Conquer Your Business with Erin Marcus | RR 230

Janice Porter: 00:00:00

Hello, everyone, and welcome to this week's

Janice Porter: 00:00:03

episode of relationships rule. I have a mazing guest with me

Janice Porter: 00:00:07

today someone again, I think I met on LinkedIn, I'm not even

Janice Porter: 00:00:10

sure if it was at a networking event online or not. But we did

Janice Porter: 00:00:15

meet through LinkedIn, we had a zoom call, we hit it off right

Janice Porter: 00:00:18

away. And I'm so excited to have her on my show. So first of all,

Janice Porter: 00:00:22

welcome to the show, Aaron Marcus.

Erin Marcus: 00:00:25

Oh, thank you. I'm excited to be here. As much as

Erin Marcus: 00:00:29

I, LinkedIn makes me crazy. At the same time, I've met the most

Erin Marcus: 00:00:32

amazing people.

Janice Porter: 00:00:33

There you go. Exactly. Right. And I know that

Janice Porter: 00:00:36

we are aligned in that we both we both think that relationships

Janice Porter: 00:00:41

are key. And I just, I think I'd like my audience to know first

Janice Porter: 00:00:46

from you, I was going to read a little bit about your company's

Janice Porter: 00:00:50

conquer your business and all of that good stuff. But tell me how

Janice Porter: 00:00:53

you got here, at least.

Erin Marcus: 00:00:55

Because origin story

Janice Porter: 00:00:58

in a way, because I got a sense from reading your

Janice Porter: 00:01:01

bio, that that you were one of those problem children in school

Janice Porter: 00:01:08

that you didn't like, probably ADHD or something like that,

Janice Porter: 00:01:12

where you were so busy wanting to do things that you want to be

Janice Porter: 00:01:15

active, they couldn't sit still in a desk, I kind of got that

Janice Porter: 00:01:18

sense. I don't know how that

Erin Marcus: 00:01:22

I don't even know that it's ADHD. I was bored and

Erin Marcus: 00:01:25

had other things to do. Yeah, I was a total problem child. But

Erin Marcus: 00:01:29

at the same time, basically, if you look at my high school, I

Erin Marcus: 00:01:33

didn't go. But I aced all the tests, which back in the 70s and

Erin Marcus: 00:01:39

80s. Before they tracked everything you did online meant

Erin Marcus: 00:01:41

you graduated Chicago public schools, because I aced all the

Erin Marcus: 00:01:45

tests because the books were interesting. I'd read the books.

Erin Marcus: 00:01:48

I remember what I did listen, but by high school, eight other

Erin Marcus: 00:01:51

things to do. I'm not good things. That came later, by

Erin Marcus: 00:01:57

senior year of high school, I was honestly working 60 hours a

Erin Marcus: 00:02:00

week. Oh, your high school. I was just working in a pharmacy,

Erin Marcus: 00:02:05

I was a pharmacy. Okay. It's making me and surviving. And the

Erin Marcus: 00:02:12

hysterical part is I was a pharmacy technician, which meant

Erin Marcus: 00:02:15

I was, you know, distributing drugs, both legally and it is

Erin Marcus: 00:02:21

what it is. But it's not the scary version that you see now.

Erin Marcus: 00:02:25

Right? It was a little bit more innocent version of it. But what

Erin Marcus: 00:02:31

I've always done is been very, very self reliant. So I wasn't

Erin Marcus: 00:02:36

one of those kids who always knew what I wanted to do, and

Erin Marcus: 00:02:38

then set out to do it. But I did always know that if I wanted to

Erin Marcus: 00:02:45

have something, I had to do it myself. I think that's a big ad.

Erin Marcus: 00:02:48

You know, that's a big Gen X thing anyway, right? If I wanted

Erin Marcus: 00:02:51

to do something, I could do it myself. And in high school, I

Erin Marcus: 00:02:56

wanted to live on my own terms. I didn't want to go to school.

Erin Marcus: 00:03:01

So I earned a living so I could live on my own terms. Right.

Erin Marcus: 00:03:03

College became more interesting. I literally went to college to

Erin Marcus: 00:03:06

get out of the house. And by the way, before we get all dramatic,

Erin Marcus: 00:03:09

my mother and I have a great relationship, right. But at the

Erin Marcus: 00:03:12

time part of my part, me part her, I really did go to college

Erin Marcus: 00:03:17

to get out of the house because they didn't know what else to do

Erin Marcus: 00:03:20

next.

Janice Porter: 00:03:21

Do you grew up in Chicago, right? I

Erin Marcus: 00:03:22

grew up in Chicago. Yeah. And college got more

Erin Marcus: 00:03:25

interesting. Right college got more interesting. So I got good

Erin Marcus: 00:03:28

grades there because now it was more engaging. And the topics

Erin Marcus: 00:03:32

were more challenging. And, and that was what it was. And the

Erin Marcus: 00:03:36

rest of my life really has been do a good job so that the next

Erin Marcus: 00:03:43

opportunity opened up for me, it wasn't setting my again, it

Erin Marcus: 00:03:47

wasn't me setting out to do this one thing that I was interested

Erin Marcus: 00:03:50

in. I'm interested in so many different things. But that

Erin Marcus: 00:03:54

independence as Gen X, you know that we grew up with the knowing

Erin Marcus: 00:03:58

that if I wanted something I had to provide it for myself. The

Erin Marcus: 00:04:01

undying drive to learn I just cannot cannot stop. I know.

Erin Marcus: 00:04:11

periodicity. I'm the weird person that reads all the signs

Erin Marcus: 00:04:14

at the museum.

Janice Porter: 00:04:15

I do that too. Yeah. rules in the game to

Erin Marcus: 00:04:19

know because I don't follow any rules. Here

Erin Marcus: 00:04:23

what they are. Yeah, no, that's another thing I never you know,

Erin Marcus: 00:04:29

if you mix this drive to learn with truly a Midwestern good

Erin Marcus: 00:04:35

work ethic because like I said, I work 60 hours a week as a 17

Erin Marcus: 00:04:40

year old right? I'm with not thinking the rules applied to

Erin Marcus: 00:04:46

me. I just really didn't I don't mean that in a chip on my

Erin Marcus: 00:04:50

shoulder way. I just they didn't. They never have but you

Janice Porter: 00:04:57

for quite a long time, weren't you? I

Erin Marcus: 00:04:59

did but I wouldn't looking back now, looking back,

Erin Marcus: 00:05:03

I realize my success and delivering allowed me a breath

Erin Marcus: 00:05:13

of freedom, even in corporate, that's probably not normal. It's

Erin Marcus: 00:05:18

probably not average. In the last job that I had before I

Erin Marcus: 00:05:23

went out on my own. I was there for 12 years. And I oh my god,

Erin Marcus: 00:05:26

like, I realized now I was really, really allowed to be an

Erin Marcus: 00:05:30

intrapreneur. I did, I mean, I created an entire department, we

Erin Marcus: 00:05:35

I helped change the entire business model, I was brought

Erin Marcus: 00:05:39

into rooms that were so above my paygrade. And it really goes

Erin Marcus: 00:05:43

back to this work ethic, do a good job, take complete personal

Erin Marcus: 00:05:47

responsibility, because you I have zero entitlement, there's

Erin Marcus: 00:05:50

nothing that's going to be handed to me. And that opened

Erin Marcus: 00:05:54

the next opportunity. And I also think the intrinsic thing about

Erin Marcus: 00:05:58

I actually like people, I love learning about people, and

Erin Marcus: 00:06:03

figuring out why they do what they do, so that I can do a

Erin Marcus: 00:06:05

better job at what I'm doing. And, you know, again, looking

Erin Marcus: 00:06:08

back the skill I needed to grow up self reliant in Chicago

Erin Marcus: 00:06:17

public schools, with people from 22 different countries, which

Erin Marcus: 00:06:22

means nobody knows how to communicate with each other, are

Erin Marcus: 00:06:25

the exact same skills that allowed me to be so flexible in

Erin Marcus: 00:06:29

my corporate life. And it just all, you know, this crazy

Erin Marcus: 00:06:34

background that at the time didn't seem like it made sense

Erin Marcus: 00:06:37

at all. Right? It just comes together to go, Okay, this is

Erin Marcus: 00:06:42

why I'm doing what I'm doing.

Janice Porter: 00:06:45

So when you were you went from corporate, I think

Janice Porter: 00:06:48

was Do you consider your franchise piece part of

Janice Porter: 00:06:51

corporate? Or was that the No,

Erin Marcus: 00:06:53

oh, God? No, I call it jumping halfway off the

Erin Marcus: 00:06:56

cliff. Okay. So, right. So I had my job, and we fool ourselves

Erin Marcus: 00:07:01

into thinking that our paycheck is secure. Because we have a

Erin Marcus: 00:07:03

job. That's, you know, we know better now, truthfully. But so I

Erin Marcus: 00:07:07

had a job at a great job, by the way, with great, amazing people.

Erin Marcus: 00:07:11

But I got to my late 30s, early 40s, and I'm like, There's got

Erin Marcus: 00:07:14

to be something else. Right, you hit you start thinking about

Erin Marcus: 00:07:17

things differently. And so the first leap I took was purchasing

Erin Marcus: 00:07:22

a franchise. And it wasn't a physical franchise, like it was

Erin Marcus: 00:07:26

a it wasn't like a subway or something where there's a

Erin Marcus: 00:07:31

vocation to it, it was a service. And again, it was kind

Erin Marcus: 00:07:35

of a baby franchise, it was only been there for a couple of

Erin Marcus: 00:07:37

years. So I had this mixture of a framework of what it was that

Erin Marcus: 00:07:42

we did. So I didn't have to invent what we did. But I had so

Erin Marcus: 00:07:48

much room to create, how we did it, how we marketed it was not a

Erin Marcus: 00:07:54

step 123 So it was a really good mixture for me,

Janice Porter: 00:07:57

I can see that it would be because you wouldn't, I

Janice Porter: 00:08:00

can't imagine you having like a box type of like, military ties

Janice Porter: 00:08:05

where everything has to be done the same? Yeah,

Erin Marcus: 00:08:08

I don't play I can't do things, like more than

Erin Marcus: 00:08:12

three times. And it's a problem. I mean, the problem with men the

Erin Marcus: 00:08:17

problem, like,

Janice Porter: 00:08:19

Oh, that's funny. So, franchise, I think you ended

Janice Porter: 00:08:22

up becoming a trainer for other franchisees, right,

Erin Marcus: 00:08:25

yeah, because again, the drive to succeed God

Erin Marcus: 00:08:29

only knows where they're at. We really can't say I don't know

Erin Marcus: 00:08:31

where it comes from, it comes from that self determinating you

Erin Marcus: 00:08:35

know, I want to have that self determining strength or

Erin Marcus: 00:08:39

opportunity, flexibility, work ethic, lack of attention span,

Erin Marcus: 00:08:45

ridiculous bandwidth.

Janice Porter: 00:08:51

Identify because, I mean, I, I was, I was a school

Janice Porter: 00:08:55

teacher in my first life and that in the public school system

Janice Porter: 00:08:59

is very bureaucratic. And I can't do the point even that

Janice Porter: 00:09:04

when you go in the lunchroom every day with the same people

Janice Porter: 00:09:07

the same teachers the same support so God forbid if you sat

Janice Porter: 00:09:11

in the wrong seat in the lunchroom, like I couldn't do

Janice Porter: 00:09:14

that for so I had to get out so

Erin Marcus: 00:09:16

I have to be free i can't handle the rules of who

Erin Marcus: 00:09:21

tell you know who I need to be don't need to be with I can't I

Erin Marcus: 00:09:25

wasn't even like that in high school. I think one of the

Erin Marcus: 00:09:27

benefits of going to a high school with people literally

Erin Marcus: 00:09:31

immigrants nobody spoke English from 22 Different countries is

Erin Marcus: 00:09:34

no one had any money. Yeah, everyone was just trying to

Erin Marcus: 00:09:36

survive and so I never had that click experience that you see in

Erin Marcus: 00:09:41

the movies.

Janice Porter: 00:09:44

Yeah. So okay, so from Franchise the franchise

Janice Porter: 00:09:48

world, then you made the leap out to the name of your company

Janice Porter: 00:09:54

now is yes,

Erin Marcus: 00:09:55

that's totally right. Because what happened

Erin Marcus: 00:09:57

was, so the franchise was The subject matter of the franchise

Erin Marcus: 00:10:01

the work that we did was working with families with aging

Erin Marcus: 00:10:03

parents.

Janice Porter: 00:10:04

Okay. Oh, if your time? Well, um, there was a lot

Janice Porter: 00:10:11

of people I know that got into rural too soon.

Erin Marcus: 00:10:15

Yeah, well, I want to say, I was on the cusp of it,

Erin Marcus: 00:10:18

because when I started the franchise, it was amazing. And I

Erin Marcus: 00:10:22

did get that business to the top 10 out of 200 franchises in

Erin Marcus: 00:10:26

about 18 months. Hence, like what you said the franchisor

Erin Marcus: 00:10:29

would hire me to help, you know, grow new franchises and train

Erin Marcus: 00:10:32

them. What happened is six years later, within about six years

Erin Marcus: 00:10:37

later, when I left and I closed my office, you had a situation,

Erin Marcus: 00:10:43

a two fold situation where there's no barrier to entry in

Erin Marcus: 00:10:46

that industry. There's zero barrier to entry in that

Erin Marcus: 00:10:49

industry. And at the same time, the estate liquidation side of

Erin Marcus: 00:10:53

that business that was originally helping pay for the

Erin Marcus: 00:10:56

services, right, the state sales and the resale side of that

Erin Marcus: 00:11:00

business had gone completely bust. Nobody was buying us

Erin Marcus: 00:11:04

things anymore, you had an oversupply of stuff and an

Erin Marcus: 00:11:07

absolute lack of demand for that stuff. And when you put those

Erin Marcus: 00:11:11

things together with the fact that I was in the city of

Erin Marcus: 00:11:13

Chicago, where they were raising the minimum wage, the taxes were

Erin Marcus: 00:11:17

going up, workers comp was going up, and 90% of my competition

Erin Marcus: 00:11:21

was working under the table while I was running a legitimate

Erin Marcus: 00:11:24

business, when you put all that together. And at the same time.

Erin Marcus: 00:11:30

I'm talking at my cheat, you know, when it's my turn as the

Erin Marcus: 00:11:33

entrepreneurs at the chamber to take my turn and talk about my

Erin Marcus: 00:11:36

business. The people are going, yeah, yeah, we know you have

Erin Marcus: 00:11:40

that business. But why are you making money? How are you doing

Erin Marcus: 00:11:43

that? Your business growing, the thing that people wanted from

Erin Marcus: 00:11:47

me, wasn't what my business did. It was what I knew how to do,

Erin Marcus: 00:11:51

because of my corporate experience, my MBA that I had

Erin Marcus: 00:11:55

eventually gotten right. And so after a while you decide, Okay,

Erin Marcus: 00:12:00

do I want to stay over here where the logistics of the

Erin Marcus: 00:12:03

business are a nightmare? The profit margins are horrendous.

Erin Marcus: 00:12:07

The trauma that my clients are going through is creating

Erin Marcus: 00:12:10

caregiver burnout for me, there's right there's just so

Erin Marcus: 00:12:14

much trauma and problems, or let's see, I know how to grow

Erin Marcus: 00:12:18

businesses. I have an MBA in marketing, I have a corporate C

Erin Marcus: 00:12:21

suite background, I know business strategy. That's where

Erin Marcus: 00:12:24

I'm actually helping people. I don't know which way do you want

Erin Marcus: 00:12:28

to go? And kind of like, you know, before we hit record, we

Erin Marcus: 00:12:34

were talking about how the beauty of entrepreneurs that

Erin Marcus: 00:12:37

it's been a good five years since I've even interacted with

Erin Marcus: 00:12:39

someone I don't like. The other piece of that puzzle is this

Erin Marcus: 00:12:45

business. And the way that I've created this business has

Erin Marcus: 00:12:49

allowed me to make my job. Interestingly enough, more and

Erin Marcus: 00:12:54

more narrow, so that the only thing I do are my favorite

Erin Marcus: 00:12:59

things that I'm great at smart. Write my favorite things that

Erin Marcus: 00:13:05

I'm great at in delivery to the clients and in service of

Erin Marcus: 00:13:09

growing the business, hire people who only work in their

Erin Marcus: 00:13:13

genius zone. And the things they're amazing at that they

Erin Marcus: 00:13:17

love doing complementary to each other. Right?

Janice Porter: 00:13:20

That's smart. And so I read somewhere in one of

Janice Porter: 00:13:24

the things I got about you that you had a year though, in 2018

Janice Porter: 00:13:30

That was you called your failure year. And then in less than two

Janice Porter: 00:13:34

years, you went from calling yourself the number one pinball

Janice Porter: 00:13:38

and barely making any money to multiple six business six

Janice Porter: 00:13:42

figures in your business and having fun so you're not

Janice Porter: 00:13:45

stressed out because you've got a good team around you. You're

Janice Porter: 00:13:49

doing what you love to do. What happened? What what?

Erin Marcus: 00:13:53

Yeah, explain that.

Janice Porter: 00:13:56

Great marketing. So

Erin Marcus: 00:14:00

what the heck, what really happened is I

Erin Marcus: 00:14:04

underestimated how even though I know business and I know

Erin Marcus: 00:14:09

marketing and I know strategy, I really underestimated how not

Erin Marcus: 00:14:14

having even the external framework of a franchise brand

Erin Marcus: 00:14:20

was going to affect Aaron the human and how I could close a $3

Erin Marcus: 00:14:27

million deal as my parting gift to corporate how I can be how I

Erin Marcus: 00:14:32

can be running a half million dollar franchise when the next

Erin Marcus: 00:14:35

person below me isn't like 35k And yet when it was the flag in

Erin Marcus: 00:14:40

the ground with my name on it and my picture on it, it really

Erin Marcus: 00:14:45

fell apart for a year because I couldn't figure out what I

Erin Marcus: 00:14:49

wanted it to be. I wanted you know that's where that loving at

Erin Marcus: 00:14:53

different things kind of hurt me for a while. And very kind

Erin Marcus: 00:14:58

person who did has renamed errands, your failure to Aaron

Erin Marcus: 00:15:03

zero of reflection. Thank you for that. But it took me about a

Erin Marcus: 00:15:09

year a little over a year to get my feet underneath me. Because I

Erin Marcus: 00:15:15

leave before I look, that's just my personality and I leave

Erin Marcus: 00:15:18

before I look. And so that year that it took me to figure out

Erin Marcus: 00:15:24

what is it that I'm great at doing? What is it that I love

Erin Marcus: 00:15:27

doing? Who is it that I want to do it for, and putting the ducks

Erin Marcus: 00:15:30

in a row enough. But again, once you figure that out, if you

Erin Marcus: 00:15:36

stick with it, that's how you can launch and leverage very

Erin Marcus: 00:15:41

quickly. So what

Janice Porter: 00:15:42

if you love more than one thing?

Erin Marcus: 00:15:46

Not everything you do has to make your money. Okay,

Erin Marcus: 00:15:50

this is a really big problem I am watching happen today I have

Erin Marcus: 00:15:54

this conversation all the time. Not everything you love doing

Erin Marcus: 00:16:01

has to make you money. I volunteer with wildlife rescue.

Erin Marcus: 00:16:05

I sit in the dirt in my yard and garden. I don't need a side

Erin Marcus: 00:16:08

hustle for either of those things.

Janice Porter: 00:16:11

No, but if business wise, you know, you

Janice Porter: 00:16:14

have two or three lanes that you that you go in that they all

Janice Porter: 00:16:19

kind of go together. If they go

Erin Marcus: 00:16:21

together, that's fine. Okay, if they go together,

Erin Marcus: 00:16:25

that's fine. If they go together, then what this that,

Erin Marcus: 00:16:29

honestly, is what a lot of my clients have they have like two

Erin Marcus: 00:16:32

or three things that in their mind are completely separate.

Erin Marcus: 00:16:35

But truthfully, if we can find what I call the umbrella, that's

Erin Marcus: 00:16:39

what I got. Yeah. So your umbrella? Yeah, we can sign the

Erin Marcus: 00:16:43

umbrella then there's absolutely no problem having more than one

Erin Marcus: 00:16:48

aspect, like when I talk about multiple streams of income,

Erin Marcus: 00:16:53

build multiple streams of income in a way that doesn't confuse

Erin Marcus: 00:16:55

the marketplace. That makes sense. Right? I'll give you I'll

Erin Marcus: 00:17:00

give you an example. In my business, when I started out

Erin Marcus: 00:17:04

coaching and coaching, and we added coaching and consulting,

Erin Marcus: 00:17:07

which is a little bit different. But then I saw a really big gap

Erin Marcus: 00:17:10

in the marketplace of implementing on what I was

Erin Marcus: 00:17:13

teaching people. It was a really big gap in the marketplace.

Erin Marcus: 00:17:16

Because we would have these great conversations. But when

Erin Marcus: 00:17:19

they would go to do the things. They didn't have my team, they

Erin Marcus: 00:17:22

didn't have my background, they didn't know they were already

Erin Marcus: 00:17:24

out of hours in the day and days in the week. So this year, we

Erin Marcus: 00:17:28

added that. And there's four or five different things now where

Erin Marcus: 00:17:31

we will do it with you and for you, instead of just teaching

Erin Marcus: 00:17:35

you how to do it. That's an umbrella it goes together. Yeah,

Janice Porter: 00:17:39

that makes sense. I don't know whether I saw this

Janice Porter: 00:17:44

in yours or not. How do you feel about? Yeah, I did see it here.

Janice Porter: 00:17:50

Because you say something about, you know, there's no such thing

Janice Porter: 00:17:53

as a single funnel that will earn your course with just one

Janice Porter: 00:17:58

email, just do this one thing, just just just you that kind of

Janice Porter: 00:18:03

fits with what we

Erin Marcus: 00:18:04

were just talking about. I mean, and so I call

Erin Marcus: 00:18:07

those instant haptics. And it's not Do not get me wrong, it is

Erin Marcus: 00:18:13

not that the tactic is wrong. Correct. Okay, in and of itself,

Erin Marcus: 00:18:17

most of these tactics have value. But if you run your

Erin Marcus: 00:18:22

business and are growing your business, starting at step one,

Erin Marcus: 00:18:28

you become susceptible to believing one of these instance,

Erin Marcus: 00:18:32

haptics will solve all your problems. And this is exactly

Erin Marcus: 00:18:36

what I do with my clients, we have to start at step four. And

Erin Marcus: 00:18:41

step four for me, like if we create my funnel, my version of

Erin Marcus: 00:18:44

a funnel. Step four is a business that's on solid

Erin Marcus: 00:18:51

footing. We have good offers, we know what we're doing, and we

Erin Marcus: 00:18:54

know who we're doing it for, and we know how to talk about it.

Erin Marcus: 00:18:57

That's Step four, that's the foundation that you have to

Erin Marcus: 00:19:01

start with that first. And then based on that information based

Erin Marcus: 00:19:06

on what you know, you want to grow. And by the way, knowing

Erin Marcus: 00:19:09

what you want to grow is not $1 amount, that's only one piece of

Erin Marcus: 00:19:13

it, because there's a million different ways to make a million

Erin Marcus: 00:19:15

dollars. So we have to know what is it that you're trying to

Erin Marcus: 00:19:19

grow? And then then we go back to step one, and we look at what

Erin Marcus: 00:19:24

are the marketing strategies that we need to have to grow the

Erin Marcus: 00:19:28

audience that most people don't do the work before they go out

Erin Marcus: 00:19:34

to work. They don't set their foundation. They just go well, I

Erin Marcus: 00:19:38

want a million dollar business. That's as far as they get. And

Erin Marcus: 00:19:43

then they go looking for tactics that'll get them there. And

Erin Marcus: 00:19:47

again, it's not that that tactic is necessarily wrong, but it

Erin Marcus: 00:19:50

might not be right for your strengths. It might not be right

Erin Marcus: 00:19:54

for your business. And that's the other piece of it. We buy

Erin Marcus: 00:19:57

into these Institue optics and then And when they don't work

Erin Marcus: 00:20:01

for us, because they have us believing we need to do

Erin Marcus: 00:20:04

something we absolutely hate doing. We feel like a bigger

Erin Marcus: 00:20:09

failure because their marketing will have us thinking it's

Erin Marcus: 00:20:12

working for everybody but us. Yeah. And

Janice Porter: 00:20:14

that's, that's the kind of pull me push you

Janice Porter: 00:20:19

thing around, is I know, the marketing is so good, that they

Janice Porter: 00:20:24

hook you in with something that isn't you.

Erin Marcus: 00:20:28

Right? And it's not their fault, by the way. No, I

Erin Marcus: 00:20:30

know, I know. Right? Their marketing is good, because they

Erin Marcus: 00:20:33

did their work. That's right. That's right.

Janice Porter: 00:20:35

But it's not necessarily going to work for

Janice Porter: 00:20:37

you. So not necessarily gonna work for you. I do understand

Janice Porter: 00:20:41

that, that you think as I do, that, networking, building

Janice Porter: 00:20:47

relationships, networking, let me say networking done properly.

Janice Porter: 00:20:52

And building relationships is something that that is key to

Janice Porter: 00:20:56

growing your business, more than one sort of funnel, so to speak.

Janice Porter: 00:21:00

Right? Can you speak to that, from your perspective,

Erin Marcus: 00:21:03

I've started to phrase this a little

Erin Marcus: 00:21:05

differently, because just to hit this home even harder. Don't

Erin Marcus: 00:21:11

confuse networking with building your network. I think people see

Erin Marcus: 00:21:16

right like, people, I'm going tomorrow. In fact, I'm going to

Erin Marcus: 00:21:21

a networking luncheon in downtown Chicago, I'm really

Erin Marcus: 00:21:23

looking forward to it. They always have a great speaker,

Erin Marcus: 00:21:25

they always have great people, they always have great food. But

Erin Marcus: 00:21:28

networking is different than building my network. So one of

Erin Marcus: 00:21:34

the things I ask people is, who's in your phone? Yeah. Who

Erin Marcus: 00:21:38

is your actual network? Who do you have? That will answer your

Erin Marcus: 00:21:43

DM? Who do you know that when you need a trusted resource, or

Erin Marcus: 00:21:47

your next client that you can reach out to I used to say call

Erin Marcus: 00:21:52

but let's face it, I only answer the phone. If it's my mother at

Erin Marcus: 00:21:54

this point. Nobody else calls me everyone else, just text or DMS

Erin Marcus: 00:21:58

rate. But who is in your network versus networking? Now they're

Erin Marcus: 00:22:03

both very important. So I now from being more involved with

Erin Marcus: 00:22:10

seven figure businesses. Networking is brand awareness.

Erin Marcus: 00:22:16

Building your network is relationship based.

Janice Porter: 00:22:21

And you got to do both. Yeah, you do. Yeah. That

Janice Porter: 00:22:24

makes total sense. I love it. So you have a saying in your

Janice Porter: 00:22:30

business, your tagline being charged, take action, get

Janice Porter: 00:22:34

results. That speaks to you. So well. I love it. And you have a

Janice Porter: 00:22:39

podcast as well tell me tell my audience the name of your

Janice Porter: 00:22:41

Podcast, the

Erin Marcus: 00:22:42

podcast is called ready yet, right? That's right.

Erin Marcus: 00:22:46

The tagline is, you'll never do it. It takes until you become

Erin Marcus: 00:22:48

the person it takes to do it reflecting back on my year that

Erin Marcus: 00:22:53

I had to figure out who I needed to be in order to do the things

Erin Marcus: 00:22:56

that I wanted to do.

Janice Porter: 00:22:58

What do you what do you love about podcasting?

Erin Marcus: 00:23:01

Oh, my God, the relationship right? Here's,

Erin Marcus: 00:23:04

truthfully except for this monthly luncheon. That gives me

Erin Marcus: 00:23:08

a reason I have to like get fully dressed, not just upper

Erin Marcus: 00:23:11

half dressed and get out of my house. The only way I'm

Erin Marcus: 00:23:15

currently networking is by podcasting. Because think of it

Erin Marcus: 00:23:20

this way, by the time we have a connect call, and you are on my

Erin Marcus: 00:23:23

podcast, and I am on your podcast, we have now spent a

Erin Marcus: 00:23:27

really good two and a half hours together easily. And it's such a

Erin Marcus: 00:23:33

great like, we know if we're each other's people. I know

Erin Marcus: 00:23:38

right? We know so much about each other personality, not just

Erin Marcus: 00:23:42

personals. Yeah. And I love the truthfulness in the real story.

Erin Marcus: 00:23:48

And I also really the thing I like about podcasting is the

Erin Marcus: 00:23:52

more truthfulness of it, at least who I choose as my guests.

Erin Marcus: 00:23:57

Because marketing is what you do to grow awareness of your

Erin Marcus: 00:24:03

business and inspire your audience to become your clients.

Erin Marcus: 00:24:08

But we all know, marketing is not the reality of everything

Erin Marcus: 00:24:13

you're experiencing as a business owner. And there is

Erin Marcus: 00:24:17

such a needed safe space for sharing the truth of the

Erin Marcus: 00:24:21

entrepreneurial journey. Like you heard me say, I went from

Erin Marcus: 00:24:24

multiple six figures in corporate to tap 10 out of 200

Erin Marcus: 00:24:28

in my franchise to $11,000 which if you've ever had a business

Erin Marcus: 00:24:34

$11,000 Gross is not a positive number net by the end of the

Erin Marcus: 00:24:38

year. Right. And so to be able to share the reality of it with

Erin Marcus: 00:24:45

people because the Gary V's out there they're 20 Robbins, right.

Erin Marcus: 00:24:50

They have their purpose and I want you to be motivated by

Erin Marcus: 00:24:53

them. But they're so far removed from where most of us are it

Erin Marcus: 00:24:59

becomes hard to actually learn from that.

Janice Porter: 00:25:02

Well, it's funny, something you just said, though,

Janice Porter: 00:25:04

reminds me of kind of the difference between Instagram,

Janice Porter: 00:25:08

and some a little bit. And LinkedIn, because nothing on

Janice Porter: 00:25:14

Instagram to me is real. And so you can if you choose to get to

Janice Porter: 00:25:19

the realness of you, you know, and I have to say, my

Janice Porter: 00:25:24

generation, I'm a little bit older than you, my generation is

Janice Porter: 00:25:28

not as good at doing that as your generation then if I'm not

Janice Porter: 00:25:32

Yeah, you know, it's it's harder to, to, you know, but I'm

Janice Porter: 00:25:36

starting to give little bits of things that I talked about that

Janice Porter: 00:25:39

I'm okay with. But the thing about it is that I know I

Janice Porter: 00:25:44

digressed from what we were talking about, but oh, that,

Janice Porter: 00:25:47

that when you when you start to build relationships by having

Janice Porter: 00:25:53

these conversations, whether with the red.on, or not with the

Janice Porter: 00:25:56

red.on It's just so much more real. I had a podcast, I want to

Janice Porter: 00:26:01

share a little bit of a conversation I had yesterday

Janice Porter: 00:26:05

with I was on this girl's podcast. And she and I had done

Janice Porter: 00:26:11

a little training exchange. And so we've gotten to know each

Janice Porter: 00:26:14

other that way as well. And I knew the first time I talked to

Janice Porter: 00:26:20

her, she's a entrepreneur, true entrepreneur, she's got a couple

Janice Porter: 00:26:22

of businesses, she's, she's a CPA, as well, as well. And

Janice Porter: 00:26:27

bright young woman, I really was impressed with her. And I kept

Janice Porter: 00:26:30

thinking about this other woman that I knew here that I really

Janice Porter: 00:26:33

thought she should meet. So I had said to her after the first

Janice Porter: 00:26:37

conversation, that I would love to introduce her to someone, but

Janice Porter: 00:26:40

I needed to check first whether this person had the bandwidth

Janice Porter: 00:26:43

was available to speak to her because that person was the

Janice Porter: 00:26:47

person in my phone. And I don't want to just, you know, put

Janice Porter: 00:26:51

together without asking. So anyway, that took a little bit

Janice Porter: 00:26:54

of time, but it worked. And I did the introduction. And

Janice Porter: 00:26:57

yesterday she said to me, oh my goodness, she said, I can't

Janice Porter: 00:27:01

thank you enough for the introduction to this woman. She

Janice Porter: 00:27:04

said, she's gonna be a lifelong friend, like, yeah, this woman

Janice Porter: 00:27:08

was a true entrepreneur, who has done very well she was on

Janice Porter: 00:27:13

Dragon's Den, which is the Canadian version of Shark Tank.

Janice Porter: 00:27:17

Got a huge deal with her business. She's super

Janice Porter: 00:27:20

successful. And anyway, it was just such a great feeling to

Janice Porter: 00:27:23

make that happen.

Erin Marcus: 00:27:25

It's a great feeling. But you just said you

Erin Marcus: 00:27:27

just gave an example of the number one thing required to

Erin Marcus: 00:27:32

build your network. Give before you got if you want more

Erin Marcus: 00:27:37

referrals, give more referrals. If you want more partners give

Janice Porter: 00:27:42

give. Yeah, I didn't know why I wanted them to

Janice Porter: 00:27:45

meet. But to me, it's, well, it's

Erin Marcus: 00:27:47

also not linear, right? You didn't do that show

Erin Marcus: 00:27:50

that she gave you a referral back, I will tell you that for

Erin Marcus: 00:27:54

about 75% of the people who are on their podcast, or they're on

Erin Marcus: 00:27:59

mine, some people it's not the right fit, but for at least 75%.

Erin Marcus: 00:28:03

I get them at least two more podcasts that they can record.

Erin Marcus: 00:28:07

That's how I network.

Janice Porter: 00:28:10

Well, and I just realized that that's something

Janice Porter: 00:28:13

that I actually don't do enough of which I will today I will ask

Janice Porter: 00:28:18

you afterwards, you know, and where do you need to me to do

Janice Porter: 00:28:22

that? You know, but if you're not for networking, that makes

Janice Porter: 00:28:24

sense. You're right.

Erin Marcus: 00:28:26

And one of the reasons one of the places it

Erin Marcus: 00:28:29

falls apart, it's amazing to me how many people when I say what

Erin Marcus: 00:28:34

do you need? Who do you need? What do you want? How can I help

Erin Marcus: 00:28:37

you have nothing? They have nothing as they don't know,

Erin Marcus: 00:28:42

they're unprepared for that. People want to help each other.

Erin Marcus: 00:28:47

We need us you need to have a prepared specific ask.

Janice Porter: 00:28:53

Okay, yeah, that's good to know. Right? In

Janice Porter: 00:28:58

first impression, connections, you know, I know what to ask for

Janice Porter: 00:29:02

and everything. But sometimes it's about really putting this

Janice Porter: 00:29:06

thing into a system, right? Oh, yeah, absolutely. Absolutely.

Janice Porter: 00:29:11

Um, before we wrap up, I do want to ask you a couple of questions

Janice Porter: 00:29:16

off the grid, so to speak. Are you a reader or a listener or a

Janice Porter: 00:29:22

video watcher? Where

Erin Marcus: 00:29:23

do you reader, a reader

Janice Porter: 00:29:25

real life books like touch and feel book?

Erin Marcus: 00:29:27

I love touch and feel books. I was the happiest

Erin Marcus: 00:29:32

person in the universe when the Kindle came out. Because I used

Erin Marcus: 00:29:36

to travel for my corporate job. And my biggest fear was being

Erin Marcus: 00:29:40

caught on an airplane with nothing to read. I can read we

Erin Marcus: 00:29:46

went on especially if it's like just fiction for you know.

Erin Marcus: 00:29:51

giggles and you know, entertainment. I went on

Erin Marcus: 00:29:55

vacation for seven days and I think I read eight books. Oh my

Erin Marcus: 00:29:58

goodness. I can just tear through, I can tear through

Erin Marcus: 00:30:02

things I can sit. Like as active increases, I can sit and tear

Erin Marcus: 00:30:08

through books. And were they all thick nonstick, those are just

Erin Marcus: 00:30:12

fiction for fun. My current pattern is nonfiction Business

Erin Marcus: 00:30:17

Growth books in the morning and fiction at night to chill out.

Erin Marcus: 00:30:21

You don't watch TV. Not I haven't watched TV in a while.

Erin Marcus: 00:30:25

Okay, I used to I'm not I am a big fan of TV. I even but what I

Erin Marcus: 00:30:30

learned is I don't actually watch TV. I look at it. I watch

Erin Marcus: 00:30:34

the same stupid stuff over and over and over. It's NCIS Los

Erin Marcus: 00:30:37

Angeles. And CBS NCIS New Orleans. Big Bang Theory. Yeah,

Erin Marcus: 00:30:42

now. That's it. That's like all I watch. And it's not it's

Erin Marcus: 00:30:46

because it's mindless. It's mindless. So I'm coming down

Erin Marcus: 00:30:51

while it's on.

Janice Porter: 00:30:52

Fair enough. Thanks for sharing that. And I

Janice Porter: 00:30:56

know that you mentioned earlier in this my favorite piece that I

Janice Porter: 00:31:00

like to ask everybody I know you mentioned curiosity, because you

Janice Porter: 00:31:03

said you're a lifelong learner. And you're you thrive on that.

Janice Porter: 00:31:06

So would you say that curiosity, in your opinion, is innate? Or

Janice Porter: 00:31:11

learned? And then what is the most thing? What's the thing

Janice Porter: 00:31:14

you're most curious about today? Gosh,

Erin Marcus: 00:31:18

I think it's nature and nurture. I think some people

Erin Marcus: 00:31:21

are more curious than others. I think a lack of curiosity stems

Erin Marcus: 00:31:24

from being taught fear and scarcity. Right? It takes a

Erin Marcus: 00:31:28

certain amount of courage to be curious, because people fear

Erin Marcus: 00:31:32

things that are different from them. And curiosity would just

Erin Marcus: 00:31:35

solve that problem. Right? So I think some of us are more

Erin Marcus: 00:31:41

naturally curious than others. And I think what leads to a lack

Erin Marcus: 00:31:46

of curiosity is fear and scarcity. What am I most right

Erin Marcus: 00:31:50

now I'm curious about plants and gardening. Yeah, I'm in the

Erin Marcus: 00:31:54

process of trying to, I don't know, get this whole patch of my

Erin Marcus: 00:32:00

garden to be better. I can't even I don't even know the word

Erin Marcus: 00:32:03

right to cultivate and so and the

Janice Porter: 00:32:06

song flowers or vegetables,

Erin Marcus: 00:32:09

that flowers, there's so much wildlife here.

Erin Marcus: 00:32:12

It would be an exercise in frustration to grow anything to

Erin Marcus: 00:32:16

eat and be gone before we got it. But I have a pollinator

Erin Marcus: 00:32:19

garden that I'm growing in the one sunny spot. I live in a

Erin Marcus: 00:32:22

wooded area. So we have one sunny spot, and I'm trying to do

Erin Marcus: 00:32:25

a pollinator garden and fix the soil. So currently very curious.

Erin Marcus: 00:32:31

Like that's what I want. That's

Janice Porter: 00:32:32

interesting, because my sister who lives in

Janice Porter: 00:32:34

LA, she spent a lot more time out in her garden through COVID.

Janice Porter: 00:32:40

And she did this whole project with creating mosaic tile tiles

Janice Porter: 00:32:47

from it's amazing, but she also has an LA they have to have like

Janice Porter: 00:32:52

cacti and things like that. Right. But she has she started

Janice Porter: 00:32:57

learning about I think it's like the pollinator thing where the

Janice Porter: 00:33:00

butterfly the caterpillars come and you're almost there and then

Janice Porter: 00:33:04

the butterflies come and then they feed off the sin difference

Erin Marcus: 00:33:07

here is they freeze during in Chicago, right? I

Erin Marcus: 00:33:13

mean, I think for me, it's very much an aligned with the

Erin Marcus: 00:33:15

wildlife rescue that I did. And we're on an acre and a half year

Erin Marcus: 00:33:19

of a wooded lot. I've got every animal under the sun here. So it

Erin Marcus: 00:33:23

just and again, an acre and a half. I'm trying to create

Erin Marcus: 00:33:27

something that doesn't isn't going to add work, right? If

Erin Marcus: 00:33:31

enough work to

Janice Porter: 00:33:31

to create projects. I'm fascinating,

Janice Porter: 00:33:34

actually. Well, Erin has been a delight. Thank you so much.

Janice Porter: 00:33:39

Before you go two things, one, let my audience know and I will

Janice Porter: 00:33:43

put it in the show notes how they can find you. And secondly,

Janice Porter: 00:33:47

what's what's the one maybe business tip or, or favorite

Janice Porter: 00:33:51

thing you'd like to share with my audience.

Erin Marcus: 00:33:54

So make it really easy to find me. It's all at

Erin Marcus: 00:33:56

conquer your business.com if you just go to conquer your

Erin Marcus: 00:33:59

business.com. The podcast is they're reaching these they're

Erin Marcus: 00:34:03

the socialists. They're the everything you need conquer

Erin Marcus: 00:34:06

business.com. And the one thing that has really been inspiring

Erin Marcus: 00:34:09

me. How can I put this like, be a little more brave? If I have

Erin Marcus: 00:34:17

to look back at why I didn't achieve things I wanted to

Erin Marcus: 00:34:22

achieve? It's never because I wasn't smart enough. It's never

Erin Marcus: 00:34:24

because I didn't work hard enough. And that is the same for

Erin Marcus: 00:34:27

99% of the people that I meet.

Janice Porter: 00:34:31

Just be more bold. Go do something that

Janice Porter: 00:34:34

scares you. Yeah, that's great advice. Thanks, Erin. Thank you

Janice Porter: 00:34:38

so much for being here. And thank you to my audience again,

Janice Porter: 00:34:42

for being a great loyal listeners. Please let us know

Janice Porter: 00:34:45

that you enjoyed the podcast episode by leaving a review and

Janice Porter: 00:34:49

remember to stay connected and be remembered