[This transcript has been automatically generated by a digital software and will therefore  contain errors and typos. Please kindly take note of this and only rely on the digital transcript for reference.]

00:00

Hey guys, welcome back to the tattoo business show the best place for actionable advice for entrepreneurs. On today’s show, we have my friend, Dan leivo, who will be sharing with us the five phases of growth of an early business. Now, Dan Alito is a business growth strategies serial entrepreneur, and a public speaker who has over 35 years of experience in the architectural and construction business after her near death experience from being hit by a bus in Brazil, dentists that are getting approached by her friends who needed to help solving issues in their business, and this led her to start market Atomy. In this episode, Dennis shares the five essential sequential stages to any business, and why each stage should not be skipped. Tips on fundraising structuring your shareholdings in your company, and how we can identify social sociopaths who may be detrimental to you and your business. There’s so many great tips and advice in today’s show, so I know you’ll definitely enjoy it. Now before we dive into the show, the show notes, tools and resources are all available on tatio.com. If you have any questions, don’t hesitate to drop me an email, there’s a contact form there as well. And of course, if you enjoyed the show, why not take some time to leave a review, share with a friend and yes, remember to subscribe as well, so you never miss another episode. Now as a way to say thank you and to show my appreciation to you guys. If you actually do subscribe and leave a review on Apple iTunes by the end of September, then you stand a chance to win $50 worth of gift vouchers from Amazon. Now let’s dive right in. Dan, thank you for joining us today is such a pleasure to have you here. Oh, thank you, Ted. I’m really looking forward to this interview. So Dan, let’s start with a very easy icebreaker. Please share who’s Danna? Although she isn’t working, Oh, my goodness.

 

01:35

Well, I’m, I’m the oldest of seven. So I’m the six girls and one boy. So I grew up with a bunch of sisters. I have two children and four grandchildren, which we just spent the weekend we just got back yesterday spending the weekend with them. So it was a lot of fun. You know, other than spending time with my family and everything I enjoy reading. I do a lot of reading. So yeah.

 

02:05

All right. I see. No, Dana, I know you’re a prolific author, as well. So we’ll come back to this point later on, then I know you previously had about 35 years of experience in the architecture and construction industry. But please, could you share a little bit more about your experiences back then? And how you ended up starting your company market? Atomy?

 

02:21

Um, well, you know, first of all, I started I grew up in the construction industry, my dad was a block Mason. In fact, I jokingly say that I have submitted my blood. I used to as a little girl carry blocks for my dad when he was adding on to the house. So I’ve got a long, long, a lot of experience in the construction industry. But what I really did was, as one of my first jobs within the industry, I worked for some of the major product manufacturers like Hunter Douglas and things like that. And what happened was, I worked my way through every logistical cycle within the architectural engineering construction market, which we call the ATC market. Again, I worked my way through every logistical cycle, because I was a marketer, and business development and strategist, expert. And so I needed to understand who I was marketing to. Because the AEC industry is a b2b industry. You’re either marketing to or to owners, developers, you might if you’re in the design side, you might be marketing to contractors, depending on the contract, makeup, if it’s a design build, the contractors are marketing to the architects. So you needed to understand your market, your marketing to which was my reason for going through every logistical cycle.

 

03:55

Oh, I see. So what is this entail?

 

03:57

So I worked? Like I said, in the product development side, I worked in the specification side. I also worked in the design side with a couple of architects and then I moved into the construction side construction management site and the aftermarket side. And what happened after that. So what happened was, I went through both recessions, the ones early in the 19. I want to say it was the 1980s, the commercial recession. And then in the 2006 2007. I went through the global financial crisis, right, exactly. So when I was laid off in 2009, I knew where the market was. And that was because Brazil was a cache country. Now remember, our economic global issues were because of the banking, the financial institutions, overextending themselves and and things like that, well, Brazil being a cache country, they weren’t in that situation. And they have also just won the awards for both the World Cup games in 2014 and the right and the Summer Olympic Games in 2016. So, with my experience within the AEC industry, what I did was I took myself into Brazil, internationally, I wanted to find out if there was opportunities there for companies here in the US that were struggling to keep their doors open by partnering with Brazilian companies in preparation for these games, and so that’s what I did in 2009 until 2014. So they decided they’ve got a very serious traffic issue down there. And because they’re landlocked, and so they decided, Okay, we’re going to introduce a rapid bus system. I was just dropped off by my driver, too. And I was crossing the street to my apartment, one of these buses ran a yellow light on a blind curve and hit me going 45 miles an hour. Oh, dude, it’s terrible. Yes, yes, no, but I’m glad you Okay, now. So needless to say, I was laid up for about two months down there. Before I could even come home because I had a collapsed lungs, seven broken ribs, lacerated liver, my right arm was completely crashed. I had two blown eye sockets, and he went Toma. So I couldn’t even go home this crazy night. And my, my daughter was getting ready to deliver her second, her third child. So I did manage to get home a week before she was born. There was that during my recovery, about eight months here in the United States, a lot of those individuals who are laid off at the same time I was back in 2009, they would come to me and they would say, Tana, I don’t understand what I’m doing wrong. They had started their own businesses, because they couldn’t find work. And so they would come to me and I said, Dana, what am I doing wrong? I’m bleeding money. You know, why is it that I can’t turn this business around? Well, in the process of trying to explain to individuals who did not know how to build a business, around the product, or service offering is where market Atomy came about. So market Atomy, if

 

07:38

you started because your friends that are approaching you for your help, and your expertise. So what was the gap that you actually saw?

 

07:43

Well, actually, what happened was, with working with them, I realized how little they did know. And you know, with working with individuals who don’t have that experience, it’s difficult for them to understand what does it take to bring customers through your door. And so in an effort to explain to them, I developed what I call the market Atomy concept.

 

08:10

That’s very true. It’s hard to know what you don’t know when you first start running a business. So please share this, what is the market Atomy concept

 

08:17

that is our proprietary breed for Mark anatomy. And Mark anatomy means marketing, anatomy. It’s very clever. most business owners when they go into business, they, like I said, Don’t know what they don’t know. As far as that’s, you know, as far as growing a business is concerned. So there is a learning element to that. The report say the reason small businesses, micro businesses fail is primarily because either they’re underfunded, they don’t have a good leadership team. They don’t have a very good message not a viable product. My belief, my philosophy is all of those shortfalls can be taken care of through education. If they knew what they don’t know, they don’t know. They could bypass a lot of that. And so that’s why I’ve introduced market Atomy Academy is because I believe that by positively increasing or decreasing the number of failed businesses in the world, we can actually have a positive effect on our GDP, our labor forces, the psyche of the business individuals, you know, we can learn much faster and grow our businesses much better.

 

09:42

So could you show us what Mark anatomy does for its clients?

 

09:45

Yes, what we do is we educate solo and micro entrepreneurs, on the things that they need to understand in order to build that infrastructure around their product or service. So if it comes to cash flow management, we have courses on market Atomy dot Academy that teaches how to build a cash flow statement. We have courses that will teach them how to do a market analysis, we teach them how to perform a SWOT analysis. So these are all courses that we introduce through Mark anatomy Academy,

 

10:22

Danner, this is a great service that you’re providing. Because I myself, when I first started in entrepreneurship, I definitely made a lot of mistakes that could have been prevented if somebody showed me the way or guided me at the right time. You know, of course, you can’t avoid every single mistake and some things you just have to learn by going through the process and making the mistake and learning from it. But then, from your experience, what are some of the most common mistakes that new entrepreneurs make? And how can they avoid them?

 

10:46

Most new business entrepreneurs, what they do is they jump into business and they quit their Jo B’s right off the bat. Okay, I highly recommend don’t quit, unless you have some kind of financial revenue coming in, that’s going to support you because it’s going to take a good 12 to 18 months for you to even break even within a small company. Unless you’re one of the lucky few, you know, the other thing is, is you cannot go in from say what we call a napkin stage business. Okay, and immediately jump into developing websites and developing, you know, systems and processes until you understand the infrastructure of what a business is what what that infrastructure around your product or service. And that’s where Mark anatomy, the mark anatomy concept comes in. Like I said, marketing anatomy. So what I’ve taught through this market, marketing, anatomy market Atomy concept is that similar to the human body, okay, you’ve got the heart of the body, that is your passion. That is, that is what drives and motivates you. It’s love. In business, the heart is your passion. It’s your why why do you do what you do for your customers? Why are you even going into business in the first place, because you have to keep in mind that that motivation is what’s going to get you through the barriers you’re going to encounter. Okay? Well, then the human body, the brain is what send some signals to the heart, to keep pumping to keep doing what it needs to do. Same thing happens in business, the brain of the business is your playbook. The brain of the business is where your systems and your processes are stored. It’s where your customer, avatar is stored. It’s where your product and service descriptions, everything that you offer, the brain is the business in itself. But without passion, and the drive the motivation. It’s just a brain. Now in the human body, yeah, everything has to work together in the body. That’s exactly what I tell him, I said, Can the brain operate without the heart and vice versa? No, it’s the same thing in business, the heart and the brain have to work together to push your marketing message out through the veins, which are your channels, your marketing channels, to the body, which is the human body, and that’s your market, to bring those customers through the door. But there’s one other component that a lot of business owners don’t realize, is the soul of the business. The soul of the business is you as the business owner, it’s your culture. It’s your beliefs that run that business. So for example, if you have a business, and you want to hire a sales individual or a sales team, okay, unless they buy into the company, the way that you do with your passion, they’re not going to be able to do as in as effective of a job as you would doing that sales because that’s where the passion comes from.

 

14:25

But what are some of the fundamentals to business that every new entrepreneur should learn about? Could you break it down and walk us through it?

 

14:32

Yeah, definitely. Definitely. There are. There’s there’s part of what I teach my clients is there’s five phases to early stage growth. And actually these five stages are for any business, whether you are large, you know, whether you’re a medium sized business or an early stage business, the importance is understanding that there is a sequence of events that happen now, they may not be linear in nature. All right, but there is there are five stages that you need to look at the first stage is the set stage, the set stage is that napkin stage that we talked about this is where you have an idea, and you want to build a business around it. Okay? You think that you believe at this point that it’s something that could make money? Okay? Then you move into what we call the proven stage. This is where you prove whether your idea is a viable idea, Will people want it? Will they pay good money for it? Will you be able to make the profit that you want on it, and then you move into what we call the build stage, the building stage is where you are actually building that business model. This is where you start building your systems and your processes where you start building, developing that marketing message and determining how you’re going to reach your customer avatar. Once you’ve done that, once you’ve gotten through the building stage, you pretty much you’ve already started growing revenue, you’ve already started developing a business and it’s and it’s been growing, but you haven’t really grown the way that you want to. And you’re ready to start taking it to the next level. That’s where you go into the funding stage. You know, now know, where do I want to go, you know, to to exponentially grow my business. So now what you do is you’d go into the funding stage, either you’re going to go for equity funding, you’re going to go for Angel funding, or or venture funding or something to How are you, you may be able to self fund it? If that’s the case, but you have to understand how much is it going to cost me to exponentially grow my business? Alright. And you have to understand how I’m going to expert exponentially grow? Am I going to increase revenue by horizontally or vertically in increasing my product line? Am I going to introduce introduce new products? Am I going to expand geographically? You know, right now, a lot of companies are expanding geographically because of the virtual market. And all that. Then finally, the fifth phase is the growth stage. This is the exponential stage. Okay, that’s those are the five phases that businesses go through. The problem is, is most businesses, when they first start out, they want to go straight from the napkin, early stage, straight into the growth stage. And they spend 1000s of dollars, before they realize they don’t even have a message, they don’t even know who their true customer is.

 

17:47

So guys, as Dana has just shared their five essential sequential stages to any business, see it, prove it, build it funded, and grow it. So take the time to really study your business and your business plan to make sure that you have everything planned out and charted out and you understand who your true customer is, at the end of the day. Then let’s talk a little bit about the funded stage. Could you share with us what are some of the commented forms that you’ve seen your clients or maybe yourself make over the years that you would like others to avoid? They could

 

18:15

definitely I’ve shared them myself with my two past businesses. Okay. But what I have learned, and what I carry out to my clients is the fact that, you know, there are different types of business plans. Okay. Anytime you’re going to go for funding, you have to have a business plan, some kind of a business plan? Well, most people look at the original business plan that they developed, which was the I would I call a marketing plan, okay, it’s my business idea plan. And they use that to go and to to request funding. The problem is, is you have to keep in mind who it is that business plan is being written for. If it’s being written to finance a business, you have to concentrate more on the numbers, how are you going to be able to turn around and produce an ROI, say for an investor or be able to pay back a bank, and the fact that such a great product and all this other stuff isn’t as important as the numbers are, and how you’re going to reach those numbers. That’s why when I work with my clients to do their annual planning, we focus on revenue first. And then from revenue, we will build the actual infrastructure that will grow that revenue. And it’s the same thing when you’re, when you’re writing a plan to raise funds you need to be looking at or thinking about who is it I’m writing this for, and what is important to them.

 

19:53

So guys, when you’re at the funding stage, make sure to actually take the time to look at your fundamentals, your numbers, your revenue, and others. Understand how you can actually get a good ROI, take this information and tailor it to the respective investor they’re looking at, it’s not enough to just have a good viable product, what investors really want is to make sure that the money they invest in, you will give them a return at the end of the day, it is so very important to actually consider who you’re raising money from. When you’re raising money from an investor who’s coming in as a shareholder. You want them to be ideally a strategic partner as well, who can help you open the right doors and help you grow the business. Danna, you just shared that you have two previous businesses as well. Could you share with us what you learned from them? Yeah, definitely.

 

20:34

Um, it’s it’s typical that most business owners will go in this my first business was an advertising agency. And what I did what I learned, I did wrong on that agency, or that business was, I had an equal stock split. And so it was a 5050 split between me and my partner, and ultimately, they ended up pushing me out of the business. Okay, so it’s important when you go into business, especially an LLC, or corporation, to understand make sure you hold controlling interest. All right, in that business. The other thing I would tell all entrepreneurs out there is that set aside at least 20 to 30% of your stock, your original stock, your founder stock, set aside that for future equity investors, because that’s what they’re going to be looking for.

 

21:32

Guys, Dennis, shed a very important lesson, when you’re starting your business, have a good think about how you’re going to retain control of your company. If you have split your shares 5050 with your partner, be prepared that every business decision that you want to make will require their permission as well. Now, Dan, so shared that you can think about setting aside about 30% of the shares for future fundraising. But do note that once you do raise your funds, and you have new shareholders in the company, your ultimate shareholding in the company will become diluted and these new shareholders, their votes will count as well. So the takeaway message here that I really want to stress is Be very careful to not lose control of your own company, then what do you think

 

22:08

I had, I had a company that I was working with, and a great product, they had women’s sandals. They had their manufacturing setup in China. And they had a an excellent high quality product. And they had come to us because they had come to me because they were looking for funding. And going through my typical process of unveiling, you know where the company was right now, I come to find out that it was a company that was that had four primary stockholders, all of them only 25% each. So, and two of those stockholders were underperforming, non performing

 

22:54

stockholders. So they’re silent partners who don’t actually contribute to the day to day running of the business.

 

22:59

Exactly. They weren’t doing anything for the business, they hadn’t even contributed funds, they were just family members or whatever. Okay. And when I was talking to them, and I told them, I said, Look, I said, first of all, the first thing you’re going to have to do is free up some of this stock, so that investors who are interested in investing, you know, can get stock equity in the company. And when they went back to their other two stock owners, they were reluctant to release any stock. You know, they went back and they said, Look, we’ll give up part of ours, you give up part of yours, that type deal with these two stockholders said, No, we’re not willing to do that. There was a patent on the design of their product. And so what, yeah, and so what they ended up doing is dissolving that business. They closed it down, open up a new business, transferred the IP, the, the IP to the new business, and then came back and they had the structure set up correctly and everything. But that that took two years for them to be able to do that. And that’s two years that, you know, they didn’t have the revenue coming in.

 

24:16

Guys, this is exactly why it’s so important to get the shareholding right at the start of the process. And when you’re fundraising, whichever shareholder you want to bring into the company is I do to make sure that they are shareholders who can contribute to the company as well. Exactly. So Danna, what about a second business? So

 

24:31

the second business that I had was a manufacturing business, and I let my emotions drive me into buying that business. It was ceramics producing ceramic lamps for the hospitality industry. And a friend of mine had found out she had cancer and she was declining. And so I took it off or heat is what I did. I thought, okay, I like ceramics. I’ve done ceramics all my life. You know, as a hobby. I said, Yeah, I could do it. As soon as out, I absolutely hate it. So

 

25:03

it’s very different way to make a hobby.

 

25:06

Yeah, I hated it. And I found out that I was quickly introduced to the downside of manufacturing and quality control and, you know, logistics and everything. And I just, I just absolutely hated it and ended up letting that business go.

 

25:23

Yeah, I understand that for the ceramics industry, there’s a lot of quality control issues, after you actually make the ceramics, they may still crack along the way. And that comes up from your profit.

 

25:32

Yeah, exactly. So you know, this all blew up, both of these business boil business is boiled down to some fairly general concepts, first of all, your stock ownership, and making sure that you retain controlling interest. Second of all, make sure of your partners you’re teaming, you know, who it is you’re getting in bed with, you want to make sure that you can trust them totally. Alright. And thirdly, to go into business into something that you’re not I had never done manufacturing, I did not understand that I had always been in the consulting business, or in the architecture, engineering construction business. So I got into a business that I had no idea what I was getting into.

 

26:16

So there was some tips you can share for an entrepreneur who may be exploring a business that they have no experience in, they’re not sure whether they actually enjoy it,

 

26:23

maybe work in that business part time and get a feel for it, you know, or, or job shadow or something like that, so that you can, you know, get a feel for it. I grew up in, like I said, the architectural engineering construction industry, but I also have a history in the printing industry. So when it comes to marketing, I was dealing with graphic design before computers wherever introduced. Alright, and so I was there and I was cutting, you know, the letters out to make sure I spelled the words correctly and using the waxer and everything else. What I learned through that experience was I learned about the issues that crop up, especially in the offset printing side, when it comes to shadows and and film, because at the time they were using film, you so when graphic designers were coming in, and they started working in, I was their mentor teaching them, you know, look, there’s certain things tricks that you need to learn, you know, you don’t mix spot colors with with, you know, CMI k color. So you just, you, in order to keep the costs down, let’s build whatever colors we need with the four primary colors, you know, those kind of things. That’s the things they don’t teach graphic designers these days, then

 

27:46

let’s talk about what happens when you onboard a new client. What are the kinds of questions that you ask them to identify the problems that they should be solving?

 

27:54

Well, I could but probably take quite a bit of time. You know, for for several years, I would spend with every new customer I took on because before COVID everything was done one on one with my clients. And I would spend a good four hours onboarding a client just asking certain questions, you know, on the operation side, everything to get a feel for where they are understand as a as a consultant, and as a mentor. They need to be able to trust me to keep their information confidential, first of all, and to be ingrained in their businesses, though I am part of the business. So I would ask these questions that would help me understand where the gaps are in the company. What what I’ve done is I have actually taken that process online, and have developed a standalone assessment called the business health check assessment, where it assesses existing businesses reached a year old. Okay, assesses them across 20 different key performance indicators. So you know, it could be financial, it could be operational, it could be, you know, with your competitors, etc. Well, this assessment assesses these companies across 20 of these by asking certain questions. And these KPIs, these 20 KPIs are boiled down into five critical areas, which is it identifies your operational strength, your financial strength, your product service viability, your marketing and sales strength, and finally, the overall competent competency of your business and your management team. Will this be made available for our listeners? It will be available I am actually going to be beta testing it it’s actually market atomy.com forward slash bh c dash beta. b e ta

 

29:53

No, Dana, I know you wrote a few books and the latest one is called social or sociopathic Could you share with us what it is about and what hoped to achieve it.

 

30:02

I was really trying to be friendly. be funny with the with the title. Attention. Yeah, yeah, that it’s actually it’s a book I wanted to write for a long time I got involved first with social media back then 2009, I had never been involved in social media or digital marketing before then. And I figured, okay, if I’m going to start my own business, I need to get involved right away. And what I found was, through my research and everything, there were a lot of individuals that were out there that professed to be able to do certain things. And for for a fee for a fee. And what I found very quickly is what they profess to be able to do, they could not deliver. And so with the introduction of COVID, it’s become even more prevalent. You’ve got fake news out there, you’ve got, you know, all of these, what I call social sociopaths out there that are just braggarts at heart. They talk about what they can do and everything, but there’s nothing to back it up. And so this book, social or sociopathic is a co authored book with a very good friend of mine who’s heavy into the digital marketing side. And we decided, Okay, we’re going to put this book out, we’re going to basically educate small solo micro entrepreneurs, on how to protect themselves against the social sociopath how to double check and make sure that they have the social proof to back up what they say. And then also how to position themselves on digital marketing on the social platform, with that social proof that they need that will back up their statements. That

 

31:56

is very interesting. So I’m going to be very cheeky. And when they ask you for a freebie, could you give us some tips on how we can protect ourselves on these social social paths?

 

32:05

Oh, gosh, well, first of all, don’t go just on what they what they put out in social media, start doing your research on Google, you know, as far as what they’re who the company is, who the owners are, look for testimonials, look at the testimonials, if there are any. If there aren’t, chances are there isn’t anything you know, that you need to look for case studies. Have they presented case studies through the website? Do they have a website? If they don’t have a website, steer clear of them? Okay, that’s one of the first things you do when you have a business, even if it is just a simple landing page website. I don’t I don’t expect new business owners to spend, you know, $40,000, which is what I did, okay, well, then there’s a lot of money spent for website, which I thought I needed this huge website, you know, that was a lesson learned. You can get a decent website for you know, anywhere from, you know, 800 to 15 $100, to get you started. And that’s all you need. So those are, those are the kinds of things to be watching out for. As far as you’re concerned, when you start positioning yourself, build your website out to where you can include testimonials. And video testimonials are much better than just simple words. All right. So and then also include case studies, if you’re in the architectural engineering construction market, and you have solved an issue that’s been plaguing the market. For instance, I worked for an architect and they what they did was they built prototype schools. And those prototype schools would have a shed on the back for storage of equipment and things like that. And they consistently had a leakage problem where the flashing connected with the school, you know, and everything. And they were able to resolve that problem with a technique that they had developed themselves. And so we would put it up on the website saying, This is how we solve this issue. I had a I had another we were sitting in a pre construction meeting, and marketing and business development. I was always part of it because I was answering to the responding to proposals, you know, and things like that. And so the team of architects that we’re presenting, we’re presenting before the the team that was going to decide who was going to win the project. And there was a problem that this architect had run into on a previous job. And I’m getting to where I’m going with this, you’ll get it in the end. The person from the the panel that was making the decision product, this project. And immediately these architects started going on the defensive, saying, you know, well, this is, this was the problem with the construction team, you know, this is what they were supposed to do this with the designs. And my boss, who happened to be the owner, the architectural team stood up and said, Wait a minute, timeout, said, That’s not the question. The question was, how do we respond to that? And your answer should be, we took care of it, this, this and this. And that’s how we took care of it. And the reason I say that is, that’s what your testimonials, that’s what your case studies are all about. You don’t push the blame on other people, you take ownership. You take ownership, you explain, yes, that was a problem. But here’s how we turned it around. And that is critical in today’s society, when you’re talking about business and doing business, that that transparency, and that collaboration, and that you know that that ability to to just communicate and be able to own you know, the project. And what you do is what is that social proof that’s needed out there.

 

36:38

So guys, really be careful, take some time to figure out who you are speaking to online, you never know, you could be speaking to a social sociopath who could be bragging and lying about what they can really do for you. And maybe you owe that they really want to do is to earn a quick buck from you. So you take some time and be careful with that data, you have your own podcast, could you share with us what it is about? And what do you hope to achieve?

 

37:00

Again, you know, I work with solo microej webinars. And so therefore, that’s where my podcast goes, it’s called charge to appstudio dot live. And what I do is I bring on experts like you do, who are able to come again, educate solo micro entrepreneurs, on issues such as public speaking, marketing, social media, I just got done with an up podcast that just uploaded today on communication and cultural issues, since we’re moving into a global market, how to manage that communication and cultural those communication and cultural barriers, even though you don’t become an expert at knowing what to expect. And what to look forward to is critical in business. And when crossing this virtual, geographic, these virtual geographic barriers now to to work, not only internationally, but work within the US, which is where I am between states, between the south and the north, you know, the North have their cultures, the South have their cultures, you know, between Orlando and Miami, Miami is so much more fast paced than Orlando is, and everything is, you know, quick. And I find it hard to keep up with them sometime. You know, and plus the fact that Miami has become highly Hispanic. So you’re, you’re dealing with cultural issues down there, as well as communication issues. And that’s only four hour drive for me,

 

38:40

then I completely agree, you know, and the more you learn about aspects of a business and the processes behind it, you can really be beneficial. Let’s say for example, you’re outsourcing it to a third party, and you know what to expect, what to ask for them, and how much you should be paying them so you can protect yourself in that aspect. So Dana, how can our listeners get in touch with you, if they need your help?

 

38:59

They can reach me through any of the digital marketing LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, all of them or you can reach out to me via email to Dan Ida and N A. dot only vo o l i v o at market Atomy ma rk e t@omy.com.

 

39:24

Awesome. Now, Dan, thank you so much for joining us today. It’s been such a pleasure. You’re welcome. Thank you so much for asking me dead. So guys, that was Danna, livo, and all her amazing actionable advice. If you enjoyed today’s show, don’t forget to subscribe, share it with a friend and leave a review. Don’t forget to log on to tatio. com. That’s tdt.com for all latest episodes, show notes, tools and resources. And don’t forget about the Amazon gift voucher giveaway. If you actually do subscribe and leave a review on Apple iTunes by the end of September. Then you stand a chance to win $50 worth of gift vouchers from Amazon. That’s all for me today. I will see you next time

 

[This transcript has been automatically generated by a digital software and will therefore  contain errors and typos. Please kindly take note of this and only rely on the digital transcript for reference.]

00:00

Hey guys, welcome back to the tattoo business show the best place for actionable advice for entrepreneurs. On today’s show, we have my friend, Dan leivo, who will be sharing with us the five phases of growth of an early business. Now, Dan Alito is a business growth strategies serial entrepreneur, and a public speaker who has over 35 years of experience in the architectural and construction business after her near death experience from being hit by a bus in Brazil, dentists that are getting approached by her friends who needed to help solving issues in their business, and this led her to start market Atomy. In this episode, Dennis shares the five essential sequential stages to any business, and why each stage should not be skipped. Tips on fundraising structuring your shareholdings in your company, and how we can identify social sociopaths who may be detrimental to you and your business. There’s so many great tips and advice in today’s show, so I know you’ll definitely enjoy it. Now before we dive into the show, the show notes, tools and resources are all available on tatio.com. If you have any questions, don’t hesitate to drop me an email, there’s a contact form there as well. And of course, if you enjoyed the show, why not take some time to leave a review, share with a friend and yes, remember to subscribe as well, so you never miss another episode. Now as a way to say thank you and to show my appreciation to you guys. If you actually do subscribe and leave a review on Apple iTunes by the end of September, then you stand a chance to win $50 worth of gift vouchers from Amazon. Now let’s dive right in. Dan, thank you for joining us today is such a pleasure to have you here. Oh, thank you, Ted. I’m really looking forward to this interview. So Dan, let’s start with a very easy icebreaker. Please share who’s Danna? Although she isn’t working, Oh, my goodness.

 

01:35

Well, I’m, I’m the oldest of seven. So I’m the six girls and one boy. So I grew up with a bunch of sisters. I have two children and four grandchildren, which we just spent the weekend we just got back yesterday spending the weekend with them. So it was a lot of fun. You know, other than spending time with my family and everything I enjoy reading. I do a lot of reading. So yeah.

 

02:05

All right. I see. No, Dana, I know you’re a prolific author, as well. So we’ll come back to this point later on, then I know you previously had about 35 years of experience in the architecture and construction industry. But please, could you share a little bit more about your experiences back then? And how you ended up starting your company market? Atomy?

 

02:21

Um, well, you know, first of all, I started I grew up in the construction industry, my dad was a block Mason. In fact, I jokingly say that I have submitted my blood. I used to as a little girl carry blocks for my dad when he was adding on to the house. So I’ve got a long, long, a lot of experience in the construction industry. But what I really did was, as one of my first jobs within the industry, I worked for some of the major product manufacturers like Hunter Douglas and things like that. And what happened was, I worked my way through every logistical cycle within the architectural engineering construction market, which we call the ATC market. Again, I worked my way through every logistical cycle, because I was a marketer, and business development and strategist, expert. And so I needed to understand who I was marketing to. Because the AEC industry is a b2b industry. You’re either marketing to or to owners, developers, you might if you’re in the design side, you might be marketing to contractors, depending on the contract, makeup, if it’s a design build, the contractors are marketing to the architects. So you needed to understand your market, your marketing to which was my reason for going through every logistical cycle.

 

03:55

Oh, I see. So what is this entail?

 

03:57

So I worked? Like I said, in the product development side, I worked in the specification side. I also worked in the design side with a couple of architects and then I moved into the construction side construction management site and the aftermarket side. And what happened after that. So what happened was, I went through both recessions, the ones early in the 19. I want to say it was the 1980s, the commercial recession. And then in the 2006 2007. I went through the global financial crisis, right, exactly. So when I was laid off in 2009, I knew where the market was. And that was because Brazil was a cache country. Now remember, our economic global issues were because of the banking, the financial institutions, overextending themselves and and things like that, well, Brazil being a cache country, they weren’t in that situation. And they have also just won the awards for both the World Cup games in 2014 and the right and the Summer Olympic Games in 2016. So, with my experience within the AEC industry, what I did was I took myself into Brazil, internationally, I wanted to find out if there was opportunities there for companies here in the US that were struggling to keep their doors open by partnering with Brazilian companies in preparation for these games, and so that’s what I did in 2009 until 2014. So they decided they’ve got a very serious traffic issue down there. And because they’re landlocked, and so they decided, Okay, we’re going to introduce a rapid bus system. I was just dropped off by my driver, too. And I was crossing the street to my apartment, one of these buses ran a yellow light on a blind curve and hit me going 45 miles an hour. Oh, dude, it’s terrible. Yes, yes, no, but I’m glad you Okay, now. So needless to say, I was laid up for about two months down there. Before I could even come home because I had a collapsed lungs, seven broken ribs, lacerated liver, my right arm was completely crashed. I had two blown eye sockets, and he went Toma. So I couldn’t even go home this crazy night. And my, my daughter was getting ready to deliver her second, her third child. So I did manage to get home a week before she was born. There was that during my recovery, about eight months here in the United States, a lot of those individuals who are laid off at the same time I was back in 2009, they would come to me and they would say, Tana, I don’t understand what I’m doing wrong. They had started their own businesses, because they couldn’t find work. And so they would come to me and I said, Dana, what am I doing wrong? I’m bleeding money. You know, why is it that I can’t turn this business around? Well, in the process of trying to explain to individuals who did not know how to build a business, around the product, or service offering is where market Atomy came about. So market Atomy, if

 

07:38

you started because your friends that are approaching you for your help, and your expertise. So what was the gap that you actually saw?

 

07:43

Well, actually, what happened was, with working with them, I realized how little they did know. And you know, with working with individuals who don’t have that experience, it’s difficult for them to understand what does it take to bring customers through your door. And so in an effort to explain to them, I developed what I call the market Atomy concept.

 

08:10

That’s very true. It’s hard to know what you don’t know when you first start running a business. So please share this, what is the market Atomy concept

 

08:17

that is our proprietary breed for Mark anatomy. And Mark anatomy means marketing, anatomy. It’s very clever. most business owners when they go into business, they, like I said, Don’t know what they don’t know. As far as that’s, you know, as far as growing a business is concerned. So there is a learning element to that. The report say the reason small businesses, micro businesses fail is primarily because either they’re underfunded, they don’t have a good leadership team. They don’t have a very good message not a viable product. My belief, my philosophy is all of those shortfalls can be taken care of through education. If they knew what they don’t know, they don’t know. They could bypass a lot of that. And so that’s why I’ve introduced market Atomy Academy is because I believe that by positively increasing or decreasing the number of failed businesses in the world, we can actually have a positive effect on our GDP, our labor forces, the psyche of the business individuals, you know, we can learn much faster and grow our businesses much better.

 

09:42

So could you show us what Mark anatomy does for its clients?

 

09:45

Yes, what we do is we educate solo and micro entrepreneurs, on the things that they need to understand in order to build that infrastructure around their product or service. So if it comes to cash flow management, we have courses on market Atomy dot Academy that teaches how to build a cash flow statement. We have courses that will teach them how to do a market analysis, we teach them how to perform a SWOT analysis. So these are all courses that we introduce through Mark anatomy Academy,

 

10:22

Danner, this is a great service that you’re providing. Because I myself, when I first started in entrepreneurship, I definitely made a lot of mistakes that could have been prevented if somebody showed me the way or guided me at the right time. You know, of course, you can’t avoid every single mistake and some things you just have to learn by going through the process and making the mistake and learning from it. But then, from your experience, what are some of the most common mistakes that new entrepreneurs make? And how can they avoid them?

 

10:46

Most new business entrepreneurs, what they do is they jump into business and they quit their Jo B’s right off the bat. Okay, I highly recommend don’t quit, unless you have some kind of financial revenue coming in, that’s going to support you because it’s going to take a good 12 to 18 months for you to even break even within a small company. Unless you’re one of the lucky few, you know, the other thing is, is you cannot go in from say what we call a napkin stage business. Okay, and immediately jump into developing websites and developing, you know, systems and processes until you understand the infrastructure of what a business is what what that infrastructure around your product or service. And that’s where Mark anatomy, the mark anatomy concept comes in. Like I said, marketing anatomy. So what I’ve taught through this market, marketing, anatomy market Atomy concept is that similar to the human body, okay, you’ve got the heart of the body, that is your passion. That is, that is what drives and motivates you. It’s love. In business, the heart is your passion. It’s your why why do you do what you do for your customers? Why are you even going into business in the first place, because you have to keep in mind that that motivation is what’s going to get you through the barriers you’re going to encounter. Okay? Well, then the human body, the brain is what send some signals to the heart, to keep pumping to keep doing what it needs to do. Same thing happens in business, the brain of the business is your playbook. The brain of the business is where your systems and your processes are stored. It’s where your customer, avatar is stored. It’s where your product and service descriptions, everything that you offer, the brain is the business in itself. But without passion, and the drive the motivation. It’s just a brain. Now in the human body, yeah, everything has to work together in the body. That’s exactly what I tell him, I said, Can the brain operate without the heart and vice versa? No, it’s the same thing in business, the heart and the brain have to work together to push your marketing message out through the veins, which are your channels, your marketing channels, to the body, which is the human body, and that’s your market, to bring those customers through the door. But there’s one other component that a lot of business owners don’t realize, is the soul of the business. The soul of the business is you as the business owner, it’s your culture. It’s your beliefs that run that business. So for example, if you have a business, and you want to hire a sales individual or a sales team, okay, unless they buy into the company, the way that you do with your passion, they’re not going to be able to do as in as effective of a job as you would doing that sales because that’s where the passion comes from.

 

14:25

But what are some of the fundamentals to business that every new entrepreneur should learn about? Could you break it down and walk us through it?

 

14:32

Yeah, definitely. Definitely. There are. There’s there’s part of what I teach my clients is there’s five phases to early stage growth. And actually these five stages are for any business, whether you are large, you know, whether you’re a medium sized business or an early stage business, the importance is understanding that there is a sequence of events that happen now, they may not be linear in nature. All right, but there is there are five stages that you need to look at the first stage is the set stage, the set stage is that napkin stage that we talked about this is where you have an idea, and you want to build a business around it. Okay? You think that you believe at this point that it’s something that could make money? Okay? Then you move into what we call the proven stage. This is where you prove whether your idea is a viable idea, Will people want it? Will they pay good money for it? Will you be able to make the profit that you want on it, and then you move into what we call the build stage, the building stage is where you are actually building that business model. This is where you start building your systems and your processes where you start building, developing that marketing message and determining how you’re going to reach your customer avatar. Once you’ve done that, once you’ve gotten through the building stage, you pretty much you’ve already started growing revenue, you’ve already started developing a business and it’s and it’s been growing, but you haven’t really grown the way that you want to. And you’re ready to start taking it to the next level. That’s where you go into the funding stage. You know, now know, where do I want to go, you know, to to exponentially grow my business. So now what you do is you’d go into the funding stage, either you’re going to go for equity funding, you’re going to go for Angel funding, or or venture funding or something to How are you, you may be able to self fund it? If that’s the case, but you have to understand how much is it going to cost me to exponentially grow my business? Alright. And you have to understand how I’m going to expert exponentially grow? Am I going to increase revenue by horizontally or vertically in increasing my product line? Am I going to introduce introduce new products? Am I going to expand geographically? You know, right now, a lot of companies are expanding geographically because of the virtual market. And all that. Then finally, the fifth phase is the growth stage. This is the exponential stage. Okay, that’s those are the five phases that businesses go through. The problem is, is most businesses, when they first start out, they want to go straight from the napkin, early stage, straight into the growth stage. And they spend 1000s of dollars, before they realize they don’t even have a message, they don’t even know who their true customer is.

 

17:47

So guys, as Dana has just shared their five essential sequential stages to any business, see it, prove it, build it funded, and grow it. So take the time to really study your business and your business plan to make sure that you have everything planned out and charted out and you understand who your true customer is, at the end of the day. Then let’s talk a little bit about the funded stage. Could you share with us what are some of the commented forms that you’ve seen your clients or maybe yourself make over the years that you would like others to avoid? They could

 

18:15

definitely I’ve shared them myself with my two past businesses. Okay. But what I have learned, and what I carry out to my clients is the fact that, you know, there are different types of business plans. Okay. Anytime you’re going to go for funding, you have to have a business plan, some kind of a business plan? Well, most people look at the original business plan that they developed, which was the I would I call a marketing plan, okay, it’s my business idea plan. And they use that to go and to to request funding. The problem is, is you have to keep in mind who it is that business plan is being written for. If it’s being written to finance a business, you have to concentrate more on the numbers, how are you going to be able to turn around and produce an ROI, say for an investor or be able to pay back a bank, and the fact that such a great product and all this other stuff isn’t as important as the numbers are, and how you’re going to reach those numbers. That’s why when I work with my clients to do their annual planning, we focus on revenue first. And then from revenue, we will build the actual infrastructure that will grow that revenue. And it’s the same thing when you’re, when you’re writing a plan to raise funds you need to be looking at or thinking about who is it I’m writing this for, and what is important to them.

 

19:53

So guys, when you’re at the funding stage, make sure to actually take the time to look at your fundamentals, your numbers, your revenue, and others. Understand how you can actually get a good ROI, take this information and tailor it to the respective investor they’re looking at, it’s not enough to just have a good viable product, what investors really want is to make sure that the money they invest in, you will give them a return at the end of the day, it is so very important to actually consider who you’re raising money from. When you’re raising money from an investor who’s coming in as a shareholder. You want them to be ideally a strategic partner as well, who can help you open the right doors and help you grow the business. Danna, you just shared that you have two previous businesses as well. Could you share with us what you learned from them? Yeah, definitely.

 

20:34

Um, it’s it’s typical that most business owners will go in this my first business was an advertising agency. And what I did what I learned, I did wrong on that agency, or that business was, I had an equal stock split. And so it was a 5050 split between me and my partner, and ultimately, they ended up pushing me out of the business. Okay, so it’s important when you go into business, especially an LLC, or corporation, to understand make sure you hold controlling interest. All right, in that business. The other thing I would tell all entrepreneurs out there is that set aside at least 20 to 30% of your stock, your original stock, your founder stock, set aside that for future equity investors, because that’s what they’re going to be looking for.

 

21:32

Guys, Dennis, shed a very important lesson, when you’re starting your business, have a good think about how you’re going to retain control of your company. If you have split your shares 5050 with your partner, be prepared that every business decision that you want to make will require their permission as well. Now, Dan, so shared that you can think about setting aside about 30% of the shares for future fundraising. But do note that once you do raise your funds, and you have new shareholders in the company, your ultimate shareholding in the company will become diluted and these new shareholders, their votes will count as well. So the takeaway message here that I really want to stress is Be very careful to not lose control of your own company, then what do you think

 

22:08

I had, I had a company that I was working with, and a great product, they had women’s sandals. They had their manufacturing setup in China. And they had a an excellent high quality product. And they had come to us because they had come to me because they were looking for funding. And going through my typical process of unveiling, you know where the company was right now, I come to find out that it was a company that was that had four primary stockholders, all of them only 25% each. So, and two of those stockholders were underperforming, non performing

 

22:54

stockholders. So they’re silent partners who don’t actually contribute to the day to day running of the business.

 

22:59

Exactly. They weren’t doing anything for the business, they hadn’t even contributed funds, they were just family members or whatever. Okay. And when I was talking to them, and I told them, I said, Look, I said, first of all, the first thing you’re going to have to do is free up some of this stock, so that investors who are interested in investing, you know, can get stock equity in the company. And when they went back to their other two stock owners, they were reluctant to release any stock. You know, they went back and they said, Look, we’ll give up part of ours, you give up part of yours, that type deal with these two stockholders said, No, we’re not willing to do that. There was a patent on the design of their product. And so what, yeah, and so what they ended up doing is dissolving that business. They closed it down, open up a new business, transferred the IP, the, the IP to the new business, and then came back and they had the structure set up correctly and everything. But that that took two years for them to be able to do that. And that’s two years that, you know, they didn’t have the revenue coming in.

 

24:16

Guys, this is exactly why it’s so important to get the shareholding right at the start of the process. And when you’re fundraising, whichever shareholder you want to bring into the company is I do to make sure that they are shareholders who can contribute to the company as well. Exactly. So Danna, what about a second business? So

 

24:31

the second business that I had was a manufacturing business, and I let my emotions drive me into buying that business. It was ceramics producing ceramic lamps for the hospitality industry. And a friend of mine had found out she had cancer and she was declining. And so I took it off or heat is what I did. I thought, okay, I like ceramics. I’ve done ceramics all my life. You know, as a hobby. I said, Yeah, I could do it. As soon as out, I absolutely hate it. So

 

25:03

it’s very different way to make a hobby.

 

25:06

Yeah, I hated it. And I found out that I was quickly introduced to the downside of manufacturing and quality control and, you know, logistics and everything. And I just, I just absolutely hated it and ended up letting that business go.

 

25:23

Yeah, I understand that for the ceramics industry, there’s a lot of quality control issues, after you actually make the ceramics, they may still crack along the way. And that comes up from your profit.

 

25:32

Yeah, exactly. So you know, this all blew up, both of these business boil business is boiled down to some fairly general concepts, first of all, your stock ownership, and making sure that you retain controlling interest. Second of all, make sure of your partners you’re teaming, you know, who it is you’re getting in bed with, you want to make sure that you can trust them totally. Alright. And thirdly, to go into business into something that you’re not I had never done manufacturing, I did not understand that I had always been in the consulting business, or in the architecture, engineering construction business. So I got into a business that I had no idea what I was getting into.

 

26:16

So there was some tips you can share for an entrepreneur who may be exploring a business that they have no experience in, they’re not sure whether they actually enjoy it,

 

26:23

maybe work in that business part time and get a feel for it, you know, or, or job shadow or something like that, so that you can, you know, get a feel for it. I grew up in, like I said, the architectural engineering construction industry, but I also have a history in the printing industry. So when it comes to marketing, I was dealing with graphic design before computers wherever introduced. Alright, and so I was there and I was cutting, you know, the letters out to make sure I spelled the words correctly and using the waxer and everything else. What I learned through that experience was I learned about the issues that crop up, especially in the offset printing side, when it comes to shadows and and film, because at the time they were using film, you so when graphic designers were coming in, and they started working in, I was their mentor teaching them, you know, look, there’s certain things tricks that you need to learn, you know, you don’t mix spot colors with with, you know, CMI k color. So you just, you, in order to keep the costs down, let’s build whatever colors we need with the four primary colors, you know, those kind of things. That’s the things they don’t teach graphic designers these days, then

 

27:46

let’s talk about what happens when you onboard a new client. What are the kinds of questions that you ask them to identify the problems that they should be solving?

 

27:54

Well, I could but probably take quite a bit of time. You know, for for several years, I would spend with every new customer I took on because before COVID everything was done one on one with my clients. And I would spend a good four hours onboarding a client just asking certain questions, you know, on the operation side, everything to get a feel for where they are understand as a as a consultant, and as a mentor. They need to be able to trust me to keep their information confidential, first of all, and to be ingrained in their businesses, though I am part of the business. So I would ask these questions that would help me understand where the gaps are in the company. What what I’ve done is I have actually taken that process online, and have developed a standalone assessment called the business health check assessment, where it assesses existing businesses reached a year old. Okay, assesses them across 20 different key performance indicators. So you know, it could be financial, it could be operational, it could be, you know, with your competitors, etc. Well, this assessment assesses these companies across 20 of these by asking certain questions. And these KPIs, these 20 KPIs are boiled down into five critical areas, which is it identifies your operational strength, your financial strength, your product service viability, your marketing and sales strength, and finally, the overall competent competency of your business and your management team. Will this be made available for our listeners? It will be available I am actually going to be beta testing it it’s actually market atomy.com forward slash bh c dash beta. b e ta

 

29:53

No, Dana, I know you wrote a few books and the latest one is called social or sociopathic Could you share with us what it is about and what hoped to achieve it.

 

30:02

I was really trying to be friendly. be funny with the with the title. Attention. Yeah, yeah, that it’s actually it’s a book I wanted to write for a long time I got involved first with social media back then 2009, I had never been involved in social media or digital marketing before then. And I figured, okay, if I’m going to start my own business, I need to get involved right away. And what I found was, through my research and everything, there were a lot of individuals that were out there that professed to be able to do certain things. And for for a fee for a fee. And what I found very quickly is what they profess to be able to do, they could not deliver. And so with the introduction of COVID, it’s become even more prevalent. You’ve got fake news out there, you’ve got, you know, all of these, what I call social sociopaths out there that are just braggarts at heart. They talk about what they can do and everything, but there’s nothing to back it up. And so this book, social or sociopathic is a co authored book with a very good friend of mine who’s heavy into the digital marketing side. And we decided, Okay, we’re going to put this book out, we’re going to basically educate small solo micro entrepreneurs, on how to protect themselves against the social sociopath how to double check and make sure that they have the social proof to back up what they say. And then also how to position themselves on digital marketing on the social platform, with that social proof that they need that will back up their statements. That

 

31:56

is very interesting. So I’m going to be very cheeky. And when they ask you for a freebie, could you give us some tips on how we can protect ourselves on these social social paths?

 

32:05

Oh, gosh, well, first of all, don’t go just on what they what they put out in social media, start doing your research on Google, you know, as far as what they’re who the company is, who the owners are, look for testimonials, look at the testimonials, if there are any. If there aren’t, chances are there isn’t anything you know, that you need to look for case studies. Have they presented case studies through the website? Do they have a website? If they don’t have a website, steer clear of them? Okay, that’s one of the first things you do when you have a business, even if it is just a simple landing page website. I don’t I don’t expect new business owners to spend, you know, $40,000, which is what I did, okay, well, then there’s a lot of money spent for website, which I thought I needed this huge website, you know, that was a lesson learned. You can get a decent website for you know, anywhere from, you know, 800 to 15 $100, to get you started. And that’s all you need. So those are, those are the kinds of things to be watching out for. As far as you’re concerned, when you start positioning yourself, build your website out to where you can include testimonials. And video testimonials are much better than just simple words. All right. So and then also include case studies, if you’re in the architectural engineering construction market, and you have solved an issue that’s been plaguing the market. For instance, I worked for an architect and they what they did was they built prototype schools. And those prototype schools would have a shed on the back for storage of equipment and things like that. And they consistently had a leakage problem where the flashing connected with the school, you know, and everything. And they were able to resolve that problem with a technique that they had developed themselves. And so we would put it up on the website saying, This is how we solve this issue. I had a I had another we were sitting in a pre construction meeting, and marketing and business development. I was always part of it because I was answering to the responding to proposals, you know, and things like that. And so the team of architects that we’re presenting, we’re presenting before the the team that was going to decide who was going to win the project. And there was a problem that this architect had run into on a previous job. And I’m getting to where I’m going with this, you’ll get it in the end. The person from the the panel that was making the decision product, this project. And immediately these architects started going on the defensive, saying, you know, well, this is, this was the problem with the construction team, you know, this is what they were supposed to do this with the designs. And my boss, who happened to be the owner, the architectural team stood up and said, Wait a minute, timeout, said, That’s not the question. The question was, how do we respond to that? And your answer should be, we took care of it, this, this and this. And that’s how we took care of it. And the reason I say that is, that’s what your testimonials, that’s what your case studies are all about. You don’t push the blame on other people, you take ownership. You take ownership, you explain, yes, that was a problem. But here’s how we turned it around. And that is critical in today’s society, when you’re talking about business and doing business, that that transparency, and that collaboration, and that you know that that ability to to just communicate and be able to own you know, the project. And what you do is what is that social proof that’s needed out there.

 

36:38

So guys, really be careful, take some time to figure out who you are speaking to online, you never know, you could be speaking to a social sociopath who could be bragging and lying about what they can really do for you. And maybe you owe that they really want to do is to earn a quick buck from you. So you take some time and be careful with that data, you have your own podcast, could you share with us what it is about? And what do you hope to achieve?

 

37:00

Again, you know, I work with solo microej webinars. And so therefore, that’s where my podcast goes, it’s called charge to appstudio dot live. And what I do is I bring on experts like you do, who are able to come again, educate solo micro entrepreneurs, on issues such as public speaking, marketing, social media, I just got done with an up podcast that just uploaded today on communication and cultural issues, since we’re moving into a global market, how to manage that communication and cultural those communication and cultural barriers, even though you don’t become an expert at knowing what to expect. And what to look forward to is critical in business. And when crossing this virtual, geographic, these virtual geographic barriers now to to work, not only internationally, but work within the US, which is where I am between states, between the south and the north, you know, the North have their cultures, the South have their cultures, you know, between Orlando and Miami, Miami is so much more fast paced than Orlando is, and everything is, you know, quick. And I find it hard to keep up with them sometime. You know, and plus the fact that Miami has become highly Hispanic. So you’re, you’re dealing with cultural issues down there, as well as communication issues. And that’s only four hour drive for me,

 

38:40

then I completely agree, you know, and the more you learn about aspects of a business and the processes behind it, you can really be beneficial. Let’s say for example, you’re outsourcing it to a third party, and you know what to expect, what to ask for them, and how much you should be paying them so you can protect yourself in that aspect. So Dana, how can our listeners get in touch with you, if they need your help?

 

38:59

They can reach me through any of the digital marketing LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, all of them or you can reach out to me via email to Dan Ida and N A. dot only vo o l i v o at market Atomy ma rk e t@omy.com.

 

39:24

Awesome. Now, Dan, thank you so much for joining us today. It’s been such a pleasure. You’re welcome. Thank you so much for asking me dead. So guys, that was Danna, livo, and all her amazing actionable advice. If you enjoyed today’s show, don’t forget to subscribe, share it with a friend and leave a review. Don’t forget to log on to tatio. com. That’s tdt.com for all latest episodes, show notes, tools and resources. And don’t forget about the Amazon gift voucher giveaway. If you actually do subscribe and leave a review on Apple iTunes by the end of September. Then you stand a chance to win $50 worth of gift vouchers from Amazon. That’s all for me today. I will see you next time