Discover the G.E.T. Framework for Business Growth (Episode 176)

Transcript

Jeff Bullas

00:00:04 - 00:01:22

Hi everyone and welcome to The Jeff Bullas Show. Today I have with me, Link Brown. Now Link is dialing in from Europe in Switzerland and just a little bit about Link before we have a chat and just find out his very interesting story. Link has spent the last 24 years helping multiple companies scale their revenue 2x to 5x in the American market. They came from Europe and North America and in a very diverse industries, they include industrial biotech and so on. He was a partner at GET GLOBAL, which is a strategic consulting and services agency based in Switzerland. He grew up in very humble beginnings in America. He realized success came and he leaned into his uniqueness, used all his successes and failures to fuel and stay true to grounded principles for success. His work has led to delivering products and services to 80+ countries. He has led global commercial teams of 60+ people and traveled to 43 countries. Nothing like travel to give you a good education and learn about people in life. Link is fluent in English, French and Spanish, which means he talks two more languages than I do because I'm still struggling with English. So he's now based in Geneva, Switzerland. And Link, welcome to the show.

Link Brown

00:01:23 - 00:01:32

Thank you so much, Jeff, really appreciate it. Very happy to be here. I've been following some of your work. So I'm really looking forward to this conversation.

Jeff Bullas

00:01:33 - 00:02:02

Yeah, I've been intrigued by your story and one of the ones I read was because one of the things you help people to grow their businesses is using what you call the GET scale framework. Now, there's a story behind how you develop this. And so let's have a quick chat about it. This GET scale framework came out of you being really crap at baseball and then got really, really good. Is that correct?

Link Brown

00:02:02 - 00:05:58

Yeah. So it's a very American story, right? So even if people don't know much about baseball, you'll understand that when you play baseball, you probably need to, you need to hit the ball to actually be successful in baseball. So that's what everyone should know. So, yeah, so I'll give you the short story. So, again, I was born in Cincinnati, Ohio, played sports growing up, I actually played American football growing up but never had really any particular hand eye coordination. And I also tried to play baseball. So from about eight years old to 14, I played every year. I was really fast but I couldn't hit the ball so I had zero hits for the first six years of my baseball career and, you know, they just had to keep me on the team because that's how it was. So my parents had actually gotten divorced when I was 10 years old or my dad actually abandoned our family, I should say actually when I was 10 years old. So we went from middle class to like poverty and I mean, no electricity sometimes. I had to sleep on the floor for six years of my life. Like it was what for you as poverty. But there was a coach, his name was coach Chambers. And the first year I tried to play for my high school team. I was just playing around. I wasn't really serious and chose not to show up to some games because I wasn't going to play anyway. I wasn't any good and he kicked me off the team. So, I cried like a baby when he did because he was like that father figure I'd been looking for. And, after about a week of crying, I finally decided, my mom had always told me, did you do your best? And I realized I hadn't. So, what I did is I, again, I had no money. At least I thought all of the best kids in our city, there's a million people in the city. So all the best kids in the city always had the best equipment and went to all these training camps and I didn't have any money to do that. So I said, okay, well, what do I have? So, I'm actually dyslexic too. So, this is always interesting. So, what I did is I just said, okay, what do you need to do? I need to hit the ball, I need to see the ball and hit the ball. That's kind of the basics. So I took a broomstick, an old broomstick, cut it down to the size of a baseball bat. Every week, I would take a roll of masking tape and I would wrap it around the bat just to get more weight and to make it thicker. And then I would have my friends pitch to me with tennis balls which are fluorescent that I could actually see. And actually when they were throwing to me originally, I still couldn't hit it. So I had to have them throw it to me from the side. So I actually figured out how to hit it.

Well, longer story, a little bit shorter the year that next year in one year, I was third on the team, I hit 3-17. So almost 32% of the time I got on base and the year following, I hit 3-91, 39.1% of the time I got a hit and I was an all city baseball player. I ended up playing in college as well. But what that did is that kind of taught me this whole GET scale framework. So it's about being grounded, having this big vision knowing what you really want, but using what you have around you to help you move. It's about being efficient, simple and agile in the way that you work and then targeting in on the way that you work because there's usually one or two things that you have to do in order to grow. And I've just used that framework throughout the rest of my life. So like I said, start with baseball and I just use that energy in every part of my life just to start moving forward.

Jeff Bullas

00:05:59 - 00:06:14

Okay. Let's quickly sum up, you mentioned it just then, but let's sum it up to distill the GET scale framework, what G means, what E means and what T means and just a quick summary of the GET scale framework.

Link Brown

00:06:14 - 00:07:32

So GET scale is Grounded and Efficient and Targeted, Grounded is the idea of having a big vision in what you have and what you want, you know, you want the 10 extra business you want to grow exponentially, but the reality is in order to get to 10 you have, right? So it's taking a very stepwise approach using what you have around you to help you move to that next level. E is Efficiency, right? So it's, for me, Efficiency is about simplicity and simplicity, it really allows you to execute well and be very agile in your approach because the thing usually doesn't work, you have to figure out how to make things work. So you have to keep simplifying until you get to the source of what you really need to. So it's about being efficient. And then again, there's only one or two things just like the Pareto Principle, 20% of the items are gonna give you 80% of the results. So there's only one or two things you really need to fix and if you target those and you focus on them, everything else really starts to fall into place to get you to that next level. So that's the framework.

Jeff Bullas

00:07:33 - 00:07:57

Okay. So you became a star in the baseball team by being able to hit the ball when you weren't able to hit it, which is pretty amazing. You developed your own framework, which is very, very cool and then you start to apply it to other parts such as business. So you went and did your degree at college and you did a, was it chemical engineering degree, I believe.

Link Brown

00:07:58 - 00:07:58

Correct. Yeah.

Jeff Bullas

00:07:59 - 00:08:16

So, and then you went and joined the corporate world. So when did you start to apply the GET scale framework and when was your first major success? Can you tell us about that?

Link Brown

00:08:17 - 00:10:06

Yeah. So, yeah, so I went to Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. So it's a lot of things, but one of them is an engineering school, got a degree in chemical engineering afterwards. I started working for a company called National Starch and Chemical, which got bought out by Hinkel. But the first two years of my career, like I had never, no one in my family was a corporate person, like had any real business experience. So I first got in and again, I tried to do things like everyone else. And it really wasn't working for me. I was getting very average results. I mean, I was getting paid but I was, really, I just feel like I was existing. I was showing up to work every day. And it actually really frustrated me, but then they teamed me up with a guy named Scott Carpenter who was a salesperson, who we worked in teams. I was a technical guy, he was a sales guy and we had our territory and he was really ambitious and it just kind of relit this fire inside of me. And he was also a guy who had worked, he was a who became a sales person, right? And so, like, I really identify with this story and it just kind of reengaged this whole idea with, I mean, like, yes, we can be ambitious, we can go from there. So what we did over the next couple of years so developed 10 products that had over 100,000 sales, which is three times more than we outpaced the growth of the group by like 400% in business in our territory. And it just, I realized that, you know, even as a tech guy, I could really use that kind of framework to help us really start to grow. And then I knew I could also do it myself moving into sales.

Jeff Bullas

00:10:07 - 00:10:16

So basically, the inspiration was that as a team to realize that the sales person got paid a lot more than the tech guy.

Link Brown

00:10:16 - 00:10:47

I tell people, you know, we doubled the business and Scott made six figures and I got a dinner in New York with my wife at the time and a little certificate that said I did a good job and I said this is not for me. So I was like, I think I can do this on my own. So I actually, I took the first sales job I could possibly get, actually took a pay cut, just to do it, I said I'll succeed, I'll start, I'll use the framework. I'll start with where I'm at and I'll make it work.

Jeff Bullas

00:10:48 - 00:10:55

It's like the t-shirt that says the salesman made all the money. I got the t-shirt. I got this.

Link Brown

00:10:56 - 00:11:04

Or even worse. At least you, at least you can wear the T-shirt. I literally got a piece of paper that said good job. I was like, I could burn this.

Jeff Bullas

00:11:05 - 00:11:17

Okay. So you're inspired now, you've had your ambition, fires stoked. So what was the next move after that?

Link Brown

00:11:18 - 00:13:23

So again, took the first sales job I could get, I went to a place called Glue Dots International. So if you know the little sticky piece of glue that's behind a credit card or something when it comes in the mail, we used to make that. And I would sell that through distribution decently well and then moved into capital equipment sales. And also started my own consultancy at the time where I was just helping companies on the side. Just every once in a while I would pick up a project here or there. But then my first capital equipment job then again, started using that. I came in, we had no marketing budget. I was, they were a California company. I was on the east coast and just kind of worlds apart and the whole way we were working wasn't, we weren't growing, it was very stagnant and just came in and just started, okay, what do I have using what I have around me? I know why I wanna grow, I know I wanna double the business, I don't wanna be like everybody else, I don't want to sit here and complain about the boss makes this and I don't, no, I wanna win. So I just started to develop my system and say, what do I have around me? Look, let's start using it and that's why I just did just, and you know, and then also just learning to outwork people like doing things that people weren't willing to do, right? Like, and that's a lot of times we try to make things more complicated. But it's really always about getting back to basics, always keeping things simple. And if you just do the basic things, well, you win, right? It's people when you try to make it more complicated or you spend time worrying about something you can't control, that's when you slow yourself down. And so it's, yeah, I find that a lot of times now I'm just, I'm helping declutter people's minds. And start to realize what they actually have in front of them instead of, you know, worrying about what they don't have.

Jeff Bullas

00:13:24 - 00:13:36

Well, so you essentially had something on the side, a side hustle going while you're working in your day job. When did you make that leap to leave the day job and its security?

Link Brown

00:13:37 - 00:15:26

Literally a year ago because I am, I always liked having something on the side. Now, this is, I think this is actually just poverty mentality to be perfectly honest with you. Of thinking that someone else is going to control is like that the job is security, right? And again, you can work your way into being necessary in whatever job you do. But like, but the thing is, is like, I had always had this idea, I knew I had big ambitions, but I just said, I, it's almost this idea. I don't ever wanna be poor again. Again, I slept on a cot for six years, like a piece of foam for six years. Like one winter I had no winter coat and I had this, like, limiting belief in my mind that I don't ever want to be poor. And so it's, I had a good job of making a few 100,000 a year. And it's like, I would, I didn't want to let the company have full control over me. But at the same time if I lost it, I didn't know if anybody would ever hire me again or if I could ever, if I could actually, was it actually a fluke or was I actually good, right? So, yeah, literally a year ago, just out of circumstances, knowing that, like, okay, I'm in Switzerland, I'm here, and I think I have a unique, of helping and when I start to look back at my career of just saying they always taken foreign brands and help them succeed, that's all what I've always done. So why don't I just do it for myself? I have the ability to go for it.

Jeff Bullas

00:15:26 - 00:17:14

Right. So that's a very brave step you made and obviously, and I get that feeling of going, well, I've had a couple of wins, are they just lucky strikes? You stepped up to the plate and you got a couple of lucky strikes. So let's say you've made the leap, you're out there and you're helping people grow and you're getting some success stories. Can you tell us a little bit about the number one, we can maybe start with a success story or maybe we can start without giving names away, you know, but up to you, but what is, where do you start with a client? And you've got different types of clients, clients that are sort of like ready to launch, have the product, know what they're doing, but need some focus and two, and you bring your GET scale framework to the table and take them through that. In other words, you know, get grounded, get efficient and simple and get very targeted. In other words, just keeping the whole thing just I love the rule of threes any rate. So you've got an acronym, that's about three things, which is great with three principles. So when you engage a client and this is important, I think for other people too that maybe wanting to do a side hustle or wanna leap out, they might be, you know, people with expertise and you had expertise. In other words, you're essentially a coach in one sense with a lot of knowledge in your head, a lot of passion in your heart. So what's the process you take your clients through? Can you take us quickly through that as a bit of a thumbnail sketch?

Link Brown

00:17:15 - 00:19:21

Sure. So again, there's three types of clients. So the client is either during the US market, like they've already decided that they would need to go into the US market and they're just starting, they are already in the US, but I have a call them on the frustrated side, they've gotten some traction, but it's kind of lowed out over the years or they have great product market fit and they need to, they now want to optimize for scale. My favorite is probably the second one who come in, had some success but then frustrated and flat and we'll call it flat line or stagnated for a while. So the really the first process is understanding the customers, my project vision, what do they really want? What do they want to achieve? And I think it's really having that conversation. It's like doing any sales. It's like listening to understand what they want. And actually the more you let them talk, the more you realize some of the limiting beliefs that they have about themselves already, right? So, just taking that time to see what does success look like in America for you. And then I take them through where they currently at, you know, it's the goal, it's where they are and then it's the gap I take you. Where are you at right now? What have you done? And then we try to take them through, like, get them a quick wins to allow them to see that. Really didn't have to reinvent anything. You have to see it differently. If you could see it differently and you have to stop doing a few things, you might have to change some others and then you have to start consistent habits, like though that's gonna help you get some very quick and make the move. So it's kind of, I take them to that. I just listen a lot to understand what they want. I then listen again to understand what they've currently been doing, what successes and failures and what resources they have and then just try to get them a quick win to help them move forward, to hit that to take the next leap.

Jeff Bullas

00:19:21 - 00:19:28

Right. Okay and, when is your job done with them?

Link Brown

00:19:29 - 00:20:32

Oh, that's a good question. I guess the technical answer is when the contract ends. I think the way I work is that I always have phases and I put, you know, they're hiring me for one specific thing. Maybe it's just to start it and I'm gonna move them on, maybe it's to keep working with them and continuously start moving them, you know, through the years. But, you know, my first few clients have been ones that are, I'm both helping them start and also helping them also kind of working with them in continuation. I don't really say it. There's a, I can also say though that the way I also love to work is my door stays open, right? So you're working with me over the years, like I have no problem helping people out or listening. So the contract might end, but the door will stay open in terms of just friends and stay connected.

Jeff Bullas

00:20:32 - 00:20:43

Right. So, can you share any success stories you've had in the last, whether it was during your side hustle days or the last 12 months?

Link Brown

00:20:44 - 00:23:16

Yeah, I'll give you a very easy one. So a company who was doing lead generation again, I won't give the name to be, so a company was doing lead generation in the, kind of in the climate space and was helping them, evolve their lead generation. They basically weren't getting any traction whatsoever. They were and were very, I would, they had this, they had a system in place for getting new leads, but they had no real offer and no real framework. So what we did is the first thing is like we reworked their offer so that it was actually something that wasn't just in one person's head but that anyone could actually present and connect with. So that's the first thing because when you're generating leads, it's not just am I getting names and emails, it's actually you have to be able to work them through the sales funnel. And so you have to know how to do that. So we reworked the offer so that the offer made sense, the offer was relevant to their target clients and go from there and then something very simple is we just gave them a follow up sequence for their lead gen. Their lead gen was basically being done by one person, one contact that the person didn't connect, they didn't know what to do. He said that that doesn't work well. In lead gen, if you use, let's say you're using LinkedIn, you need to know what to do if the person connects. If they reply, if they don't reply, if they're not interested, you need to have all these sequences like already set up. And so just in our first six weeks, we were able to increase their leads that they got qualified two meetings by 545% just in six weeks of just giving them an offer that worked, that people could connect to and then making a follow up sequence that could actually, that people could actually follow and that the they were using virtual assistance that they could actually follow and drive and follow up with and then just a weekly check in and it just made things much simpler. Something that simple really helped drive their leads forward.

Jeff Bullas

00:23:16 - 00:23:23

What results did you get with that in terms of increasing leads? Increasing sales? What sort of numbers did you achieve?

Link Brown

00:23:23 - 00:25:51

Yeah. So I stayed out of the sales side, but on the lead side, again, 545% increase in leads themselves. So, I think, I don't have the numbers right in front of me. But, yeah, but percentage five times more leads than what they were getting previously and actual meetings. So they were now, had a full schedule of meetings to go and follow up with. So those are the kind of results we did. Had another company that I was actually an employee for where we were working, okay, using in the selling in the US, selling very complicated capital equipment to universities and government officials, which is always great because they never have money or it always takes forever to get the money. So and it was very complex or very high end equipment. But sometimes we were presenting things like it was high end. So basically lead gen system changed it up and actually what I did is change up the system to do something very simple, just focused on what was the one. So what was the, looked at the one thing that they needed to do, which was just like a client, couldn't run certain types of tests or a prospect couldn't, we knew they couldn't. And so we would start with asking that question. So we started by actually selling them services first instead of the equipment. So we said because the services, and then once we were able to get them hooked on services, we say, okay, you're now gonna pay a few 1000 for these services. You're a natural client to now buy an instrument. So I've driven my lead gen cost, they become nothing because I'm able to drive it to zero because I'm able to get actual service revenue first and then pull that in. And I think so in our service revenue, we increased 360% service revenue and instrument sales that came from those service clients, it was 38% increase in instrument sales just from those clients. So lots of different ways that will work with customers. So just a couple of success stories.

Jeff Bullas

00:25:52 - 00:26:06

Fantastic as they have great success stories. Now, what people are always interested out of this starting business or an entrepreneur is, and I'm intrigued by your answer to this is that you just, and it's quite relevant, it's how do you generate leads?

Link Brown

00:26:07 - 00:28:24

Well, that's a very good question. I typically use LinkedIn for the most part. But I have a process that I use a framework that I use when I'm prospecting. So I have a team set up who uses LinkedIn to connect to new people. And we have a follow up sequence, right? It's kind of, it's normal. But then what do we do is we actually, I say that everyone is either a prospect, a referral or a friend, right? So when I get someone, I'm targeting someone, you know, first, obviously I'm looking, if we can do business together, maybe we can and then I'm looking for a referral to go to something to find someone else may be interested. And either way I want one who does something for you. So I want to be a person who does something for them. So I offer, hey, what do you need? How can I help you? And I've built a lot of relationships over the years by just being a friend to someone, right? And so it can always be simple things. It can either even just be a quick introduction, email, it can be, oh, contact this person and it can be very simple and it doesn't take any time out of your day. But you'd be surprised how many of those leads actually come back to you. The second thing I'll just say is that so I use my framework. So you're either a prospect, a referral or a friend. But the second thing I do is I just have multiple touches, multiple ways of contacting people. I'm doing a lot of LinkedIn lives right now. I think my best method like I told you before, I'm dyslexic. So, for me to just do a newsletter and read all the time, I can’t. I don't want to do that, right? It is not the way I want to work, right? So, I do a lot of video and live one-on-ones. I work much better. So I just chose one area where I work. So I do LinkedIn lives and then turn them into meetings, as well. And that's been pretty successful as well.

Jeff Bullas

00:28:24 - 00:29:18

Alright, cool. Yeah, it's a lead generation is quite often something people are afraid of. They say, okay, we start a business but don't know how to get leads. So, that's why I wanna ask you, number one, you help people get leads. Number two, you have your own system for doing that, which is fantastic. Okay, so the other question because the area in which is a, is sort of consulting where in some instance I know you told me that you want to avoid doing it, but just trading time for money because coaches actually could be an hourly rate. I'm going to be charging, you know, x dollars per hour. So how do you scale you? You mentioned the team that helps you generate leads, but the challenge in any coaching, consulting is scaling. What’s your thoughts on that and how you're approaching it? You're only year in but what are your thoughts on that?

Link Brown

00:29:19 - 00:31:05

So I have a couple of ways that I'm working through that. So it's a really good question. So the first thing is to be very selective with the people that I'm working with in terms of one-on-one, right? But then there's also you have to be able to do something in groups. So I have a book coming out in the next maybe six weeks called Get Scale. So even when you think it's impossible, it's the full title. So I'll sell a book. But what I really want to do, that's just an opener. But what we really want to do is those people that I can help with different parts of their business is I'm also creating a course to be able to for most people who want to grow in the US market to be able to work around that. So that's like that's gonna be my second method piece or pillar in order to help companies or help, yeah, help companies on that journey to do. So through a book, but also through a course and then being very selective about the ones that I work with. So and then also just building a team. So I have consultants that I work with right now. Who I will partner with. But I'm actually, again, wanna work the frame, build the framework even more and then start hiring people, hire other consultants and service providers who can, who are speaking German, I speak French. But, you know, those who speak German or speak another language in order to facilitate more work with people in other countries.

Jeff Bullas

00:31:05 - 00:32:01

Yeah, there's a challenge in Europe is that there is a, quite a lot, a variety of languages. Even though the market size is large, I think it's around about 400 million or so and Americans have got about the same, but they all speak English whereas we're American, whereas you've got French, Spanish, you know, Italian, okay, the Slovenian Hungarian, the list goes on. So, it's so if you, but you're taking people to the, I suppose the other thing too is that English is, has become and still is at this stage, the business language of the world effectively,. And a lot of Europeans are taught English at school. So they can actually then basically been involved in English speaking at business especially and also at university.

Link Brown

00:32:02 - 00:33:25

Yeah. Well, what I find is so, first of all just telling people. So when I do it live, I'll actually do responses in French. I usually don't do them in Spanish because my Spanish is good but not great. But I'm surely fluent in French. So I will do a question and answer in French if it's needed. But to your point is that there's a lot like, it's not just different languages, it's actually different cultures. Like even the French speaking Swiss culture is completely different than France. They're not even close to the same. They're light years apart. Obviously, French and German, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese are all different but for me, I have the benefit that if a company wants to drive business in the US, they probably speak English, right? So it's kind of a prerequisite. So I do have that benefit. But I think that the large part, particularly working with European companies is the culture and it's understanding their culture, which is why I want to be based in Europe and not in the US, understanding their culture, really diving into it and then help them bridge that gap between with their understanding of how business works and really the US business culture.

Jeff Bullas

00:33:26 - 00:33:37

So I'm gonna ask you a left field question here. The question is what brings you joy?

Link Brown

00:33:38 - 00:35:09

Oh yeah, okay. Great question. So I have six things that I try to revolve my life around. So family, I have three kids, 27, 16 and eight months. So, quite a gap and a granddaughter too, by the way, who is 10 years old. So my family, mentoring, leadership development. I love just, yeah, love dealing with leaders and helping people do that. I call it intercultural development. So I love work between cultures, business strategy. And lastly, as I will say it's finding simplicity and complexity. So, any time I'm doing anything like that, whether it's through a personal conversation, whether it's through business, whether it's in my music, like, because I make music as well. So like everything like I love taking those six things and just putting them together and so those bring me joy.

Jeff Bullas

00:35:10 - 00:35:16

That's awesome. I think I'm gonna ask this question a lot more because I don't think we asked this question enough.

Link Brown

00:35:16 - 00:36:58

Yeah. if I could give you. I could tell you I went through a, there was a time, 4 years ago, I was getting it, gotten separated, was getting divorced and I was like, I was stuck here in Switzerland and I just said I was in my bed every day, like just canceling all my morning meetings and just being like, I can't, I don't want to deal with life like everybody. And I was just, it was just, my life was literally feeling like I was just, I felt like I was depressed and I say I felt that way. There are some people who go through that, but one day I'm sitting in my bed and it's 10 o'clock in the morning. I cancel all my meetings and one of my mentees from the US, she texts me and she says, Link, I need your help. And I jumped up immediately and I was just like, I spent the next hour and I was helping her out and I was, I just, you know, like she had this business question and I was helping her through it and I felt so excited and I remember right afterwards and I said, wait, I'm not depressed anymore. And it made me realize you need to reorient your life around the things that you really love and don't compromise on that. And so again, some people go through a real depression and that happens. But for me, I just realized it was a lack of priorities. It was a lack of focus on what brings me joy and what my mission is in the world that really was making me feel like I was being pressed upon. So, yeah, so, but thank you for letting me share that.

Jeff Bullas

00:36:59 - 00:37:20

Thank you very much for sharing that it's very, very important. I think, a lot of people ask themselves a question, what brings them joy. And I have a friend that she said to me, I couldn't tell you and that was

so, I think we need to ask this question as friends and also in business.

Link Brown

00:37:21 - 00:37:23

What brings you joy?

Jeff Bullas

00:37:24 - 00:37:45

What brings me joy is, I do, I love my reading. I give myself permission to read a lot, I love my writing, I love being out on a bike in nature, I love silence. So I, there's a matrix of things that bring me joy and I choose to do them.

Link Brown

00:37:46 - 00:37:47

I love that.

Jeff Bullas

00:37:48 - 00:38:08

I think the thing is in a lot of places we accept the templates of our parents and friends and society and we don't choose bliss or happiness. We choose the habits and lives of others. So, and that's a very dangerous place to live.

Link Brown

00:38:08 - 00:39:20

Yeah. Yes. Agreed. And I would say it's funny because I've been making these connections between our personal lives and like kind of how small business works because I said, you know, even as a small business, like you have something unique about you, you have particularly in America where you can be very, you can differentiate yourself just in service or just in one particular aspect. But small businesses a lot. They will think that they need to be like the big player in order to win. And I go, no, you actually don't do that. Like, it's better to have that. Like, it's in that just like in the personal realm, like where we have to find what brings us joy and what, like our sweet spot. I think it's the same for small businesses as well. It's like, find that one thing, find what it is where you can, where that brings you joy that you're good at and stop putting the definition of success based on what you see on the news or Silicon Valley or whatever, Shark Tank or whatever you see, like realize like that you get to choose the path your own. Like what success looks like, you choose your path. It's not for somebody else to do.

Jeff Bullas

00:39:21 - 00:40:29

There's a great story shared about the Knights Templar in the grail and all the 12 nights are sent out on their mission to find the grail and their lives and all of them went into the forest where there was no path. And because if they've chosen a path, that path has already been trodden by someone else, so our mission in life is to be brave enough to live your own life, not someone else's and strike out on your own and create your own path. So any last tips you're, you're from life and business. You've been, you know, a year in, what are some tips for entrepreneurs that are either started or want to start? What's some tips that you'd like to share that you think are really important that have made a difference to you? You've already shared some but what's just 1, 2, 3, but whatever, just one's a good place to play.

Link Brown

00:40:30 - 00:42:54

Okay, I will say, oh, I think I'm gonna get through the first is to realize that you, you know, a lot of us suffer from imposter syndrome. And I always say that impostor syndrome, like in order for you to have impostor syndrome, you had to have actually done something. And so remember that you actually did something already, right? And so you don't look at what you're not, look at who you are. The second thing I'll say is that is to build on who you are because in order like everything that you need to succeed to the next level is already inside of you or around you, right? Like you've already been built to a certain level to now give you the tools that you need to start moving to the next one. It's you're not going to get, you know, to your final destination with just what you have, you're gonna have to grow and change and that's okay, but you have enough right now in order to do that. And then the last part is I would say is take a look back with gratitude and appreciation because I think when you look back with appreciation, not with regret, you actually start to realize how far you've come and then you can actually use that to start turning around to say, okay, if I've done those things, I can reach the future. I'm a Christian personally so I like to use stories of the Bible. So I'll use one briefly, but everyone knows David and Goliath. I said the only reason why David ever knew that he was supposed to, he could kill Goliath is because he had confidence that he had already killed a bear and the lion in the past, right? He was only using his strength from before to realize what he could do in the future. And so I think that's the same for us too. Like we have to use the strength that we have in the past in order to help us go to the next thing that we're after and we shouldn't be afraid of that. We should just go in with confidence, knowing that we can go further and faster.

Jeff Bullas

00:42:55 - 00:43:19

Right. Thank you Link for sharing your stories about life as well as business. And if people want to grow their business, especially those that are wanting to reach the American market or grow their American market leads and sales. How can they contact you in the simplest way?

Link Brown

00:43:20 - 00:43:49

Okay. The simplest way is you can just go to LinkedIn and send me a connection request. So all of my social media is The Link Brown or The Link Brown. So thelinkbrown.com and but my handle for LinkedIn is the same, it's The Link Brown. If you go to LinkedIn, you can find me there or thelinkbrown.com.

Jeff Bullas

00:43:50 - 00:44:08

Thanks, Link. It's been fantastic and I've really enjoyed it. And this has been a joy having this conversation and that's the thing that brings me joy is these real conversations which we've had. Thank you very much for being real.

Link Brown

00:44:09 - 00:44:16

I really appreciate you and thank you for having me on your podcast. All the best success and I'm sure we're gonna be staying in touch.

Jeff Bullas

00:44:16 - 00:44:18

Thanks Link. It's been an absolute pleasure.

Link Brown

00:44:19 - 00:44:20

Thank you.