
The Importance of Aligning Hiring Team Members with Business's Core Mission (with John Watson)
July 18, 2025
Key Takeaways
- Rapid response to leads is critical, as the odds of qualification drop significantly after just five minutes, and 50% of sales go to the first responder.
- AI-powered automation, like that offered by LeadLoops.pro, can significantly increase conversion rates, boost sales, reduce costs, and improve lead engagement.
- Bootstrapping a business effectively involves a clear understanding of the target audience, a solid plan, keeping costs down by leveraging independent consultants and virtual infrastructure, and providing genuine support rather than just selling services.
Segments
AI for Business Growth (00:00:30)
- Key Takeaway: AI automation tools can dramatically improve business performance by increasing conversion rates, boosting sales, and reducing operational costs.
- Summary: The discussion focuses on the benefits of AI in business, specifically for lead response, sales, and customer support, citing impressive percentage increases in key metrics.
Founding LeadLoops.pro (00:00:52)
- Key Takeaway: LeadLoops.pro was created to address the critical need for 24/7 automated lead management and customer engagement.
- Summary: The speaker introduces their AI automation agency, LeadLoops.pro, and details its various functions designed to act as a tireless sales and marketing team.
The FrugalPreneur Podcast & Guest Episodes (00:01:42)
- Key Takeaway: The FrugalPreneur podcast aims to provide actionable insights from bootstrapped entrepreneurs to help listeners improve their own businesses.
- Summary: The host introduces the podcast and explains the concept of ‘showcase episodes’ featuring entrepreneurs sharing their strategies and lessons learned.
Consulting Background and Business Genesis (00:02:18)
- Key Takeaway: A desire to work directly with small business owners and make a tangible difference led to the founding of a virtual agency.
- Summary: The speaker shares their background in consulting, their dissatisfaction with large corporate environments, and the motivation behind starting their own company to serve small businesses.
Bootstrapping Strategies and Challenges (00:03:33)
- Key Takeaway: Successful bootstrapping relies on building a lean, virtual infrastructure, leveraging existing clients for cash flow, and carefully selecting team members aligned with the business’s mission.
- Summary: This segment details the practical aspects of bootstrapping, including setting up a virtual agency, managing finances conservatively, and the difficulties encountered in hiring staff who genuinely wanted to serve small businesses.
The Value of a Solid Plan and External Help (00:05:02)
- Key Takeaway: Having a well-defined plan and seeking affordable, expert external guidance are crucial for effective bootstrapping and avoiding costly mistakes.
- Summary: The speaker emphasizes the importance of planning, especially for a third business venture, and highlights the benefit of collaborating with independent consultants and coaches who offer practical, cost-effective support.
Providing Value Through Resources (00:06:22)
- Key Takeaway: Creating valuable resources, like books and e-books, is a key strategy for supporting entrepreneurs and guiding them through the business development process effectively.
- Summary: The discussion shifts to the creation of a book, ‘Being Profitable,’ and free e-books, designed to help new businesses understand the process, avoid wasting money, and make informed decisions.
Debug Information
Processing Details
- VTT File: 33e6c3f8-b151-482e-bfc1-779b149847c6.vtt
- Processing Time: September 11, 2025 at 01:10 PM
- Total Chunks: 1
- Transcript Length: 11,879 characters
- Caption Count: 90 captions
Prompts Used
Prompt 1: Context Setup
You are an expert data extractor tasked with analyzing a podcast transcript.
I will provide you with part 1 of 1 from a podcast transcript.
I will then ask you to extract different types of information from this content in subsequent messages. Please confirm you have received and understood the transcript content.
Transcript section:
[00:00:00.240 --> 00:00:05.600] What if your business had a 24-7 sales and marketing team without the overhead?
[00:00:05.600 --> 00:00:07.200] Here's why that matters.
[00:00:07.200 --> 00:00:10.800] 78% of leads go with the first responder.
[00:00:10.800 --> 00:00:16.400] The odds of qualifying a lead drop by 80% after 5 minutes.
[00:00:16.400 --> 00:00:20.560] Only 27% of leads are contacted by a sales rep.
[00:00:20.880 --> 00:00:26.560] 63% of companies take longer than an hour to respond to new inquiries.
[00:00:26.560 --> 00:00:30.560] And 50% of sales go to the vendor that responds first.
[00:00:30.560 --> 00:00:37.440] Businesses that use AI for lead response see a 67% increase in conversion rates.
[00:00:37.440 --> 00:00:47.040] AI-powered chat increases sales by 30%, and companies using AI also reduce customer support costs by 30%.
[00:00:47.040 --> 00:00:52.560] And automated follow-ups can boost lead engagement by 50% or more.
[00:00:52.560 --> 00:00:58.160] And that's why I built an AI automation agency called LeadLoops.pro.
[00:00:58.160 --> 00:01:12.160] LeadLoops texts new leads instantly, follows up after hours, reconnects old contacts, handles Google reviews, recovers abandoned carts, and even a voice bot that answers calls.
[00:01:12.160 --> 00:01:15.600] Basically, it's a tiny army that never sleeps.
[00:01:15.600 --> 00:01:19.280] You can learn more at leadloops.pro.
[00:01:19.280 --> 00:01:27.360] The other thing I want to tell you about is I'm now offering a free marketing report at getafreemarketingreport.com.
[00:01:27.360 --> 00:01:37.600] All you have to do is give me your business information and I check your online presence and send a detailed report in a day or two showing what's working and what to improve.
[00:01:37.600 --> 00:01:42.800] Again, that's at getafree marketingreport.com.
[00:01:42.800 --> 00:01:45.520] Welcome to the FrugalPreneur podcast.
[00:01:45.520 --> 00:01:46.880] I am your host, Sarah St.
[00:01:46.960 --> 00:01:47.600] John.
[00:01:47.600 --> 00:02:05.880] This episode is what I refer to as a showcase episode, where I feature a bootstrapped entrepreneur and they briefly share their tips, tricks, tactics, techniques, and tools that help them bootstrap their business and the successes and failures along the way.
[00:01:59.680 --> 00:02:16.520] My hope is that each of these showcase episodes will provide at least one valuable takeaway that you can implement right away in your own bootstrap business journey.
[00:02:16.520 --> 00:02:18.120] Now, on to the episode.
[00:02:18.120 --> 00:02:19.800] My background is in consulting.
[00:02:19.800 --> 00:02:23.720] I've been a consultant ever since I started way back 30 years ago.
[00:02:23.720 --> 00:02:26.200] And I was always working with bigger firms.
[00:02:26.440 --> 00:02:31.720] The emphasis was always on bigger companies, bigger projects, keeping people busy.
[00:02:31.720 --> 00:02:32.920] The pace was slow.
[00:02:32.920 --> 00:02:34.440] It was political.
[00:02:34.440 --> 00:02:35.640] I didn't care for it.
[00:02:35.640 --> 00:02:51.720] What I found that I really liked was working with small business owners where I could deal directly with the founder, someone who was eager to go fast, could make decisions far less political, someone who I could collaborate with and really make a difference in their business.
[00:02:51.720 --> 00:02:54.600] And so I really couldn't find a place to do that.
[00:02:54.600 --> 00:02:58.920] So I started my own company in order to be able to focus on the audience that I wanted to serve.
[00:02:58.920 --> 00:03:02.280] When I started a crew, it was my third business that I had started.
[00:03:02.280 --> 00:03:04.920] So I already had a reputation in the marketplace.
[00:03:04.920 --> 00:03:09.080] I had pre-existing clients that stayed with me once I left the agency.
[00:03:09.080 --> 00:03:15.000] I had to wait two months for a non-compete to go complete, but the majority of the clients I was working with came along with me.
[00:03:15.000 --> 00:03:22.200] And that provided me with the cash flow to be able to finance my setup and really get going conservatively.
[00:03:22.200 --> 00:03:25.960] But I decided at the same time that I didn't want to set up another office.
[00:03:25.960 --> 00:03:33.560] I wanted to really start a virtual agency and work with people from all around the world that wanted to do the same.
[00:03:33.560 --> 00:03:38.360] And so the bootstrapping largely was setting up the infrastructure to support that.
[00:03:38.360 --> 00:03:42.440] And this was 19 years ago, so it wasn't quite as easy as it is now.
[00:03:42.440 --> 00:03:48.480] But set up the infrastructure to support team collaboration and really kept the business fairly lean.
[00:03:48.480 --> 00:03:57.680] We set up a website and worked with existing clients for the first year until we were able to ramp up and start serving a larger customer base.
[00:03:57.680 --> 00:04:02.880] I think the biggest success in bootstrapping my business was really knowing who we want to serve.
[00:04:02.880 --> 00:04:10.000] We had a very clear picture of the target audience and how we wanted to show up for them, which was different than the classic agency model.
[00:04:10.000 --> 00:04:14.880] We wanted to be more of a coaching consultant, specifically working with small businesses.
[00:04:14.880 --> 00:04:20.160] And so the real success was knowing who we wanted to work with and sticking with that.
[00:04:20.160 --> 00:04:25.040] And I would say that's also the failure is we've didn't realize how few people wanted that.
[00:04:25.040 --> 00:04:29.600] We had a really difficult time hiring people who wanted to serve that audience.
[00:04:29.600 --> 00:04:36.960] The desire seemed to be: I want to work with big companies, get the big reputation, pad my resume with all kinds of fancy experience.
[00:04:36.960 --> 00:04:47.920] And so we struggled for quite a while to find, I think the failure was not really screening our team well enough initially for people who legitimately wanted to work with small businesses.
[00:04:47.920 --> 00:04:53.200] We had several fault starts with people that had the skills but really didn't have the interest.
[00:04:53.200 --> 00:05:01.680] And I think the failure is in being impatient and needing people and not being as careful as we could have been with our selection process.
[00:05:01.680 --> 00:05:02.800] And that set us back.
[00:05:02.960 --> 00:05:07.360] I think the main thing we did well was having a solid plan before we started.
[00:05:07.360 --> 00:05:09.040] This is the third business we started.
[00:05:09.040 --> 00:05:11.280] We had a pretty good idea of what we wanted to do.
[00:05:11.280 --> 00:05:14.240] We didn't reach out to big companies to support us.
[00:05:14.240 --> 00:05:33.320] We really went to our own team largely and a group of independent consultants and coaches were affordable who really would collaborate with us and guide us in the way that we needed to be guided to do a lot of the work ourselves and to get really good help from individuals.
[00:05:33.640 --> 00:05:57.880] I think that was probably the most useful thing for bootstrapping was keeping our costs down, doing right things in the right order for one, but also really seeking people who knew what they were doing that weren't part of a large, costly, little overhead kind of company, who could really get down in the trenches with us and help us do all the things that we needed to do and do them well and do them in the right order.
[00:05:57.880 --> 00:05:59.320] It made a big difference.
[00:05:59.320 --> 00:06:09.640] I found when I started my first business was really struggled to understand the process of what I was getting into, that there was a logical sequence to follow.
[00:06:09.640 --> 00:06:15.640] I sought all kinds of advice from coaches and consultants and agencies and mentors, you name it.
[00:06:15.640 --> 00:06:22.200] I reached out and asked for help and I really struggled to find people who really wanted to help me as opposed to just sell me stuff.
[00:06:22.200 --> 00:06:34.920] So one of the things that when we started our business, we wanted to create a product, but to create a service and a product that really was about showing up for people and giving the kind of help and support that we wanted when we first started.
[00:06:34.920 --> 00:06:38.200] And so to that end, I wrote a book called Being Profitable.
[00:06:38.200 --> 00:06:52.440] It's a business development roadmap, sort of a travel guide sort of style to really help people who are just getting started in business who don't fully appreciate the process that they're getting into, sort of the order of operations and what are they getting into.
[00:06:52.440 --> 00:07:12.480] So the book is really the biggest offer we have, the most useful thing really to help people bootstrap effectively by not largely by not wasting money and doing the right things in the right order, the right way with the right help and not trying to do it all themselves, but having the expertise, having an understanding of what they need to do, and be able to communicate effectively to suppliers.
[00:07:12.480 --> 00:07:19.440] To really not waste time and resources, spinning your wheels, doing even doing the right things in the wrong order is problematic.
[00:07:19.760 --> 00:07:32.160] We also have a 19 free e-books that we pulled together for startups as well in order to try to head them off, give them the resources and information that they need to do a good start.
[00:07:32.160 --> 00:07:36.160] So you can get that information at our website, which is accruemarketing.com.
[00:07:36.160 --> 00:07:44.160] I hope you enjoyed that episode and were able to take away a valuable nugget of information that you can implement right away in your own business.
[00:07:44.160 --> 00:07:52.240] If you feel your story would be valuable for the listeners of this show, please visit frugal.show forward slash guest.
[00:07:52.240 --> 00:07:57.600] What if your business had a 24-7 sales and marketing team without the overhead?
[00:07:57.600 --> 00:08:02.880] Here's why that matters: 78% of leads go with the first responder.
[00:08:02.880 --> 00:08:08.160] The odds of qualifying a lead drop by 80% after five minutes.
[00:08:08.480 --> 00:08:12.640] Only 27% of leads are contacted by a sales rep.
[00:08:12.960 --> 00:08:18.640] 63% of companies take longer than an hour to respond to new inquiries.
[00:08:18.640 --> 00:08:22.560] And 50% of sales go to the vendor that responds first.
[00:08:22.560 --> 00:08:29.520] Businesses that use AI for lead response see a 67% increase in conversion rates.
[00:08:29.520 --> 00:08:39.040] AI-powered chat increases sales by 30%, and companies using AI also reduce customer support costs by 30%.
[00:08:39.040 --> 00:08:44.640] And automated follow-ups can boost lead engagement by 50% or more.
[00:08:44.640 --> 00:08:50.240] And that's why I built an AI automation agency called LeadLoops.pro.
[00:08:50.240 --> 00:09:04.200] LeadLoops texts new leads instantly, follows up after hours, reconnects old contacts, handles Google reviews, recovers abandoned carts, and even a voice bot that answers calls.
[00:09:04.200 --> 00:09:07.720] Basically, it's a tiny army that never sleeps.
[00:09:07.720 --> 00:09:11.400] You can learn more at leadloops.pro.
[00:09:11.400 --> 00:09:19.400] The other thing I want to tell you about is I'm now offering a free marketing report at getafreemarketingreport.com.
[00:09:19.400 --> 00:09:29.640] All you have to do is give me your business information and I check your online presence and send a detailed report in a day or two showing what's working and what to improve.
[00:09:29.640 --> 00:09:34.520] Again, that's at getafree marketingreport.com.
Prompt 2: Key Takeaways
Now please extract the key takeaways from the transcript content I provided.
Extract the most important key takeaways from this part of the conversation. Use a single sentence statement (the key takeaway) rather than milquetoast descriptions like "the hosts discuss...".
Limit the key takeaways to a maximum of 3. The key takeaways should be insightful and knowledge-additive.
IMPORTANT: Return ONLY valid JSON, no explanations or markdown. Ensure:
- All strings are properly quoted and escaped
- No trailing commas
- All braces and brackets are balanced
Format: {"key_takeaways": ["takeaway 1", "takeaway 2"]}
Prompt 3: Segments
Now identify 2-4 distinct topical segments from this part of the conversation.
For each segment, identify:
- Descriptive title (3-6 words)
- START timestamp when this topic begins (HH:MM:SS format)
- Double check that the timestamp is accurate - a timestamp will NEVER be greater than the total length of the audio
- Most important Key takeaway from that segment. Key takeaway must be specific and knowledge-additive.
- Brief summary of the discussion
IMPORTANT: The timestamp should mark when the topic/segment STARTS, not a range. Look for topic transitions and conversation shifts.
Return ONLY valid JSON. Ensure all strings are properly quoted, no trailing commas:
{
"segments": [
{
"segment_title": "Topic Discussion",
"timestamp": "01:15:30",
"key_takeaway": "main point from this segment",
"segment_summary": "brief description of what was discussed"
}
]
}
Timestamp format: HH:MM:SS (e.g., 00:05:30, 01:22:45) marking the START of each segment.
Prompt 4: Media Mentions
Now scan the transcript content I provided for ACTUAL mentions of specific media titles:
Find explicit mentions of:
- Books (with specific titles)
- Movies (with specific titles)
- TV Shows (with specific titles)
- Music/Songs (with specific titles)
DO NOT include:
- Websites, URLs, or web services
- Other podcasts or podcast names
IMPORTANT:
- Only include items explicitly mentioned by name. Do not invent titles.
- Valid categories are: "Book", "Movie", "TV Show", "Music"
- Include the exact phrase where each item was mentioned
- Find the nearest proximate timestamp where it appears in the conversation
- THE TIMESTAMP OF THE MEDIA MENTION IS IMPORTANT - DO NOT INVENT TIMESTAMPS AND DO NOT MISATTRIBUTE TIMESTAMPS
- Double check that the timestamp is accurate - a timestamp will NEVER be greater than the total length of the audio
- Timestamps are given as ranges, e.g. 01:13:42.520 --> 01:13:46.720. Use the EARLIER of the 2 timestamps in the range.
Return ONLY valid JSON. Ensure all strings are properly quoted and escaped, no trailing commas:
{
"media_mentions": [
{
"title": "Exact Title as Mentioned",
"category": "Book",
"author_artist": "N/A",
"context": "Brief context of why it was mentioned",
"context_phrase": "The exact sentence or phrase where it was mentioned",
"timestamp": "estimated time like 01:15:30"
}
]
}
If no media is mentioned, return: {"media_mentions": []}
Full Transcript
[00:00:00.240 --> 00:00:05.600] What if your business had a 24-7 sales and marketing team without the overhead?
[00:00:05.600 --> 00:00:07.200] Here's why that matters.
[00:00:07.200 --> 00:00:10.800] 78% of leads go with the first responder.
[00:00:10.800 --> 00:00:16.400] The odds of qualifying a lead drop by 80% after 5 minutes.
[00:00:16.400 --> 00:00:20.560] Only 27% of leads are contacted by a sales rep.
[00:00:20.880 --> 00:00:26.560] 63% of companies take longer than an hour to respond to new inquiries.
[00:00:26.560 --> 00:00:30.560] And 50% of sales go to the vendor that responds first.
[00:00:30.560 --> 00:00:37.440] Businesses that use AI for lead response see a 67% increase in conversion rates.
[00:00:37.440 --> 00:00:47.040] AI-powered chat increases sales by 30%, and companies using AI also reduce customer support costs by 30%.
[00:00:47.040 --> 00:00:52.560] And automated follow-ups can boost lead engagement by 50% or more.
[00:00:52.560 --> 00:00:58.160] And that's why I built an AI automation agency called LeadLoops.pro.
[00:00:58.160 --> 00:01:12.160] LeadLoops texts new leads instantly, follows up after hours, reconnects old contacts, handles Google reviews, recovers abandoned carts, and even a voice bot that answers calls.
[00:01:12.160 --> 00:01:15.600] Basically, it's a tiny army that never sleeps.
[00:01:15.600 --> 00:01:19.280] You can learn more at leadloops.pro.
[00:01:19.280 --> 00:01:27.360] The other thing I want to tell you about is I'm now offering a free marketing report at getafreemarketingreport.com.
[00:01:27.360 --> 00:01:37.600] All you have to do is give me your business information and I check your online presence and send a detailed report in a day or two showing what's working and what to improve.
[00:01:37.600 --> 00:01:42.800] Again, that's at getafree marketingreport.com.
[00:01:42.800 --> 00:01:45.520] Welcome to the FrugalPreneur podcast.
[00:01:45.520 --> 00:01:46.880] I am your host, Sarah St.
[00:01:46.960 --> 00:01:47.600] John.
[00:01:47.600 --> 00:02:05.880] This episode is what I refer to as a showcase episode, where I feature a bootstrapped entrepreneur and they briefly share their tips, tricks, tactics, techniques, and tools that help them bootstrap their business and the successes and failures along the way.
[00:01:59.680 --> 00:02:16.520] My hope is that each of these showcase episodes will provide at least one valuable takeaway that you can implement right away in your own bootstrap business journey.
[00:02:16.520 --> 00:02:18.120] Now, on to the episode.
[00:02:18.120 --> 00:02:19.800] My background is in consulting.
[00:02:19.800 --> 00:02:23.720] I've been a consultant ever since I started way back 30 years ago.
[00:02:23.720 --> 00:02:26.200] And I was always working with bigger firms.
[00:02:26.440 --> 00:02:31.720] The emphasis was always on bigger companies, bigger projects, keeping people busy.
[00:02:31.720 --> 00:02:32.920] The pace was slow.
[00:02:32.920 --> 00:02:34.440] It was political.
[00:02:34.440 --> 00:02:35.640] I didn't care for it.
[00:02:35.640 --> 00:02:51.720] What I found that I really liked was working with small business owners where I could deal directly with the founder, someone who was eager to go fast, could make decisions far less political, someone who I could collaborate with and really make a difference in their business.
[00:02:51.720 --> 00:02:54.600] And so I really couldn't find a place to do that.
[00:02:54.600 --> 00:02:58.920] So I started my own company in order to be able to focus on the audience that I wanted to serve.
[00:02:58.920 --> 00:03:02.280] When I started a crew, it was my third business that I had started.
[00:03:02.280 --> 00:03:04.920] So I already had a reputation in the marketplace.
[00:03:04.920 --> 00:03:09.080] I had pre-existing clients that stayed with me once I left the agency.
[00:03:09.080 --> 00:03:15.000] I had to wait two months for a non-compete to go complete, but the majority of the clients I was working with came along with me.
[00:03:15.000 --> 00:03:22.200] And that provided me with the cash flow to be able to finance my setup and really get going conservatively.
[00:03:22.200 --> 00:03:25.960] But I decided at the same time that I didn't want to set up another office.
[00:03:25.960 --> 00:03:33.560] I wanted to really start a virtual agency and work with people from all around the world that wanted to do the same.
[00:03:33.560 --> 00:03:38.360] And so the bootstrapping largely was setting up the infrastructure to support that.
[00:03:38.360 --> 00:03:42.440] And this was 19 years ago, so it wasn't quite as easy as it is now.
[00:03:42.440 --> 00:03:48.480] But set up the infrastructure to support team collaboration and really kept the business fairly lean.
[00:03:48.480 --> 00:03:57.680] We set up a website and worked with existing clients for the first year until we were able to ramp up and start serving a larger customer base.
[00:03:57.680 --> 00:04:02.880] I think the biggest success in bootstrapping my business was really knowing who we want to serve.
[00:04:02.880 --> 00:04:10.000] We had a very clear picture of the target audience and how we wanted to show up for them, which was different than the classic agency model.
[00:04:10.000 --> 00:04:14.880] We wanted to be more of a coaching consultant, specifically working with small businesses.
[00:04:14.880 --> 00:04:20.160] And so the real success was knowing who we wanted to work with and sticking with that.
[00:04:20.160 --> 00:04:25.040] And I would say that's also the failure is we've didn't realize how few people wanted that.
[00:04:25.040 --> 00:04:29.600] We had a really difficult time hiring people who wanted to serve that audience.
[00:04:29.600 --> 00:04:36.960] The desire seemed to be: I want to work with big companies, get the big reputation, pad my resume with all kinds of fancy experience.
[00:04:36.960 --> 00:04:47.920] And so we struggled for quite a while to find, I think the failure was not really screening our team well enough initially for people who legitimately wanted to work with small businesses.
[00:04:47.920 --> 00:04:53.200] We had several fault starts with people that had the skills but really didn't have the interest.
[00:04:53.200 --> 00:05:01.680] And I think the failure is in being impatient and needing people and not being as careful as we could have been with our selection process.
[00:05:01.680 --> 00:05:02.800] And that set us back.
[00:05:02.960 --> 00:05:07.360] I think the main thing we did well was having a solid plan before we started.
[00:05:07.360 --> 00:05:09.040] This is the third business we started.
[00:05:09.040 --> 00:05:11.280] We had a pretty good idea of what we wanted to do.
[00:05:11.280 --> 00:05:14.240] We didn't reach out to big companies to support us.
[00:05:14.240 --> 00:05:33.320] We really went to our own team largely and a group of independent consultants and coaches were affordable who really would collaborate with us and guide us in the way that we needed to be guided to do a lot of the work ourselves and to get really good help from individuals.
[00:05:33.640 --> 00:05:57.880] I think that was probably the most useful thing for bootstrapping was keeping our costs down, doing right things in the right order for one, but also really seeking people who knew what they were doing that weren't part of a large, costly, little overhead kind of company, who could really get down in the trenches with us and help us do all the things that we needed to do and do them well and do them in the right order.
[00:05:57.880 --> 00:05:59.320] It made a big difference.
[00:05:59.320 --> 00:06:09.640] I found when I started my first business was really struggled to understand the process of what I was getting into, that there was a logical sequence to follow.
[00:06:09.640 --> 00:06:15.640] I sought all kinds of advice from coaches and consultants and agencies and mentors, you name it.
[00:06:15.640 --> 00:06:22.200] I reached out and asked for help and I really struggled to find people who really wanted to help me as opposed to just sell me stuff.
[00:06:22.200 --> 00:06:34.920] So one of the things that when we started our business, we wanted to create a product, but to create a service and a product that really was about showing up for people and giving the kind of help and support that we wanted when we first started.
[00:06:34.920 --> 00:06:38.200] And so to that end, I wrote a book called Being Profitable.
[00:06:38.200 --> 00:06:52.440] It's a business development roadmap, sort of a travel guide sort of style to really help people who are just getting started in business who don't fully appreciate the process that they're getting into, sort of the order of operations and what are they getting into.
[00:06:52.440 --> 00:07:12.480] So the book is really the biggest offer we have, the most useful thing really to help people bootstrap effectively by not largely by not wasting money and doing the right things in the right order, the right way with the right help and not trying to do it all themselves, but having the expertise, having an understanding of what they need to do, and be able to communicate effectively to suppliers.
[00:07:12.480 --> 00:07:19.440] To really not waste time and resources, spinning your wheels, doing even doing the right things in the wrong order is problematic.
[00:07:19.760 --> 00:07:32.160] We also have a 19 free e-books that we pulled together for startups as well in order to try to head them off, give them the resources and information that they need to do a good start.
[00:07:32.160 --> 00:07:36.160] So you can get that information at our website, which is accruemarketing.com.
[00:07:36.160 --> 00:07:44.160] I hope you enjoyed that episode and were able to take away a valuable nugget of information that you can implement right away in your own business.
[00:07:44.160 --> 00:07:52.240] If you feel your story would be valuable for the listeners of this show, please visit frugal.show forward slash guest.
[00:07:52.240 --> 00:07:57.600] What if your business had a 24-7 sales and marketing team without the overhead?
[00:07:57.600 --> 00:08:02.880] Here's why that matters: 78% of leads go with the first responder.
[00:08:02.880 --> 00:08:08.160] The odds of qualifying a lead drop by 80% after five minutes.
[00:08:08.480 --> 00:08:12.640] Only 27% of leads are contacted by a sales rep.
[00:08:12.960 --> 00:08:18.640] 63% of companies take longer than an hour to respond to new inquiries.
[00:08:18.640 --> 00:08:22.560] And 50% of sales go to the vendor that responds first.
[00:08:22.560 --> 00:08:29.520] Businesses that use AI for lead response see a 67% increase in conversion rates.
[00:08:29.520 --> 00:08:39.040] AI-powered chat increases sales by 30%, and companies using AI also reduce customer support costs by 30%.
[00:08:39.040 --> 00:08:44.640] And automated follow-ups can boost lead engagement by 50% or more.
[00:08:44.640 --> 00:08:50.240] And that's why I built an AI automation agency called LeadLoops.pro.
[00:08:50.240 --> 00:09:04.200] LeadLoops texts new leads instantly, follows up after hours, reconnects old contacts, handles Google reviews, recovers abandoned carts, and even a voice bot that answers calls.
[00:09:04.200 --> 00:09:07.720] Basically, it's a tiny army that never sleeps.
[00:09:07.720 --> 00:09:11.400] You can learn more at leadloops.pro.
[00:09:11.400 --> 00:09:19.400] The other thing I want to tell you about is I'm now offering a free marketing report at getafreemarketingreport.com.
[00:09:19.400 --> 00:09:29.640] All you have to do is give me your business information and I check your online presence and send a detailed report in a day or two showing what's working and what to improve.
[00:09:29.640 --> 00:09:34.520] Again, that's at getafree marketingreport.com.