002 – Brian Basilico – It’s Not About You, It’s About Bacon

Hello everybody, Neil Ball here. Thank you so much for joining me today on the entrepreneur way. The entrepreneur way is about the entrepreneurial journey. The mindset, the commitment, the sacrifice, failures and successes. I am so excited to bring you our special guest today, Brian Bascilico. Albert Einstein said, to raise new questions, new possibilities, to regard all problems with a new angle requires creative imagination. Because of that, the entrepreneur way asks the questions, so we all get the insight, the inspiration, and the ideas to apply in our businesses. Brian, welcome to the show, are you ready to share your version of the entrepreneur way with us?

absolutely Neil, thanks for having me man.

Thank you for coming. Brian Bascilico is an internationally recognised best-selling author of ‘Its not about you, its about the bacon.’ Relationship marketing in a social media world. And he is a sought-after speaker, coach and … professor. He brings over 35 years of marketing experience to his award-winning, internet marketing company ‘B to B interactive marketing inc.’ Brian is also a syndicated pod-caster, blogger and a sought after guest expert featured in Entrepreneur and Inc Magazine. And has written articles and pod-cast shows. Brian, can you give me some insight into your business and personal life to allow the listeners to get to know more about you and who you are please?

Well sure, let me start with a little bit of background of where I came from. I think it is  probably the best way to kind of introduce what I do. I started out at 18 as an entrepreneur. And started a recording studio in my father’s basement. Did that for a number of years. Then moved on. I got a degree in electronics and started working at ATT in their video production department where I learned how to do video productions, shooting, editing, producing, all that kind of stuff. Great experience, excellent learning experience. Moved on and built a commercial recording studio where we did radio commercials, audio for tv. A Whole bunch of different things like cassettes, for avon ladies, remember cassettes?

Yeh I do.

Years ago. And I ended up selling that company to a multi media production company where I learned to programme, I did cd roms and websites and flash animations all that kind of stuff. Still doing some audio and video and things like that in there. Ended up to moving on to Arthur Anderson and their training division and worked with them for a number of years and then of course the whole Enron thing happened. So I had to find another job, and moved on to an ad agency where I developed online marketing such as Google ads and all that kind of stuff. And then started really getting deeper and deeper into the internet marketing side. And eventually left that and started this business 15 years ago. And when I first started it, I was actually building business card cd’s and as we all know just like audio cassette cd’s, they have kind of gone to the wayside now everything is online.

So I have had to evolve my business over the years and now I focus on pure internet marketing, social media websites, google, all that kind of stuff. Anything online and that is kind of the journey that got me to where I am at today.

Right, excellent. And what is you enjoy most about what you do right now?

Well what I really enjoy, I mean the most enjoyable thing is watching other people make more money. That to me is the most enjoyable thing, so included in that is you know, I do a lot of teaching and training and that to me is what I really enjoy. I love teaching people how to do stuff.

mmm. because you have obviously had a lot of experience doing lots of different things there. So what is it that drives all of this in you? because there is obviously something in you that makes you, you have written books and you have got your own business and you are doing what you are doing. So what is it that drives you?

Well what drives me is well here is the thing. Because I consider myself a life-long learner. And so I love learning new things and one of the things I say to my clients and when I give speeches and things like that is I spend the majority of my day learning things so I can teach other people how to do it. So that is what drives me, it is just staying on top of things, because if you don’t continue to learn you start to become obsolete. And once you become obsolete man, it is hard to catch up again. So it is especially in this ever-changing world. I mean things are changing daily. You know, you log into facebook and it is different and linked-in is different and you know you have got blabs and pod-casts and periscopes and all this other stuff. So, you know I love learning all this stuff and then using it and then teaching other people how to do it.

Yeh it is good that you do that. So when you are not doing all this stuff and you are not learning this and doing what you are doing in your business, how do you relax when you are you know at home with your family? or whatever you do. What is it you get up to?

Well my favourite thing is to go golfing. I call them fore-hour nature meetings. FORE. And I get to go out and I get to go out and just spend four hours, hit this little white ball into a cup and it just really kind of gets me in my zen area where I get a chance to kind of mentally chillax for a little while. That is my favourite thing and I play music. You know I am a guitar player and singer so you know, I do that both professionally and at church and stuff like that. So that is fun too. Those are the things that I really like to do.

Yeh it is good stuff. So, did you have any entrepreneurial role models Brian?

Yeh theres tons. Here’s the thing about entrepreneurial role models is there are different ones for different aspects. You know there are certain people that are really great at online marketing. There are certain people that are really good at building a business, and I would call it more than role models because I like to follow alot of trending people. So people like Joel Cam, Matt Basak, Lee Collins. Russel Brunson, Warren Whitlock. Alot of these people I have had on my own pod cast. And then there is Ken McArthur and David Purdue. These are the people that are at the forefront of the internet marketing stuff. So I love to connect and follow them.

Yeh I have heard of a few of those, but not all of them. So I will have to check some of those out. But Brian, what I would like to do now is, I would like to move to the time before you were an entrepreneur. Now you said you started at 18, so I am not quite sure where we go with that. Ha ha ha ha ha. You don’t sound like somebody who is frustrated in a job and all of a sudden you wanted to become an entrepreneur. So anyway, we will see where we go with this. So, what difficulties did you have to overcome when you started your business at first or you started on the journey of becoming an entrepreneur?

Well I call myself a serial entrepreneur, because I did it, and then I worked for a company and then I did it and I worked for a company. I found out that I did not play well in the sandbox. You know, in the corporate sandbox. It just was not my place to be. So the major difficulty like anything else is really running a business. I mean it is one of the things that I say, it is if you cannot read a balance sheet or PNL statement, that you really are running a hobby, because you need to understand you know where your profit comes from. So, one of the biggest challenges. You know, there are different challenges at different stages. I mean starting a business at 18 was finding customers. You know starting a commercial recording studio and having 5 employees was really just managing the size of the organisation.

We did half a million dollars a year at the time, with five employees. And I spent more time dialling for dollars and pushing paper than I did doing what I really loved. And so that was something that I had to learn was you know I had to find my passion and get back into what it is that I love to do and that is one of the reasons why I love doing podcasting is because it brings me back to my audio groups.  So, that is the biggest challenge. The biggest challenge, it just changes over time. But you know, it is still the same challenges. It is where do you find new customers? How do you make them successful? How do you balance you know spending too much time in the business with the right amount of time? Where do you, how do you make sure you are getting profits? and that kind of stuff so.

Mmm very challenging. I think the numbers are always important. Aren’t they? I do agree with you on that.

Oh yeh

I think one of the difficulties of being an entrepreneur is you have got to learn so many different things. You are expected to know everything about everything. You know the law,

Right

You are supposed to know about your financials, about marketing, everything and I think that is the real challenge isn’t it? Trying to find the right mix of everything so that you get a successful business.

Absolutely, and the other thing that you also have to learn how to do is learn your strengths and learn your weaknesses. And then hire to your weaknesses, you know whether it is freelancers or you know third parties. I mean I do my own books but I still have an accountant who takes care of all my taxes. I don’t sit down and do that you know. The hire people – I am not a great  sales copy writer, so I hire people that do that. You know, you got to know where your strengths are and where your weakness are, and fill in those gaps.

yeh absolutely. So did you have any doubts that delayed you starting any of these businesses?

Not at all, I did not have any doubts. I mean once I made my mind up, I just hit the ground running and ran with it because you know I have done it before. I mean that is the beauty of starting at 18 is you know, I learned how to market back then when I was back in those days. We did not have computers like we do now. I did have like an Atari 400 and I did print newsletters. I would actually print it out and then cut it up with scissors. And then do some graphics and then paste it onto  paper and then take it to a printer and print it and send it out.

mm hmm

Those principles are no different today with email newsletters or blogs or podcasts or websites or any of those things so it is really just after I learned it at 18, I really did not have any hesitations at all.

Ok so with no hesitation you must have made some mistakes along the way. So what mistakes did you make that slowed your journey, where you went off in the wrong direction or something like that? made some bad decisions. Is there anything that comes to mind?

Oh yeh. We could do a whole pod cast on that. Ha ha ha. Seriously, the biggest mistake I made or the biggest challenge I had was when I had my recording studio, I did not have the right insurance and stuff like that. And it got flooded out with raw sewage and shut us down for three months. And that was just huge, you know I had no contingency plan, and it really kind of was a big, a super thing to overcome. You know the other mistakes are not understanding the audience at the right time. You know, it is having the right products for the right audience at the right time is what makes you successful, so.

Sometimes you are trying to do too much or second guessing and things like that. But you know, they are all you know the bottom line with all this stuff is you have to be as an entrepreneur, you have to be flexible. You have to be maliable to the environment and then you have got to continue to learn, so that is what the biggest thing I have been able to overcome is continue to re-invent myself.

Mmm hmm. And with all this wisdom, what are some of the things that you did before you started your business that would be helpful tips for some of the listeners who have not yet taken the first step on the entrepreneur’s way?

Well I think the biggest thing is with working with third party companies. Meaning with ATT Arthur Anderson, and the other things. I use those as training grounds and so the biggest advice I could give is before you get started, get as much training as you possibly can. You know. If you are working for somebody else and you are thinking about starting your business, go to night school. Buy some courses, do some things. Get the basics. I mean like you said, theres finance, theres marketing, theres sales. You know all those kind of things. The more you understand those before you get started, the better chance I think you have of success.

Mmm its good advice, in fact I spoke to someone earlier today who said exactly the same as that. So just moving things forward to your actual journey of being an entrepreneur, obviously with different businesses you have had, how do you think culture is important from the beginning in a business? Do you think it is something that is important, or do you think it is something you should think about later on?

No I think culture is incredibly important. Here is the thing, my book that I wrote is all about relationship marketing and I think the relationship marketing really starts with getting face to face. Getting out there and meeting people. So really understanding the pulse of the community that you are in and the pulse of the potential clients that you have. You know, it is incredibly important, you really need to be a good listener and figure that stuff out, so yeh. I think culture is incredibly important.

You mention your book there and in fact I am just fascinated by the name of it because you talk about the bacon in the name and it is all about the bacon. Can you just explain that, because I am intrigued by the name. And I am sure our listeners will be as well.

Yeh I will give you the quick readers’ guide to the story how it all came about. I started writing a book, it was a ‘how-to’ book on social media. I got three chapters in and figured out that the book was obsolete by the time it was done. Ha so I decided to change it to a ‘why-to’ book and the original title was ‘Its not about you, it is about relationship marketing in a social media world.’ I was out a conference speaking in Los Angeles with a couple of old clients of mine, that hired me to talk social media at a conference and George says ‘hey I am going to go on twitter I am going to say giving a speech chala2012#bacon and I am going to get ten new followers by the time we are done with this one hour presentation.’ I said what?

Mmm hmmm.

And she was completely wrong. She had 20 new followers in an hour. I went wow whats with the bacon? So I started. You know, I do a lot of networking and I go to a lot of breakfast meetings. So what I started doing is taking pictures of bacon. But you know, people were sending me messages saying ‘dude do you have a pre-paid plan with your cardiologist? you eat so much bacon?’ its like no, I really don’t. I eat oatmeal its opb. Its other people’s bacon. And it just exploded. To the point and I don’t know if you have seen and this is relatively recently, but it was a little baby. A video of a kid who had bacon for the first time. You know he was just laughing, eating, screaming bacon.

Yeh

That has been posted to my wall over 50 times. Because people associated the word bacon with me. And that is how I got the title of the book. It was actually a client of mine who said ‘this is the name of your book, its not about you it is about bacon’ I went, ‘that’s brilliant.’ Because the whole purpose of it is to create a brand that is memorable that people are going to connect you with. And that is really the whole purpose of it is by creating something that is fun, accessible, not devisive, it really created a brand where people think of bacon they think of me and it also makes them think about the kind of services and things that I do and I provide.

Mmmmm. It creates a certain amount of intrigue as well. I think because I have asked you that question because I don’t know what it was about so

Exactly.

So very interesting that. So knowing what you know now Brian, is there anything if you had known it when you started out would have helped you to shortcut the learning curve?

Yeh I mean it took me a handful of years to get into getting out to conferences and meeting people and that is really where I started to develop some higher level relationships and what that got me into is being coached. I never really understood what coaching was but once I started getting in working with coaches, my business really started to grow and expand and one of my philosophies is every doctor needs a doctor. Every mentor needs a mentor and every coach needs a coach. And so that is the one thing that I think I would have if I had known it earlier and how it is an investment, because I looked at it like, man I am not going to pay somebody 6, 10, 25,000 dollars for advice.  Why would I do that when I can get it for free on the internet? Boy was I wrong. Ha ha ha because that 10,000 dollars is whatever it is that you are paying, has a return on investment if you find the right person.

Yeh.

That 10,000 dollars could turn into 15. And that is how you amplify your income so much faster.

Yeh. I think that the problem with the internet of course is that it full of information and mis-information and you never know where one starts and one finishes really. Do you? so it gets a little bit confusing.

Right. and more important than that is a coach gets to know you and gets to know your habits, your strengths, your weaknesses and really helps you to maximise what it is that you are doing. You cannot get that for free on the internet. Theres no way.

Well you are sort of fumbling around aren’t you trying to find the information that you might stumble across. But the problem is you don’t know what you don’t know sometimes, so you don’t know how to look for this information I suppose. So Brian, how much does gut feeling influence your decisions in your business?

It influences alot of decisions that other people help me steer in the right direction.

Right ok. So you get the guidance as well?

You know, there are a lot of gut feelings out there but its like, ‘is this the right thing to do now?’ because it is what we call bright shiny object syndrome. you know it is like, have you ever seen the movie UP where the guy has the house and the balloons, and they end up on this island and there is the dog Doug. And he says, ‘my master gave me a collar so I can speak to you’ and it goes ‘squirrel’ you know, like. That is what gut instinct does alot to me, it tries to get me off on different directions and tangents and I tend to and thats when I really need to hunker down and focus on set a plan, get the step-by-step plan. Get it done, and then move on to the next thing, so it is really important.

Yeh. I was talking to my previous guest, he was talking about periscope for example, its an app isn’t it? in a website and things. He looked at that and did not feel that it was something that was useful for him. How do you feel about, what are your thoughts on periscope?

I love periscope and I

How do you use it?

Here is how I do my periscopes, I walk my dog every day at 3 oclock. And I call it Marketing with Buddy Guy. And Buddy Guy is a big black lab, a 100lb and he is going out and he is doing his social networking by checking his pemail. Now I only show him receiving, never sending. And that is part of what I do with the periscope. It is an easy thing that is 1-2 minutes. And it is something that I could put out there. And then there are other things like blab too. But herein lies the question that you have got to ask is. Is your audience on the other end?

Yeh

Are the people that want to be influenced by you that want to hear from you, if they are on the other end, then it is awesome. If they are not on the other end, then it is a waste of time.

Mmm hmmm. Yeh absolutely. So you find it, is it working for you then, would you say?

Oh yeh.  Definately, I can’t pinpoint a specific project that I have gotton from it yet, but I mean there is another example of when you never know its gonna come in, is I was playing guitar at church as I mentioned before, and the lead singer’s mom took a video of us, put it up on facebook and tagged me and the next thing you know, I get a call from a friend of mine who just landed his own church job down in Florida and said, ‘hey I saw the video of you and it reminded me that you do online marketing and websites and stuff, we need to re-brand our church, build a new website and start a new podcast.’ and I said, ‘dude you are at the right person.’ You know me not even posting something online, got a $5,000 dollar job.

Wow

So you never know when these things are going to kick in. You know and that has happened numerous times.

Yeh excellent, so life is about constant change, whether you like it or not and the only constant is change. So Brian, how do you keep up with change?

By continually learning and that is it, I just go online, I actually put time aside every single day, to go and focus on learning something new. You know. Thats really what I am trying to do is find what it is what I have got to focus on and just explore it a little bit and it has got to for example with blab or periscope. You know, maybe you don’t start out doing them, but maybe you go and watch some. And see how other people use it. So thats learning, so the way I stay up with change is, I try to read, I try to listen to podcasts, I listen to audio books, and then I try to explore what other people are doing and just keep continuing to learn and that is it.

Yeh you mention books, and actually that is the next thing I am going to ask you about. So what is your favourite book on entrepreneurialism, business, personal development, leadership or motivation?  and can you tell us why you have chosen that book?

Well its kind of hard just to pick one. Ha ha ha well theres a couple of different books. One of my favourite books on what I do is a book by Michael Hyatt called ‘Platform’ where he really talks about the basis of having a platform out there on the internet. And getting people to pay attention to you. Another book I really love is ‘go giver’ which is Bob Burg and that one is all about the more you give, its about creating a value proposition where if you give people more value then what they pay you.

Yeh

Then you are never going to have to look for a job.  And the other one is one by my mentor, his name is Al Ridder, its a pretty small book, its called ‘the hundred zero principle’ and the hundred zero principle basically what it is, it is give a 100% of yourself, 100% of the time. Expect nothing in return and watch what happens. And you know, a real life example of that is if you want to get a really great testimonial on linkedin which is a recommendation, not one where they click on and say ‘hey hey I endorse you for this’ it is a real recommendation. You give some really great recommendations and people recommend you better back. But you do it with no expectations and thats a way you can get some great testimonials that you can use in your marketing, so there is a real-life example of that.

Yeh some good books. I have read the Bob Burg book and I have actually come across Michael Hyatt stuff before but I have not read that book and I have not heard of your other book but I should check those books out. The sound interesting. Everyone, when you have a busy life, listening to audio books is a great way to expand your knowledge in the time when you may be doing other things, such as driving or when you are at the gym. We have a special offer for you, of a free audio book of your choosing. To choose your free audio book, go to www.freeaudiobookoffer.com as long as you have not already signed up for it, you will qualify. So claim your free book today. Now Brian, what I want to do now is, I want to do now is, I would like to fast forward to the future.

Mmm hmm

And just sort of think about a few things in the future, so what one thing would you do with your business if you knew you could not fail?

Thats a really good question. Well the one thing I would do in my business, is I would try to find other people with similar passions. And then turn it into more of a franchise. And create a system, that would be replicable with many different people. I think that would be the biggest thing, is create some kind of replicable system.

Yeh ok so, what sort of things are you thinking of with that? Have you got any examples of other things people have done that are similar to that?

Yeh well its not too kind of different from the duct tape coaching. Kind of thing. Duct tape marketing. And then there is also and I know Jeanie Levinson with Gorilla Marketing. I mean its, the kind of thing where they have systems and people become certified in it and they can teach other people how to do it.

…double your business.

sales ha ha yeh its one of those things when I am learning I am working very very hard at learning. There is no such thing as a natural born salesperson, everybody has to learn how to do it.

Yeh.

and you know its really finding the right prospect with the right need who has the ability to pay for what you have. That is going to make a business really sore and that is it. So I am constantly working on becoming a better salesperson. Not the shady kind, you know the car salesman. Not that kind of thing, but somebody who really understands how to create a need and connect people up with that need.

Right, I see. There is obviously a link between sales and marketing isn’t there? to some extent if you market a product its like selling the product, so there is definately a cross over between the two things but when you talk about selling, you talk about selling to somebody face to face or on the phone or in your marketing.

All of the above. Well you see the way I look at Marketing is Marketing is what draws people in. and it can also help you qualify. But the actual sales process itself, is when you are dealing one-on-one with somebody and you have to deal with objections and make sure that the value for them is going to have some kind of return in investment. So that your value proposition is solid. One of my value propositions are if I can’t make somebody three times what they spend, then I won’t do a project with them because they have got to pay for me. They have got to pay for their time. Because you can’t just hire somebody to all of a sudden make you money, you have to be involved in it one way, shape or form. And some people think they can, and it might work for a while but it does not last forever. And then the third one that you have got to make a profit. So my value proposition is for every dollar you spend, you have got to make three.

Yeh

And that is the same thing in advertising, you know. If you spend a dollar, you got to make two. It all boils down to, it is ‘is this the right fit for that person? and can they actually succeed with this?’ Thats it. You know, so that is kind of where the sales thing is.

Ok excellent, so, once you have acquired this knowledge in five years from now, if a well-known business publication was publishing an article on your business after talking to your customers and suppliers, what would you like it to say?

What I would really like it to say is that Brian is a social advocate that really understands how to prevent you from blowing too much money and actually making more money in a system that is straightforward, easy to understand, easy to implement. And really lives up to its promises.

Wow excellent. We are now at the part of the show where you share your three golden nuggets, so Brian what is your favourite quote and how have you applied it in your business life?

Oh there are so many great quotes out there. But my all time favourite quote comes from the movie, this is spinal tap, I don’t know if you have ever seen it? but the quote goes like this, ‘its a fine line between clever and stupid.’ And I have applied that to my businesses. You know I try to give everything I do some kind of litness test. Is this truly clever or is it stupid? You know. And we can do that, we can all throw money at problems and eventually just figure out we just blew a bunch of money. You know, so that is the one that I think is my favourite and there are so many great quotes. And from Tom Edison and I did not fail a thousand times to succeed once, I learned a thousand times to succeed once you know?

Its great mindset isn’t it? Ok so do you have any favourite online resources you would like to share that would be useful to our listeners?

Absolutely, well first and foremost I would love people to listen to my podcast which is bacon podcast and the reason I love doing the podcast is because I get to interview alot of internet marketing millionaires, and basically pick their brains and that is why I think it is going to be a great resource for your audience as and yours is going to be a wonderful podcast because it really gets to the meat of being an entrepreneur, what I try to do is get to some specifics, some marketing techniques that are very to the point. Blogging, podcasting, email marketing, autoresponders. You know and there are some mindset stuff in there too. You know about using coaching and doing masterminds and things of that nature. But I think that is going to be a really good audience for your audience.

Yep sounds good. So, what is your best advice you would give to other entrepreneurs if you could think of anything out of everything you have ever thought of?

Yeh the advice I try to tell all entrepreneurs, is you are not all that. You always need help. And to continue to learn as much as you possibly can. If you stop learning, you stop earning. You need to constantly re-invent yourself in this ever-changing world, because if I ever kept doing business card CDs or running a recording studio. With a quarter of a million dollars worth of gear and five employees. If I still had that today, I would be bankrupt, because you can now buy an app. on the iphone that does 10 or 20 bucks that does more than I could do then. You know so you have to continually learn, grow, adapt, re-invent yourself and make sure that you get help along the way. Get a mentor, get a coach, join the mastermind, do something. Where other entrepreneurs and they don’t even have to be in the same field as you.

Yeh

I am in a mastermind with somebody who runs a local small business, an insurance agent, you know jewellrey store. Because business is business. You all learn from different people’s problems, and different people’s situations, so get out there and get some help and show your face every once in a while. Its important.

Yeh some great advice that, in business it is very easy to become very sort of blinkered or tunnel visioned in the way you see things, and you can end up seeing things in your industry and their could be some great idea in someone else’s industry that you could take into yours and revolutionise things, and do things differently couldn’t you? So its always good to share perspectives. To get new ideas and grow your business.

Absolutely

Right, so everyone if you didn’t manage to get a note of Brian’s favourite resource, or his favourite book you can find the links on Brian’s show notes page. Just go to the entrepreneurway.com and search for Brian or Brian Basillico in the search box. Brian, is there anything else you would like to add about your business that you have not said up to now?

Not neceessarily, I would just like people to take the opportunity to get to know me better and you can find me at bacon podcast or b2b – im.com my main business is called b2b interactive marketing. So it is b2b-iam.com and on there you will find my blogs. On the podcast you will find the podcast. And you know I would love if people would connect up on any kind of social media, facebook, twitter, linked in whatever your method of choice is. Even pintrest. So wherever you want to connect up, I would love to connect up with you and your audience.

Ok thanks for that Brian. Its been an absolute honour having you on here Brian. You have provided some real useful insight into the entrepreneur way, you have inspired us all and you have certainly given us alot to think about. So thank you very much for coming on here.

Oh man thanks for the opportunity. I really appreciate it.

You are welcome.