41:52
SUMMARY KEYWORDS
collaboration, people, hero, industry, business, create, friction, grow, talk, growth, year, apply, understand, folks, engaged, target, leverage, market, service, methodology
SPEAKERS
Damon Pistulka, Chad Jenkins
Damon Pistulka 00:02
All right, everyone, welcome once again to the faces of business. I’m your host, Damon Pistulka. And I am excited for our guests today because we have none other than Chad T. Jenkins from seed Spark, here today talking about proven methods to create exponential growth. Chad, thanks for being here today.
Chad Jenkins 00:23
Damon, such a pleasure to be with you. Thanks for having me.
Damon Pistulka 00:26
Yeah, I’m excited to talk today. I mean, you’ve you will talk about your book that came out recently just added a zero. Talk about that, we’re going to talk about some of the things that that you do helping business owners and business teams learn how to add a zero to the revenue. I mean, I just I didn’t want to say that add a zero to revenue a few times. Because when you think about what that is, I was thinking about before we came on, I mean, that’s a lot when you do that. So yeah, good stuff. Well, we always like to start out Chad, by having you kind of explain to us how you got into this in what really, you know, was the the beginnings in how you got into seeds, bark, and helping people do this?
Chad Jenkins 01:12
Sure. Looking way, way back, and being aware that most people’s drive is driven from fear or greed, mom was a little bit of both, I realized what my father made within a rough order of magnitude annually. And it scared the bejesus out of me. I did the reverse math to understand what that was by the month by the week by the day by the hour and even by the minute. And it was a number that frightened me, the first thing I did was add a zero to it, because I’m a little bit ambitious. So that started way back when I began to have to look at things going up on a farm in a little bit of an unconventional light, to see how I could combine them to create more value than what they were already known to do. And then turn that into a business. So starting back at eight years old, I began to do that a little bit out of fear. And then also, of course, a little bit out of greed, I want it to be better and bigger. And I’ve continued doing it in many different industries up until right now. And I continue to do it today. This proven then served me very well.
Damon Pistulka 02:17
Awesome. Awesome. So as you’re as you’re moving along, you know, you’re talking to people about creating this, this very rapid growth. What are some of the things that you’ve learned? Because every, you know, not many people, and I say everyone in this hard statement, many people are going to listen to what you say. And so sure, that’s for somebody else. So what are some of the apprehensions that you you hear in these first conversations with people
Chad Jenkins 02:52
I love, the one that you hear so often is we can’t do it now because or there’s no way that would ever work work. That recalls. And they fill in the the afterwards of because, and I would strongly encourage them to look at it just a little small, different light and say, yes, we could add a zero to our revenue. In your example earlier. The very first thing there my mind is going to do is tell them all the reasons that they can’t. And I would encourage them to use the word unless, because whenever you frame it, and you apply unless to whatever you’re trying to accomplish. Naturally, your brain says no obstacle, obstacle obstacle, will turning those into actually the way embracing those obstacles by utilizing unless when you’re framing the argument to yourself, it is empowering. So we hear them all the time. And over the years have definitely tried to apply that methodology, and making my solution have to be bigger than my objective. So you mentioned just at a zero earlier, certainly the title of the book. It’s something that I’ve used over and over and I still do it today. If we want to go to 10 What would happen if we would have to go to 100. And the first thing your brain is gonna tell you all the reasons that that would work. And I would strongly encourage Why don’t you just apply unless to that, and then really start unpacking those things that would have to be true to make will your overall objective become a reality? It is the building blocks or one would say the path to making that become a reality.
Damon Pistulka 04:29
Yeah, that’s right. It’s that is that is the way you do it. Because your your mind is going to say no right away. Because we we all our minds try to protect us but they are not really helping us, not necessarily helping us. So what are some of the things as you as you see people starting to do this? What are some of the realizations that they begin to make?
Chad Jenkins 04:54
So one of them is this is another strategy that I apply on a daily basis? In I’ve coined it remove the film. So film stands for friction identification, leverage the market. So oftentimes the organization’s I’m engaged with, and I shared that I tend to look at their resources and just a little different light. I’m also looking at their frictions, it is very easy to pick up on those, because they’re going to share them with you. Typically, within the first 10 to 30 seconds of a conversation, they begin to give you the fuel, or the capabilities to create immense value with what they have existing in their own business, and potentially even a breakout or an opportunity to break through into a different segment of their industry or a service offering back to their industry that begins to really create competitive advantage for them. So I see that being realized over and over and over the unless that as mentioned earlier, it’s looking at things a little different light, and then seeking out the friction. Whenever you find that friction, again, really easy to understand, because you can hear folks throughout the organization complain about the things, I ask a couple of questions to validate. How big of an opportunity is this? The first question that oftentimes if I were to spend my time resolving this friction, is it going to resolve and only help the business that I’m working with? Or the second question is, would it help all the businesses that are in that industry in a local market? And then the last question about all the businesses that are in that industry, in the national market, or the international market, those particular yeses, and they stack on top of each other, they begin to light a fire inside of me, that makes me want to not only solve that, but then also understand the commercialization of the solve. Because oftentimes, if you solve it, the folks in your industry are experiencing the same thing. And you have some built in relationships that wouldn’t take very much to make them guys, those guys clients.
Damon Pistulka 06:58
That’s very, very cool and interesting. The friction, take the friction and turn it into an industry advantage. That’s very cool.
Chad Jenkins 07:10
Yeah, there’s a little saying that I have that I only ever want to be in an industry long enough to figure out the how, then I want to turn around and sell the hell to the Who’s this friction identification, leverage market? is the building block to enable that to become a reality as well.
Damon Pistulka 07:26
So say that one more time, you want to be in you don’t want to be in industry long enough to learn the how,
Chad Jenkins 07:32
yes, no, I, my passion is figuring out a way better way, not just a better way. Oftentimes challenge myself as I really am intrigued about a business model. To the extent that I can understand the how, then beyond that, I’m more interested in turning around and selling the How to the Who’s that are in the industry, you’ll find that, that pays a lot better. You’re not beholden to the confines of the normal margins of that industry. And for the time that you’re in that industry, being a good contemporary, you’ve made relationships gone to conferences, you likely have some built in relationships that could become your first client.
Damon Pistulka 08:13
Yeah, very cool. Industry line, learn to how
Chad Jenkins 08:19
to sell the hell out of the whose cell, how did the who’s
Damon Pistulka 08:23
well, we got Aisha here. Thanks for being here today. And if you’re listening today, drop a comment. Let us know where you’re coming in from. And if you’ve got questions for Chad, let us know that as well. So as as you’re moving around, while this is this is great. Friction. So it was an example of this kind of friction that you’ve uncovered in an industry before if you can ensure that that would be something so we can relate what that would mean.
Chad Jenkins 08:53
Yeah, sure. So long ago, I happen to be in the wireless business out of an agriculture store, like a tractor supply that I grew as a very young and early age, the gentleman and Kimber on come along and wanted to sell me this particular wireless device. They were very helpful, you could press a button and instantly talk to somebody on the other end and dictate the outcome. So I definitely aligned with the speed of impact there. And I ended up buying them for the business I was in. But I inquired with him. I said, not only can I understand the impact of the business that I’m in, but I’m pretty sure this would be impacted a lot of businesses I was maybe 2021 at that time. And I did start that business. Basically, on the Cleary, fundamental of make it easy for people to do business with you. One particular friction in that industry was those phone types. The mobile communication device was used in the construction industry prolifically so I simply set up the entire city, like an ice cream truck route and had guys and gals go around. To all the production builder neighborhoods where every brick mason landscaper drywall guy, backfill and grading contractor name it, they were all there, including the production homebuilding guys were also in the neighborhood. So it’s basically like bringing the store to you. That was one friction that was able to leverage that particular market and grow exponentially along the way, because it is my my wiring, I seek out friction and try to harness it. One commonality that I was able to realize was everyone’s invoicing was messed up, their bill was just growing people using these things more and more, there were some metered connections on your text message and, and even some of the minutes to be able to use the communication device. So it’s really hard to keep up with if you had a few phones, and you had a couple of 1000 phones is virtually impossible. And that was common, no matter what size organization that I was serving, it was all the same. So you begin to unpack and look at the facts as well. So what are some facts in that industry, we’ll take a look at ALMA, people have to understand the right plans, they do change these rate plans to garner new and attract new users every month. And since I have to know this, if you do pi, just a little bit of Excel and trending analysis and forecasting, and just play matchmaker rate plan to usage that particular service offering that people thought I was crazy and very begin, I would charge $20 to right size, the your plan to usage habits save you a lot of money that I thirst for recurring is probably the best way. But I seek out recurring based businesses, I’ve been changed quite a few project based business into recurring is an impact enterprise value. So at that particular one, it took me all of about two or three months to do it for a fee. And I turned it into a recurring service model. That is ultimately what we got me into software because I was growing that thing way too fast. I could hire people and train them how to have a great conversation with customer service, and also how to spot trending and forecasting patterns that ultimately got me into software. But that little change your phone plan for $5 per month ended up being a $20 million recurring business in a matter of just a couple of years. foundationally remove the film, fix identification, leverage the market, I continue to get yeses in every question that I asked. And just looking at the resources that I had at my fingertips, and combining them a different way, created an entire service offering that greatly impacted my competitive advantage. Who would you like to buy all your phones from the guy who’s going to watch your bill, or the local store down on the corner that is happy when you come by, but they’re not reaching out to serve you. So that was kind of a game changer in an industry some time ago?
Damon Pistulka 12:51
Yeah, that’s a great example too. Because, you know, everybody had the phones, everybody had the plans, but no one that connected the fact that they were spending a lot of extra money because they weren’t watching usage or whatever it was at that time. And, and number of phones and all the other things and that service probably saved them. Multiples multiples and multiples of that are millions
Chad Jenkins 13:15
upon billions of dollars. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. Very
Damon Pistulka 13:19
cool example. So when you talk about growing businesses, fast like this, now, there’s gonna be a lot of people that listen and say, Well, I’m not that kind of business. I’m a manufacturing business. I’m a construction business. I’m whatever. What do you have to say about some somebody that’s coming from that angle?
Chad Jenkins 13:39
Yeah, for growth. For me, a lot of it’s a math problem. You just had a zero concept. And you can take your revenue, and certainly do that and say, there would be no way I could ever do that unless, no matter what the business type is, there is a way in every industry that exists on the earth today, there is one guy or one gal who’s crushing it in the industry. And yes, we all hear this, oh, the markets doing this, the market is doing that. I hear you. But I come from not a whole lot of education, but just some very simple principles. Until I have 100% of the market. I am concerned about what the market is doing. But there’s still room for growth. For me. It’s between what is happening, I’m sorry, between what is happening between my ears. This is actually limiting me or holding me back, no matter the type of industry. So if you have 100%, and yes, that’s dropping by 20% a year. Sold, I believe you but until you have 100%. And there’s opportunities for you to gain market share, or potentially as I mentioned earlier, take all those resources that you have in that manufacturing business and really look at them and the authentic expression like what’s it really what you really have, not what it says on the outside the label, not what everyone else calls it in your industry. But what is this? What is the capabilities of this person, place or thing that you have in your business? And I I’d encourage you to look at those and try to recombine them. From a standpoint of serving, whoever it is, that is your hero target, who you want your business to be a hero to, what you will likely find is with small modifications, you can begin tomorrow creating competitive advantage and removing the shackles of the conventional margins in your business. So I certainly hear what you’re saying. And I would just encourage you to look just a little bit deeper and peel that onion back a little bit more, there’s a lot more value in most people’s businesses than meets the eye.
Damon Pistulka 15:29
Yes, yes. I’ve experienced that too. And in both myself previously in manufacturing, where you would think that, you know, how are we going to grow, we’re already running this hard this fast, all that kind of stuff. And then someone says, Well, if you embrace it, 24/7 schedule and set it up, right and do those kinds of things. And, and, and I’ve taken companies through that. And that’s an it’s an incredible way to drastically change your paradigm of what you can do, if you can, if you can do those kinds of things. That
Chad Jenkins 16:04
yeah, there’s one other little concept that I use often is future money. So future money is a lot easier to spend this 24 by seven that you talked about, well, we have to have a very qualified person to do that overnight shift. Where are we going to find them, we can’t, we can’t afford to pay them in, I would hope that most of the folks that are on the call, they’re having someone run a model on the potential outcome and impact their legacy business with this new expansion or this new in your example shift. That once you can understand that profitability, and you’re working with folks who are very comfortable in their capability, what I have found over and over and over, aligning yourself with folks that think like that, and given them the opportunity to participate in the performance in the outcome. One is empowering to them. Second, they’re married to the outcome themselves, don’t have to do a lot of management, which of course, in this situation, we have a whole nother shift we have to manage. I think that gotta be really on point, I’m looking for the absolute best guy to do that. And to take that home. I’m going to split future money with him personally, and removes a lot of those obstacles that folks have that are holding them back from really growing.
Damon Pistulka 17:16
Yeah, yeah. And honestly, when you get to that point to where you’re doing something like that you’re you’re usually playing with. And accountants don’t like to hear this, but you’re playing with margin sales, right? That you’re you’re above your breakeven, and yes, so if I’ve got a 40% margin, I’m really making 40% on every dollar above my breakeven, even though the accountants like look at it differently. And, and yes, if I keep growing the business and on margin money, yes, you can’t survive on margin money, you can’t do the right things, if you if if it is, but when you want to look at raw dollars you want to make on an annual basis, you can make a lot more money. If you understand that concept. And go, you can say now our market is segmented. And we can sell into that with our margin pricing and completely dominate that. And
Chad Jenkins 18:06
just dominate. Yes, sir. Yeah, yeah. That, that being a piece of the overall strategic plan for a period of time, including leveraging collaboration for growth strategies, makes 1,000% says to me, yeah, most of the things and everyone on the call most of the things you’re doing today, the probability of 100% of them being done this year, this date, one year, I’m sorry, this date one year from today, is very low probability. So let’s make plans that move the needle today with a consideration for the long term, and just work it into the overall strategy. Folks don’t do that, man. It’s this convention convention convention. And I’m definitely not a me too, guy.
Damon Pistulka 18:47
Awesome. So you just said something that that I’d like to dive into a little bit further. How do you help the clients do that? Mean? How do you help them get moving today on the things that can make me because a lot of people are going to analyze this to death? Oh, yes. Stay towards convention, you know, you name it, there’s gonna be a lot of reasons why we’re going as as we have, so what are some some real things they can think about to help move out of that? Yeah, that’s
Chad Jenkins 19:20
a great question. The being able to grow through collaboration being definitely a fundamental of that I don’t see taken advantage of so often in many businesses, they want to grow, they’ll go away and make big plans for the next year. Leverage the sales team do it the conventional route, we’re gonna put more reps in the field. We’re gonna have more marketing, qualified leads, and all of that does make a lot of sense. And it’s great. One strategy that I’ve seen be extremely effective. If you just take a look at it in our class I referenced earlier here your hero target the one that you want to be a hero to your business. that particular hero target is doing something before they ever engage with your business. And if you inspect them, there’s a commonality into your desired hero target. They’re engaged, before they engage with you, with a people a place or a thing, you might consider engaging those and I have found the most abstract, not, not the one that comes immediately to your mind. There’s many businesses where a CPA would be great beforehand. And that’s awesome, then guess what everyone else can think that too. But I encourage you to think about what your hero target is doing before they take the action to engage with you. And you’ve got to swap the clients query them, I’m sure they’ll be happy to have a conversation with you. But dig if you can deeper for the abstract things that they’re engaged with beforehand. And then leverage collaboration with that person, place or thing before, so that you have now effectively doubled your sales team or even more, because some of these collaboration partners that come before you do with your hero target are sizable in nature. And they’re also looking for unique ways to grow. So growth through collaboration being a huge one, I would encourage you as well, as we all have great conversations on a daily basis. That’s awesome. But I encourage you to name it. And I’ll give this example if you had a baby and I had a baby. And luckily, thank God I have, we don’t call it the baby, we give it a name. But I find oftentimes in people’s businesses, they don’t do that. So they’ll come up with a unique strategy to add value to whoever it is their hero target is, but they don’t name it, they’ll call it a series of deliverables or tactics that they’re doing in their business, but they don’t give it an identity. So when you think about collaborating outside of your organization, and leveraging that as an exponential growth strategy, I would strongly encourage you to name it is in I’ve really done a lot of work here and understanding there’s multiple stages of collaboration. But the very first stage is identify what comes before you. And as an example that I gave, and also what comes beyond you, when it is what you do do the best that you’ve ever done it for your hero target, they inevitably have to take a next action. And you’ve been doing it so long, you kind of know what that is, that is yet another collaboration opportunity that comes beyond your conventional business, that if you would consider engaging, identify those and engaging them in Luckily, there’s no cap on them, you can have as many of these as you would like. But name that collaboration between the two, that’s in stage one, because now both of you have something that you can hold on to. And if you’ve done a great job, this new value that you can create for your hero target combining what came before you and potentially what came after you. Second stage, you can add it to your website. Now it’s an actual service, which is a combination of value created with what exactly you know, is along the growth journey of your hero target. So give that thing a name. Take it to your website, they can also take it their website, you’re not doing anything different. You’re doing what it is that you started doing in the very beginning, you’re just doing in concert now, adding more value to your hero targets journey and making it easier for them to do business with you. So that that’d be a key and a critical item that I see most are not taking advantage of. Yeah,
Damon Pistulka 23:27
yeah, because as you said, you’re really trying to enhance the the hero’s journey, by helping them prior helping them during helping them after, and working together with the best people doing it. And that collaboration is pretty powerful. And who
Chad Jenkins 23:47
better to make that filter, you do it every day, you know who does a good job and what comes before you because sometimes it gets to you and it’s a hot mess. We’ve all experienced that. By the same token, after the fact, you’ve done an excellent job. And sometimes you touch base back with that client again, and they talk about the horrible experience they had, when they took that next action. They really wish you would be in that business, there’s an alternate way that you might want to consider that you could get started tomorrow. Now go and invest in a bunch of money, not go in and hire an additional talent. These are things that you already know, inherently yourself. And you’re likely already bumping elbows with some of those service providers that are sort of in your space. But we don’t look at it that way. And the art of collaboration seems that it’s past most of us bias and Me me me don’t want to share my secrets. I just want to get big and take over the market. And then and I don’t think it really works that way. He put us all on on the face of ours for a reason. And the more that I the more success that I experience. I can track backwards to the openness of being in collaboration with others to deliver more value than the next guy.
Damon Pistulka 24:56
Yeah, that is so true. And you just hit something It just drives right to the core of me because I have people that will say, Why do you just? I mean, why do you just share so much? Why don’t you just help people doing, you know, at me should be charging people for that kind of thing? And I’m like, well, at the end of the day, that’s never done anything but expanded my opportunities. Just
Chad Jenkins 25:23
Sir, Yes, sir. Yeah, I feel like this, while we’re put here, the rest takes care of itself, and you just focus on others. And that, that the hard to refute? The ones that are me, me, me, they struggle a lot. I don’t want to live that way. I’d much rather help the next guy as much as I possibly can, I’m gonna learn something. In doing it, it’s my job to find the value out of the interaction when I help someone else not there’s sort of there’s an exchange of money in some examples of service provided by one of the business zone. I understand that. But I get that pretty quickly, in all industries with this methodology. Yeah.
Damon Pistulka 25:56
Yeah. Well, and that that collaboration to really when you’re collaborating, any of this is in any process, right? If you if you are a cog in or a a portion of a process, and you better understand what happens before you. And what better happens happens after you, you can create much more efficiency throughout the entire journey. Because you you are then aware of, okay, I’m working with someone before me, what’s the best way for them to hand off whatever it is process people, whatever you’re doing to me? And then if I’m working with the people after what is the best way that I can prepare what I’m doing to make it more efficient for the person behind us, or the service or whatever it is. And when we look at those, that is often some of the biggest challenges that people have to get things done.
Chad Jenkins 26:52
Yes, sir. Yeah, and you’ll hear about them complaining. Those are frictions that could be harnessed and embraced, and potentially even create a new industry, which I’ve done a couple times, at a minimum being in collaboration with those folks, you’re tripling your Salesforce ID, we’ve all heard it, you’re engaged with somebody in the person is, a lot of times a service technician. It’s so authentic, the referral that they’re giving, that you absolutely want to go do business with this person, like they’re pre sold, you haven’t picked up the phone yet. And it’s a mind share, because they’re teeing it up, and helping hand it off the correct way, making sure there’s not a ball drop, and just looking at the entire situation, specifically focus on that hero target. If you immediately start creating competitive advantage, you’re talking about low hanging fruit to change your business from somebody else’s, it is not that difficult.
Damon Pistulka 27:47
Yeah, and seriously, industry disrupting.
Chad Jenkins 27:50
Yes, sir. Yeah, when I talked about naming it earlier, fast forward, it’s been five years, it’s been seven years and, and you’ve done a really good job, and you’re in collaboration with the front and the back what comes before and after year. And, oh, we’re starting to recognize the market starting to ask or whatever this named service is that combines all three of you, you have began to now separate yourself completely. And there’s not a lot of compression on your margin. Nobody has enough for it. Right? And you’re beginning to change an industry. It happens we can look backwards at certain examples has happened before and for where the consumer or in my example, the hero target, has begun to ask for. He doesn’t want to buy those individual parts and sort of put them together himself. There’s somebody out there now who delivers the whole thing is a package. That’s the gun and they want to deal with make it easy for people to do business with you.
Damon Pistulka 28:42
Yeah, make it easy. So give a couple examples that if you could I just Just so people listening can understand wherever they’ve done that change that now consumers are the customer, the hero is asking for those kinds of things. Oh, yeah, we’re,
Chad Jenkins 28:56
we’re you’re buying one thing today, where you used to have to buy three or four things before. In other words, in countless industries, that’s the one that really comes to mind. In an automobile, this is the easy one, right? And you’ve seen dealers do this, it hasn’t wasn’t last 10 years to get you in the finance office, they’re gonna go ahead and sell you three or four years worth of service. What about the guy who deliver service just himself, and I still do deal with some from time to time that are individuals. But I will tell you, for my wife, who I expect as a hero target for quite a few folks, potentially even on the call, she has access to some resources and she likes the finer things in life for her to be in a high higher end automobile dealership. And for her to be able to make one transaction in the end the delivery of value is for the lifetime of that Lexus did this a great way whenever they they gave you a service advisor and every time you came you got a loaner vehicle. Right now. Most of the things that we own they bring one to us Nothing goes out of warranty way, way before she has nothing, no idea about maintenance or the cost of anything. But you let that thing start to go close to the time that they’re not going to bring her a vehicle. And it all be included, it’s time for me to trade it. Literally, those guys have figured out one who is the decision maker right now your hero target. The second being able to combine multiple things that are alone, that hero targets journey to make it easier for them to do business with you. And they’re greatly increase our revenue. And guess what a lot of them are getting paid on the front, is depending on the type of engagement that hero target items are financing that stuff. So not only do you get one sale, you get a whole lot more revenue, you get one sale a whole lot more revenue, and you get the factor on the money, I guess a gadget. So that’s just an easy one to spot. Yeah, and
Damon Pistulka 30:47
that is a great example with that, you know, even just to the point, like you said, bringing the car out for maintenance has to happen or that but even just having all the maintenance included in the purchase of the car.
Chad Jenkins 31:00
Just do it all at one time. You’re gonna experience Yeah, just make it easy for people to do business with. And that came before. Right? If you didn’t do that. Everybody has Charlie’s right down the street. And when it breaks, he fixes it. Yeah, yeah. Little different requirements today in the hero target. And to the degree if you have some of the dealerships that are not offering it, which I daresay most of them do. Now they understand the financial impact. If they didn’t, it’s a competitive advantage. Right. Yeah. Why? It’s Lexus or above for a long time. Why? Because they they have a vehicle for it that just makes your life easy.
Damon Pistulka 31:33
Yeah, that’s a great, that’s a great point. So why do you think people stay inside their, their comfort zone? And don’t think about these kind of things? I mean, because what you talked about is a low cost strategy, it’s a way that you can really, you can leverage so much faster. I mean, they just are so tuned into their own business, is that what it is, or what is that they’re
Chad Jenkins 32:07
tuned into their own business, and you know, maybe they’re in a country club, maybe they’d like to play golf. Some of your friends, I’ll show you a future, they’re surrounded by the five closest people they’re surrounded, it ends up being who you become, right? So you got to be challenged to be very careful with that. The concept and the name of the book, just add a zero. Tomorrow, hear me just add a zero, unless your profit or your revenue, and say this is no way this can happen. Unless, so I think so much of its mindset, we become beholden to our five closest friends and sort of what they’re experiencing. There’s a big old world out there, there’s a lot more folks that think similar to the way that I do, I would employ you and encourage you to just apply some of the strategies that you’ve learned today. And if you want to have follow up conversation and really unpack something, I am always naturally curious about the practical application of the theory, because I constantly try to break it. In my attempt to do so I typically uncover ways to actually make it and make even more of an impact. So it’s a it’s a thirst for knowledge, and then a unwavering thirst for curiosity. That helps drive me. Yeah,
Damon Pistulka 33:19
yeah. Good stuff. Good stuff. So you, you what, what, what really was the origin story behind writing the book?
Chad Jenkins 33:37
I’ve had a pretty diverse pass. Yeah, never. If you sit there and just unpack all the different industries and the businesses and started and how one led to the other and led to the other led to 10 others. So at face value, it says, Oh, that’s a lot. It is. But it isn’t, there was when I really slowed down enough to take a look backwards, I found a lot of commonality in the methodologies that I applied to many different industries, and many of them I’ve shared today. So the book itself, the catalyst was to empower others, who feel like they’re just they’re tired of getting the same old results or feel like they’re running on a hamster wheel. And I’ve never really felt that way. Typically, federal, like the rules, I just changed the game. Some of the methodologies I’ve shared with you today empower you to be able to do so. Because it’s not as hard as it might feel, looking at your particular business or your particular industry. And we’re hearing a lot of the same and before too long, it becomes the reality and encourage you to listen to others, because there’s a lot of folks out there that they will not take the Mi two route or the conventional answer as gospel. There’s always a way better way not just a better way.
Damon Pistulka 34:49
Way better way, not just a better way.
Chad Jenkins 34:51
Yes sir. Way better way.
Damon Pistulka 34:53
That’s good stuff. So as you continue to help company. I mean, you’ve you’ve helped numerous companies with this numerous companies, your own other companies doing this. And one of the things I think is interesting, I mean, you still have companies, other companies than that you’re you’re operating your own and those kinds of things. And are you applying this into your companies?
Chad Jenkins 35:19
Oh, yeah, definitely. So today I have between 15 and 18 different operating companies that are wholly 100% ownership. And I have a couple that are in partnership, a growth fund, and I’m sorry, an investment firm with growth funds up under it. That is, by and large, yesterday, I applied these strategies to whole types of operating companies, ones that I own, and many, many that I do not do the ones that do not own in collaboration. So I mentioned earlier, if if you have a lot of confidence in what you can create, those folks typically don’t trade time for money. I’m one of those. So I’ve created a collaboration model for engagement, that partners on all future upside. So in essence, I don’t cost anything. And we we share in the upside together. So that I enjoy finding these strategies and sharing these strategies. For a long time, I only did it for those who I was serving. But it wasn’t official, I would share wisdom that I could see or vision that I could see of combining resources, they’re at their fingertips. Why because I was serving them. And I could just completely inspect them like on the operating table. Until the last few years, I finally set a methodology that’s nothing new without a who, which means I can start another company without somebody to run the day to day. So that was never throttling to me for just the way I’m wired up the sign in create value. And then, since that’s a limiting factor, also begin to recognize there’s a ton of organizations out there that I could collaborate with for growth, and help them along their growth journey, and just participate in the upside. So effectively, I didn’t cost anything. So my nothing new without a who, and my methodology of growth through collaboration began to formalize together as a complete business model to help others grow. And that’s where I spend my time these days.
Damon Pistulka 37:18
Yeah, that’s awesome. That’s awesome. I saw that you posted that earlier today about nothing new without a hook. And you referenced Dan Sullivan, he talks about in his book and, and that’s, that is tremendously powerful. And starting to do that in my own life, because you really do need to do that to leverage. Like you said, the collaboration, the the just the benefits from it, and really to help others succeed as well. Along the way, what, so nothing new without who,
Chad Jenkins 37:50
yes, how
Damon Pistulka 37:51
long? How long have you really embraced that.
Chad Jenkins 37:56
Nothing new without a who is definitely since the end of first quarter. Last year, I had three new startup organizations that I had began to formalize. And I was getting a little pushback, I’ve got wonderful leadership teams. And each and every one of these op codes, and I have a leadership team, this overall the op codes, and I have an innovation manager and the innovation manager began to push back on me says, you know, we can certainly keep doing this and I can see the value that’s created. And it’s really going to impact those markets very positively. But you might consider, we can’t find enough who’s for the amount of value creation opportunity create, that you come up with. So it really started about the end of first quarter. And the culmination of really pushing that together, with growth through collaboration, to formalize it as a business model began at the end of second quarter beginning of third quarter. Now it’s well underway, I’ve got organizations all over the world that I’m engaged with helping grow. And it’s just very rewarding and a lot of fun. And these guys are they’re actually experiencing it. So it’s not just hey, take this for a ride and think unconventionally, when you begin to think this way, and apply these and you don’t have to go make a sizable investment to be able to move the needle, you can start tomorrow. It’s very rewarding within the first 3060 90 days, they begin to see that impact and see it come back to them. It’s as as rewarding as any company I’ve ever started and seen it crossed the one in the 10 and the $20 million mark, which I promise you is very rewarding. But this is equal to if not more.
Damon Pistulka 39:27
Oh, very cool. Very cool. That’s awesome to awesome. Hear that it’s working out well for you doing that. So what do you what are you looking towards the future just really excited about this nothing new without a who or what, what’s happening for you in the in the 2020 and beyond.
Chad Jenkins 39:45
So as you can tell these, these methodologies, I can’t stop because I just continuously look at ways to create a much bigger outcome with less effort. So that in itself, I’ll just continue doing the growth through collaboration. I have a goal of 100 To grow collaboration partners by the end of 2024, and we’re well on our way to doing it. So I’m gonna see exactly where that takes me. Long term planning serve, we always have goals. And I have directions because I never really look at anything as a finish line. It’s just an evolution. So right now, we’re going to target 100 By the end of the year. along that way, I already know because I’m starting to study it, what are the commonalities in the application of these methodologies, that I can potentially even package up as a complete methodology potentially been a franchise? So I’m excited to see exactly where 2024 takes us. And then of course, beyond, and I’ll pick up the beyond as we march through quarter after quarter.
Damon Pistulka 40:48
Awesome. Well, that’s great. That’s, that’s really cool. That’s really cool to add. Wow, thanks so much for taking the time of being here today as explaining about what you’re doing with seed spark and your collaboration and nothing new without a who and man, just the valuable nuggets you were dropping today about this, you know, talking about your hero, collaborating with people before and after, and then just looking at things differently to really unlock new opportunities in your business. Thanks so much for being here today.
Chad Jenkins 41:24
Oh, it’s my pleasure. I really enjoyed the time. Thank you very much for having me. Yes.
Damon Pistulka 41:29
Well, thanks so much for those of you that are listening today and I Aisha for dropping the comment today and thanks all of you that will be listening on future replays of this on YouTube and the podcast channels with us. We will be back again later with another awesome guest. Chad, just hang out for a moment and we’ll wrap up. Thanks, David. Thank you
