Paul Maskill Joins Us On The Steve Jobs Inspired Join Up Dots Podcast
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Introducing Paul Maskill
Paul Maskill is today’s guest joining us on the Steve Jobs inspired Join Up Dots business podcast.
He loves nothing more than building, scaling and then selling local businesses.
He is now on a mission to help other local businesses thrive in their own industries, without losing control of their hours, health and minds.
As he says “In 2011, after less than 4 years in Corporate America, I knew there was more to life than just do a job that’s “okay” for 40 years and then retire & enjoy life.
I ventured out and started my first business in 2011.
I was soon working 60-80 hours a week with a business that couldn’t survive without me.
So I started systematising everything while empowering a team to run the business better than I could.
How The Dots Joined Up For Paul
Before I knew it my revenue doubled to almost $500k while the number of hours I worked dropped below 40.
I then sold my business for 3x net profit.
I have since done this same process again with another local business while also helping other business owners automate & scale their business so they can leverage their business to build a life that they love.
Having been the one connected to my business 24/7 and working 80 hour weeks, I realized there were 4 issues we all face:
1. We struggle to get everything done and instead our #1 goal is to just survive the day.
2. We need systems & processes to scale but we don’t have time to implement them.
3. We can’t find good help to scale (and we don’t have time to train them)!
4. And we have no time to work ON our business
So is a system purely automated or does it blend with personnel too?
And where do most people go wrong in the beginning, as its hard to see what you should be doing when you dont know what you should be doing?
Well lets find out as we bring onto the show to start joining up dots with the one and only Mr. Paul Maskill.
Show Highlights
During the show we discussed such weighty subjects with Paul such as:
Paul shared why he quite simply had to get clear on his personal vision to then build the business that he wanted.
Why the local business market is such a big win, and should be our first port of call when we are starting out.
How so many people should be looking to build a business that supports your life, instead of working in the business.
And lastly……….
Why the ability to re-engineering the hell out of of the process should be our starting point. Go from what you want to earn to who will give it to you.
How To Connect With Paul
Return To The Top Of Paul Maskill
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Full Transcription Of Paul Maskill Interview
Intro [0:00]
When we’re young, we have an amazing positive outlook about how great life is going to be. But somewhere along the line we forget to dream and end up settling. Join Up Dots features amazing people who refuse to give up and chose to go after their dreams. This is your blueprint for greatness. So here’s your host live from the back of his garden in the UK. David, Ralph.
David Ralph [0:25]
Yes, hello there. Good afternoon. Good morning. Good evening. whatever time you listen to the show, it doesn’t matter. It doesn’t matter as long as you do listen. And if you don’t hear that message, I know that you haven’t been listening and I will come down and I will spank your booty but still allowed. Well, today’s guest joining us on the show is a guy who loves nothing more than building scaling. And when selling local businesses he’s now on a mission to help other local businesses thrive in their own industries without losing control of their hours, their health, and of course, their minds as he says in 2011 The less than four years in corporate America, I knew there was more to life than just do a job that’s okay for 40 years and then retire and enjoy life. So I’ve ventured out and started my first business in 2011. And I was soon working 60 to 80 hours a week, only 60 to 80 aplenty, I was doing about 100 with a business that couldn’t survive without me. So I started systematising everything while empowering a team to run the business better than I could. Before I knew it, my revenue doubled to almost 500 grand per year while the number of hours I work dropped below 40. I’ve been sold my business for three times net profit. And I’ve since done this same process again with another local business, while also helping other business owners automate and scale their business so they can leverage to build a life that they love. Now having been the one connected to his business, 24 seven and working 80 hours a week. He realised there were four issues that we all face number one, and I hope you’re jotting these down. Number one we struggled To get everything done and instead our number one goal is just to survive the day. We need systems and processes to scale but we don’t have time to implement them. That was number two. Number three, we can’t find good help to scale and we don’t have time to train them. And number four, we have no time to work on our business. we’re so busy being in it. So is a system purely automated or does it blend with personnel to to really become Rocket Power? And where do most people go wrong in the beginning as it’s hard to see what you should be doing when you don’t know what you should be doing? Well, let’s find out as we bring onto the show to start joining up dots with the one and only Mr. Paul Maskill
Paul Maskill [2:43]
Doing well David Ralph, how are you?
David Ralph [2:45]
I’m very well Paul Moscow. Should we use the full names all the way? Or should we just
Paul Maskill [2:50]
drink it? Do whatever you want? It’s your world. We’re just living in it
David Ralph [2:53]
No. No, I think it’s your world. When when i when i look on the internet. Everything is without getting political. It’s all going on in America at the moment, isn’t it?
Paul Maskill [3:02]
Yeah, as you said before we went live, but everything’s happening in Trump land
David Ralph [3:08]
It is and don’t I laugh from this side? I really do. Anyhow, moving on to pastures new your business. Okay, I’m going to ask that first question, because it’s a good question. And as I was saying, in the introduction, I did the same, I had enough of corporate London. And so I decided to quit my job so that I could have long afternoons down the pub and, and just relax and lays in in the morning, and I ended up doing about 100 hours a week, and it was just awful. So is it hard to see right at the very beginning, what you should be doing, when quite simply you don’t know what you should be doing?
Paul Maskill [3:44]
Yeah, I mean, I would say it’s really hard. I think you could probably relate, I didn’t really have a vision other than to quit my job and once I quit the corporate world, I was in Chicago at the time so similar London live in the city life and you know, getting on the bus, getting on the subway, getting on the train. Everyone’s miserable. Filing and filing out. And I just wanted to get out of there. So once I achieved that I didn’t think there was anything else to achieve. It was like, I guess this is what most business owners do they work 80 hours a week, but it’s better than having a boss until you realise it’s basically the same or maybe even more so. So yeah, we I didn’t really know what to do or why to do it. Because I didn’t really know where I actually wanted to go other than to get out of that cubicle. And once I did that, I didn’t really know where to go from there.
David Ralph [4:28]
Because I made a big mistake right at the very beginning when I launched my podcast, and I could easily do it now. I’ve got a big enough audience, but at the very beginning, my whole business model was create a radio show people will listen and people will give me money. And that was it. It was so naive, looking back on it. And then I got to a point when I realised that actually I think I need some customers. I need to do something to actually bring money in here. And I went into a world of crappy customers. Paul, I went into the world of the ones that wanted a billion hours. is a value add nothing, and they were just sucking me dry? Can you reflect on that as well?
Paul Maskill [5:07]
Yeah, I think that’s a part of, you know, starting any business, we have the scarcity mindset. So we say yes to everything, and then we’ll figure it out later, even if it’s things we shouldn’t be doing in to your point, usually the things we say yes to, that we shouldn’t be doing takes a really long time and we charge almost nothing for it. So, you know, then it’s, you get to the point in your business where you have to unwind that mess. And it’s really hard from an emotional standpoint, a mindset standpoint, and really just a tactical standpoint, because we don’t know where to start.
David Ralph [5:36]
So how do you do it when you when you’ve started a business where you kind of build it as good as you can do right, the very beginning, but it’s not very good. And then you keep on adding extra bits of not very good on top of that. Not very good, until you get to a point where you think this is a complete nightmare. And even seven years down the line. I will say this and I’m totally transparent on Join Up Dots. I’m going through And deleting loads of things that I should have got rid of years ago where it was half done, and it was just, you know, it’s just stuff floating around me. How do you do that? How do you get clarity for somebody who’s in a cubicle listening to this and going, I don’t care what poor David says, I’m not gonna make any mistakes. I’m gonna just hit a home run every single day. How do you get clarity?
Paul Maskill [6:22]
Yeah, that’s a really good question. And you know, that was me in the cubicle, like, I’ll go do anything. And as long as I don’t sit here anymore, even if it’s just making 30 grand a year, I don’t, I don’t really care. So for me, you know what eventually happened? In order to get real, real clear on who do I want to serve? How much do I want to charge? Who’s my ideal customer? And what service or product do I actually want to put out in the world to make a difference? For me, it was getting really clear on my personal vision. So what does my ideal life look like? from a personal standpoint? Where am I spending my time? What are we doing family are we travelling and my work in five days a week am I working four days a week Really getting clear on everything that you want to do? Do you want to go travel and volunteer? Do mission work? Do you want to donate money, whatever it is you want to do in your, like your personal thing that if I could just do this life would be really good. And if you can get clear on that, along with if you have a spouse, making sure they’re on the same page, and you can kind of create that dream life together, then for me, it’s really about putting actual doubt like getting tactical putting an actual dollar amount to how much does it cost to actually live that ideal life. And it’s probably a lot less than most people think. So really just going through, I was a finance person I still am. So I just put together a spreadsheet of like, these are the things I want to do. This is how much it’s gonna cost to kind of live that ideal life. And then let’s figure out what type of business do we actually need to build in order to make that happen and you can kind of reverse engineer it. You know, I would say the other thing too, that if you are sitting in a cubicle, you still have a lot of time on your hands. So, you know the every every person has every person has 100 and 68 hours in a week. So if you sleep for eight hours a night, which the average person doesn’t, but say you sleep for eight hours a night, that gives you 112 hours left. Even if you’re sitting in a cubicle for 16 hours and you know, maybe that includes commute time, that still leaves you like 50 plus hours to start building something that you could then eventually transition out of that cubicle where then you can make that transition, maybe a little more clarity and take the time to figure out some of those things. You know, who is my ideal customer and let’s put together a real financial plan and let’s let’s start building everything in the background. So when we do pull the plug on this job, we’re not just scrambling saying yes to everything and then we’ll figure it out later.
David Ralph [8:42]
I used to spend time in corporate land every lunchtime I used to have a little corner in the in the restroom, and I used to take my laptop in but I was working on and start building my business. And then when I actually decided that I wanted to quit, they basically just cut me off and I had mumps, I had to go into the office every single day. And they didn’t give me any work. I was just kind of, I just become a leper suddenly, and I thought, like, brilliant, I’ll have three months to do what I’m doing. And I did. I just sort of sat there and bashed away. And I reckon I could have built with the free time. And that’s why I loved where you’re sort of walking over to the secretaries, and you’re going over to somewhere else. And if I focused, I could have probably found three or four hours a day, but the boss had no idea and built something really sort of, like substantial before I even thought about leaving.
Paul Maskill [9:36]
Yeah, and I think, you know, along with the time in your cubicle, what do you do after the cubicle so most people don’t really like their job. So what they do after work is usually to get away from the job, whether it’s, you know, they go to the pub, they go hang out friends, they watch Netflix, and then what do they do on the weekends? You know, I live in Chicago, so on the weekends, people aren’t like, Oh, I’m gonna build my site. This is it’s like, oh, what’s going on? Let’s go drink. Let’s go hang out. So taking advantage of that time making that short term sacrifice for the long term gain of being able to then build your business the right way, the first time, build that solid foundation, and then have the freedom later, I feel a lot of people kind of want that freedom first. It’s instant gratification world, in everything we see on social media, we should be able to go from like zero to seven figures in 12 hours.
David Ralph [10:24]
But the trouble we’ve got at the moment, and because we’re in lockdown, if anybody listens to this episode, so 20 years, down the line, it was a weird time is where time is recording, but you can’t go to the pub, you can’t go and do all the things you’ve suddenly got so much free time. It’s untrue. But if your kind of body goes into slump, and you think, oh, can’t be bothered, oh, I’ll do it tomorrow. And that’s one of the problems that people have. They just kind of lose that momentum if they haven’t got that panic to make it happen.
Paul Maskill [10:57]
Yeah, I mean, you’re totally right. And I think we can you know, The media will beat us down, everything else will kind of drag us down. But I think if you look at the opportunity, I know when I was in corporate land, everybody only did like four hours of actual work. So like the other four to five to six hours a day, we’re like, wandering around, like you said, talking to the Secretary going to cubicles, taking a longer lunch, you know, dinking around. So if you are working from home now, wherever you’re at, and you can get your work done in four hours, like you can do a lot of other things during the day to start building that side hustle. And I put actually put out a lot of content around this recently. And right now in America, the average American household is watching 66 hours of TV every week. Like That is insane. Like you could watch TV for half of that and then you still have 30 some hours to go build your side of life. He’s
David Ralph [11:48]
American, I’ve suddenly realised that my wife must be American.
Paul Maskill [11:52]
Yeah, well, I’m sure the UK stats probably aren’t much different. But like that’s just an insane amount of time that when time is your most valuable asset, we should really start treating it as such. We wasted as if it’s there forever, but it’s such a finite thing. And if we can take advantage of the time that we have while we’re awake, you’ll probably impress yourself and a lot of other people.
David Ralph [12:13]
My wife watches so many box sets. She’s like a Netflix locust basically, that I walk in, and I say you’ve seen this and she says, No, I haven’t. And she should just watch stuff because she’s not actually absorbing it. She’s watching so much Telly. Anyhow. So let’s get back into the very beginning. Because one of the things that I loved about what you’re doing, that’s what I wanted you on, is you are helping local businesses and I keep on bashing on time and time again, but your local market is gold because you can dominate it so easily. There’s so many people around you that are quite crappy at finding traffic online and doing Google ads and all that you can quite instantly become your own kind of SEO agency providing leads to other businesses locally. And it’s such a tiny market, you can just sort of do it. It doesn’t take that much time. Local is where it wins, isn’t it?
Paul Maskill [13:07]
Yeah. And to your point, most local businesses, they do not have an online presence. If they do, it’s very poor. They don’t have a Google My Business. Their website isn’t mobile responsive. They don’t have a, you know, Facebook page. They don’t have Instagram, whatever it is. It’s like, exactly what you said, you know, if you’re in the landscaping world, and nine out of 10 landscapers, they barely have a website. And if you can just build your own website, get that SEO ramped up, get some Google reviews, do some email marketing, like you will crush it in your local market and eventually to your point. Other people say, Oh, how did you do that? So no matter what business you’re in, or what you’re looking to start, the local market, I think is way behind the times of trying you know, compared to trying to build something like e commerce or something where you trying to serve the world, because there’s plenty of people in the world that are doing really great things on that but in your local area. So many people, they really just, you know, relying on kind of word of mouth and old school, you know, referrals and networking and going to the Chamber of Commerce or whatever, where if you can start building an online presence, you’ll you’ll really crush everybody.
David Ralph [14:15]
I’m just finishing working with a guy called Brian from Indiana. Southport, Indiana. I’ve never been there, but he’s a lovely guy, Brian. And he came to me and he said, You know, I want my own online business. I said, Well, it’s good to start locally, as I say, and it’s good to sort of develop something, but you learn how the the mechanisms work, but you don’t get sucked into it yourself. And we basically have created a gouge door repair business, where he is now getting traffic into his website, and he’s just going around to local gavage door repairman and say, every lead that comes through to you give me $10 and that’s it and he’s starting to make money and all it is is but traffic comes to him and an email goes out. To the repairman. And at the end of the month, he says you got 20 leads, it’s not about conversion, it’s up to them to go around and actually get the job. But in these terms and come contract, you know, that’s that’s a winner poem that everyone could do that in their own market.
Paul Maskill [15:16]
Yeah, they totally could, especially in really, like you said, garage door repair any blue collar service. Most of them, they don’t have a website, they don’t really have an online presence. They don’t even know you know what SEO is, and you can rank pretty quickly and anything like that. And like you said, if you don’t want to actually do the work, you know, and build a garage door repair business, you can just sell the leads. I have a friend here locally, that’s exactly what he does. And then he’ll just find random markets in the US that are weak in something and he’ll go create a website, start selling leads, and he’s got, you know, he’s ranking as the top, you know, window cleaner in the middle of Colorado and he lives in North Carolina. So there’s so many ways to really tap into that local market. And, you know, to your point, a lot of times, we think so Because we see the things online, and we want to build all this elaborate stuff to serve the world. But if you can just look at a local market, you can probably dominate.
David Ralph [16:07]
I have been selling vacations in the Florida Keys for about 11 years. And I live in just outside London, you know, I’m not in that area at all. And so if you crunch the numbers, and you find that the demand is there, but the supply isn’t, and it’s something that we caught, we will come back into the scaling and the systems doesn’t suck you into the world too much. Then it’s really got to be looked at and I say to a lot of people that come through to my coaching, I say, Look, do you want to do a business that you love? Or do you want to earn some money so that you can have the life that you love? Because the thing is, you’ve got to be pragmatic and I’m quite willing to do a lot of stuff that I don’t really enjoy doing. If it means I’ve got the free time to enjoy what I’m doing against working in a job that I really love doing. You know, I would say Join Up Dots is probably 70 I love 30% is rubbish but I’m happy to put up with a 30%. But a lot of people don’t know. Now I want to do the dream life. I’ve been I’ve been working in a job I don’t like all I want to do is work in a job that I like. And I kind of mean, why don’t you just earn some money and then live the life you like?
Paul Maskill [17:20]
Yeah, and I think that’s for me, I’ve really realised that evolution has actually talked to my wife about this, as she’s kind of looking to get into her own entrepreneur, business owner journey. My first business was something that I really loved. So we are teaching kids how to play golf and tennis. I love golf. I love tennis. I love sports. I love kids. You know that this is great. You know, but what can happen with that is all of a sudden, you know, it’s kind of the typical Hey, I’m really good at baking cookies. I love baking cookies. Let’s open up a cookie shop. And then within six months, you hate baking cookies because it’s turned into a job. So really, after my first experience, my passion really became to your point, you know, building a business This so I can leverage that business to build the life that I love. So what type of business is that? It really depends on the opportunity. But for me, you know, right now my business ventures are. So my first business we had, like, we’re running after school programmes. So we needed a lot of human capital to deliver these programmes if we really wanted to scale it. So I had, like, 44 employees when I sold it, and they were all very part time. They literally work like two hours a day, you know, but they’re as valuable as a full time employee. So I didn’t really love that balance of or in balance of how many people how many employees Did I really need to generate the type of revenue I wanted to generate? So through my kind of, you know, evolution as a business owner, now I really look at opportunities of what is what is the best opportunity with the least amount of human capital, just because, you know, the more humans The more people that I manage, it’s going to, you know, get into that personal life personal time because if someone doesn’t show up, but it’s just the stress of that where if I can rely on Other things, you know, really leveraging now, my experience my expertise to do that it’s it’s a lot less stressful so I can live that life that I love.
David Ralph [19:09]
Let’s listen to Oprah. And then we’ll be back with Paul,
Oprah Winfrey [19:12]
the way through the challenge is to get still and ask yourself, what is the next right move? not think about, Oh, I got all of this stuff. But what is the next right move. And then from that space, make the next right move, and the next right move, and not to be overwhelmed by it. Because you know, your life is bigger than that one moment, you know, you’re not defined by what somebody says, is a failure for you, because failure is just there to point you in a different direction.
David Ralph [19:44]
Right, so taking that as our starting point to our next part of the conversation and the four goals basically, that we listed in the introduction. Number one, we struggled to get everything done, and instead, our number one goal is just to survive the day. So we’ve opened Pre saying, hey guys just relax. Just relax and allow things to float a bit and then get clarity and be quiet and let the ideas come through. Would you bite into those pool?
Paul Maskill [20:13]
Yeah, I think it’s a, you know, it’s something you have to learn, usually through experience over time, because I think we want to get from point A to point B right away, but we don’t really realise everything that’s in between point A and point B. And if we just focused on the next step, so, you know, we can’t get everything done in a day, we can’t get everything done in a year. But if we just got one thing done every day, we’d get to where we want to go. Unfortunately, we try to do like 10 things a day, we do a little bit of everything, and then nothing really gets done, progress has never made. And then we look back, you know, 123 years later, and it’s like, I really haven’t done anything other than to keep this ship afloat. And we want to do more than just keep the ship afloat. We actually want to, you know, move that ship somewhere closer to our destination and, you know, just using kind of like a sales funnel analogy, you know, A lot of times we were trying to convert somebody from like the first step to the 10th step right away. But if you just focus on my next goal is just one to get their attention to, to get them to click three to get them to put in their email address, for to read the email, and you just get them through each step. Instead of trying to get them from interested to buying you. You see a lot of Facebook ads, like hey, buy my stuff. Well, I don’t even know who you are like, how are you? How are you trying to get me to that point right away when I wasn’t even interested in your thing two seconds ago. So you know, whatever analogy you want to use, if you can just look at every day and say, What is the one thing I need to do to get me closer? Let’s do that first. And then yeah, maybe we do have to go fight fires and you know, be reactive most of the day, at least until we get you know, get around the curve. But if you can do that every day, the progress you make will probably you know, blow your mind.
David Ralph [21:49]
And that’s why people should really we talk about the pain point but it’s so much easier to make money through a business when there’s an obvious pain behind it. I always Use the analogy with people when I’m talking to them. If you walk into your house and there’s a hole in your roof and the rains coming through, you don’t think to yourself, oh, I leave that for a while you just get your credit card out. You don’t even think about it. Now, a lot of the businesses I see people creating on Facebook and on the social media are kind of nice to haves. And I think to myself, yeah, it’s all right. But where’s the plane went? What makes me go yes, I want to have that. Would you look at your own business and say it’s a nice to have or are you very much focused in on the pain?
Paul Maskill [22:36]
Yeah, I would say so. I mean, I help small business owners kind of get unstuck get out of the chaos, you know, stop working in their business, so they can work on their business, make more money, have more time. What I have found is Yeah, I definitely want to hit on the pain. The problem with a lot of business owners is they wait until the pain is like unbearable, kind of like to the roof part. Like Yeah, I know a roof kind of needs to be replaced, but there’s no immediate plane and Then all of a sudden, it’s like, oh, we had a big storm and there was, you know, a little bit of leak, but I think it’s just because it was a big storm. Let’s keep going, you know, hey, we’ll go up there and fix a couple shingles or whatever. And then all of a sudden, you come in and like, your whole house is flooded, and you’re like, Damn, I really should have fixed that a year ago when I knew about it. So for me, it’s how do I how do I get those business owners to realise they’re already in some pain? You know, when they feel all we can figure this out, and then all of a sudden, the bottom drops out, it’s like, man, I needed you like two years ago. It’s like, Well, I was here, but you didn’t really you know, pull the trigger. So you know, for me, that’s, that’s probably one of the one of the things that I struggle with, as well as a business owners. Yeah, I really do hit on the pain. Unfortunately, you know, most business owners really need to feel the pain. And like, I’m kind of their like, you know, last last ditch effort to try and fix the problem when it’s like, this problems been going on for a long time you knew about it, you just kind of ignored it because you didn’t want to admit to yourself that there was a problem in the first place.
David Ralph [24:00]
So how are you actually doing this because I ran your site through some sort of traffic checkers. And organic traffic doesn’t seem to be your thing, you obviously getting your customers in a different way, which will give so much confidence to people listening, because they know that they don’t have to spend a tonne of time building content and podcasts and god knows what. So how are you actually getting people to connect with you? How are you finding your target audience?
Paul Maskill [24:27]
Yeah, that’s a good question. So I do you know, I do have my own podcast. So people do come to me through there. I do have, you know, different different lead magnets, where people can download things, watch, free training, that type of stuff. And then talking about the local market, I run a local Facebook group for small business owners here in Raleigh, and there’s over 2000 business owners in there. So I’m in there every day, providing value, delivering content, serving those people. And what I find that it does take some time. So back to that. Time aspect anybody with a corporate job could start building this now It only takes about 10 minutes a day to put out some good content. But what I find is most my clients come to me is like, I’ve heard your message for like a year, you’ve been banging that drum. And finally I’m like, Okay, I’m done trying to DIY this, I need your help. So a lot of them come through there. And I’m a big believer in just over delivering serving the heck out of your current clients so that they eventually you know, become your biggest sales force. So I get a lot of my clients in my mastermind and even you know, some of the one on one coaching and consulting that I do, just through referrals just because you know, people know the value that I bring, so I don’t really you know, with my at least with my coaching because I don’t focus on I, you know, Google search and SEO and all that kind of stuff I get on podcast once in a while I have my podcast that goes out every week. And then I have, you know, my facebook group here for the local market where I provide a tonne of value, and then obviously leveraging the people that are know like and trust me to go tell other people how great their experience has been.
David Ralph [26:04]
Now we’ve just passed 6 million downloads on Join Up Dots. And I would people say to me Oh, that’s amazing. That’s brilliant. I go Yeah, it’s all right. It’s a bigger because of those 6 million, how many do you actually translate into customers and how many become your avid customers? And what I liked about what you said is you don’t care about all that. You just care about servicing the heck out of somebody that comes through so that they become your marketing team. And I had a guy recently that started a business and his cross ball netball cross net cross net, it was and it was kind of like volleyball in four quadrants and he decided that the best place to get marketing was just put it in the beach and then play it by eight hours a day. And they got that whole business off the ground that way. And while I’m represent Nick referencing This is so many people get hung up on social media. So many people get hung up on Facebook. And actually, they’re not thinking about where their customers actually are. And just doing sometimes the hardest stuff, sometimes the easiest stuff, but you’ve got to go where they are. You can’t just keep on sitting behind your computer and blasting it out and hoping that your message resonates in the noise best out there. You’ve got to be a bit more clever, don’t you?
Paul Maskill [27:24]
Yeah, you definitely do, you know, especially the, you know, it gets noisier and noisier. And it’s, you know, Facebook and Instagram. Everyone else is there to make money too. So you kind of have to understand their model and how do you fit in it? And, you know, how can you leverage that? But at the same time, that’s just one bit of marketing. What if Facebook goes away tomorrow, you know, and if you’re playing cross that and you go plop it on a couple beaches in California, everyone’s going to be saying, oh, man, that’s awesome. I want to go buy that, you know, and you know, that’s how those things kind of evolved. So really determining where is your ideal customer hanging out and go there, provide value, show them how you can make their life Better and then go from there. So you know I’ve I’ve worked with plenty of business owners on that and then it’s sometimes it’s the most simple things, but we try and overcomplicate it because of these you know fancy funnels and hey, I wanted this lead magnet and what kind of content and Facebook ads and all that when really, you know it might be super simple so, you know, I would say a good recommendation for anybody out there if you haven’t read the book by Mike mccalla Wits called a pumpkin plan. It’s really about how do you find your ideal customer and his was exactly the same. So one of his businesses was they built technology it networking infrastructures for businesses. through a process he realised that hedge funds were his best customer. So he just started going to the to hedge fund conferences every year and he was the only non head foot hedge fund manager there. And he was just he became the IT expert for hedge funds just because he went to these two conferences and established authority. So you know, something as simple as that. If your ideal customer has conferences, obviously, when they can happen. You know, right now everything’s locked down. But, you know, go there, provide value, show them why you’re expert, show them how you can make their life easier and you know, good things will probably happen.
David Ralph [29:13]
One thing that I become a bit obsessed with it’s very old school, but I like it very much as yahoo answers when you can just type in a word or whatever, and get a tonne of questions that people are actually answering. And you can look at it and you can jot them down and you can see themes, and then I go over to Amazon, and I do the same and I look at not the five star reviews because I don’t trust them. And I don’t look at a one star I look at the two, three and four, because that they’re people that are actually sort of being a bit honest. And then once again, jot down all the information I can get because you can build a whole business around real life, problems solving that’s already out there. You don’t actually have to do the hard work, but I find so many people want to just Yeah, they’re doing logo, get the website up and kind of do the sexy stuff without doing the the research the market research, what do people
Paul Maskill [30:10]
do? Yeah, I mean, I would totally agree. And I think, you know, a lot of times we try and you know, whether you’re watching Shark Tank or another show like that, where it’s like, man, why did I come with that we try and hit like, you know, the Grand Slam home run right away of coming up with something that no one else has ever come up with. But if you just look at the current problems in the market, and you can solve them or see what’s already selling, you know, you go to Amazon, you see what’s already selling, like, Oh, that’s a popular thing, you know, and start that business and just do it different, do it better. And look at the pain points. So like one of the businesses that I owned was a dog walking and pet sitting business, like anybody can start that with no money. You can be a 10 year old and run a business like that. And we’re able to build a really, you know, really solid, strong business and we charged way more than anybody else, because we looked at the pain points in the country. market. So what are the pain points when you hire the 10 year old kid for five bucks a day? Well, are they going to show up? Are they going to do what you want them to do? Are they going to lock the door? Are they going to take pictures? Are they going to take them on the walk that you want them to do? Are they going to feed them? All the pain points and problems that people run into that? It’s like, Oh, well, we can fix that. And we’ll charge a premium. Because people are willing to pay a premium for that peace of mind. And you know, we got our messaging, right, and all that kind of stuff. But going into markets where there’s already a demand and just doing it different doing it better finding out what the pain points are. And you know, to your point, that’s really simple. You could find out that research pretty quickly. You could read the Google reviews of the bad companies and the good companies and say, Okay, well let’s, let’s do both, and we’ll get started.
David Ralph [31:46]
I’ve just typed in gouge door on Yahoo Answers and it’s so boring it again each door or garage door and things like what is the typical cost to replace a gavage door torsion spring how to disabled safety centre On average door openers, how do I fix my gouge door cables that came off the Polly’s all these are great content ideas. And if you find something within there, you have niched down you’ve niche down and you don’t have to be the gouge door repair man, you could be the broken torsion spring, I don’t even know what that is garriage door repairman, you know, and then instantly you’ve got your business. It’s, it’s, it blows me away, but people just kind of look out the window and go, I’m gonna do this. And they call their name their website, something stupid. Hell, like Join Up Dots Join Up Dots meant nothing at the beginning. And it still means nothing until somebody I would never call it Join Up Dots now in a million years, but it kind of works. But they just kind of just been past. He got to do your research. I mean, you got to do your research, you got to find out that there’s a price out there that people are willing to pay. There’s a market that you can dominate and if you work from ever increasing circles from your home, so you look at your house Bend look at your neighbours and think, would they buy this? Yeah, they probably would and then move out further and further and further. Hell, this is a business this is a become like a business podcast expert, Paul, I don’t know what’s come over me.
Paul Maskill [33:16]
Yeah, and I think it is taking the time did that research and you know, me asking people who don’t already have a personal connection with you do because if you go to any of your friends and you say, Hey, what do you think about this idea? Oh, yeah, that’s great. And then, you know, they’re not gonna say, Oh, that’s a terrible idea. So, you know, do your research find
David Ralph [33:34]
out even more likely to say it’s a terrible idea? If you ask any of your friends, they’re not supportive at all.
Paul Maskill [33:42]
Yeah, so you know, really go, you know, and however you want to gather that information, like you said, you can go to Yahoo Answers, you could go to Cora, which is another question answer type platform, you can go to Amazon. You can go to Google and look at the feedback and reviews and just solve a problem that people have around and you’ll probably have a pretty big business.
David Ralph [34:03]
Well, okay, so let’s move on, because I think we don’t we’ve number one, but we will, I think I think we’ve done a good job there. Now, the second one is we need systems and processes to scale. But we don’t have time to implement them. How do we get past about them, Paul?
Paul Maskill [34:20]
Yeah, so contrary to what we had talked about before, we all have more time than we think. It’s just we don’t really spend it, you know, probably to the best of our ability. So, for me, it’s really just proactively setting aside even an hour a day to, you know, document one process or document one thing that you do every day so that way somebody else could do it, whether that’s a VA, you know, a contractor, or freelancer, a part time employee, whatever it is, but to even to what we talked about with Oprah, like if we set aside 30 minutes to an hour a day to work on our systems and processes and document one thing and then delegate it, you’re gonna get way farther than most people People say, Well, God, I don’t even know where to start. There’s so many processes. I’m just not going to do it right now. So they think if they build their business bigger, then that will alleviate the problem. But that only just you know really multiplies the problem, because now you got more customers, more problems, and you have less time to actually work on your business.
David Ralph [35:18]
I look at Join Up Dots now. And I think to myself, I’m actually proud of it. I’m in a state of mind, but I think to myself, it’s pretty damn good. Now, a year ago, I looked at it and thought, Oh, it’s so it’s just not doing what I wanted. I was doing very well financially, but it was too much effort. And so I did a year of just looking at everything and going like you said, step by step by step, right. What am I actually dealing with? What are people actually looking for? And one of the things that I’ve found very good and I’m referencing it I was talking about it in the show just recently, is a book by a guy called Jim Edwards called copywriting secrets where A lot of time, you can get traffic over to your website. But if it doesn’t resonate, then people aren’t going to buy, they’re not going to commit to your email list. They’re not gonna want to work with you. And I spent a lot of time looking at the parts of my business that I bought, I don’t know enough about to join up the dots. There you go, it works. I’ve suddenly realised it works. And so I joined up the dots of the areas of my knowledge, I felt I needed a gap. Now, a lot of people might have said that was a waste of time, you know, why are you doing now you’re doing all right anyway. But it makes it simpler. And you can look at what you’re doing. And then you start getting not just oh systems, but you get rid of the systems and you realise about complexity. Who was it that said, simplicity, simplicity is the ultimate sophistication was that Socrates? Some some clever person said that, but you look at it and you just pitch ditch ditch ditch until you get something that is just doing what it should do.
Paul Maskill [37:00]
Yeah, and I, you know, I would recommend any business owner, anybody out there to kind of have that kind of regularly in your mind. So I’m actually, you know, going through that right now of kind of simplifying things even more having less funnels or less calls to action, let’s just send them to one place and, you know, really making it as easy as possible for your customers and you know, kind of to what you had referenced. I’m a big fan of building a story brand. similar concept to really make your customers brain make your customers burn the least amount of brain cells as possible, least amount of calories as possible to figure out what you do, how do you do it and how can I work with you? And if your website can, you know, really communicate that very simply, you’re much more likely to connect with them and grow your business. And it is simple is way better. Sometimes we just get carried away with all the different technology you know, and the bright shiny objects out there.
David Ralph [37:56]
If you go back to Jesus times, he would have put a market store Have a with a loved a few things on there and people would come up and go How much does he go to goats and a shekel and and that would be it. You know, he wasn’t walking around on Facebook and Twitter and trying to do all that it was just one to one interaction. And that’s where I think websites really work well, when they realise that they’re talking to the person face to face. Now, it might be by video, it might be by podcast, it might be by their content, but it’s not about I’m talking to millions of people it’s just talking to one on one and if you can get those right one on one people to get to you so they’ve got that pain point they’re actually actively seeking you. Once again, you know, it’s Jesus know a few things I think.
Paul Maskill [38:46]
Yeah, and I think we’re we we probably overcomplicated is we might have a little bit of a scarcity mindset where we try to serve everybody, so we’re like, well, I could also serve that type of person. So we try to speak to everybody and it just falls on deaf ears instead. speaking to one person, you know, and really resonate with their pain instead of trying to serve everybody, you’ll probably serve actually a lot more people because you will connect with them, you’ll hit their pain point, and they’re going to want to work with you.
David Ralph [39:12]
I was talking to a guy the other day in Singapore, he asked for a half hour coaching session. And I looked at his website, and I said to him, I don’t understand what you do. And it was something about data technology or something I said, you know, it’s alright, for the people that probably understand the logos and the, the jargon on there. I said, I don’t understand what you do. So when he explained it, I said, so why don’t you just say that? Why don’t you just say that, you know, then I would buy it, you know. And when we looked at it, he had a classic 8020. He had 20% of his profits coming through one little corner of his website, and I said, well just take that and become a business on its own separate bad, don’t talk about anything else. Just keep them messaging bat, and then you’ll Gonna do really well, but I don’t think he’s going to do it because he was so precious about the overall collective of what he does. He didn’t really want to go, well, we’re separate this out into a little business on its own, get that running, be totally clear about who we’re marketing to, we get totally clear about the words that we use, we get the sales magnet that works just for this thing. And he’s, he’s, he’s gonna be doing the same thing in a year’s time, I think.
Paul Maskill [40:28]
Yeah. And I think that’s, you know, really, he’s not definitely not alone. There’s so many business owners, where we just fall into that trap of trying to get clever, trying to get cute. And then when someone else reads, it’s like, I don’t even know what you’re trying to say. Because when we’re putting it out there makes sense to us, but it doesn’t make sense to anybody else. So, you know, back to the original point, if you can really speak to that one person, that pain point and how you can solve it. You’re going to build a build your business much quicker, much more successful.
David Ralph [40:56]
I do two things. Now. I teach people how to start a business. And scale the business and I teach him how to launch a six figure podcast and and grow a six figure podcast, just those two things. There’s nothing else that I do. And it’s kind of nice because I know what I’m going to do. And there was a time but I’d be doing a bit of this on Tuesday afternoon and a bit about on Wednesday, and now I go, right, I do that again next month, and then you’re kind of refreshed and you’re ready for it. And you think, yeah, okay, that’s, that’s gonna be quite fun for four weeks of doing that. And then I can stop again, you don’t have to put everything on the table, you
Paul Maskill [41:32]
know, you don’t. And I think going back to what we originally talked about, you know, you might put everything out on the table at first just to kind of bring cash in the door and pay the bills or whatever. But as you go along, you should be able to realise the signs of what am I really good at? What What do I deliver the best value and what do I you know, what are the two or three things that I really want to sell? You know, if you look at the most successful restaurants, they sell, like one or two things, and they do it better than anybody and that’s what they’re known for. Whereas, you know, Someone that sells everything, it’s fine to sell everything, you’re just not gonna be able to charge a premium for it either. So here in the States, you can be the Walmart, where you literally sell everything. But it’s all at a deep, deep discount. So you got to sell volume, whereas you could be, you know, the high end niche little store where you sell one type of thing at a premium. And it’s a lot less stressful.
David Ralph [42:19]
Yeah. And we have to emphasise, again, all these ideas that we’re throwing at you, if you do it right, and you plan it and you’re, you’re willing to work on a business. Now, if I was doing a business now, right from the very beginning, I would work on it. And as soon as I was getting any profits, I would start getting started. And I would scale it as soon even if I wasn’t earning anything myself. I would be paying the staff because I know that ultimately it was going to come back to me. But newbies just go Oh, I can’t afford it. I’m not getting a lot of money in Oh yeah, let’s keep what I can and it’s not scarcity. I think it’s just lack of belief. I don’t think that they See that actually, it’s easier to let things go do you pull?
Paul Maskill [43:05]
Yeah, and I think you know, for anybody listening, that is still, you know, sitting in that day job, you’re in a really advantageous position where you probably don’t need to take any money out of your business. So you can reinvest it, you can build that foundation, you can build that team, you can build it so much quicker. So that way, you know, you have all the parts in place to take your business much further, instead of you’re always kind of sucking money out of it, which really gets in the way of growth, you can invest in your business, you can invest in your people, and you know, you really end up just creating another job for yourself and then it’s hard to unwind that because you’re used to taking all that money out, or your spouse’s used to you taking all that money out of your bills or your lifestyle is, so then it’s really hard to unwind. So if you are still working a day job, really like you said, if you can reinvest almost everything back into that business, you’re going to be much well off, you know, I mean, really, that’s one of my strategies now that I have enough income coming in from different places. If I’m going to start a local business, or any type of business, but I usually like you know, the local landscape, I don’t have to make any money from it. So I can just grow this business so much quicker because I can invest in the technology or the marketing or the people, or the assets that I need to scale quicker, and then eventually reap the rewards, you know, which will then empower me and enable me to do what I really want to do in this world. But having that patience is so important.
David Ralph [44:24]
A moment we can’t have haircuts. And so we haven’t had a haircut for about four months. And literally, unless you’re cutting your own hair, you’re starting to like the BGS, mid 70s. And that is something that I look at it because so many people are saying to me, I don’t think I’ll ever go back to a hairdressers now. I think I do it myself. But it’s the back of my head. I can’t do the back of my head. Anybody out there that can teach people on zoom? How to cut the back of their head successfully. There’s a business for you.
Paul Maskill [44:55]
Exactly. I mean, I think every there’s always going to be new opportunities in the world. In determining, you know, there’s still the same amount of money out there, it’s gotta go somewhere. So how can you leverage that, you know, into a new opportunity. So right now with the whole pandemic, there’s plenty of new opportunities that really didn’t exist or people really didn’t think was viable until now, all of a sudden, it’s something they need or something that, you know, even just building an online course three months ago, there’s a huge portion of the world that was kind of sceptical. They didn’t really like that idea. But now it’s totally normal to connect online on a daily basis. And, you know, you creating an online course well, you’ll probably have a lot bigger market now. Because so many more people are used to consuming content than they were three months ago, you know, through zoom or through some other, you know, video platform.
David Ralph [45:45]
Let’s hear from the late Steve Jobs. He said these words, and we’re gonna hear them again, Steve Jobs.
Steve Jobs [45:51]
Of course, it was impossible to connect the dots looking forward when I was in college, but it was very, very clear looking backwards. 10 years later. Again, you can’t connect the dots looking forward, you can only connect them looking backwards. So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future. You have to trust in something, your gut, destiny, life, karma, whatever. Because believing that the dots will connect down the road will give you the confidence to follow your heart, even when it leads you off the well worn path. And that will make all the difference.
David Ralph [46:26]
Now he obviously created global success. And if we give that mantra out for people about looking back and connecting the dots, but using those dots as stepping stones moving forward, that’s a good way of actually building a system, isn’t it? Where you think, well, how much do I want to earn? Who’s gonna give it to me? How do I actually interact with them and just draw a series of dots and try to make them the minimum steps possible? That would keep calamity for a newbie when they pull?
Paul Maskill [46:58]
Yeah, it would and if If you know where you’re going, that’s really more than half the battle, then you can work your way backwards, kind of, you know, that’s what Steve Jobs saying is, you know, hey, it’s a lot easier to look backwards and connect those dots and look forward and trying to figure it out. Unfortunately, most business owners don’t know what their end destination is or why they’re doing what they’re doing. So they are just going all over the place and not getting any closer to their destination because they don’t really know where they want to go. They know they want freedom, and they know they want, you know, they don’t want to work 24 seven, but they don’t really know why they’re doing, what they’re doing and how to actually make it happen. So if you can work backwards from where you want to be to where you are today, then you kind of you know, you can plot out a little bit easier of what is the next step to get me closer to that goal.
David Ralph [47:40]
So what would be your big dots on the timeline as Steve says that that moment when you vote actually I think I’ve got this I think this this is really coming together in my head.
Paul Maskill [47:52]
Yeah, so I mean, I think our you know, our family’s big dad has to be able to, you know, travel when we want to travel so you know, and be able to give back to causes that we believe in, and then obviously still do something on a day to day basis that, you know, we really love doing. So, you know, I, you know what gets me going every day is I get to wake up every day and help business owners really fulfil their potential, fulfil their dreams and make the most out of their life. So the more people I can help them, the more successful I will be financially. And you know, I think our biggest thing is, you know, if you look back why I left the corporate world is I didn’t want to, I didn’t want someone else to control all those dots and say, Oh, sorry, you don’t have a job. Oh, hey, great job this year, here’s a 2% raise, I kind of wanted to be in control everything and I wanted to be making an impact. And, you know, the end product that I’m providing is, you know, something that’s really, really gratifying. So, you know, I would say on a on a bigger scale, just to kind of give everybody a quick 32nd background of where we’re at. So, where we live in Raleigh, the schools basically kindergarten through eighth grade. So basically five to eight 13 you have the option to go to year round School, which is basically the kids go to school for nine weeks, and then they take three weeks off. And they just do that over and over and over. So they still get the same amount of time off. It’s just not all summer break, you know, it’s not three months off, it’s three weeks, every 12 weeks or every nine weeks. And you just do that over and over. So our kind of bigger goal as a family is to have the freedom every time our daughter so she’ll be in kindergarten next year. So we have 12 months, left until she starts, you know, proper school is every time that she’s out of school for three weeks is we want to go travel for you know, at least two of those weeks, whether it’s to visit family, go on new adventures, see the world go do volunteer work, whatever it might be, but to be able to have the ability and freedom to do that. You know, while still if we’re running businesses, run our businesses from wherever we’re at. That’s really what what we really want to make happen. So that’s I would say that’s our biggest dot. That’s our end goal, and we’re just kind of working our way backwards to make it happen.
David Ralph [50:00]
Yeah, I before pandemic hit, I was in Iceland. And then I was doing a tour of the United Kingdom. And I have developed that exactly as you say that I decide when I want to work and when I don’t want to work, and it’s almost like I turn my business off, and then just walk away from it. And I don’t have to check emails, I don’t have to check schedules, I just sort of leave it. And then when I come back, and in the old days, I used to be on a beach in Spain desperately trying to find Wi Fi, just to make sure that everything was operating. And now I kind of think to myself, who’s gonna die who’s gonna die of an episode of Join Up Dots fails to go out and it’s time or whatever, you know, there’s, there’s no big game changes. And if you make that that step, that leap of faith, you can have that you can have that and I think most people out there with the ability of tapping into technology and finding clients wherever you are, can have that as well. If I want there’s not any business I don’t think that can not give you the lifestyle that you want. If you decide on the lifestyle, as he was saying right at the very beginning, Paul, so Paul, I give you a round of applause for back because I think you know, a thing or two and you’re gonna get that. So this is the part of the show that we’ve been building up to. And this is the part that we called a sermon on the mic when we send you on another journey, this time to have a one on one with your younger self. And if you could go back in time and speak to the young Paul, what age of Paul, would you speak to and what advice would you like to give him Well, we’re going to find out because we’re going to play the music, and when it fades, it’s your time to talk. This is the Sermon on the mic
Unknown Speaker [51:44]
with the best bit
Unknown Speaker [51:45]
of the show,
Paul Maskill [52:01]
That is lovely. So I would go back to just kind of thinking that while we’re listening to that, that great rendition is, you know, up until a certain point, when you’re a kid you what you really want to do in this world are just kind of made up like, Oh, I want to be, you know, a racecar driver, I want to be this, I want to be a, you know, just kind of making things up just to what we’d like. So I would probably go to like 13 or 14, when you’re kind of getting into high school and really, which is kind of crazy that, you know, between the ages of 14 and 18, you kind of have to decide what you want to do for the rest of your life. That’s a whole nother conversation. So I would probably go about to there. Because at that point, everyone’s trying to get you ready for college and get you ready for what you really need to be doing. And everybody my parents, the world, the media, the experts, everybody says go to school, get good grades, go to university, go to college, get your degree, and then go do a job for 40 years, climb that corporate ladder, you know, get to the top and save your money. Along the way, and then you can retire when you’re like 6570 years old. And then you can do whatever you want in this world until then, you get like two or three weeks paid vacation. And I, everyone was telling me to do that. So I thought that’s what we should do. You know, in retrospect, I would go back to that 1314 year olds, and maybe even before that, just to plant the seed, but I think once you get to kind of 1314 years old, you really start to think about it, the pressure starts to build and let them know let myself know that it’s okay if you don’t go to college or it’s okay to not know what you want to do for the rest of your life or it’s okay to not climb the corporate ladder, it’s okay to start your own business. And this was before, you know, really the internet before entrepreneurship before online businesses. Before all that stuff was really there. And you know, growing up, I grew up in Michigan, which is very blue collar, all the kind of quote unquote business owners, they were just self employed people with no employees, no real business, they just owned a job. My dad was one of them. So he did hardwood floors and everybody that I knew kind of In his circle, they were kind of business owners as well. And they all said, don’t do what I’m doing. Like, you know, use your brains, go get a good job, you know, make that money, get the good benefits. And there’s nothing wrong with that for people that want to do that. But I would encourage everybody and myself when I’m 13 or 14 to just see what else is out there kind of challenge the status quo challenge what everyone else is telling you to do challenge society, you know, and it’s okay to like, not go to college right away, or it’s okay to change careers. It’s okay to do a lot of different things. Because even what you said, if you’re on vacation and Join Up, Dots doesn’t go out. It’s not you know, it’s not blood, guts and death. It’s okay, well, I learned something from that. And now I’m going to pivot take what I learned and go to the next place. So, you know, for me, everyone told me to do what I did. So I got a finance degree because I was good at math. I moved to Chicago, you know, living on the East Coast, you kind of moved to Chicago, New York to kind of work in finance, and I did that And then I watched all these miserable people like shuffle on to the subway every day and complain about their job all day. And then they’ve got the mortgage, they got the car payments, they got the kids college, they got the soccer, they got all this, all these bills, and they The only reason they’re doing that is they have this job and this job that they hate, but they got to keep doing it because they got all these obligations. And the only way to, you know, stay successful in their opinion is to buy more stuff, do more things. And then you’re really just you become so trapped with that job. So luckily, I saw this and I think the only reason I saw this was because I was working in the finance world during 2008. So I saw all these people lose their jobs, these, you know, secure jobs that everyone tells you is so safe compared to a business. And to me, I was like this doesn’t really make sense. I’m doing a job that I don’t love. It’s making no difference in the world. If I disappeared, nobody would notice I didn’t make an impact. Not to mention like it This what my future looks like just worrying about getting laid off and then having all these obligations to me was like, why would I do this for 40 years to then hopefully enjoy life? So going back to that 13 or 14 year version of me, I wouldn’t say I, you know, I can’t say for sure I would do something different, but I would at least present other options and let them know that it’s okay to not go to college. It’s okay to become a plumber, it’s okay to look to start your own business. It’s okay to just keep working your high school job for a couple years until you learn a little bit more. I see way too many kids get into massive student loan debt, only to come out with a degree that they don’t even want to use. So that would be my sermon on the mic, David.
David Ralph [56:42]
And we were hanging on every word and do you think the young Paul would listen to that?
Paul Maskill [56:48]
Uh, I think he would at least listen to it. But I didn’t know any different at the time. So you know, he would probably at least listen to it, acknowledge it, but I think pressure from everybody, not just parents, but all of society, you know, at least in the States, even now, like if you don’t go to college, you’re considered like dumb like, Oh, look at that loser, you know, he’s not going to college, he’s going to go be a plumber. Whereas that plumber is making six figures with no student loan debt, and he can build a multimillion dollar business while someone else has, you know, a master’s degree in the architectural history of something. And that is that cost them $200,000. And they can’t even go get a job other than Starbucks. So, you know, I don’t know if you listen, because I never
David Ralph [57:32]
understand why in America, the successful people go back, who have dropped out of college, go back and finish their degree. And I would say, what’s the point? What, why, why are you doing that?
Paul Maskill [57:45]
Yeah, I don’t know, either. Maybe it’s a two way to, I don’t know, put yourself out there and show that you’re following through on a commitment or I yeah, I don’t know either. Maybe it’s it’s just a thing that they want to do to get in the press. Maybe it’s a thing they do a promise they made to somebody. But yeah, to me, I haven’t figured that one out either.
David Ralph [58:07]
Could it be the student girls do you think? Do you think it could be these middle aged men going back and recreating Greece?
Paul Maskill [58:16]
It could be I don’t really know. But that’s, that’s a good question.
David Ralph [58:20]
I’ve just swung it. I think I’m gonna go back to college. I’ve just decided I don’t know what I’m going to do. But I’m going to go back to college. Anyhow, Paul, what’s the number one best way our audience can connect with you, sir?
Paul Maskill [58:31]
Yeah, David really enjoyed the conversation. I would say one way is since they are listening to this podcast, clearly there are podcast listeners so they could go listen to my podcast. It’s called business owners freedom formula show. So it’s really about helping, you know, entrepreneurs, small business owners, really leveraged their business to build a life that they love and do what they really want to do in this world. And then if you want to connect with me, online, just you know my websites, Paul, masking calm. You could just go there and Scott, my social media links got my pocket. Got some different trainings and whatnot. So podcasts
David Ralph [59:02]
or my website will be the best ways. And we will have over links in the show notes to make it as easy as possible. Paul, thank you so much for spending time with us today, joining up those dots. And please come back again, when you got more dots to join up, because I do believe that by joining up those dots and connecting our past is actually the best way to build our futures. Paul, thank you so much.
Paul Maskill [59:23]
Yeah, thanks so much, David really enjoyed it.
David Ralph [59:27]
missed a poll mask or So what did we learn? Let’s let’s do the Join Up Dots summary. Well, we learned that it’s good to start small and build out, we learned that you don’t actually have to be involved in your business. You just have to be creating the business and get people on board straightaway. So as soon as you start getting some cash in, think to yourself, do I really need that cash. I know it’s nice to have, but could I get somebody else in which means then that I get twice as much cash and I’m getting the money back and I’ve got somebody working for me and then sort of scattered it that way. get clarity, look at it as simply as possible and saying, This is what I want to earn. How many customers do I need to get that? Who’s going to pay that and look for the pain points, and I guarantee you will be head and shoulders above everybody else out there. Until next time, my young friends, thank you so much. We’re listening to Join Up Dots. And thank you to Larry for Zambia. Yeah, very connected with me right in the middle of Africa, and said that he’s been listening to Join Up Dots every day, which blows my mind. And we had a little half hour business coaching session. He does support Manchester United. So why, why you’re in the middle of Africa, but lovely, lovely guy, and he’s looking to build his own business. So Larry, keep the faith. keep on working on it. Use the resources that I’ve sent through to you, and any help you need. Just drop me a line and we will sort of connect again, that’s what I’m here for. But until next time, looking after yourselves, everyone And thank you for being here. That’s Join Up
Outro [1:01:02]
Dots. That’s the end of Join Up Dots. You heard the conversation. Now it’s time for you to start taking massive action. Thank you BJ create your life busy only you like. Ah, we’ll be back again real soon. Join Up Dots Join Up Dots Join Up Dots. Gods Joe Joe
