Dave Braun
Okay, hey everyone! Welcome to the HireMyVA Team and Business Building Podcast brought to you by Yoogozi.com. In this podcast and and in HireMyVA, we help you to reclaim your freedom through hiring and thriving with virtual assistants without breaking the bank – without breaking your bank. And I’m Dave Braun and I’m here with Larry Broughton, domestic friend mentor. And you know, we’re traveling together through life. It’s a blast, my friend.
Larry Broughton
Hello, handsome, Dave. Hey, how are you doing? What is it that you get more handsome all the time?
Dave Braun
I didn’t know. Like I said,
Larry Broughton
Is it because of the hair cut or what is it, man?
Dave Braun
I’m trying, I’m trying to take after you. You know, you’re my mentor, I’m learning from you.
Larry Broughton
I’m on the downhill side. My friend. You don’t want to do that.
Dave Braun
I don’t know. Maybe it’s some of the stuff we’re going to talk about today. I dunno. Maybe enthusiasm for life, good stuff. Lots of good stuff happening.
Larry Broughton
New toys that you got?
Dave Braun
Yeah. Oh, one of these episodes I’m going to have to talk about my new toy.
Larry Broughton
Yeah, I think that would be good. Yeah. Cause it has to do with the efficiency productivity, right. That’s right. Customer experience or client experience. That’s probably a good idea.
Dave Braun
And notice everybody, we just opened the loop there in your mind.
Larry Broughton
Don’t tell the secrets, Dave, the secret sauce.
Dave Braun
Yeah. All right. Well, we got a cool topic to talk about here.
Larry Broughton
What are we talking about?
Dave Braun
You know, we talked a little bit about what we were going to invest in, you know, a year ago or we’re going to what opportunities and stuff we’re going to do for 2021 as we’re approaching the end of 2021 now, as we’re looking at 2022 and another month, or so we need to talk about what opportunities are we investing in both us together and individually and what are we investing in and potentially pursuing as we approach 2022.
Larry Broughton
You know, another thing we might want to talk about is like, what are some of the kind of breakout businesses we see really starting to take hold in 2022 as well. We always get to ask that question one more. It got some of these conferences. Yeah. That’s great idea. Maybe we can sprinkle a couple of those. Sure. Good. All right. We’re want to begin with my friend?
Dave Braun
Okay, well, I’ll begin, I’ll start. Alright, one of the things that we decided to do or in, for my business of Pro Website Creators and to work a lot for HireMyVA is we hired somebody to be our social media and marketing manager for that particular product line. Part of it is because, you know, Larry, we’ve got so much, so many great comments, people that are we’re helping with our White Glove Service, people are going through the course. They are just astounded in how awesome it is and the life change that happens when they hire a Filipino virtual assistant. I’m just, I’m telling the truth. I’m not bragging.
Larry Broughton
You’re absolutely right. The funny thing is just the tool, the amount of tools that are both of these programs, but the Victory program and the HireMyVA program, I call what what’s today? We’re recording this on a Monday, I guess we do a call on Friday. Or if you did one on Friday and the topic came up about just how many tools there are. So yeah. W we need the world to know more about what we’re doing. So yeah, absolutely. We got this done.
Dave Braun
You know, and I, and I think part of it too, is if you, you know, if you’re doing something that’s amazing and great, and your clients are getting a lot out of it, it’s helping their business, their life, whatever. I mean, it’s almost like your moral responsibility and layer. And I think you’ve talked about this, it’s your responsibility to tell people about it and, and to put the word out. And right now we’re investing in that. So that’s like a new adventure for us to have so many concentrating on that. And, you know, to be honest, it’s just, you know, we talk a lot in this podcast about strengths and it’s just not my strength at all. I don’t want to do it much. I just need somebody to tell me, do this. And that’s it. I don’t probably want to think about it.
Larry Broughton
You know what I mean? I know what you mean.
Dave Braun
Yep. Yeah. So that’s one of the things that we’re investing in. What about you? Why don’t you list one of them?
Larry Broughton
So, listen, I think now that, sorry, I’m taking a note here so I don’t forget. Now that it appears is that some live events are starting to happen again. I just spoken to the event last week and Idaho, I’ve got some really big ones coming up that I’m very excited about here in the next couple of months, I’m pursuing more speaking events and I’m was just chatting with Melissa today about a new marketing strategy to actually make that happen. Because frankly, you know, I, and you and I are a brand individually, Dave and brands are like anything. They need to be dusted off from time to time and rejiggered and relaunched. Right. And even that my brain from the speaking perspective is not been out there in the marketplace, really when pandemic began except for some podcasts and virtual events here and there, you know, it’s, it’s time to, to relaunch that. So I’m very excited about that.
Dave Braun
Awesome. Awesome. So one of the other things that we are, you know, related to what we said is the, you know, the HireMyVA White Glove service that we just launched over the last couple of months, and we were just gonna really double down on that and really, you know, tell people a lot about it more and more and more that’s and we’re in we’re continually tweaking it. You know, we have a team in the Philippines that are working on that with us, and as we get more clients going through it, we’re continually tweaking the process to make it more and more valuable. In fact, Larry, one of the things that I did is when we did the social media hire, I went through that whole White Glove service myself and found a few little minor things we needed to tweak
Larry Broughton
Oopsie. That’s what it was all good stuff.
Dave Braun
Good stuff. We were delivering. Great. Taken it from yeah. Taking it from an a, to an a plus. Yeah. Yeah. So, so that’s, that’s a good thing.
Larry Broughton
Yeah. Another thing tied into that is that most people who are listening to this know that we’ve got this Victory masterclass that we run based on the number one bestselling book Victory, and we’re gonna be doing more live classes on that. And frankly, we’ve got some more intensive coaching programs that will be launched around that as well. So we’ll have large group, live classes and small one-on-one coaching as well around that. That’s another one of those products they will, we’ve heard so many good things about it. So I’m, I’m really excited about that. That’s got legs on it, for sure.
Dave Braun
Yeah. Yeah. We’ve taken a, you know, a couple of groups through it and we’re getting such great feedback. It’s a fun program too. It’s great to see people connect with each other and see their businesses, you know, change.
Larry Broughton
Yeah. I would say if you’re part of a like large mastermind or a large entrepreneurial group, and you would like us to take you through it, like we did a group late last year, a couple of them were 30 people through it at a time which offers a discount. If we do it for a particular group, reach out to Melissa or Dave or myself, we’d be glad to talk to you about that. Like the retail right now, the value on the, not the retail value, I’m sorry, the retail sales price is close to $10,000 per person to go through it. But if you go through it as a group, it’s much more discounted than that. Why do you do that, Larry? Well, because Dave and I then have to do the marketing, right. To be honest with you, we’re most of us on this or listening to this are entrepreneurs and, you know, the, the amount of marketing dollars you need to spend to get a client. So if we go to XYZ organization, and they’re saying, Hey, we’ve got 40 people. We want to put through this and we’re going to use our education budget, guess what, Dave? And I don’t need to do the marketing. Right. And so it’s much more affordable if your organization or, you know an organization who might want to do that.
Dave Braun
Okay. Awesome. Awesome. Yeah. Another thing that we’re pursuing at Pro Website Creators is some SEO work. We’re doing it for a client now working on all of our SOP, our standard operating procedures and our reporting. We do it a little bit differently than other companies because we concentrate a lot more on getting, you know, we’re concerned with how it affects your bottom line, right? You got to make sales. And so we work with you to create a sales funnel, which Larry, you know, as we went through in the victory program, we taught that most don’t have anything really written down. And it’s important to have your sales funnel have your KPIs so that you know, where some of the obstacles are. Yep. So that’s that’s a fun thing that we’re working on.
Larry Broughton
Yeah. On the hotel side for us, we’re moving more into asset management, as well as operations and ownership. So I’m really looking forward to that. That’s going to be exciting. It’s kind of a new realm of done asset management individually for smaller projects, but not for hotels in the past. So I’m excited about, about that new venture that we’re starting to work on, but that’ll be fun.
Dave Braun
That’ll be fine. That’s great. That’s awesome. Yeah. And
Larry Broughton
Another revenue stream for the business.
Dave Braun
That’s great. And, and what do you think are some other trends going on? You know, we’ve talked a lot about the great resignation. You guys are probably hearing that everywhere, you know, and, and we’re trying to mitigate that through what we’re doing with our HireMyVA and Victory course and community where we’re in this podcast, we’re talking a lot about team building, raising your team up, raising your level of leadership up, you know, things to watch out for things to do, ways to connect with your team. And, and so that’s an area that we’re really addressing because I think given man given what’s going on this labor shortage, so to speak is probably going to go on for a little bit. Yeah.
Larry Broughton
I’ll tell you what I think are some trending new businesses or businesses that have not reached maturity yet. There might be opportunities for people. Would that be okay? Yeah. Sure. All right. this one, you may laugh that, but I’m serious. I think this is going to happen – space hotels. I really do think that that’s gonna happen. Okay. And so you may chuckle at it, but I do think you’re going to start seeing larger hotel companies start to start looking at that.
Dave Braun
Well, no, I was going to say, now that you’ve got some commercial space flight going on, all right, maybe the next thing, It’s like, oh, we’ve gotten a taste of getting into space and enjoying what that’s like. We want to stay a little bit longer.
Larry Broughton
Yeah. Yeah. Another thing I think this is going to take some real traction, I believe in 2022 and 2023 is vertical farming. I think you’re going to start seeing high-rises that go up? Not maybe here in the US to start with, but some of these desert communities, you know, Dubai, those types of places and vertical form, they’ll go up straight up instead of flat. Okay. And using hydroponic farming techniques, I think is going to be a big thing. I think the opportunity for marijuana cigarettes branded just like you see all the other cigarettes out there. I think there’s going to be an opportunity there for that. I think we’re going to see food trucks kind of really blow up. I think we’ve seen so many restaurants closed because of the pandemic. And so many restauranteurs are so talented, right? So many chefs who are so talented who carried this big burden of rent and payroll and all these different insurances. Now I say, you know what? I can do really well, practice my technique have a lot of fun without all of the overhead by going into food trucks. So I think you’re going to see that
Dave Braun
Related to that, related to that, one of the things that’s getting more and more popular and what we’re seeing, it was like, you know, the pop-up restaurants, right. People who would open something on a weekend. Now we’re seeing in some retail centers that they’re actually making dedicated space for you to come in and be able to rent that for a weekend. So that’s pretty cool.
Larry Broughton
Yep. I think with the proliferation of not proliferation, but the ease of 3d printers, I think you’re going to start seeing 3d print shops because people will be able to create their product online and then go to a print shop and pick it up just like you did at Kinko’s, you know, in the old days, I don’t, I haven’t heard of those happening, but my sense is that that’s about to happen. I’m going to end on a, on a good note. I’ve got two more that I think that come to mind. One is not so good. Maybe, maybe it’s good. I’m sorry. We know that during the pandemic, there’s been a lot of depression, anxiety, marriages have been breaking up at record rate, infidelities, been happening at a record rate since the pandemic. Right. And you can open up any publication and see that.
Larry Broughton
So I think you’re going to see an increase in the number of family, marriage counseling. So if you’re in that space, you’re in the psychology space, they don’t have, I’ve got a couple of clients who are kind of in that counseling space. I think there’s going to be an opportunity there. We’re gonna end on a, on a good note. Also, you’ve probably seen the stats about the number of the increased number of pets. People have adopted dogs and cats and other animals during the pandemic. So what’s that mean you’re gonna need more veterinarians okay. Or a people that veterinarians are not to expand their practices. Right. So I think you’re going to see that a lot. Those are some of the things I’ve talked about with, with friends. I think you’re going to see that six or eight different industries. You’re going to start to see, really take a foothold in 2022. And it’d be interesting to go back in December of 2021. I mean, in December, 2022, to look back and see, what, what did you guys talk about in December of 2021? See, one of those actually happened. Yeah.
Dave Braun
And I think there’s always going to be those great fundamentals. You know, you talk about investing, investing in your business is obviously important, but probably number one in my mind thinking is investing in yourself. You know,
Larry Broughton
I just talking about this and I was jerking your chain a little bit
Dave Braun
You were know, like my little tool thingy that I got to hear about some other time I got, that’s investing in myself and, and Larry, what’s interesting about that and we’ll talk about it more, but you’re in, it helps to know yourself enough to know where you should invest in yourself at. So like one of the things that I’m doing right now investing in is like, there’s a, I’ve done it with a couple books. This is the second book, but you know, I’ve told you about redeeming your time, right? So I’m getting the written book and then I’m getting the audio book as well. And so I’m gonna trying to maximize my learning through visual and audio and, and I’m really enjoying it. I’m really enjoying it. Only going to do it with select books because we can get so many books and, and, and you know what, so now what I’m finding is I’m going back and forth between a couple of podcasts and, you know, listening to a book and it’s, it’s helping my learning.
Larry Broughton
So I think a lot of people know I’m dyslexic. I do a lot of audio books. I do. I’m a pro I’m a pretty good reader nowadays, unless I’m tired, but you’re right. Books are a little more academic. I do what you just mentioned. Okay. A little more heady than I do. But if it’s like, I’ll just tell you as an example, I went back and didn’t reread, but I listened to for their first time animal farm. And a lot of us read that right. Years and years and years ago. But instead of reading, I thought, you know, this is a light, mean, it’s a heavy topic. If you don’t know what animal farm is, you know, it’s basically what’s happening today in allegory. Right. But with what’s happening today. So it’s a, it’s a heavy topic, but I thought I don’t need to actually read it. I can just listen to this while I’m out walking the dog or doing things around the house. Right. But there are other books that are more academic or heavy and concepts that I do both the audio and the reading at the same time.
Dave Braun
Yeah. Yeah. That makes a lot of sense.
Larry Broughton
That makes sense. How are they investing in yourself, David, that topic? I’m not going to say where it came from today, the conversation, but the messaging is this. And I was jerking your chain a little bit. It was about, for those who are wondering, we’re just talking about a client of ours and what we want to encourage people to do. There are times when you’re going to have to buy a depreciating asset, right? There are things that you have to do that for the short term. Good. It will help you, right? Yes. But what’s an appreciating asset that you can invest in? that’s should be ourselves. Absolutely. The more we invest in ourselves, the more we learn, the better, more valuable we become. Not that you don’t have value today, as you are, no matter how you show up, you have value, but you have more value to your family.
Larry Broughton
More value to your team members, more value to your community, if each day, you’re trying to get a little bit better. So there are real investments that you need to do in yourself. And that might be therapy for crying out loud. It might be a, it might be a entrepreneurial leadership training program. It might be a seminar, right? It might be a workbook or whatever. So you get concepts in your head and in your heart that make you a better person. So you are an appreciating asset. You, you got to invest in yourself and it doesn’t mean money all the time, but it means effort, energy conversation that you have with people, honesty, integrity, authenticity. Those are real things that absolute value if your entire world
Dave Braun
Yeah. You know, like that the man’s group that we’re in, we have invested that time into commitment and commitment and ourselves. And it’s, I’ll tell you, Larry, it’s, it’s producing a crazy return. That’s right. Crazy return.
Larry Broughton
Amazing. What, 90 minutes or two hours a week.
Dave Braun
Right? Yeah. And, and the other thing I wanted to bring up before we close is I think it was Jim Rhon who, you know, the personal development person, the guy who was like almost one of the grandfathers of it, talked about how to allocate your money, talked about 10% goes to savings, 10% to church or your charity. And then they said, do 10% invest in yourself and live off the rest of the 70%? What would it be like, Larry, if we were able to take 10% of our income and invest it back into ourselves, what kind of person would we become? Yeah,
Larry Broughton
Yeah, yeah. It was crazy. I’d do the count. And I used to share it in the masterminds, remember this. So I went through and listed all the amount of dollars I spent on college university, executive programs, seminars, books, and it was a huge, a therapist say therapy, therapy, therapy, and more therapy. It was a big number. I had to go back and find that number. Now it’s like in the hundreds, like mid six digits, if I remember correct,
Dave Braun
It was a lot!
Larry Broughton
Was under 300. I don’t know. It was a large number. Right. Can I look back? Who would I be? Where would I be? Had I not made that investment?
Dave Braun
Yeah!
Larry Broughton
You know? Some of it absolutely well spent huge ROI. Others, not so much, but what I’m always trying to do is can I get one golden nugget from this program, right. Or from this conversation or from this podcast or book, right?
Dave Braun
Yeah, yeah,
Larry Broughton
Absolutely. Absolutely. We could go on this for a long time, but it’s probably about time that we start wrapping this thing up.
Dave Braun
Well, I think we should. So hopefully you guys can take one, like Larry said, one thing out of this, it’d be awesome. Thank you everybody. For being with us today, it was fun. And remember building a team, investing in your team is a great way to invest in yourself, but it is really the way to reclaim your freedom. And we’re here to help. I can’t say that. We are here to help you with our course and community and of course our White Glove Service, where we help to find a rockstar VA for you. So three things we’d love for you to do right now. And we’d really appreciate it. Number one, subscribe to this podcast, if you haven’t already done. So either on your iPhone or Android phone and then on YouTube by hitting the subscribe button and clicking on the little bell, that’s right next to it, to get yourself some reminders.
Dave Braun
And then number two, give us a rating, preferably five star or you know, and leave a comment below this video and talk about what are you thinking what’s going to happen in 2022 and, or comment on some of the stuff that we talked about, any comment, because it helps us get the word out with the algorithms. And then number three, go to Hiremyva.com for more information on our course and community and our White Glove Service. Remember even without experience, you’ll learn how to prepare for hire and thrive with virtual assistants and we’d want to help you. We’re helping folks, now we’ve got a couple of people going through the White Glove service right now. They’re so excited and we’re looking forward to seeing how their business has changed through what we’re doing.
Larry Broughton
Yep. Hey, my friends, we love you. And we’re glad that you’re on the team. We’re glad you’re on the journey with us. Dave and I always thank each other for being on the journey. I hope that you have a traveling companion through your life, that you can share some of your intimate and authentic and real moments with. Life will change for you. When you finally do that, most of us go through life alone. All right. So do yourself a favor. Do the world a favor. Go do something significant today. Alright my friends, God bless you. God keep you, God hold you. Go do something significant today. Go, go, go!
Dave Braun
Go now! Bye.
