[00:00:00] Previously on part 1 of Jeff's Turn Around Story, I kept saying to myself, right now
[00:00:08] I'm a total slave to my business.
[00:00:10] Total slave to my business and if I ever want to get it to the point where my business
[00:00:14] is serving me, I know I got to start at the foundation.
[00:00:18] You can't build a skyscraper on a sandy beach, you have to have a solid concrete foundation.
[00:00:24] Jeff Schneider's inbound marketing firm, Marketing Ninjas was on the edge of failure.
[00:00:30] But Jeff was determined to keep that from happening.
[00:00:33] In December 2012 he started working with his coach Mary Reidman to rethink his business
[00:00:39] and put a solid foundation in place that would finally help Jeff scale beyond himself.
[00:00:45] Doing that meant being willing to let go of his addiction to chaos and last minute projects.
[00:00:51] It meant learning to value his own time.
[00:00:54] It meant making room for strategic thinking in a day already filled to the brim with technical work
[00:01:02] and it meant taking the risk of saying no to the wrong clients so he could make room for the right ones.
[00:01:11] She said, I just encourage you to try it.
[00:01:13] Just try it and I said, it's scary Mary.
[00:01:16] And she said, yes it is but you need to try it.
[00:01:19] So I did it and low in behold within three weeks replaced that client and we were making twice as much revenue from them with the same amount of work.
[00:01:28] As he grew the business Jeff shifted his focus to making the right hires
[00:01:33] and defining the brand that would not only attract good people but give his customers an experience they couldn't live without.
[00:01:40] In part two of Jeff's story, we'll look at how he's built a business and a culture
[00:01:45] that he and his team are truly proud to be a part of.
[00:01:49] I'll be continuing my conversation with Jeff Schneider and his coach Mary Rydenon on this month's episode of On It, a production by E-Mith.
[00:02:06] I'm Martin Kamenski CEO of E-Mith and you're listening to On It where I interview business owners like you
[00:02:12] and the coaches that support them about what it really takes to build a business that works.
[00:02:18] If you'd like to see change like this in your business schedule a free session with an E-Mith coach at emith.com slash free session,
[00:02:26] that's e-m-y-t-h.com slash free session.
[00:02:30] Here's the final half of my interview with Jeff and Mary.
[00:02:34] So Jeff you have a formula that you know works
[00:02:38] and now you not only have a right product mix in mind but you're also zeroing in on your ideal customer.
[00:02:48] And what have the results been like for you now?
[00:02:50] Now that you're operating in that specific zone.
[00:02:54] Oh it's it's been amazing I mean it's you're talking about a pivotal shift in the way that we do business.
[00:03:03] What we realized in working with Brent and doing the project on the condo and then later with the homebuilders
[00:03:10] that we really we confidently tell people now that we've cracked the code on digital marketing for homebuilders.
[00:03:17] I mean as long as somebody has got the budget to forward the packages that we work on
[00:03:22] that we work with, I can guarantee them a positive return on investment by the end of their contract.
[00:03:28] And that it's just the level of confidence is absolutely amazing.
[00:03:35] And because we're getting such incredible results now like 2000% marketing return on investment in a month,
[00:03:42] 2000% consistently.
[00:03:45] So with those kinds of numbers now I thought why are we even doing business with any other niche?
[00:03:50] I mean we know this one inside out backwards and upside down.
[00:03:53] Why work on you know any other kind of a business now at this point?
[00:03:57] And so in the last few months probably the last four months we've kind of gone on a little bit of a client firing spree.
[00:04:05] And we've as contracts have come due and we're ready to renew, we've been saying you know what?
[00:04:10] We feel that right now we're no longer good fit, we're shifting our business,
[00:04:15] we're moving into this area and but we'll make it around the next.
[00:04:19] It's not you it's me exactly yeah yeah yeah well it's um it sounds like
[00:04:27] you've you've really zoned in on on the product mix that fits right for you,
[00:04:32] the clients that you know you can serve.
[00:04:35] And so you now have the people you have the people you want,
[00:04:38] you're even turning away the clients you don't and you're making more money with fewer clients.
[00:04:45] How do you start to think about defining and systematizing the customer experience
[00:04:51] that you know you want to be known for?
[00:04:53] That came back to our to our brand commitment and
[00:04:58] that was one of the pieces that when we were first creating it was kind of a frustrating process
[00:05:04] because I knew what I wanted to create but
[00:05:08] we didn't we didn't hit it out of the park the first time like it took a bunch of iterations
[00:05:13] before we really felt like okay yeah we nailed it but now that we only offer I mean we
[00:05:20] offer different levels of service but we only offer one service to one niche it became really easy
[00:05:26] to create the systems for that program but also doing it in a in a frame of mind like
[00:05:34] how are we going to wow our clients and that's where the brand commitment came in.
[00:05:38] Did you do mine could you just share it with us could you read it to the people listening here?
[00:05:43] Yeah yeah so our brand commitment goes like this in every interaction our clients feel that
[00:05:49] they're working with a real person who genuinely cares about the success of their business
[00:05:54] they value our level commitment to building a relationship and educating them in ways to reduce
[00:05:59] their marketing stress. Our clients have a tremendous amount of trust for us as we become an
[00:06:04] integral part of their operations. We share in their excitement when they see the results of
[00:06:08] the services that we provide and they will say these guys are awesome and become advocates of
[00:06:14] inbound marketing and evangelists of our brand. I mean it's alive that that statement is alive right?
[00:06:22] What you people listening don't have the pleasure of knowing is that I'm I'm seeing Jeff right now
[00:06:28] and I can see him reading a copy of that off of his desk and so is this on is this on everyone's
[00:06:35] desk in your office? Every one of our team members has the brand commitment sitting right beside
[00:06:41] their desk. We embody that part of it. I tell people we're the furthest thing from a stuffy
[00:06:47] suit agency like we come in wearing you know casual clothes we have a lot of fun we joke around with
[00:06:55] each other we reply to clients with memes like you know you rock and like just stuff like that
[00:07:02] and we have a lot of fun we crack jokes with people when we go and go to a client meeting it starts
[00:07:08] up with hugs you like just we're just so different than anyone else and we just focus so much on
[00:07:15] wowing our customer. So Mary when you when you make a brand commitment you want it to be a reflection
[00:07:23] of the owner of that business right? Do you feel like this brand commitment is Jeff? Oh huge every time
[00:07:29] I hear it I read it and when I hear him read it personally I get goosebumps it's very alive
[00:07:36] it's very vibrant and I can just and I know that his whole staff embodies that because of course
[00:07:42] I talked to him and I've talked to some other staff and a really an interesting piece in there I want
[00:07:47] to mention is that one of his recent hires said that after two weeks of working there she said it's the
[00:07:53] best place she's ever worked. Wow so this is I mean so it's carrying through not only to your
[00:07:58] customers but also in the way that employees feel right that they have a clarity about how they're
[00:08:03] supposed to be right? How are you supposed to show up at work and now they have their marching
[00:08:08] orders they know exactly what you want of them in terms of their interactions. Yeah it's huge that's
[00:08:15] that's a very very big part of what keeps us moving forward. You mentioned in the brand commitment
[00:08:21] this idea that you really want to know customers personally what does that mean for your business?
[00:08:26] How do you how do you make that show up in your interactions? Well a lot of it comes up when in just
[00:08:31] casual conversation that you're having with people and we make sure that we know about that kind
[00:08:36] of thing and we share that with our team. We have an internal messaging system called Yammer it's
[00:08:42] like a Facebook messenger but it's just for our team internally and so if we find out something
[00:08:48] about a client then we'll post it up and share it with the team and yeah we just I think it's
[00:08:55] that personal touch and I think that for a lot of businesses out there that personal touch is really
[00:09:00] missing. If any of your customers given you feedback about it like are you hearing it reflected to
[00:09:06] you that they're picking up on it? Oh yeah yeah yeah I mean like not all the time but enough
[00:09:13] that we know that we're doing it right enough and we know that we're doing a good job. And that's
[00:09:17] the only real measure of success is seeing it seeing other people seeing your customers bring
[00:09:23] it back to you and say wow I love how funny you guys were in this thing I love how casual our interactions
[00:09:29] yeah I mean when you can walk into a client meeting in the first thing you do rather than shake hands
[00:09:33] is give that person a hug. You know that's a pretty good relationship you've nurtured it you've
[00:09:39] gotten it to the point where it's for us that's how we want to interact with people like
[00:09:43] I just I keep looking at it as like I don't know when somebody new joins our team we say welcome
[00:09:50] to the clan you know play on the whole ninjas thing but it's like family that's what I want like
[00:09:56] my grandfather was a was an entrepreneur it started a business and I had the opportunity to
[00:10:01] work there for a little while and the people in that place just blew my mind like everybody loved
[00:10:08] coming to work they'd stay late no one was whining about overtime they'd all do whatever was
[00:10:13] necessary to get the job done and they had fun and that how the lasting impact on me and I just
[00:10:20] realized like that's what I want in my business too. What is that like for you Jeff to see yourself
[00:10:28] systematized? Do you do you does it a strange experience at all to feel like like just the way
[00:10:34] that you are is worth putting on paper and having it be rolled out and and shared with your team
[00:10:42] well it's it's really cool to see because it's really starting to become more more apparent every day
[00:10:48] you know especially as our team grows like we just hired our seventh full-time or she started on
[00:10:53] Monday and you know again like hire for culture but they have to fit they read our brand commitment
[00:10:59] they understand our business before they ever you know move on to the second interview and
[00:11:04] and we almost put more emphasis on they have to fit with our team in our culture and be able to
[00:11:09] live our brand commitment before we even start looking at qualifications like I'll take
[00:11:14] somebody because they're a better fit with our culture than then you know we can train skills.
[00:11:21] So as your team is growing here right and you're starting to think about culture for so many people
[00:11:28] listening right now building a culture in their business is the thing it's like the thing that
[00:11:32] everyone knows they need to do and nobody knows how to even begin thinking about how did you approach
[00:11:40] building culture in your business I knew what I wanted and that was really from that experience
[00:11:45] being working with my grandfather at his shop and I knew that that was the kind of environment
[00:11:51] that I wanted to create but I wasn't totally sure how to go about it we worked a lot with Mary on
[00:11:58] on finding the right people one of the one of the biggest things that we did
[00:12:04] I was actually looking to hire an assistant because I knew that I need to get work off my
[00:12:08] plane focus on more strategic work and by fluke friend of mine introduced me to this this
[00:12:14] guy named Carolyn and he said he knows she's got all this experience in business she's being on
[00:12:20] systems you should go and have a meeting with her have a coffee I thought yeah okay I mean this is
[00:12:25] a guy that I put a lot of trust in and so if he says pay attention as something I pay attention
[00:12:30] and so I said okay I'll go have a coffee with her and in my mind I was already thinking like this
[00:12:34] isn't that fit I don't need an operations person I need an assistant and so we went ahead of coffee
[00:12:39] and we just like within minutes like totally connected and you know she told me a bit about her
[00:12:46] and we laughed and talked about what we were into and she told me more about our experience and what
[00:12:51] she's really looking for where her heart leads her and what's important to her and I walked away
[00:12:56] from that coffee going I need her I don't need an assistant I need her because she's like as close
[00:13:02] to cloning myself as I could like lives where's her heart on her sleeve big into systems wants to
[00:13:09] grow businesses that's what she's involved and that's what she loves and she's passionate about
[00:13:13] and bringing her aboard was like so pivotal to our organization she's just she's like I have a few
[00:13:21] business angels around Mary is one of them Carolyn is another one and she just she just dove right in
[00:13:29] and I told her up front I said we're doing this e-miffing and it's like it's not negotiable it's a
[00:13:34] part of our culture and our core so you shared things with her you like you shared the vision the
[00:13:39] brain commitment with her before she even signed up oh yeah we have a vision and a brand commitment
[00:13:45] our values and I want to share that with you first before we have another coffee or we talk again
[00:13:50] because I want to know that that that resonates with you because if it doesn't then let's not waste
[00:13:56] each other's time but then we got real personal after that and I said like what motivates you in
[00:13:59] your life what are you passionate about you know she asked me the same things would you have been
[00:14:03] prepared to answer that question two years earlier not at all not at all no so Mary how does it feel
[00:14:11] to hear that a client of yours your e-miff client is about to bring on board someone who's a lover
[00:14:18] of implementing systems right this is like it's like Christmas right it's amazing and and not only
[00:14:26] she a lover of implementing systems but she's a perfect fit for the culture and what I'm noticing
[00:14:32] here and what I'm feeling in this conversation is it's the best of Jeff coming through in his company
[00:14:38] culture and that's what he's created in his business is the best of him is being reflected out
[00:14:42] in the culture and in the brand commitment and in the people that he's hiring and it's it's really
[00:14:48] gratifying as a coach to be honest in an in in a systematic way bringing people in that fit
[00:14:55] the culture is something you are helping him with by introducing the idea of a hiring seminar
[00:15:01] what is that what is a hiring seminar how do what does it look like oh a hiring seminar is where
[00:15:06] you have a group of candidates and you bring them all in to one place at the same time
[00:15:11] and you basically talk about the business and you could share the brand commitment and just
[00:15:16] observe them and see are they interested do they look bored are they falling asleep did they
[00:15:21] arrive on time do they ask questions and you can get a really good sense of a lot of people
[00:15:28] quickly without having to do a whole lot of individual interviews this is different for you right
[00:15:34] Jeff my previous interviewing experiences were very different Casey came aboard when I mean he
[00:15:40] was our first employee and yeah he just felt like a good fit so we brought him on board there was no
[00:15:46] system or method or anything to that one the hiring system or the hiring seminar was amazing
[00:15:52] and that's actually Carolyn and my wife Serena implemented that with Mary's help
[00:15:58] and we hired our our first gal Amanda using that method and it was interesting because by the time
[00:16:06] what was done we kind of debriefed and they told me like you know okay we have a general scoring
[00:16:10] of all these different candidates I noticed this about this person did you pick up on that I know
[00:16:15] it's that about this person and it really quickly we narrowed down to a very very small shortlist
[00:16:20] and then had them back for another interview and I mean we we hit it out of the park like it's
[00:16:26] and Amanda was the one that said after being here for two weeks this is the best place I've ever
[00:16:31] worked like so we just it worked impeccably like it was just amazing so she's coming on board
[00:16:41] and I heard about this welcome letter that she received tell what's the story behind that yeah
[00:16:48] I don't get goosebumps again this um so I can't remember how long Carolyn had been with us at
[00:16:56] this point I think maybe um a couple of months um and so we did this hiring seminar in a short
[00:17:04] list it we chose our candidate sent them the offer letter they said yes and so Carolyn and I were
[00:17:09] both working late one night and she shoots me this email and says hey this is the welcome email
[00:17:14] that I want to send to a man that I just want you to look at over real quick first and it had like
[00:17:20] you know information about the position and what our what our um uh dress code is and you know
[00:17:27] what to expect the first day a little bit about the building things to bring along bring a notebook
[00:17:31] in a caucuma again yada yada and your sense of humor and it was it just it's taught me in that moment
[00:17:39] and and and just I got all emotional about it after reading it and so I got up and I walked
[00:17:46] on my office and I walked into Carolyn's office I'm like hey you got a minute and she looked up at me
[00:17:51] and I was teary-eyed already and she was like oh my god what's it matter and uh I just said I just
[00:17:58] like I just need to get real with you for a moment is that okay and she said sure and and so I
[00:18:03] just told her I just I started gushing to her and I just said like you've really struck a heart
[00:18:10] string here after reading this email and it doesn't really have anything to do with the email but
[00:18:15] but the realization that you know we've hired just an amazing person and I said I'm just so impressed
[00:18:22] with everything that you've done so far and you're you're embodying our values and our culture
[00:18:28] and our and my vision and I'm just realizing now finally that I have somebody else on my team that's
[00:18:34] helping me move this whole business forward because Carolyn works like 95% on the business not in it
[00:18:42] and I said like it's bigger than me now like that was the realization in that moment that it's
[00:18:48] bigger than me now like the business is growing when it's not just me working on it all the time
[00:18:53] because that's what it used to be it would never we would never progress unless I was doing it if
[00:18:58] I didn't work we weren't progressing and it was just that in that moment realizing like we're
[00:19:04] we're pushing forward we're progressing and the other big thing from that email too was that it
[00:19:08] just totally hit our culture like it was whoever in their life has received a welcome email that's
[00:19:15] like up here's what to expect it like that just it didn't seem the norm for me and I just remember
[00:19:21] like I realized in that moment I would never have had I first of all never would have thought of it
[00:19:26] was second of all never would have had time to do something like that and like so I just you know
[00:19:33] so then she starts gushing and like I love it here in the values and it just resonates with me I
[00:19:38] like this is the coolest place and I'm so happy to be here and I just love you and serene
[00:19:43] of the death and and then we had this big hug and it was like okay okay my two years and we all kind
[00:19:49] of went our own way went back to work but it was just like a really really it was a really
[00:19:53] special moment for me and and like you know I know all my staff's gonna listen to this so like
[00:20:00] shout-out to our team I love you guys everybody at our cult everybody in our business is just
[00:20:05] so amazing we have the best team ever and I just can't say enough about it like our culture is
[00:20:11] right where I want it to be and and everybody feels that I'm sure and I get this feeling like you
[00:20:17] did it like you created what you set out to create starting out from from one overworked person
[00:20:26] in the basement of its home in the basement to building something that so many people feel connected
[00:20:34] to and feel proud of right and and because of business is a reflection of its owner we would also
[00:20:42] say that as great and wonderful as that team is that says a lot about you and how you're showing
[00:20:46] up in that team and what you are for them so that's got to feel pretty amazing too yeah I
[00:20:54] it talk about a turnaround story going from couldn't quit my job if I tried and hated it because
[00:21:01] it was destroying my life to like no one loves Mondays more than I do like I am so in love with
[00:21:07] my business right now nobody has any idea I have to tone it back when people like how's business
[00:21:14] because I just like you want to play out get so excited and just go on and on and I'm like oh
[00:21:19] you know they're just being polite and you know so I'm like it's real good it's real good
[00:21:23] you know but yeah I just total turn around well we we want to know we want to know we're curious
[00:21:31] and we thank you so much for sharing this story with us and if you send me the names of those
[00:21:37] businesses who turned you down for the jobs back then I want to forward them a copy of this podcast
[00:21:43] so they can just check in and hear where you're at today I think they'd love it thank you
[00:21:49] Jeff sincerely for sharing your story it's an amazing one and an inspiring one I think for
[00:21:54] probably a lot of people out there struggling with some of these same issues and Mary thank you
[00:21:58] for your time today and also everything you did and brought for Jeff and the impact that you've
[00:22:04] had with him it's really as you can see it's touched not only him but everyone that his business
[00:22:10] touches so it's been an honor a total honor yeah yeah I talk about talk about ripple effect you know
[00:22:16] and that's we're having an impact on people's lives it's not just the game in business you know
[00:22:21] it's personal it's really personal and and the heartfelt thank you to all of you guys too
[00:22:27] and what you do because you've changed my life I'm not just my business but my life I'm getting
[00:22:34] emotional now but like seriously I would have drowned and probably gone bankrupt if I hadn't
[00:22:43] stepped up and made this equipment and it was the best damn thing I ever did so honestly I wish
[00:22:49] I could hug you guys I really yeah I just it just means everything to me thank you I'm right
[00:22:54] I'm right there with you and it's so important so thank you for giving that those a huge gift
[00:22:59] for me just to be able to hear this story and to share this time with you so thank you
[00:23:06] thanks for listening to Omnit by Emeth if you like the show don't forget to leave us a review on
[00:23:12] iTunes or like on SoundCloud and as always you can schedule a free one hour session with an
[00:23:17] Emeth coach at emeth.com slash free session that's emyth.h.com slash free session