RV: (00:06) Hey, brand builder, welcome to this special recap edition of this special episode on recession proofing your business and recession-proof revenue. Talking about government sales. This was not on our radar. AJ made it on our radar. And what, what, what did, what did you think this was? This was your call to push our friend Jack up in the queue. AJV: (00:30) I did while I was on the, I was on a call, a client call, he’s one of our clients last week. And when I was going through all these data statistics that he had provided around the importance of [inaudible] gaining government contracts and your business, I just said, yeah, but that’s not really for everyone. And he goes, it most absolutely is. And as soon as he said that, a trigger went off in my mind of how many people are in our audience out there, you who were sitting there going, well, I could never sell to the government. Yeah. And I said, probably all of them, RV: (01:05) Including us. Yah. AJV: (01:07) So we need to have Jack on to demystify this concept that, ah, the government doesn’t buy what I do. I can’t be of service to the government or it takes too long or it’s too complicated and he totally De-mythed, all of that with some really simple resources. I think it’s very timely and it’s, it’s I think just really important because one of the two things that wasn’t necessarily a part of the interview today, but I think that are really pertinent is that in the midst of what the media shares, which is typically always negative there is also [inaudible] a counteracting of positive and good things that are happening that just aren’t as newsworthy. They aren’t as popular or trend worthy for whatever reason. And I think Jack was such a great example of, in the midst, over the last three weeks where so many people are like, WTF am I gonna make payroll? Is my business gonna make it? There are other businesses that are booming. They are exploding. They’re experiencing double, triple 10 times growth in the last three weeks. RV: (02:11) Yeah, well we’re, we’re, we’re having, we’ve had parts of our business struggle and then we’ve had parts of ours literally, boom. AJV: (02:19) So I think, I think one, it’s just that reminder that there is an opportunity in any market to be successful. Bill Gates has this long quote that I keep talking about over the last few days. When he talks about in a time like this, how you view the market is exactly what will happen to your business. If you view it as an opportunity, you’re going to find a way to be opportunistic and gain market share. If you view it as woe is me, I’m, I’m out of business, that’s probably what’s going to happen. And I think Jack’s take on how are you adjusting your skill sets, adjusting your services AJV: (03:00) To be applicable to what one of the biggest vendors out there is looking for either government, RV: (03:06) No, the biggest, the biggest, the biggest, the biggest spender. AJV: (03:10) At least a minimum of $2 trillion out there for spending. What are, what are you doing to give some effect? Like that is why I wanted to have Jacqueline. Yeah, I think that was huge. RV: (03:22) And I mean even just that idea alone, like forget about covid, forget about economy, recession. Just go look, the number one spender in the world is spending a bunch of money. Are you aware of who it is and what they’re doing and what they’re spending the money on? And for the answer, most of us is no, which is insane. Like in any other normal private business usually like you would know who’s spending money and you and you would go there. So I think that that was one of my big takeaways was that there’s always people spending money. RV: (03:53) You’ve got to figure out who and in this case, yeah, Jack is bringing to this some great resources and things around the government. I mean that that website is like literally people trying to spend money and they’re just posting it on the site. AJV: (04:07) I think too. And it’s just knowing what to do and I love that his website govspend literally gives you who the person is, what their title is, what their phone number is, what their email is and their purchase history. Yeah. Everything they’ve bought ever before. RV: (04:24) And you can search, you can search it by those terms, which is super, super powerful. And then one of the things I actually that you said in the interview with Jack as you know, AJ doesn’t do all the interviews. This was one if you didn’t listen to what goes into it because we did the interview together. [inaudible] RV: (04:42) Was how you need to be Abel, you know, particularly if you’re struggling, right? You need to be willing to adapt and modify and pivot a little bit. And we’ve been talking about with our, with our members in our monthly membership, we’ve been talking about getting in the media and one of the things we say is you need to tailor your expertise to what is happening in the news cycle. And that’s how you get in the media is connect what you do to what is happening. Yeah. Well this was really similar. This is like not just for media attention but for survival. Connect your skillsets to what is needed, like to what people desperately need and, and be willing to pivot because there’s, there’s opportunity. So that was, that was my second big takeaway was just watching you kind of process that. Like in that way, I think for anyone who’s out there listening, and that would be our team included, it’s a, we all possess a certain set of skill sets that you may not offer in your business. That doesn’t mean you don’t have those skillsets. Like I know zoom up down all around, been using it for eight, nine years. I mean, it’s a, it’s a crucial part of our daily life and our daily business. There’s no reason I couldn’t start offering a zoom training service if you needed to, RV: (05:55) if you needed to. AJV: (05:58) So like what are all of the Skillsets that you just naturally present has asked that you take for granted now that the whole world is gone, virtual, gone online to do business. And in addition to that, it seemed, I saw a story about these New York city dressmakers that have turned their sewing skills into sewing masks. RV: (06:18) Ah, AJV: (06:18) And there’s just so many great examples. Yeah. Like even here in Nashville, CycleBar apply it to what is needed or just get really creative. And I think that the story that I love here in Nashville where we live is CycleBar is one of the cycle studios in town. Clearly no one is going to class right now or shouldn’t be so here’s what they’ve done. Yeah. They are letting you rent their bikes that usually sit in their studio to deliver them to your house. You rent them, then they’re doing live virtual classes and you’re paying more to rent the bikes then you would for your monthly subscription to come to the studio. So just like there’s so many opportunities to innovate. Maybe they’ll never go back from that. Like this could be their new business, maybe not. But I’m just saying there’s just so much opportunity if we choose to get a little creative. RV: (07:12) Well, and for us, like we, we have done all of our live in person events have gone virtual and, and they are awesome. The feedback has been incredible. AJV: (07:22) We think so! RV: (07:22) Well, our clients think so too because they, they, they’re riding in the feedback and we do think it’s incredible, but it’s like people are saving money on travel and they’re having, you know, a very similar, comparable experience and they’re not having to do the risk. And there’s some, some really amazing things that come out of that. But I think, you know, and the two big thing questions at a high level that you should be asking yourself as one, you know, how can I be digital? Like whatever business you’re in, how can I be more digital? And you know, like this is the time for video courses and video funnels and webinar funnels and blogging and social and like all the things that we talk about on a normal basis to be accelerating because that’s how can I go digital? RV: (08:03) The second question I would be asking is going, how can I deliver service to people in their home? Okay. So like the CycleBar example is, yeah. Is a great example. There’s other examples of people you’re doing home-based kind of delivery services, right? Like Amazon announced 100,000 jobs or something that they need. Why? Because everybody needs stuff delivered to their house, which, and, and, and if this goes on for awhile, like eventually people are gonna need haircuts from their house. They’re going to want Manny Pedis from their house. They’re going to need, like everything is going to be who can deliver, get the service delivered to the home, you know? So in a safe way. AJV: (08:43) And if it’s not in the home, it’s just how are you uniquely transforming your business? You know, I read some stories the other day about a high end restaurants, that our now I’m doing a family meal prep. They would have never done take like these are not takeout places you don’t get take out and you don’t get to go orders from these five star four star restaurants, but now they’re making family style meals where you can come and pick them up curbside. So they’re quickly pivoting to save jobs, to save their businesses at like, clearly no one’s coming in here. That doesn’t mean we can’t pivot what we do still comparable, right? We’re still a food hospitality business. We’re just now doing it and family meal style planning for you to come pick it up. So even if it’s not in the home, it’s [inaudible] coven related, right. What are the things that are necessities of our current time and how are you adjusting your business now and for the future, which is one of the points that we had talked about in the interview, which is RV: (09:43) That would be my final, my final point. Right. I think to me a big part of this interview was just sort of like the creativity and the pivot and the awareness that like for every action there’s an equal and opposite reaction. So for every challenge there’s an equal and opposite opportunity somewhere. And to bring Jack in as a real life example of someone that’s, you know, one of our clients who’s just all of a sudden like [inaudible] loaded that is out there everywhere. But then practically to directly what he was saying, I mean this was an eyeopener for me about selling to the government, that if you want to create recession-proof revenue, everybody should at least take a look at this, not just for the short term, I mean whatever that website, right. Whatever the website he gave, I think short term, you know, gov, quote dot U S it’s like, go look at that for short term money. Like yeah, money is flying out and available, but longterm is going, the number one spender of all is out. They are. And in down economies they spend more money. It’s like you should have a piece of your business and a piece of your mind, or at least being aware AJV: (10:52) Is somewhat recession proof. RV: (10:54) Yeah. AJV: (10:55) And yeah. Yeah. And it’s like, and perhaps today you don’t really have a segment of your business that applies and perhaps that’s where your creativity needs to come in and play. Mmm. Because that leaves needs to be a consideration. And RV: (11:10) Even if you don’t offer, you know, like that website of all the stuff they’re asking for. Right. You may not offer something, but that’s going to tell you what they need right now. And you go, Oh, I could [inaudible] AJV: (11:20) I could pull that. Yeah. Like another story. I’ve got so many stories. I’ve been, RV: (11:23) You’ve been reading the positive [inaudible] positive pandemic stories. Welcome to the positive pandemic news with Paula. Amanda Johns Faden reporting to you live on all of the most amazing creative businesses. Yes. AJV: (11:38) But I just thought this GM, right, I saw this [inaudible] the other day and yeah, so an African his name. But anyways, I saw it and I was just like, that’s amazing how they were calling all us manufacturers to do what the government can’t do. Yeah. And so RV: (11:54) At GM has all this manufacturing equipment, they’re going to start manufacturing respirators. Oh wow. AJV: (12:00) And so it’s like, yeah, I mean, they’ve got all the equipment that’s not a product that they’ve been doing, but that doesn’t mean they can’t be doing that. They have the tools, they have the people, they have all of the manufacturing materials. They just have to reconfigure how they’re doing and what they’re providing. So again, there’s just so many things like that that are out there, that are happening, causing people to rethink, readjust, innovate, and create in a time that [inaudible] going to push us all to our limits. RV: (12:31) Yeah. And you, but you can do it. We’re doing it with you, right? Like our live keynote business when indefinitely postponed our live event business, which is like a core part of our business, suddenly became [inaudible] all real time in person events and they’ve been incredible. And you know, I’m sure there’s more curve balls coming our way and there’s going to be curve balls coming your way, but you can do it. There are opportunities out there. You have to just know that for every challenge there is an equal and opposite opportunity. So thank you babe for inviting Jack. And thank you for tuning in. We want to be that source of encouragement and inspiration for you. We’ll catch you next time on the influential personal brand.