Ramon on Breakfast with Champions

Ramon Ray

Grow Your Solo Business TIP Sheet Free

Want help growing your SOLO business? Visit SmartHustle.com/solo

Work with Ramon One-On-One

Are you a coach, consultant, speaker, author? Work with Ramon One-On-One. Schedule a session here

Ramon’s clients work with him one-on-one in 90 minute sessions to give them clarity and point them in the right direction.

He helps them with sales & marketing, content marketing, being a better speaker and other questions in regard to growing their business.

Schedule a session here

 

 

How To Put On a Retreat  – Tamra – (June 30th)

How to Win When Posting on Freelance Marketplaces

Be personal, not generic.

How to Prepare for a Recession (Ramsey Solutions)

The National Bureau of Economic Research says a recession happens when there’s a “significant decline in economic activity spread across the economy and lasts more than a few months.”1

Or in non-professor terms: The economy is in a funk.

  • Stay out of debt and/or reduce it
  • Keep saving (for a rainy day and beyond)
  • Keep investing in retirement

But what’s your budget? (Seth Godin)

This can be an uncomfortable question. Not because any of us have unlimited time and unlimited money, but because it puts us on the spot in a few ways:

  1. Are you able to understand the project well enough to put boundaries around it? If you don’t, are you aware enough to announce what you will need to learn so that you can?
  2. Are you willing to be on the hook for managing the work so that you will be on time and on budget?
  3. Are you comfortable enough with your vendors and your team to accept responsibility for work you’re asking them to do?
  4. Are you a perfectionist, unwilling to ship the work until someone is finally so frustrated, cornered or broke that they pry it from your hands?
  5. The flip side: can you embrace the fact that no project is perfect and that by creating a budget, you’re leaning into boundaries that make you a professional when you do this work?

Too often, we’d rather say, “I’ll know it when I see it, it’s too important to compromise, you’re sucking all the fun out of it, the contractors won’t work with a budget and–don’t you want it to be good?”

But the best work regularly ships on time and on budget.

How to Figure Out Your Hidden Talents (American Express)

    1. Ask questions and listen to the answers.
    2. Figure out what skills are easy for you
    3. Consider what you enjoy doing the most.
    4. Do something outside your comfort zone.
    5. Follow your money.

Admitting what you don’t know is key to effective leadership (Fast Company)

    1. Leaders are often idealized in the media, our educational systems, and our social systems. A strong leader is portrayed as an unflappable expert in practically everything. When we then become leaders, we shoulder that burden. We begin to believe having authority also means being infallible. Since infallibility is an unattainable goal, it makes sense that we create distance, resist admitting mistakes, and protect an image of ourselves as always at the ready. 
    2. FOCUS ON QUESTIONS, NOT ANSWERS
    3. OWN MISTAKES PUBLICLY
    4. EMBRACE SMART FAILURES
    5. TRUTH DRIVES COMMITMENT

Zapier report: 40% of Americans have a side hustle in 2022 (Zapier)

    1. There’s been a growth in side hustles in 2022—and it’s not slowing
    2. Almost half of people with a side hustle spend less than 10 hours a week on it
    3. Men and older adults spend more time on their side hustles
    4. Automation is a major factor: Most side hustlers use automation for business processes

20 YouTube Business Ideas (Small Biz Trends)

 

Emotional Intelligence Has Never Been More Important For Leaders (ChiefExecutive.Net)

    1. Self-awareness
    2. Self-regulation
    3. Motivation
    4. Empathy for others
    5. Social, or “soft” skills, such as proficiency in managing relationships and building networks

16 Must Have Small Business Homepage Elements (Duct Tape Marketing)

    1. Get found – The website should be optimized for search to help you get found online.
    2. Build trust – Your website is a key element to building trust. Once a person arrives on your website, it needs to validate their challenges. Your website needs to function the way your customers need it to and expect it to.
    3. Educate – Your website should teach people how to recognize what their problems and challenges actually are.
    4. Inform – Once a person has found you and trusts you, you need to inform them on how you can solve their problems.
    5. Nurture – Often people need to come back to your website numerous times before making a purchase. Capture their email address and continue to create valuable content that is relevant to their stage in the customer journey to nurture them through to the sale.
    6. Convert – A conversion can be many things from subscribing to a newsletter, to calling you, to actually making a purchase on your website. Conversion opportunities need to be an element of the design of your homepage to help guide the journey.
    7. Web site elements
      1. A promise 
      2. Sub promise
      3. Call to action
      4. Contact details
      5. Visual branding
      6. Video
      7. List of problems
      8. Trust elements
      9. Changing content
      10. Mobile optimization
      11. Personality/have fun
      12. Social proof
      13. Clear path
      14. Content upgrades
      15. Core services
      16. Resource menu

$1.89 vs $100 dollar light – Ramon’s Story

I took my 20+ year old daughter to Auto Zone this morning. We purchased an almost $100 pair of high intensity lights for our car. I asked her to go back inside and purchase the litte pack of grease that makes wiring connections better.

I waited with the hood up in the parking lot. When my daughter went back in, the employee said their computers were down and it would take 30 min to fix them. Then we could purchase our $1.89 cent little packet of grease after the computers were back up. 

I knew that there was a 79% chance that if I went in I’d get the packet of grease. As always, I went inside with a smile and friendliness.

I explained to the manager that I had just bought the $100 light bulbs and would she trust me to come back and give her the money for the $1.89 grease, later on?

I didn’t want to wait thirty minutes nor did I want to leave without applying the grease. And I was annoyed.

The manager smiled back and said sure. Then she said, in fact it’s on me (her), just take it.

Friends, a warm smile and friendliness and explaining to people, goes so far in getting what you want.

My daughter is an amazing young lady and like all of us she has a lot to learn. Things I’ve had to learn as well. Often a no is not a no. If you give people the opportunity to say yes and make it easy for them to do so you’ll often get a yes!

Ask for a smile before you ask for a sale.
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Grow Your Solo Business TIP Sheet Free

Want help growing your SOLO business? Visit SmartHustle.com/solo

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SmartHustle.com/guides

Work with Ramon One-On-One

Are you a coach, consultant, speaker, author? Work with Ramon One-On-One. Schedule a session here

Ramon’s clients work with him one-on-one in 90-minute sessions to give them clarity and point them in the right direction.

He helps them with sales & marketing, content marketing, being a better speaker, and other questions in regard to growing their business.

Schedule a session here