping the client get another client, like they really are invested. Like, once they do get the business in helping the client get another client that that is a theme that runs through our everything we do. And I think our, our, our values are in complete support of that.

Maggie Ishak: [00:16:38] Okay. Okay. So let me ask this question for your existing partners. If Business RadioX went away tomorrow. What would it cost them to rebuild?

Lee Kantor: [00:16:53] Well, they’d have to create their own platform to get the word out. And the benefit of working with us initially is super obvious, because they get to come into a market that doesn’t have us, and all of a sudden has us, and then they get to use the halo effect of our brand and our website and all of the content, the 100,000 interviews we’ve done as a backdrop to them. So they get to start with a running start rather than from square one start. Uh, number two is they lose the infrastructure. They’re going to have to replace the infrastructure to help them publish, distribute, edit all the stuff that it takes to execute the the work that we do. So they’ll have to rebuild that. I mean, that’s in terms of hours. It’s dozens of hours, if not thousands of dollars. Um, and then they would have to replace this kind of if they were, they’d have to replace the methodology that we use to get that next guest. So they’d have to, you know, build that from scratch on their own as well. So it’s a matter of time, money and systems that we have and we’ve been doing and honing over the years, that’s today. But then they’d also lose our brainpower that we’ve been leaders in this, in this kind of niche for 20 years. We’ve been doing this for decades. So they lose any future, you know, brilliance that we come up with down tomorrow.

Maggie Ishak: [00:18:20] Okay, Lee, I know pricing is is something that we eventually want to, um, have a conversation about. Start doing some math in your mind of all those things that you write.

Lee Kantor: [00:18:29] I mean, it’s thousands of dollars. I mean, they’d have to get new virtual assistants to execute. They’d have to get new systems. They’d have to host the the content somewhere. You have to put the content somewhere. You have to then distribute the content. You have to, uh, you have to edit the content like it’s either going to be you or you’re going to hire someone to do that. So at some point they’re going to have to write checks or buy subscriptions to, you know, 20 different services in order to just do one show.

Stone Payton: [00:18:59] And or decide, okay, that’s not going to work either. So now I got to come up with this whole other approach of building real relationships real fast, and there may be some other ways to do that. I’m not aware of them. Um, so they would have to go figure that out if they just said, okay, I’m done with this set of tools. We did. You know, I, I don’t know, I don’t know, I don’t know what they would do.

Maggie Ishak: [00:19:22] Okay. So how does that make you think about your offer for studio partners and the pricing that you’ve currently got and the value that you’re giving them.

Stone Payton: [00:19:34] Well, it makes me think that we maybe should revisit it. We might need to consider making the, um, the price higher. A couple of things that are a challenge in that regard is actually our business. If you look at our business model, our existing pricing, if we can get 100 studios next year and then build to the 1000 studios that we want, we make plenty of money. So we don’t really need the pricing to make the money. I just wonder sometimes if we need higher pricing to to to be consistent with the value story that we, that we have. Um, it and I would, you know, I’d rather have 100 studios at the existing pricing than 50 at double the price. At the moment I’m more interested in the 100, and maybe that’s the wrong way to see it. Maybe I should be more interested in 50. At double the price, I don’t know.

Maggie Ishak: [00:20:25] What is your ultimate goal?

Stone Payton: [00:20:27] A thousand studios, a thousand people out there, using this platform to help them grow their existing business, and being in the Business RadioX business of serving their community and helping other people serve their clients.

Maggie Ishak: [00:20:42] Why a thousand?

Stone Payton: [00:20:43] We just. Well, actually, Lee’s done some math on it. I’d like to just because it’s a nice round figure.

Lee Kantor: [00:20:48] So the the rationale behind a thousand is there’s around 8000 chambers of commerce in America right now. And, um, I mean, that number may be plus or minus, you know, 500, but say 8000. And, um, I believe that there should be a Business RadioX supporting and celebrating the work of the top 15% of the most active chambers in America. And that would be good for those, um, a thousand markets if they had a media property out there telling the stories of the businesses in those markets, and that would help those communities. It would help the American economy, it would help all those entrepreneurs. So that’s where that came from. It’s the 80 over 20 rule, basically, of saying that we should be in the top, you know, 15, 20% of the markets that are out there.

Maggie Ishak: [00:21:42] Okay. So I have a question. You’ve been talking about working with coaches and consultants and and other genres of businesses. This is the first time I’ve heard you talk about chambers and using this tool as a way to support local business through the chambers.

Lee Kantor: [00:22:02] The chambers of commerce are an important component of our business. I mean, my studio in Atlanta, in Sandy Springs is in the Greater Perimeter Chamber of Commerce. I mean, I work arm in arm with the Chamber of Commerce. We’ve worked arm in arm with the Metro Atlanta Chamber of Commerce and with the business associations that touch Atlanta since our inception. I mean, so yes, chambers are an important part of our go to market strategy.

Maggie Ishak: [00:22:29] Okay. But thinking about the value that you bring to these potential studio partners, how could you leverage leverage Chambers to help you with that?

Lee Kantor: [00:22:39] Well, we work all of our studio partners have a relationship with their chamber of commerce. I mean, they all, um, a lot of.

Stone Payton: [00:22:46] Them have shows.

Lee Kantor: [00:22:47] Right, that are.

Stone Payton: [00:22:49] Have like a chamber show. And then they’re very involved with the chamber. And their positioning within the chamber is very differently, very different. And again, fast. Right. Because if I’m going to let the chamber come in and do a monthly show to celebrate its members and all that kind of stuff, then I’m probably going to be on the Jim Jam level of the board or whatever, you know, the Golden Circle or whatever they call.

Lee Kantor: [00:23:11] It, right? We don’t look at chambers as a way to make money. We look at chambers as a way to just enhance our, positioning within the community. So the chamber becomes our partner and they become a path to their members, because they’re going to invite their members on the shows that we’re going to help kind of co-produce together.

Maggie Ishak: [00:23:33] Right. So where where my brain went though, was you’re on this path to a thousand.

Stone Payton: [00:23:39] Mhm.

Maggie Ishak: [00:23:40] There’s 8000 chambers out there. Right. You want to target the top 1,520%.

Lee Kantor: [00:23:45] Right.

Maggie Ishak: [00:23:46] What’s stopping you from going directly to those chambers to find your next. Nothing stops.

Lee Kantor: [00:23:54] There’s nothing stopping us from doing that. It’s just that in order to. We need boots on the ground in the market. Like we can have a conversation with the Memphis Chamber of Commerce tomorrow. Stone and I, we can have a conversation with any chamber of commerce in America tomorrow. That’s not.

Stone Payton: [00:24:14] And we can have them on the air tomorrow.

Lee Kantor: [00:24:15] Right. We can be interviewing them.

Stone Payton: [00:24:17] So I have an analogy for this, and my analogy for the way we’ve tried to approach it so far, because the growth that we do have, and I mean, we shouldn’t be ashamed of the growth. We just we should have. We feel like we should have done a lot more, a lot faster. But because, like, if we do want to have a conversation with the Memphis Chamber, it’s a phone conversation and then it’s a virtual interview, right? I’m not going to hop on a plane and go down. Or maybe I should, I don’t know, but I feel like I’m hopping in a rowboat, rolling out to the middle of the bay, and then trying to sell somebody an outboard motor. Because, you know, the whole interaction with the Memphis Chamber is this virtual interaction that looks and smells a little bit more like their nephew’s podcast. So that may be a barrier I’m building for myself, but I feel like there’s, you know, because if if we were interviewing, if we were at Memphis doing some, some work live, then yeah, I think they would be all over it. And believe me, we wouldn’t have any challenge getting them or their members on the air. But as far as getting.

Maggie Ishak: [00:25:14] Them a studio partner.

Lee Kantor: [00:25:15] And that’s the challenge is identifying that right? Human being in the local market that believes what we believe and that can execute what we recommend executing. That’s that’s our challenge.

Maggie Ishak: [00:25:29] So how have you found your existing studio partners?

Stone Payton: [00:25:31] Uh God bless Mike salmon, first guy we put out in the wild. Uh.

Maggie Ishak: [00:25:36] Who’s Mike?

Stone Payton: [00:25:37] His name is Mike salmon. He’s he’s our Gwinnett, um, studio partner for another week. Uh, that’s another story because he’s he has sold that business. Um, and he’s, he’s sounds to me like he’s got a really nice exit. And the guy coming in, he’s got a great deal. You know, he’s got a lot going for him. But, uh, Mike, you know, he’s just because of the work that he’s done in Gwinnett, you know, he he he introduced us to the guy who runs the Business RadioX in Gainesville, the guy who runs it in Jefferson County, the lady who runs the Cumming Business RadioX operation. Um, so.

Lee Kantor: [00:26:11] John Ray.

Stone Payton: [00:26:12] What’s.

Lee Kantor: [00:26:12] That? John Ray.

Stone Payton: [00:26:13] John.

Lee Kantor: [00:26:13] Ray North Fulton.

Stone Payton: [00:26:14] So Mike salmon. That’s that’s that’s.

Lee Kantor: [00:26:16] He has been with us for 13 years. And, um, he just is a true believer. And he’s that guy evangelized the value.

Stone Payton: [00:26:25] His value system is so wholly consistent with our value system. Right.

Lee Kantor: [00:26:30] And he came from a traditional broadcast background. So he understood some of the way that traditional broadcasting goes to market. And he incorporated some of that into his work in Gwinnett. And he’s really made a go of it and successfully has run a studio for 13 years there, and now has sold it to go and do what? He’s something else. Well, something that he’s always wanted to do his whole life. And now the opportunity has presented itself. So he’s following kind of his little kid dream.

Maggie Ishak: [00:27:02] So okay, so I’m going to repeat back what I heard, though, you had an existing studio partner that believed so strongly in what you do that he evangelized for you?

Lee Kantor: [00:27:12] Correct.

Maggie Ishak: [00:27:13] Okay. So what?

Stone Payton: [00:27:15] With generosity to his. His evangelizing was not based on. I’m going to evangelize so that Stone and Leo write me a check for getting someone else. He did. He did it because he’s Mike and because he believes like us.

Lee Kantor: [00:27:27] And his values were similar to ours. I mean, he was the right person for us to to kind of award the first studio to.

Stone Payton: [00:27:35] Yeah.

Maggie Ishak: [00:27:35] Okay. So I do know some of your other studio partners and I don’t know Mike, but the ones that I know have huge hearts, right. And very much believe in what they do.

Lee Kantor: [00:27:48] Correct.

Maggie Ishak: [00:27:49] So this may this may come across really, uh, I don’t know what the right word is here, but have you actually asked them for referrals for other studio partners?

Lee Kantor: [00:27:58] We have.

Maggie Ishak: [00:27:59] Okay. And how has that gone?

Lee Kantor: [00:28:03] We haven’t gotten as many studio partner referrals from anyone else other than Mike than Mike.

Maggie Ishak: [00:28:09] What differentiates Mike from your other studio partners? What makes the value for him?

Stone Payton: [00:28:15] He has a full head of hair, I tell you that. Good looking kid. You know, they’re all kids to me. He’s probably 40 something, but anyway. But what?

Maggie Ishak: [00:28:24] No, really. What differentiates Mike?

Lee Kantor: [00:28:27] I don’t know. I mean, I think his level of generosity is exceptional.

Stone Payton: [00:28:31] Which is one of our key values, by the way. Maybe our most important one, right?

Lee Kantor: [00:28:35] I mean, um, I, I don’t know. I don’t have a great answer for you.

Maggie Ishak: [00:28:44] Can I give you that as a piece of homework?

Lee Kantor: [00:28:46] Absolutely. Yeah.

Maggie Ishak: [00:28:48] What makes him different? And then maybe asking him what value he’s gotten and how would he characterize that? And maybe that’s what needs to be.

Lee Kantor: [00:29:02] Well, he’s.

Maggie Ishak: [00:29:02] Got.

Lee Kantor: [00:29:03] I mean, he I mean, I’ve been to his house when he bought his house where he lives now.

Maggie Ishak: [00:29:08] Okay.

Lee Kantor: [00:29:09] And he stood up in front of everybody and said, this is the house that Business RadioX built. And he said he wouldn’t be here any minute.

Stone Payton: [00:29:17] He meant.

Lee Kantor: [00:29:18] It. Right?

Maggie Ishak: [00:29:18] Does he have, like, a Business RadioX tattoo on him? Maybe.

Lee Kantor: [00:29:21] I mean, he is the. He appreciates us at a level. Maybe other people don’t appreciate us because he knew what it was like before us, and he experienced what it was like after working with us and some of the other people. I don’t know if they, uh, give Business RadioX the credit that, um, that maybe they should.

Stone Payton: [00:29:49] Well, and occasionally that happens at the client level, too, right? Right. You forget.

Lee Kantor: [00:29:54] I mean, I’ve had I’ll tell.

Stone Payton: [00:29:55] You.

Lee Kantor: [00:29:56] Specific examples. Um, because what we do every day is we invite people on shows, right? And that’s how we make our first impression, and we build a relationship. You know, one on one, face to face in this kind of studio environment. And then I’ve had, um, people, clients have a show, meet the person for the first time, build the relationship, and then they start doing business a year later and they don’t remember that they the first relationship began here. They think it happened because they kept talking to them over the next 12 months, and they forget that the first the reason they met was because we had a tool that helped them meet and build and start a relationship in a very organic, authentic manner. And sometimes they forget that, and sometimes they make that. They minimize that. And to us, the first relationship, the first conversation is the hardest one. And this tool allows you to make a lot of first conversations elegantly, in a service minded way, and sometimes you forget. And sometimes we have to do a better job as Business RadioX to remind people, you know, when we’re working with our clients, hey, you know, you didn’t know that person before, or here’s a list of all the people that you had on your show. How many of them are you doing business with now? Because when they come on a show, it’s not like they start doing business the next day. It’s not like you’re at the grocery store and you buy it. You see a snicker bar and you buy a snicker bar. This is something that could take months, and then all of a sudden you’re doing business and you kind of forget how you met.

Maggie Ishak: [00:31:42] Or they introduce you to somebody and it’s because of the show.

Lee Kantor: [00:31:45] But.

Maggie Ishak: [00:31:45] You forget that connections, right? Not obvious.

Lee Kantor: [00:31:48] Right. So that I think, sometimes hurts us because our system is so elegant and authentic that you kind of forget sometimes that without it, it was a lot harder to meet people. It was a lot harder to have those first conversations. It was a lot more awkward, or it felt a little salesy or inelegant, where in our situation it’s very authentic, it’s very elegant and it’s very service minded. So sometimes you just don’t connect the dots that it was this that really helped you kind of launch. It wasn’t kind of your charm and good looks.

Maggie Ishak: [00:32:23] Okay. Stone, did you want to add something to that?

Stone Payton: [00:32:26] No, I think he said it very well. So yeah, it does happen. Yeah.

Maggie Ishak: [00:32:30] Okay. So I’m going to maybe connect a couple of dots here and and throw out something for, for consideration. So think back to your conversation around your ideal client okay. And what you just described in the last few minutes about around people that need or that people that have that mindset of generosity and have that the same value set that you do. But also what I just heard you say will likely appear Appeal to those who are in a service space who aren’t naturally conversational and naturally are wanting to strike up these conversations at networking events and find ways to build relationships in a way that is authentic, right? That it feels it has that ick factor to it. Correct. Right. How would you characterize that? And and and put a value on that for somebody where that’s their hurdle between them being successful in their business and them not. Right.

Lee Kantor: [00:33:33] Well, to me that’s really I mean, you can’t put a price on it. The price is every all the money. It’s your whole business. It’s your whole.

Maggie Ishak: [00:33:40] Yeah.

Lee Kantor: [00:33:41] This is the lever that solves that problem that gets you out of your own way. I mean, a key component to our business is my own introversion. I am a hyper introvert. I do not like being around people. I don’t like going to networking meetings. I’m 100% an introvert. I created this whole system for me. I wanted a way to get people to come to me. I didn’t want to be the person that are that’s going out there and shaking hands and and making small talk. I hate that. So I created this in order to create my. I wanted a seat at the table, so I made my seat at the table. I’m I’m sitting in in stone seat, and I am I’m hosting these shows. So that creates my space to bring people to me in a way that fits my personality. I don’t have to sit here and schmooze and do all this stuff that introverts hate. I can just invite people, hey, do you know anybody doing interesting work? Hey, know anybody doing interesting work? My superpower is I’m a great listener. I know how to do active listening, and I’m curious. So if I can just meet people and invite them in here, People are going to want what I have so I don’t have to pitch myself anymore. I don’t have to do any of that icky sales stuff anymore.

Maggie Ishak: [00:35:06] Do you tell that story?

Lee Kantor: [00:35:08] I’ve told the story.

Stone Payton: [00:35:10] But maybe not enough to another.

Maggie Ishak: [00:35:12] I’ve not heard that story.

Lee Kantor: [00:35:14] Well, that’s the.

Maggie Ishak: [00:35:15] Maybe I’m.

Lee Kantor: [00:35:15] Not in the right place.

Maggie Ishak: [00:35:16] To hear the.

Lee Kantor: [00:35:17] Origin. That’s the origin story of this business.

Maggie Ishak: [00:35:21] How can you take that origin story and scream it loudly?

Stone Payton: [00:35:26] I do think we need to scream it loudly and make sure we scream it loudly in the right places. And at the other end of the continuum is me. I’m not.

Maggie Ishak: [00:35:36] You’re not the hyper introvert.

Stone Payton: [00:35:37] I’m not remotely introverted. I am the guy that has a handful of jokes that always hit. I am the guy that’s happy to shake hands, but I get a great deal of emotional compensation. I’m a cheerleader. I really enjoy helping other people, being nice to other people. And this just lets you do that. You can be so nice to so many and it all and it all comes back to you. So so you get that piece of it. But just the the emotional compensation of being the local Business RadioX person. I can do so much for the lady that runs the flower shop, the the person who’s running the nonprofit, and the fractional exec that doesn’t know how to do business development. And I can I can help all of them. And I can be the, the the nice guy. And I can pick and choose my moments when I want to be in groups of people. And when I am, I’m the cool guy with Business RadioX. I’m not the, you know, the guy trying to hand you his business card and and force you into a cup of coffee next Monday. And I love being in that position. And there’s a degree of emotional compensation that comes with that for me, that, uh, it almost supersedes the, the financial compensation. But, you know, I do find that the the more people you can help, the more money you make. This has been my experience over the last, even more than the 20 years since I jumped on Lee’s coattails. The more people you help, the more money you make. And the more money you make, the more people you can help. And I mean, once you get that flywheel going, I mean, you can’t you couldn’t stop it if you wanted to. So for me, it’s great at the extremes. I don’t know about the people in the middle, but, um, if you really enjoy being nice to people and helping other people, I. This is a really cool way to be able to do that and help all kinds of people.

Maggie Ishak: [00:37:29] I think you just said your messaging.

Stone Payton: [00:37:33] Good. We should have recorded it maybe. Oh, we did, didn’t we? Oh, perfect.

Maggie Ishak: [00:37:36] We’ll go back and listen to the recording. But if you like helping people, you also mentioned this flywheel. That doesn’t stop now. I heard, um, Lee, you said hyper introvert. Okay. Yeah, I would imagine that if you go out there and say, we have a solution to help the hyper, hyper introverted people who own businesses be able to sell without selling, you’ll have a line going out the door or some variation of that. I mean, maybe this is what’s also keeping some people from starting their own business because they don’t have a way to go talk to people and build those relationships, and they’re deathly afraid of it. Um, by the way, there’s a there’s a coach that I know her niche is introverted people.

Stone Payton: [00:38:29] Mm.

Maggie Ishak: [00:38:30] Like, that’s how she markets.

Stone Payton: [00:38:34] Interesting.

Maggie Ishak: [00:38:38] To saying.

Stone Payton: [00:38:41] Okay.

Maggie Ishak: [00:38:42] If that’s where you’ve had the most success. Now go back to Mike that you mentioned a few minutes ago. Is he hyper introvert?

Lee Kantor: [00:38:48] No. We haven’t had the most success with.

Maggie Ishak: [00:38:50] The.

Lee Kantor: [00:38:50] I’m the only introvert.

Stone Payton: [00:38:51] Mike’s a little bit more like me. Mike has a stronger work. Mike is willing to go out and do more of the day to day group networking stuff. So I guess while I’m at the other end of the extreme of the continuum in terms of being an extrovert, I don’t know, maybe I’m a little bit aloof, or maybe I’m really protective of my time, or maybe it’s a I don’t know what it is, but I don’t enjoy the standard networking. Hey ho, what do you do? What do I do? You know, what do you need? That just drives me nuts. I enjoy genuine conversation. I would rather have a genuine conversation with someone that I know I can help with these toys, even if there’s no way in a million years that I’m ever going to see any money out of that, then I would like I’d rather have that conversation than, you know, this transactional exchange and have somebody pay me a few thousand bucks. You know, I just, I, I really like being the being the cool guy in town.

Maggie Ishak: [00:39:48] I just with the toys.

Stone Payton: [00:39:50] Yeah.

Lee Kantor: [00:39:51] Well, I mean, I’ll ask you a question. You mentioned earlier that when you started your coaching business, you were doing all of the things that I.

Maggie Ishak: [00:40:01] Joined BMI.

Lee Kantor: [00:40:01] And you did all those things.

Maggie Ishak: [00:40:03] And the.

Lee Kantor: [00:40:03] Change. So now I will challenge you. Now, when you were doing that, were you what was differentiating you amongst any of the other members of those same groups? Like what was making you different in terms of your service provider, just like all of them?

Maggie Ishak: [00:40:22] So being very transparent at the beginning, not a whole lot. Okay. I had to find my voice. I had to find what made me different, what made me unique. And I also got involved and helped. And I demonstrated my value by finding ways to help others without the compensation. And then people got to know me and what I was capable of. And now that’s finally, almost two years later.

Lee Kantor: [00:40:51] Right. So you took the traditional route that Stone explained or talked about earlier that you went in, you became a member, you got the lay of the land, you started taking leadership roles, you volunteered, you started doing all this stuff that I mean, that’s the playbook that I’m sure your coaching organization that you work with, they recommend you do some variation of that, right? Join the the close contact networking like a BNI, join the chamber, take volunteer, take leadership positions, etc.. That’s kind of their go to market strategy. So our position in that, and this is something we talked with Tricia about, is we want to be in that playbook of these coaching associations. We want them to recommend. Oh, you should also own a be the Business RadioX studio partner, because now you’re the media, you’re the local business media outlet in that local market, and now you’re different than everybody else. Now, when you go to the BNI in the chamber, you’re no longer the coach. You’re Maggie, the host of, you know, Memphis Business Radio. Now, you’re the one that’s going out there telling the stories in that community. Now you’re different than everybody else, 100%. You’re no longer kind of another one service provider in the market. You’re the media, you’re the cheerleader. You’re the supporter. You’re the one celebrating all the good work there. Now you’re positioning shifts and being the media has its benefits 100%.

Maggie Ishak: [00:42:23] I’m not disagreeing with you. Right.

Lee Kantor: [00:42:25] That’s that’s what we’re thinking is the lever that we need to be kind of, uh, kind of pulling on is that we want to be part of any coaching groups or service providers kind of go to market strategy. We want to be part we want to be recommended, just like your coaching organization recommended. Join BNI. We want them to say be a Business RadioX studio partner.

Maggie Ishak: [00:42:51] Okay, so of the going back to the first session that you did, going back and looking at your prior interviews, I would imagine you’ve got a number of people in your roster that belong to these various organizations, people.

Stone Payton: [00:43:06] That we’ve interviewed. Yeah. Come on on. Yes, we do, because we’ve done a coaching series for a couple of years now. Wildly successful. They love it. Yeah. But we haven’t come back to them effectively with this value proposition of, you know, doing, you know, being the Memphis Business RadioX.

Maggie Ishak: [00:43:23] Okay. So let’s build that out. So you guys just I mean, in the last I don’t know how long we’ve been here now, but, um, you’ve talked about immense value that you create. That takes them 2 to 3 years and sometimes even longer to longer, to build through alternative channels.

Lee Kantor: [00:43:44] Right through the traditional model that go to market strategy requires a lot of time, effort, and resources in order to execute.

Maggie Ishak: [00:43:52] Yeah, you said time, money systems, right?

Lee Kantor: [00:43:54] So if they partner with us, they can be a lot more successful, a lot more quickly.

Maggie Ishak: [00:44:00] Okay. So do you have a couple of coaching organizations or other networks of coaches that you can go to? I mean, off the top of your head, I know there’s one.

Lee Kantor: [00:44:09] Right? So I mean, but we haven’t we haven’t had a chance to have the conversation with the leadership of those groups yet. I mean, but that is on our kind of roadmap of, okay, we want to identify and we’ve already done that identified like the top 30 to 40 coaching organizations and then come up with a plan to get in front of them to at least kind of pitch, hey, we want to be part of your franchisee or coach. Go to market strategy.

Stone Payton: [00:44:42] So I love that idea and no doubt in my mind, I know that we can get in a conversation with the Grand Poobah of XYZ coaching franchise or association or whatever, and we can tell them, oh, by the way, we’ve interviewed a dozen of the coaches in your system, but a lot of those interviews will have been virtual.

Lee Kantor: [00:45:04] Right?

Stone Payton: [00:45:05] Right. And so I guess I’m a little bit stuck on this whole rowboat, you know, selling them an outboard motor thing. Um, I’m just trying to think, what is the.

Maggie Ishak: [00:45:14] Where’s the gap for you? Where’s the gap for you?

Stone Payton: [00:45:17] Everything that they’re experiencing in our in our building, our relationship with them and everything that the that they’re dozen members whom we’ve interviewed is not what we do. It looks and tastes and smells a lot more like traditional podcasting as opposed to business development. Business development.

Lee Kantor: [00:45:36] Well, and the experience the real life experience.

Stone Payton: [00:45:40] But we ought to ask her about her. You. Because you’ve been a guest on the show.

Maggie Ishak: [00:45:43] I was in this room.

Stone Payton: [00:45:44] Right. So, I mean, it’s we’re operating under the impression that the guest experience is. Well, we know at the local level to grow a studio, to grow a market. The guest experience is everything, but like.

Maggie Ishak: [00:45:54] Yeah, but you’re talking about from the coaching organization, like.

Stone Payton: [00:45:57] Right. Like, how do we make that?

Lee Kantor: [00:45:58] Right. Like, so, for example, Tricia is working with us. She works with us as studio partner in Houston. Everything she’s done with us has been virtual. She’s never had this experience. She’s never done what you’ve done. Okay. Sat here face to face in front of people with a microphone and headphones. She’s never done that. Your experience with us is different than hers. Okay.

Maggie Ishak: [00:46:22] Does it matter?

Lee Kantor: [00:46:23] I think it does, because I think you have the visceral experience of what it’s like to share the microphone and headphones with other people in this environment where she has just done podcasting in the way that podcasting is done now virtually over zoom, and we try to kind of emulate or try to create an experience that’s similar to this, but it’s never this. It’s kind of like this, but it’s not this.

Maggie Ishak: [00:46:53] Okay? Versus I’ll drop a name John Ray.

Lee Kantor: [00:46:57] Wright.

Maggie Ishak: [00:46:57] Who has an in-person studio.

Lee Kantor: [00:47:00] Right, right.

Stone Payton: [00:47:01] And he started out by he was probably a guest on one of my shows at some point, I’m sure, as a fractional exec because, sure. Um, and then at some point he started like co-hosting with Mike, and then he grew into be a business radio studio partner, and he’s done a fabulous job as well. But again, I’m just trying to envision the conversation with the, you know, the Grand poobah of a coaching organization based out of wherever Memphis. Let’s just we’ve been talking about. All right. So what is my sales process? Because we know this sales process works. I mean, right.

Lee Kantor: [00:47:31] So they’ll have never experienced this.

Stone Payton: [00:47:33] They will have never.

Lee Kantor: [00:47:34] Have only experienced virtual over zoom.

Stone Payton: [00:47:37] Unless we go do Radio Day or something.

Lee Kantor: [00:47:39] Right?

Maggie Ishak: [00:47:40] Okay, so let’s let’s think about this for a second. The so so Stone, you’re asking the conversation that I have with a studio partner. A singular studio partner is very different than the conversation I have with the CEO of a coaching organization that is training coaches and bringing them online. Well, right.

Stone Payton: [00:47:57] That would be different. But also just having a sales process aimed at serving a prospective, a prospective studio partner in Memphis is very different than if you and I were talking about having you be a studio partner, if John Ray wasn’t already there, if that, it would be right now if you and I were having a conversation about you being a studio partner in Alpharetta, that’s that’s going to take on a whole different dynamic than me having a conversation with you if you were in San Diego.

Maggie Ishak: [00:48:25] Why?

Stone Payton: [00:48:26] Well, maybe I’m wrong. I’m just saying.

Maggie Ishak: [00:48:28] Tell me, tell me, tell me your line of thinking. Why is that different?

Stone Payton: [00:48:31] Well go ahead.

Lee Kantor: [00:48:33] Well, because you’ve never you in San Diego. The person we’re talking to there never had this experience.

Maggie Ishak: [00:48:40] Does it matter? I’m sorry. I’m not being snarky.

Lee Kantor: [00:48:43] I think it does.

Stone Payton: [00:48:44] Well, we’re operating under the impression that it does, but maybe it maybe it does.

Lee Kantor: [00:48:49] It matters less.

Stone Payton: [00:48:50] Than.

Lee Kantor: [00:48:50] We think. I mean, maybe it does.

Stone Payton: [00:48:51] And maybe we’re building a wall that we shouldn’t be building, I don’t know. But to us, this is so different than a virtual interview.

Maggie Ishak: [00:48:59] Doesn’t change the end result that the host of that show has people coming to them saying, I want to be on your show.

Stone Payton: [00:49:12] No. If they’ll if they’ll do the thing and then and then do this where they are, it’ll absolutely work. I’m just talking about our sales process to with them of getting them to do this in San Diego. But again, maybe we’re building barriers that aren’t really there.

Maggie Ishak: [00:49:28] Have you asked anybody.

Lee Kantor: [00:49:31] Have we asked?

Maggie Ishak: [00:49:32] Have you queried anybody if that matters? Have you gotten any feedback to say that it does matter or doesn’t matter?

Stone Payton: [00:49:38] Um, just lack of them going all the way through the process and actually pulling the trigger to start a studio.

Maggie Ishak: [00:49:45] So your funnel is more successful going through in person than in person?

Stone Payton: [00:49:52] Yeah, the in-person stuff we are really, really good at. I mean, we have extremely fine tuned, you know, we can we we know exactly what to do when you have a physical studio. There’s so much that happens in this room and it’s all by design. It’s all done with intent. Um, but maybe we just could get a lot better at using the major parts of our methodology and having those initial, um, maybe again, maybe it’s self-created barriers, but to get the person that’s out of town to understand the the value of the dynamic that’s created in this room.

Maggie Ishak: [00:50:30] So I agree with you that there is an extra benefit that you get from being in person. 100%. But to go from 100 down to zero when you go from in-person to zoom or some other virtual, right, does it really go down to zero?

Stone Payton: [00:50:52] I’m sure the answer is no.

Lee Kantor: [00:50:53] It probably doesn’t go down to zero. Um, but does it go down to a number that’s, uh, enough for them to say, okay, I’ll try this virtually.

Maggie Ishak: [00:51:07] How could you test that?

Stone Payton: [00:51:10] Well, you know how how? Because it was on the heels of Covid. The way I got my studio going actually was virtual. So I guess we could say. Oh, and here’s how we do it to make this work. Over the long haul, you’re going to need a studio. You’re going to want a studio. You’re going to make a lot more money, help a lot more people. If you have a physical studio and in most cases you probably won’t even have to pay rent. Most of our studio partners don’t pay rent because they don’t. John Ray doesn’t. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. And we’ve learned that the best way to get this thing going quickly is to get a dozen, 15 interviews in the can. And the best way to do that before you, you know, start going to get space and building out a studio and equipment and all that. The best thing to do is to do virtual. So maybe if we if we if we just told them that, but we we made the expectation very clear that after this much money or after this many interviews, now it’s time for you to go get your studio.

Maggie Ishak: [00:52:03] Well, it sounds like the studio is to their own benefit.

Stone Payton: [00:52:06] Oh, yeah. Oh, yes.

Lee Kantor: [00:52:08] Right. So maybe that’s the secret is to make it undeniable so that they want to have their own studio because they’re going to get to that next level.

Stone Payton: [00:52:18] Yeah, maybe that’s the framing. And and we actually do have precedent for that. And I, I really think that’s for Tricia is I do think Trisha. Tricia intends to have a physical studio in the veteran Chamber of Commerce, and we’ve got precedent with the way I launched this one. And then if we have precedent with Tricia. So maybe that’s the way. So we just up front here’s here’s the process and and it may maybe won’t feel as big a hairy a deal to them if they don’t have to worry about the studio just yet. Just follow all the other parts of our methodology.

Maggie Ishak: [00:52:52] So question would launching virtually remove a barrier for your prospects just to get them started?

Lee Kantor: [00:53:04] Yeah, for sure. Because I’m thinking, yeah, because they can just start by doing what they’re doing now. They don’t need anything else other than sending some messages on LinkedIn.

Stone Payton: [00:53:16] And or.

Maggie Ishak: [00:53:17] Going to their local chamber or wherever they’re locally.

Lee Kantor: [00:53:19] They’re doing anyway. Probably. Right. Right.

Stone Payton: [00:53:25] So I think that. So what’s.

Maggie Ishak: [00:53:27] What. So what would be a next step. What would, what would what would get some momentum behind this.

Stone Payton: [00:53:32] Well, that really informs my conversation with a prospective studio partner because because that that I can change on a dime. Um, still got to go back and figure out, okay, what’s the best way to get the conversation in the first place? And maybe it really does go back to our root methodology of if we want to have a conversation with them, we interview them just like we would if they were in a local market.

Lee Kantor: [00:53:57] Right. Well, I mean, that’s our I mean, we’re a one trick pony, right? Right. We meet people the same way. We invite people on shows. That’s how we do what we do.

Maggie Ishak: [00:54:06] So you want to be targeted about who you invite, right?

Lee Kantor: [00:54:08] Of course. But let’s go. Let’s pose the question to you. You’re now you’ve gone through this. You’ve been a guest on a show.

Maggie Ishak: [00:54:17] Huh?

Lee Kantor: [00:54:18] Um, now that you have an idea of what this is and how it works. And you were like, wow, let me see how I can implement this in my world. Um. How what would be kind of the pricing that you would be like, oh, that’s a no brainer. And you throw your credit card across the table versus, oh, that’s let me think about that.

Maggie Ishak: [00:54:43] Okay, I’m going to answer your question, but I’m going to answer it in a different way. Okay. Um, I am not a technical person. Right. So if you told me, Maggie, starting starting a show like this is a great way to get clients. I’m immediately going to close my ears, because that thing on the desk there, I don’t even want to touch it. The cables, like I don’t. So for me, there’s a tremendous value lie in knowing that all that stuff’s just gonna happen. Okay. The social media part. I’m not great on social media. If you said that’s magically going to happen, right? And if then you told me you’re going to have people knocking on your door wanting to talk to you.

Lee Kantor: [00:55:25] Right.

Maggie Ishak: [00:55:26] Okay, let’s add up how much money I’ve spent for other networking associations over the last year. Your fee pales in comparison to that time and money and resource that you describe that I’ve spent.

Lee Kantor: [00:55:38] Right.

Maggie Ishak: [00:55:38] So I know your fee. I’ve seen it.

Lee Kantor: [00:55:42] Is it a no brainer?

Maggie Ishak: [00:55:45] Okay. Those who are listening can’t see the look on my face.

Stone Payton: [00:55:51] She thinks it’s a no brainer at our current.

Maggie Ishak: [00:55:52] When you describe what you describe and the benefit that a host would get. Yes, the scales are definitely tipped in the favor. It’s a matter of you articulating the value. Now I’m going to also add this to you. I know John, I know Tricia, I know Joshua, okay? I don’t have the pleasure of knowing Mike. Okay. Um, when I looked at what they did. Like when I first met John, I took it purely at face value. He’s just interviewing people. He’s a nice guy. You go have a conversation with him in the studio. That was kind of fun. It didn’t occur to me at the time that I was doing it. What? What those next steps or what what happens after. And I think if you can find a way to help educate and articulate that, then your value goes way up.

Lee Kantor: [00:56:46] Well, I mean that again, that was by design because you went in there with your sales radar down. You weren’t thinking that there was any kind of business model around this.

Speaker5: [00:56:57] And John, such a nice person. Right.

Lee Kantor: [00:56:59] Well, again, that goes to our choosing the right people to be the.

Stone Payton: [00:57:03] Yeah, we need more John’s and more mikes.

Lee Kantor: [00:57:05] And so at some point, did he ask you if you wanted to have your own show?

Speaker5: [00:57:12] No.

Maggie Ishak: [00:57:14] At least I don’t remember him asking me that.

Lee Kantor: [00:57:17] Well, he might have. And you just. It didn’t occur to.

Maggie Ishak: [00:57:19] You it might have went in one ear.

Lee Kantor: [00:57:20] Out because you because you had that kind of aversion to technology and all these things. And that might have been a bridge too far. So you didn’t even consider it.

Maggie Ishak: [00:57:29] Maybe not. And Joshua didn’t either.

Lee Kantor: [00:57:31] Right.

Speaker5: [00:57:35] So.

Maggie Ishak: [00:57:35] But but can I share this with you? Okay. I was talking with a good friend of mine, um, who was a business owner, just on Friday, and he told me he was looking for podcasts to guest on for some visibility. Right. Okay. And I asked him because I had just talked to you, Stone. I said, what’s preventing you from doing your own? And he we were on zoom and he looked at me. He’s like, oh. And he’s he’s techy in his own way, right? He’s like, I don’t want to deal with the publishing and the editing and the social media. I was like, what if there was a way to do that for you? And he perked up. He’s like, there is. That was the email I sent to you this morning.

Stone Payton: [00:58:19] Thank you for.

Speaker5: [00:58:19] That.

Maggie Ishak: [00:58:21] So that’s all it took?

Stone Payton: [00:58:23] Right.

Maggie Ishak: [00:58:26] He’s interested.

Stone Payton: [00:58:27] Good.

Maggie Ishak: [00:58:29] And and I think your price point is very doable. Like to that to that business owner who’s at a certain stage in his business, that price point to continue to build authentic relationships. And he is a relationship builder and he is that same of those same values and kind of cut of that same cloth. So I think it’s just a matter of leveraging the people that you have in your network that already have those values to find those other like minded people with the same values.

Speaker5: [00:58:57] That’s maybe I’m being during this.

Stone Payton: [00:58:59] Conversation.

Lee Kantor: [00:59:00] A lot of homework for you.

Stone Payton: [00:59:01] Well, the values and the people who who think like us and do get emotional compensation and financial compensation from genuinely serving other people, maybe is there. How do you I mean, is there a I mean, you can feel them out and have conversations with them, but I mean, should we have some kind of formal assessment along those lines too? Or do you think it’s more just get to know them through our normal relationship?

Maggie Ishak: [00:59:25] What would you assess their values.

Stone Payton: [00:59:28] Are they really.

Lee Kantor: [00:59:29] Right? We have to we have to kind of determine are they a relationship person or a transactional person, like some sort of.

Maggie Ishak: [00:59:35] And I think all you have to do is ask a few people that know them.

Lee Kantor: [00:59:39] So you think it’s through other people that you would determine that rather than anything they said. So.

Maggie Ishak: [00:59:44] So by nature of so I’m gonna I’m gonna consider myself a values based person and wanting to build relationships. And I consider myself in your camp because what you’re saying really resonates with me. Okay. The person that I sent the email to connect you with this morning is also cut of that same cloth. And I think like breeds like. And so I would imagine if you ask John Ray, who are the people that are close to him. And who are the people that that that have those same values? He could probably give you a list. And you asked Tricia and she’d probably give you a list and it could just.

Stone Payton: [01:00:21] Right. And we really haven’t made that ask consistently, methodically. We’ve mentioned it before, but we haven’t.

Lee Kantor: [01:00:29] Right.

Stone Payton: [01:00:30] Yeah.

Maggie Ishak: [01:00:31] So can I throw that out as another bit of homework for you?

Stone Payton: [01:00:36] Homework. I got a whole pad of homework.

Lee Kantor: [01:00:39] That’s why we’re doing this. Absolutely.

Maggie Ishak: [01:00:41] That’s what you get with these sessions? No, but but being very deliberate about asking your existing partners whom you hold in high regard.

Stone Payton: [01:00:50] Right.

Maggie Ishak: [01:00:51] Who else is in your circle that shares these same values?

Lee Kantor: [01:00:54] And it’s a great, great exercise we should be doing.

Maggie Ishak: [01:00:57] And then you could test your pricing and test your conversation. And oh, by the way, you could just offer them to be a guest on your show as well since that’s what you do best.

Lee Kantor: [01:01:04] Right, exactly.

Maggie Ishak: [01:01:05] And maybe use that as a conversation. Now, Lee, when when you and I met about a year ago. Had you asked me, how difficult is it for you to find clients? I don’t know that you would have asked me that, because that would have been a tough question to answer on air. I would have told you. Wow, this has been this has been a lot more challenging than I anticipated. And and that could have swung the door wide open. But I know you’re not selling. That’s not your intention.

Lee Kantor: [01:01:26] I’ll tell you, when we do the show, we do ask typically a marketing question. And that marketing question in our business, are our relationships important to you? That I probably did ask some version of that during the conversation. And then depending on your answer, it would have determined what was the next, um, yeah, kind of move to make.

Maggie Ishak: [01:01:49] So maybe I didn’t answer it in the right way, I don’t know.

Lee Kantor: [01:01:51] I mean, we could go back and kind of see, uh, the paper trail that’s associated, but we we’re trying to be better in, in our systems to make sure that that question is asked and also to have a follow up path, uh, based on that answer. So we are trying to be better in that area in terms of tightening our systems, because that is an important component of our methodology, is when you’re the hosting mechanics we recommend to our our partners is to ask some sort of a marketing question to your guests so that you can determine if they are a prospect for other services you might be offering.

Maggie Ishak: [01:02:32] So now you’re going to make me go back and listen to the shows that I’ve been on to look for that question.

Lee Kantor: [01:02:36] Well, I mean, that’s how we go to market.

Maggie Ishak: [01:02:39] Okay. Um, and then but before we wrap up, I want to come back to kind of where we started all of this with you targeting maybe coaching organizations or kind of, you call it the Grand Poobah. Like, how do you. Right. Um, is that still top of mind for you now, or are you wanting to take a little bit of a left turn? I don’t want to call it a left turn because that implies, um, but maybe just take a different path.

Lee Kantor: [01:03:04] Right.

Maggie Ishak: [01:03:04] On the road to 100 and road to 1000.

Lee Kantor: [01:03:06] Well, in order to get to 101,000, we have to have kind of multiplier effect. So it is part of that journey is to get in front of people that are leading these types of organizations that have hundreds of, not thousands of, of the right prospects, you know, within them. Uh, so that’s definitely part of the path. We want to have meaningful conversations with people who are leading those types of organizations so we can and we think we have to ideally get invited by somebody who is one of their members to say, hey, you should talk to these people. They might have something that could benefit all of the members.

Maggie Ishak: [01:03:43] Okay, so hint, hint, there is an organization, um, of which one of your studio partners and I are members, and that organization also operates with very strong values and a strong culture that I believe aligns with your model. And so I think it’s just a matter of An introduction and a conversation. Because I think there’s a lot of other people like me that are looking for ways that where I was a year ago, year and a half ago, to launch my practice without all of the time, money and systems that you talked about earlier. Um, I think it could provide immense value.

Stone Payton: [01:04:30] Well, it makes me think, you know, all of this. You and I know how easy all this is because he and I aren’t technical either. But all of this is does feel big and hairy. And I think maybe sometimes we get desensitized to how easy we take for granted, maybe how easy it is for us to meet people and build new, real relationships, and how easy it is for us to strengthen existing relationships, and how easy it is for us to be nice to a lot of people who are never going to write us a check, but it’s still just good mojo. I well, I won’t speak for you. I think maybe sometimes I take all that for granted. And so I fail to communicate that. And when I’m, when I’m talking to a prospective client.

Lee Kantor: [01:05:18] Right. And I think that we underestimate the pain that they’re going through to do the same thing.

Stone Payton: [01:05:24] Right? Right.

Maggie Ishak: [01:05:25] Lee 100%, 100%. Now, can I throw a couple of other, um, just things to consider when you think about if you’re just thinking about coaches.

Stone Payton: [01:05:36] Yeah.

Maggie Ishak: [01:05:37] You know, there are groups like ICF, the International Coaching Federations, there’s a number and there’s a local chapter here in the Atlanta area. There’s chapters all over the country. Um, there’s there’s other groups like that, other groups like Focal Point that have groups of coaches. Um, there’s there’s also others that are out there that are trying to market to coaches, right. You know, finding ways maybe to align with them as well. I mean, I think. Lee, I think the point you made a minute ago needs to be really be kind of hyper focused. You don’t necessarily see the pain that so many of these people go through, and how many of them hang their shingle up. And then after a year or two, they have to take the shingle back down, right?

Lee Kantor: [01:06:30] Because it was harder than they thought.

Maggie Ishak: [01:06:32] That hyper introversion or, or other things around that. Yeah. And so going back to the value.

Stone Payton: [01:06:38] Um. Well, that’s encouraging to hear.

Maggie Ishak: [01:06:45] All right. So what else is on your mind today?

Lee Kantor: [01:06:48] Well, I think we covered quite a bit. And I want to make sure before we wrap up, um, that people know how to contact you. What’s the best way to. Yeah, probably the.

Maggie Ishak: [01:06:57] Easiest way to find me is on LinkedIn. Um, Maggie. Maggie. Last name is Ishak. I s h a k. Um. Go find me on LinkedIn and send me a connection request and tell me that you heard this show.

Lee Kantor: [01:07:10] All right.

Stone Payton: [01:07:11] And then this time next year, you can just reach out. Reach her at Business RadioX. Maggie, thank you so much. This has been incredibly helpful.

Maggie Ishak: [01:07:20] I’ve enjoyed it. Thank you for having me.

Stone Payton: [01:07:22] Our pleasure.

Outro: [01:07:26] 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 to download the free Business RadioX playbook.

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 Burks Intercom 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. Stone Payton, Lee Kantor here with you and we have our very special host once again, Trisha Stetzel. Welcome back.

Trisha Stetzel: Hey. Thanks, Stone. I’m so excited to be here with you gentlemen today. Are you guys ready? Ready for this or not?

Stone Payton: Yes.

Trisha Stetzel: Ready or not, here we come. Okay. Our first session. So, uh, last session was our discovery call. Really honing in on what are the things that you want to do today? I want to focus on the first 90 days. So we’re going to requalify the 100 shows. We’re going to talk a little bit about that. But I really want to focus on and drive some action to the first 90 days. Agreeable?

Stone Payton: Agreeable.

Trisha Stetzel: All right. Fantastic. So as always, I’m going to check in on your actions or commitments from the last time we met. Lee, you committed to be more to be more coachable and trying new approaches. How has that shown up for you? Just over since our last session.

Lee Kantor: Well, it showed up several times, obviously, in our conversations about video recording. So I feel like I’m giving you my opinion about it and am open to, um, exploring video recording. So I think that’s an example of being coachable.

Trisha Stetzel: Yeah, I love that. And Lee, thank you for being open to that. And you know, we talked about this. You are looking for some pushback and some new ideas and some fresh, um, interjections, if you will, on things that, uh, these coaches know are working out there. So thank you for that. All right, Stone, you committed to taking off your sales hat and being a little more transparent. How’s that showing up for you?

Stone Payton: It has shown up for me in my personal life. I had a tough situation this past weekend, and I had to deal with a very good friend and get past that strain, and I really do have the ability to have driven that conversation in a different direction and coated over pretty good and keep moving. I didn’t do that. I opened a kimono. I was completely transparent. Took my sales hat off. Off if you will, and I’m really glad I did. So it’s kind of like a practice round to bring back into the business arena.

Trisha Stetzel: Okay, I love that. I love that you guys are really thinking about these things in between our sessions. So let’s just dive in. Um, as we step into first quarter, we’re only a couple of weeks in, right? Uh, in our first real coaching session, what activity or numbers already describe your reality. Where are you at today as we jump into first quarter?

Stone Payton: I can start where we are today is I have more opportunities than you could swing a cat at, to have conversations with brand new people who are interesting, doing great work are probably prospective either direct clients or referral sources. Good people to know to have in our circle and their um, and some of them are in my mind are probably quality candidates to become some version of that tiered system we talked about last time, and maybe ultimately, someone who is running a market and following our methodology and using it to grow their business and using it to, um, to to grow the Business RadioX, uh, business. So I’ve got all that going on. And it occurred to me this morning, I, I wonder if if, um, the opportunity is easy maybe is not the right word, but I don’t think it’s as precious to me anyway as it should be, because a lot of people that I know in small, medium sized business, I mean, they would give their right arm to be able to to turn the dial like I can and meet virtually anybody they want to and have a substantive conversation. And I think maybe I’ve become desensitized to that. So it’s not as organized as it ought to be. It’s not systemic. And I’m not treating each one with the degree of preciousness. Then maybe it should be.

Trisha Stetzel: Yeah. All right. It sounds like some opportunity there. Yeah, right. Yeah. Okay. We can dig into that a little bit more in a few minutes. Lee, would you like to weigh in on this as well?

Lee Kantor: Yeah. I think that our activity that we do on a regular basis is we have the ability and this is our methodology of inviting people to come on shows. And we do that to help them get the word out about the work they’re doing. But it also puts them into our pipeline to possibly sell them something down the road. Um, and we just have a that is working perfectly. It’s worked for 20 years. This kind of system and approach that we have on doing this. And that’s what kind of unlocks all these opportunities with these individuals moving forward. So that’s what’s working right now. Um, I think we can always be doing a better job once we’ve connected with them and we’ve started building a relationship with them, that we can continue to nurture them and follow up with them and continue to serve them more over time until they are ready to, to potentially buy something from us.

Trisha Stetzel: Okay, great. And so I want to dive into what’s what’s happening now that’s going to connect you to that 100 partner vision. But before we get there, let’s talk about what a partner is stone. You want to tackle that first.

Stone Payton: And we touched on this last time right. Because but right now in my mind and I think in these, uh, a studio partner is an individual who in most cases already has an existing professional services business practice, at least at this point, I think business established business coaches, and if they have a little bit of a if they have a hole in their swing at all, they don’t have this consistent flow of qualified discovery calls. Um, but otherwise they’re, They’re there. They’re doing great work. They’re good practitioners. They’re doing great work when they can get it right. And so a studio partner is that person. For example, let’s pick a market we’re not in. In that regard in San Diego. And they’re using our methodology our brand equity, all that stuff to first and foremost grow their coaching practice or their consulting practice or their fractional exit practice in that market. And then as they mature, we’re showing them how to turn around and and help other professional services providers in that market with the methodology and all that. And in my mind, the, um, the moniker for that, the, the label for that is studio partner. One of the reasons we’re wrestling with that is, at least in the initial going, they don’t really have to have a physical studio to make that work and get it off the ground. I will tell you, I believe with all my heart and mind, and I’ve seen a great deal of anecdotal evidence. They’ll help more people and make more money if they will establish at some point a physical studio. But that’s what, in my mind, that’s a studio partner. I’d love to have 100 of them by the end of next year, and a thousand of them before I hang up my cleats.

Trisha Stetzel: Okay, I love it. Uh, do do you want to weigh in here? What’s happening now that connects us to that 100 partner vision?

Lee Kantor: Yeah. To get clarity around that individual, they have to, you know, kind of have a heart of service. That quality has to be there. They have to want to sincerely serve their business community. They want to increase their reputation and authority within that community. Um, and they’re tired of being that best kept secret. I mean, I can’t tell you how many coaches I’ve interviewed that that is one of their big pain points, that they feel like they are a good quality coach that delivers good quality coaching, but just not enough people know they exist and that that’s frustrating for them.

Trisha Stetzel: Mhm. Yeah Absolutely. And I know we’ve had a lot of conversations around that as well. So can we put some numbers around this because we want to have a starting point so that we can get to what does the end of first quarter look like? So where are we at today on. And I know we talked about it the last time we met, but let’s talk about it again today so we can put a number to it. Where are we at today with studio partners?

Stone Payton: Current reality is nine and that includes me and Lee. But Lee and I do each have a studio, but that’s the current reality is nine.

Trisha Stetzel: Nine okay, so Lee, let’s imagine it’s March 31st, 2026. And you say first quarter was a win and we’re on pace for 100 partners. What would that look like?

Lee Kantor: What what does being on pace look like?

Trisha Stetzel: Yes.

Lee Kantor: So um, in my mind there’s two targets when it comes to what that success looks like. One is we have to be in front of more individual coaches that raise their hand and are attracted to this. But simultaneously, I think it’s important for us to be in front of some larger brands. Um, and explain how our business development platform helps their coaches within that brand, uh, be successful. So I would like to, in addition to having a numbers aren’t my superpower here. So uh, uh, uh, momentum with individuals but also momentum and actually piloting some tests with some brands that maybe serve coaches, um, and us showing them how they can implement and bolt on our service as part of their service so that we can get, um, multiples so we don’t have to kind of chase 100 individual coaches. We can go into a brand that might serve coaches in general. And then, you know, get ten, 20, 50 of those in one swing if we can just implement our service within their service. Okay. So I would like to pilot if I was going to put a number on one thing, it would be at least one pilot of some brand, uh, during that 90 days, that to me, uh, seems realistic, uh, to put a number on how many coaches would I be high fiving? That’s a harder number. Um, as long as we were getting kind of momentum in the direction I would be high fiving. But I think it’s reasonable, because I don’t think we need a lot of partnerships with brands. And I think the partnerships with brands are the accelerant. We need to get to that number in the most efficient manner possible.

Trisha Stetzel: Yeah, I like that. Uh, so we’re really talking about strategic alliances. So people who are already serving your ideal client or who, you know, is your ideal client today. And we’re going to tackle that again, in in our next session. So, Stone, I’m going to come over to you because you said something that I’m curious about. You said you have enough people. You didn’t say you’d swing a cat at them, but you said that you have enough in the pipeline to swing a cat at. So let’s talk about numbers. What does that look like for you?

Stone Payton: Well, I’m glad you asked, because I wanted to pipe back in on this because, um, I, I was looking at our ratios at the studio level. Like, when we bring in somebody, we bring in at San Diego Lady, and we work with her if she’ll follow our methodology and do it our way for a while and then kind of, you know, get creative, she’ll experience. 1031 1421 she’ll if for for every, um, ten people that she has in the studio, three of them will want to have a conversation about having a custom show. One of them will buy and it’ll be a 14 to 21 day selling cycle. So I was taking that. I would like to think that we can do that at this level, too. And I know I can turn the valve and talk to 50. I just talked to have like a substantive conversation with 50 people in that that quarter. And if that’s all true, then I feel I feel like, um, I, I think a reasonable number, even at that level where you’re going direct one, one, you know, down that ratio scale that we could have five new studio partners by the end of the quarter. Um, and then I really think that’s true. If we even get one solid brand like a like like if coaches are, if we’ll get some better coaching, maybe on our ideal client, uh, profile. But if coaches really are the thing, how cool would it be if Focal Point said, all right, we’re going to take a swing at this with five coaches or you know what I mean. So so that could happen like that. So for me I’ve got a number in my head at the moment. And that’s five because and I know that’s not 25% of a hundred, but you but you got the traction you got. I would feel pretty darn good about that.

Trisha Stetzel: Right? And then and then you know what you’re looking for and you know how to bring them in. You know what’s attractive to them. And you already have the systems in place. Are there tweaks that you need to make depending on whether they’re an in-studio or remote studio or mobile studio? Right. Uh, and that would have to be looked at as well. Okay. I love the idea of five. I also love the idea of building at least one partner relationship. Uh, that’s really tight. So, um, Lee mentioned that one strong partnership that you could pilot is something that he would like to go after. So Stone as his partner, do you have a line on those types of relationships or is that something you need to go figure out?

Stone Payton: I definitely need to go figure it out. I’ve got a little bit of intuition, instinct. But no, I, I don’t have a direct line of saying, okay, this is this is the path. Here’s who we want to go build that strategic relationship with to get us to that five. I don’t have that well defined.

Lee Kantor: Okay. That’s where if I mean, if there’s a coach out there that has skills in building partnerships, hey, bring them on this call and let’s, uh, let’s let them coach us up, because I think it is important for us to pursue that channel. And, uh, we obviously need help, so.

Trisha Stetzel: Okay. Awesome. There we are, being vulnerable and open to open to coaching I love it. Um, okay. So can we play around with that for for just a few minutes? Gentlemen, the building, uh, healthy partner pipeline. Because Stone, what I heard you say is that your system already works to bring you the people that you want to have on a show that you can have conversations with. And you have your sales process built in, and you talked about the. 1031, 14 to 21 you already know that works. So where do you start with building this healthy partner pipeline.

Stone Payton: So the front end of it can look exactly the same as far as the, the the tactics, the the mechanism. I think we can get more targeted about that’s the people we’re going to use this media platform or these 2 or 3 media platforms to draw those people into our circle. Once we figure out who those people are and we can stay more brutally focused on that. I have a great sales opportunity that I got to write that note on. I was telling you about earlier. I’m going to be real surprised if they don’t sign off on the direct client thing, the thing we’ve been doing for 20 years. It would really be better in the long run for what we’re trying to do. If sure, we’ll do that. We’ll help you. Like it’s almost like, yeah, and we’ll do this thing too. What would really be great is if they if they teamed up with us in this partner regard, it’s it’s probably better for them. And I know it would be better for us. And so I mean, it came up a little bit yesterday and Lee kind of leaned in that direction and it would have been my, um, without that, you know, I would have just hammered on let’s get this deal, which, you know, that’s not what we want. What? Not what I want to do anymore. Just go get the next deal I want to. Yeah. I don’t know if I answered the question.

Trisha Stetzel: No. You did. No, I think this is really good. So, Stone, what’s one what’s the next step with this particular, uh, person that you would rather be a partner than just a client? Uh, what can you do in the next few weeks to adjust the next conversation?

Stone Payton: Well, first, make the decision is, is it prudent to try to pull that off with this one? Because I think he’ll buy the other thing and it’s good money and I know we can pull it off. So so that is or make the decision okay. We’re going to do what we do and hope we can do the partner thing with that guy. But on the next one we’re going to do the partner thing. Hell or high water? That’s an idea. Um, maybe. And, um, just make the decision to do it. Make a decision that that’s the target. Okay.

Trisha Stetzel: And decide what the priority is. Right. What’s important?

Stone Payton: And decide what the criteria are for making. Deciding that that’s the target. Okay. Because we can both make a very comfortable living just doing what we try to get other people to do. Of course. Yeah. Well, this is a different thing. So it is literally taking my sales hat off now, getting more strategic.

Trisha Stetzel: Stones completely open to this whole coaching process at this point. Uh, and I appreciate that. I really do, because this is sometimes it can be a little uncomfortable because you know what you know, and you’re really good at what you know. Now you’re going to figure out how to get those partners in the door. Right. If that’s what you want to focus on. So, Lee, I want to come back over to you. Do you have other ideas or thoughts? Comments on what Stone and I have been talking about, or even other things that we might want to focus on or bring priority to in the first 90 days.

Lee Kantor: Well, um, I do have thoughts. Um, and it’s it’s probably contrary to both of what you were discussing. Um, I think for this one deal, I think we should close the deal with the thing that they want to buy. And then after we start working together and, you know, prove us to them. Them to us, then we pursue this second tact of more of a systemic solution. Um, and then the challenge, and then I’ll push back a little also on the what works in a studio and the number formula that works in the studio. I think it works in a studio because there’s a human to human in person, visceral feeling that happens in a studio that isn’t happening virtually. And, um, we have not cracked the code on how to create that visceral Aha moment. Oh, I get how this works and how this can work for me. That happens when you’re in person, uh, remotely and virtually. So, uh, I don’t know if that formula, just because it works in person equally works as well. Um, virtually. So. Okay, that’s that’s part of why I’m, uh, we’re we’re exploring this avenue of of, uh, marketing experimentation. Uh, you know, this is us sharing what we’re trying to do to grow, but it’s also a marketing tactic for us to grow. So, I mean, I don’t want to mislead anybody here, but we’re trying to grow our network, so we’re, um, getting an opportunity to share why someone should join us on this mission. And, um, we get to talk to a lot of the people that either, um, are prospects for us or know potential prospects for us. So Marketing, uh, our brand and expanding our network is the objective. This is a marketing tool that we’re we’re using this exercise for.

Trisha Stetzel: Yeah, absolutely. So just to clarify and come back stone on the five that you would like to close with, are they in person like live studios or are they remote locations.

Stone Payton: So it’s really fine with me and I think plausible to do it, just like I did. Cherokee Lee and I operated out of the same studio for many, many years, and I moved out to to Woodstock, Georgia. It’s a suburb of Atlanta, and it’s in a county called Cherokee. But 6 or 8 months before we moved, uh, from the big house to to the house we have here in Woodstock, I went ahead and started cranking up Cherokee Business radio virtually. And then I came to, uh, a co-working space, actually two different co-working spaces. So mixed in a little bit of live stuff with like this remote kit that we have. So to me that’s perfectly plausible. And but to so yes physical studio. That’s the way to do this. That’s what I want is five people doing that. It’s okay with me if it takes them six months to a year to get there. And I’m not going to, you know, cry in my beer if they don’t ever get there and they stay virtual, that’s better than, you know, that’s that’s moving, moving. But I, I mean, that’s how I got Cherokee going was virtual then a little bit of, you know, like Radio Day on Fridays and then started bringing them into the actual studio once I got here.

Trisha Stetzel: Okay. So if this is for both of you, from a priority perspective, you can you can continue doing what you’re doing and pursue the people that you already have in the pipeline to see what decisions they’ve had, they will make down the road. Or do you focus on these partner relationships? So I’m just throwing it out there. Um, Um, who wants to take that one?

Lee Kantor: Well, I don’t think it’s an Or. I think it’s an and.

Trisha Stetzel: Okay.

Lee Kantor: Because a lot of the people that we’re meeting by doing the activity or we’re doing of interviewing coaches, um, some of them have relationships with these brands, and some of them are the entry point into the brand. So I don’t see it as a, um, you know, an either or, um, you know, I and I don’t I see, I think it’s a more elegant way to approach the brand if we’ve already have some relationship with one of the people within the brand, as opposed to just kind of going to the CMO of the brand who doesn’t know us and doesn’t have any relationship with us, and no frame of reference of how we do what we do or why we do what we do. If we can come on the back of here’s an interview that is probably one of the best interviews that person ever had and that, um, they see where it’s published, they see that, um, you know, it gets, supported online on LinkedIn. They see some of the things that we do with the content. It’s easier then to at least have the beginning of a conversation about why it might be useful for them to partner, as opposed to us just being some, you know, a stranger to them.

Trisha Stetzel: Okay, so just, um, telling you what I heard. So what I heard is you’re using these individual interviews as a strategy to build partnerships down the road. So the focus is still building the partnership, although you’re still doing individual work. And those may turn into studio partners, potentially. But it really is the strategy to get to the bigger brand. Did I hear that right?

Lee Kantor: Right there. That’s the top of the funnel. Okay. That that work. Uh, the interviews for us is the top of the funnel.

Trisha Stetzel: Okay. Perfect. Uh, Stone, what are your thoughts?

Stone Payton: I think he’s probably right, because he almost always is. Um, And just from a gut level, I have witnessed in a variety of domains the power of extreme focus. So if there was and again, maybe this doesn’t have to be either or, you know, might put him in one direction and me in another. I have seen the power of extreme focus and I could it wouldn’t bowl me over to learn six months from now that when one of us maybe came over here and said, no, I’m not doing any more individuals. I’m only talking to CMOs of brands, I’m going to build a relationship with them. I’m going to tell them why they ought to partner with us, and I’m going to sell them. So I. And I can’t say I disagree with anything he has said as a strategy, but I have seen the power of extreme focus, you know, over the years.

Trisha Stetzel: Sure. Absolutely. So in the first 90 days, what do you want to do?

Lee Kantor: Well, you’re the coach. What’s your recommendation?

Trisha Stetzel: I appreciate that, Lee. Um, focus. Laser focus is really where you guys need to find yourselves. If you set a goal and you both go after it, then you’re going to get it. So I would just ask together, what do you want to go do? What’s most important. And I’m not saying not to have your funnel. You need your funnel. You’re still using those individual conversations to get where you want to go. So don’t stop doing anything. How do you just focus those conversations and relationships? Back to partnerships.

Lee Kantor: One quick I’m hearing you say that partnerships should be the priority.

Trisha Stetzel: I heard you say, I heard, I heard you tell me both. Both of you agreed that partnerships are really important in this business, right? They are. I’m not telling you that you should pursue those. I want you to think about where your business is at, and where you’re going to get the biggest bang for your buck.

Stone Payton: So one idea that occurs to me if we choose to do this laser focus thing, but we agree that it’s a pretty solid strategy to build a relationship with an individual practitioner inside a system, inside an established system, like a coaching franchise or an executive or fractional executive, uh, franchise or something, is maybe exercise a discipline of all or most of those individuals that we avail, that we make our our thing available to and that we pursue that. One of the criteria is they got to be part of a system. It can’t be, you know, Jim Bob’s coaching. It has to be, you know, Jim Hernandez, certified coach and part of this system or he’s been trained. Part of the system. I mean, I’m just I’m throwing that out there. I’m not recommending. I’m just I could see that if you establish that criteria, it might help achieve that focus.

Trisha Stetzel: Yeah. Okay.

Trisha Stetzel: Lee, what do you think about that?

Lee Kantor: That sounds good.

Stone Payton: I took my sales hat off. Lee, I’m not trying to sell you on it. I’m just thinking out loud.

Lee Kantor: No, I mean, again, to me, I look at everything as an experiment. So if this is the experiment that we’re going to. I mean, we’re not changing that. We’re going to pursue individual coaches now we’re tweaking those individual coaches are going to be always under some larger system, and then those are the only ones that make it into the pipeline, so that each one of those has the potential to reach a CMO of one of those brands, because we have now a path to them. And it’s not a cold call to that brand. It’s a path through somebody that already knows, likes and trusts us. So it gives us a better chance to get in front of the system. The head of the system to at least have an exploratory conversation about whether this is something valuable or not.

Trisha Stetzel: Yeah. Good. All right. Stone put his sales hat back on. I can’t wait to hear this.

Stone Payton: Then I’m going to hush and listen. But what if the what if part of the strategy was we identify the part the strategic partner for, you know, we get better and better at that. And we’re. And then we say to ourselves, okay, we’re going to interview five practitioners within that system. And then with that foundation of five which we can get, I guarantee you I can make that happen. This thing works. Then through whatever else we build, that’s part of our process for having a substantive conversation with whoever it is the CEO, the CMO, the brand manager, or whatever. And so we’re going to go hit these 22 systems, and we’re going to and the way we’re going to get to them is first we’re going to interview five other people And then we’re going to interview or reach out to the actual target. Okay.

Trisha Stetzel: Yeah, that sounds like a that sounds like a great start. So here’s what I want you guys to think about is you don’t need to stop doing anything, but you do need to think strategically about the conversations that you’re having. You probably already have people in the pipeline. You’ve got people lined up that you’re going to have conversations with. You never know where those might lead. Listen, we’re going to go we’re going to go build the ideal client profile and marketing and all of that stuff to go talk to the people that you really want to work with. But other people are going to come in and say, hey, can you work with me? Right. So we don’t want to discount that. I just want you to refocus and think about it strategically. Is this conversation that I have scheduled or that I have today going to get me where I want to go? And if building those partnerships is important to you, then that’s the question you have to ask. Is this conversation going to lead me to where I want to go. Thoughts?

Lee Kantor: No. I think you’re right on the money. And I think it requires us to stone. We’re talking about the word precious earlier, but we have to be more precious on who gets through the pipeline into the interview funnel. And we have to decide, okay, this person seems like a good coach. They might be fantastic, but they don’t meet the criteria of being part of a larger brand. So then they have to, you know, they can come on in six months, but they can’t come in in the first quarter. The first quarter is precious because the only people we want to be interviewing in the first quarter are people that are have some attachment to a larger brand.

Stone Payton: And we could even. Yes. Agreed. And we could even have a relief valve and say, hey, let’s get them on a show. I got 258 to choose from, right? Let’s get it. Let’s, you know, if we really, you know, we’d still be, but not let’s don’t invest my time and yours on it. Maybe. Right. Yeah.

Trisha Stetzel: Okay, so what I’ve heard you say is that most important in first quarter is building relationships with partner brands. And the focus or one of the ideas is to create a way to filter out those that you want to talk to first, because strategically, they could lead you to that partner brand that you’re looking to have a conversation with. Is that right?

Stone Payton: Yes. There’s a lead to it. Um, and it’s the when for lead two for me, though at the moment anyway, is I’m going to go to the CMO or whoever we identify. I’m not going to I’m not going to rely on those people to team me up, necessarily. But I like having that foundation that as I’m having that conversation, five of that, that that lady that the CMO who’s running things, five of her practitioners that she thinks are really strong and that we have that track record. So I’m not coming to her just with a yeah.

Trisha Stetzel: Oh. Nice idea. So what I heard you say is you would go to the brand, the home office brand, and say, I want to interview five of your top people. Who are they?

Stone Payton: So that to maybe we should talk about that. So I hadn’t thought about just going there and and going that way, which maybe that’s the I was just thinking what a luxury or how strong it would be from a positioning standpoint. If I am talking to that person to say, you know, here’s what we’ve learned so far, because we’ve interviewed five of your people and they did a great, you know, and this person. So I was thinking that way. But but what I’m hearing.

Lee Kantor: Like her way better. All we have to do is interview one of their people and then go right to the CMO and say, hey, I just interviewed one of your people. She was great. Do you have three others we should interview? And then now that person, the CMO, is going to be like, yeah, that’d be great. Like that. Like that’s a total win for them.

Stone Payton: Yeah. And that’s more streamlined and direct and.

Trisha Stetzel: Okay, so being mindful of time, It’s time to wrap this show up or this coaching session. Uh, do you feel like we made progress today?

Lee Kantor: Yeah, 100%.

Stone Payton: Yeah I do.

Trisha Stetzel: Okay, fantastic. So what’s one action that you can take between this session and our next session that will get you closer to what we were talking about today?

Lee Kantor: Well, one thing is we’re going to go back through all of our previous guests and then kind of make a mark on who we’ve already interviewed that is part of a larger brand. And then from there, we can then decide how to approach the brand with that strategy of, hey, we’d love to interview, you know, a few more of your people because this person did such a great job.

Trisha Stetzel: Awesome. All right, Stone, how about you?

Stone Payton: I think that’s a marvelous idea. And I think we in order to do it going forward, I think we invest some some energy. And it might be we put some, you know, a staffer on it. Let’s go identify whatever the I don’t know what the number is. Let’s go identify 25 brands that seem like, okay, that these who were going after. And maybe that’s just good prep for the professional council. We’re going to get on really honing that down. But I think that sounds like good activity, good productive preparation to get the most out of that session.

Trisha Stetzel: Yeah, absolutely. And you know, guess what? Next session is about identifying who your ideal client profile is. Right. And what is that where. So how do we get in front of those people? Uh, so very timely. Gentlemen, this has been a fantastic session. I appreciate your openness. I appreciate your allowing me to ask you so many darn questions today and not give you all the answers, because that’s what I’m supposed to do as a coach. But I think that we pulled some really good things out in our session today. Yeah.

Stone Payton: Fantastic. Well, thank you again. This is. This is marvelous.

Trisha Stetzel: Okay. All right, you guys, today we turned your one year vision into a focused. At least get started. What are the next steps for your 90 day plan. And you’ve defined your starting point. You created that objective that we talked about today. And each of you has a clear action to complete before we meet again. So until then, I hope you guys have a great week.

Stone Payton: Thanks, Trisha.

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