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Digital Transformation & AI for Humans
Welcome to 'Digital Transformation & AI for Humans' with Emi.
In this podcast, we delve into how technology intersects with leadership, innovation, and most importantly, the human spirit.
Each episode features visionary leaders from different countries who understand that at the heart of success is the human touch—nurturing a winning mindset, fostering emotional intelligence, soft skills, and building resilient teams.
Subscribe and stay tuned for more episodes.
Visit https://digitaltransformation4humans.com/ for more information.
Digital Transformation & AI for Humans
Strategic Scaling with AI: Exponential Business Growth from 7 to 8 & 9 Figures
In this episode, we’re diving into Strategic Scaling with AI. Let’s take a closer look at how to scale businesses from 7 to 8 → 9 Figures, and achieve Exponential Business Growth, together with my fantastic guest from Toronto, Canada — Rob Provenzano.
Rob is International Best Selling Author/Speaker/Mentor/Fractional CMO, who knows how to drive over 300% YoY Growth by using AI-powered Systems.
Selected Industries/Companies Rob worked with 👇
🧾 ACCOUNTING: Deloite, E&Y, KPMG, PWC
💰 BANKING: BMO, RBC, TD
⚕️ HEALTHCARE
🏛️ INSURANCE: AIG, Cigna, Clarica, Manulife, Sunlife
🖨️ PRINTING/PUBLISHING: Quebecor, MacLean Hunter, Transcontinental
🛍️ RETAIL: D'allards, Harry Rozen, Marks and Spencer, Roots
🗣️ SPEAKERS: Robert Allen, Joel Bauer, Les Brown, Wayne Dyer, Tony Robbins, Brian Tracy
💻 TECHNOLOGY: AT&T, AVAYA, CISCO, IBM, NCR
Key Topics We Cover:
✅ How AI is shaping the path for businesses scaling beyond 7 figures
✅ The biggest obstacles companies face when trying to expand - and real-life case studies
✅ Common AI adoption pitfalls and how to sidestep them for seamless integration
✅ Top misconceptions about AI-driven scaling (and what leaders often get wrong)
✅ The biggest AI breakthroughs shaping the future of business growth
✅ How PowerPush Version 5.0 helps businesses achieve 300% YoY growth - plus success stories!
✅ The leadership mindset & decision-making styles needed for exponential business success
✅ Rob’s #1 strategic advice for leveraging AI to scale from 7 to 8 to 9 figures
🌍 How do global market dynamics impact AI adoption & scaling strategies? Tune in as we explore how businesses can future-proof their growth in an AI-driven world.
🎧 Don’t miss this powerful conversation with Rob Provenzano - unlock the secrets to AI-driven success!
🔗 Listen now and take your business to the next level!
📈 Connect with Rob Provenzano on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rprovenzano/
About the host, Emi Olausson Fourounjieva
With over 20 years in IT, digital transformation, business growth & leadership, Emi specializes in turning challenges into opportunities for business expansion and personal well-being.
Her contributions have shaped success stories across the corporations and individuals, from driving digital growth, managing resources and leading teams in big companies to empowering leaders to unlock their inner power and succeed in this era of transformation.
📚 Get your AI Leadership Compass: Unlocking Business Growth & Innovation 🧭 The Definitive Guide for Leaders & Business Owners to Adapt & Thrive in the Age of AI & Digital Transformation: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0DNBJ92RP
📆 Book a free Strategy Call with Emi
🔗 Connect with Emi Olausson Fourounjieva on LinkedIn
🌏 Learn more: https://digitaltransformation4humans.com/
📧 Subscribe to the newsletter on LinkedIn: Transformation for Leaders
🔔 Subscribe and stay tuned for more episodes
Hello and welcome to Digital Transformation and AI for Humans with your host, amy. In this podcast, we delve into how technology intersects with leadership, innovation and, most importantly, the human spirit. Each episode features visionary leaders who understand that at the heart of success is the human touch nurturing a winning mindset, fostering emotional intelligence and building resilient teams. In today's episode, we are diving into strategic scaling with AI. Let's take a closer look at how to scale businesses from seven to eight and nine figures and achieve exponential business growth, together with my fantastic guest from Toronto, canada, rob Provenzano. Rob is international best-selling author, speaker, mentor, fractional CMO, who knows how to drive growth by using AI-powered systems. Welcome, rob, how are you? I'm so happy to have you here today.
Speaker 2:I'm great and thanks for having me. I appreciate it.
Speaker 1:Let's start the conversation and transform not just our technologies but our ways of thinking and leading. If you are interested in connecting or collaborating, you can find more information in the description. Subscribe and stay tuned for more episodes. I'd also love to invite you to get your copy of AI Leadership Compass Unlocking Business Growth and Innovation the Definitive Guide for Leaders and Business Owners to Adapt and Thrive in the Age of AI and Digital Transformation. Find the Amazon link in the description below. Rob, I'm so happy to have you here today and, to start with, of course, I would like to know more about you, about your journey, about everything you've done before, and to share it with our listeners and viewers.
Speaker 2:Okay, well, great Again. Thank you for having me. The first thing I want to address is, if you see, my name, awesome Rob. I did not give myself that name. That came from a company I used to run called Totally Awesome Events, and I had a partner named Bob and people just started calling us Awesome Rob, awesome Bob, and it stuck so so I still go by it.
Speaker 1:I love it.
Speaker 2:Yeah Now to sort of give you more of my background, where I came from and how I'm able to do some of the things I do. Technically, I started off working for my dad when I was 10 years old and he owned an advertising company and created ads and things like that for magazines. So I grew up in the industry, went off to university to do computer science ironically, ai, which is not the same AI as we have today because that was 35 years ago. It's changed a lot. From there. I got into process automation, implementing computer systems, financial systems, quoting systems, job scheduling, things like that, which really didn't exist a whole lot back then. There was a lot of custom development integration, spent the next 20 years rising up through the ranks of IT, building networks, internationally, corporately developing software, whatever a company needed to support them in their growth and operations.
Speaker 2:And then we had an issue, uh, about 98 with uh subprime mortgages and, uh, a lot of companies got into trouble. And I was with a very large financial company at the time and they had to download or they had to lay off a lot of people very quickly. And as part of that I kind of went through a whole soul searching and said am I doing what I want to be doing? Is this really it? And somehow I moved into marketing. I'd been supporting marketing companies for years corporately with software and things like that, but I got into that. Then. That's when I got into, you know, event promotion, filling huge rooms full of people to see different speakers and whatnot. And that's really where I developed the very first version of what back then was called the event filling solution. We filled events From there.
Speaker 2:I did that for several years, decided I had enough of traveling all the time. People think it's glamorous to travel, but if you only ever see the hotel world, it's not that glamorous, it's not that exciting after a while. So a friend of mine owned a marketing company. He said, hey, your system for filling events, do you think you could fill a sales calendar? I said it's just another event, right Like, let's give it a shot. So I went to do some work with him. He was making about $250,000 a year. Three years later he was making $15 million a year and we were putting this technology into all kinds of companies. It's just evolved over the years and become bigger and bigger and better and better.
Speaker 2:And then, when IT came around, we realized there was a huge opportunity to make a massive shift in what we were doing, because now we could do all of the market research that companies would normally charge you 30, 40, $50,000 for in a matter of days and we could do a better quality. So that completely changed how we did marketing, and that kind of brings us up to where we are today. You know, everything now is AI driven. The content is created by AI. Obviously, it needs human interaction and you know I definitely that's one of the biggest challenges I see sometimes in this industry to go I've got AI. Well, good luck with that, because if you don't know how to ask it the right questions or you can't review the answers it gives you, it really doesn't matter. It's not going to help you. You've got to know what you're doing with it. That's really more the secret.
Speaker 1:I love your story. It's so inspiring and impressive at the same time, and I totally agree with that part around AI. I also promote the point that humans must be in the driver's seat, because it is super important to understand what is going on, what you want to achieve and how you want to achieve it. Even when you are connecting all the systems and technologies, you still need to be in control of what you are doing and what you want to get. So that's great that you point out that, because it is crucial and there is so much people who try to bypass that little detail today because of ai capabilities. Yeah, but it's not always a winning concept, right?
Speaker 2:no, I, and you know I. I often use an anecdote where I say you know, years ago we had an engineer at our company. He said I need Excel. And this was back when software was very expensive. So we were, we were very you know, we vetted everybody. You had to actually need it. So he convinced me he needed it, sent one of my guys out and they did the install. And then the engineer phones and says there's a problem with this, what's wrong? Is it not working? Well, there's nothing in it. I said, yeah, there is nothing in it. Out of the box, you've got to put all the data in, create all the formulas. That's how it works. He went well, that doesn't help me. Ai today is very similar. You sign up for a chat GPT account and go now what Answer my questions? Why aren't you answering me? Well, you don't know how to answer the right question. Or if you don't know how to ask the right question, it's not going to answer your questions.
Speaker 1:Totally. I love this and it's spot on really. And it's spot on really, rob. How do you see AI shaping companies aiming to scale from seven to eight and eventually, impressive nine figures, especially in terms of both challenges and opportunities?
Speaker 2:So for us, the big one is really its ability to do research and large volumes of research very quickly. A lot of people say oh, it's all about automation, it's all about this, it's all about that. You can't properly do automation unless you know what it is you're automating. So when we implement it with a client, we sit down and it used to be. We would sit down with a client and say who's your ideal target market? And they would tell us, and we'd write that down and say what are their biggest pain points? Okay, write that down. And then we get to a point where we say are you sure? Well, maybe not. Okay, so then I'd say open up your CRM, show me a client. And we look at the client and say is that an ideal client? Yes, that doesn't match what you just told me.
Speaker 2:So now, when we do AI-based research, it scours the entire internet, it has access to everything, which is kind of scary, but it does have access to everything. And we say analyze this client, analyze their competition, give me the strengths and weaknesses, give me the things they could be doing differently that would separate them from everybody else in the market. Now, who's their ideal client? Target client, what does that target client have as a pain point? What do they need solved? What do they need solved that they're willing to pay for right now? That just completely changed the foundation where we start from in creating marketing campaigns, because we know everything there is to know. And some people will say, well, that's not accurate, well, that came off the internet. So if somebody else is doing this manually, that's the answer they got about your company. So if it's not accurate, you need to fix it.
Speaker 1:So true, and I love how you start with research, because I'm a data person and data is everything. Without understanding what you want and analyzing what you already have, it will be difficult to move forward. And even if you start from scratch the clear vision about what you want to achieve and who you want to work with, who is your target group, how you are planning to engage them and convert them it is crucial and you are helping from scratch, from the very beginning to review, redefine, analyze and come up with the optimized version of what is going to work. That's perfect.
Speaker 2:Yeah Well, you know one of the areas where it comes in as well. As I'll say to a client okay, do you really like working with this type of client? I'll say no, I hate it. Then don't market to them. That's true. Why would you do that? Find a client you like and you can make money with that actually wants to buy and need your solution. Sell to them. It's so much easier.
Speaker 1:That's a great reminder as well. Imagine how much people are working with the target group. They're not enjoying serving, in fact, just because they are scared of losing their business or impacting it in a negative way once they move away towards something more exciting.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and you know, a lot of times part of the challenge, and I hear this almost every day they'll say, well, we need more leads, we need more leads, we need more leads. I say, no, you don't. What do you mean? No, I don't, you need better leads, you don't we need more leads, and say, no, you don't, what do you mean? No, I don't, you need better leads, you don't actually need more.
Speaker 2:Because if you think about it not only if you're getting leads you don't want to work with or you can't really help, or they're just getting on a call because they want to know more you just wasted all that time. So if you actually had fewer leads but they were better quality leads and they already knew they wanted to work with you you've now just massively cut your sales cycle. You've massively reduced the amount of time you've got to invest talking to clients, potential clients, and you're now getting more of the clients you want, that want to work with you and see all of that is possible now because we've done the research and you do the research. You only reach out to the people that meet that criteria. That's it. Stop reaching out to everybody. Not everyone's your client.
Speaker 1:Totally, absolutely true. What are the most typical reasons for companies getting stuck and not expanding as projected? Can you refer to some real cases from your experience, and also what are the most frequent pitfalls you've seen companies encounter when embedding artificial intelligence into their operations, and what is the best way to sidestep these challenges?
Speaker 2:Okay, that's kind of a few questions in there. So so let's, that's the first one. Let's know everything. Fair enough, we get time, so.
Speaker 2:So the first challenge I see with people not growing is they don't necessarily know what business they're in. They don't and by that I mean they don't really know the value they bring to potential clients. They have an idea and they're constantly pushing what they want rather than what the client wants. It's like the people there's an analogy in marketing. They say well, people don't buy a drill because they want a drill, they buy a drill because they want a hole. So by focusing on the drill, which is a lot of North America, if you think of our car ads hey, wouldn't you love to drive this car? Whereas years ago, toyota said hey, what kind of car would you like to drive? We'll build that for you. They took over the market because they built what people wanted. So it's snatching what they want, what they're willing to pay for, with what you can do for them, rather than I'm going to do this and find out nobody wants it. So that's where a lot of people get stuck.
Speaker 2:The other, particularly in scaling, is we've always done it this way. Why would we change. Well, because what you did got you to a million. It will not get you to 10. Right, they don't realize it is a completely different mindset. It's a completely different leadership skill to grow a company than it is to start a company. And the whole fly by the seat of the pants doesn't work when you've got a number of employees or a number of different clients. You've got to be more streamlined, a lot more focused. That's where leaders need to be more leaders rather than doers. A lot more focus. That's where leaders need to be more leaders rather than doers. They need to be making sure their resources are performing the best. And I don't just mean yell at them, make them do what they're supposed to. No, teach them, encourage them, lead them, make them want to be better. Find that, you know, get people excited about what they're doing. You don't have to micromanage. They'll be coming back to you and say, hey, I've got this done already. What can I do next? And that's not AI per se, but just that's a big sticking point in growing a company is wrong leadership skills.
Speaker 2:Now, in terms of AI, it's similar, in a way, of hiring somebody who's not necessarily qualified yet to do the job. Ai, to work properly needs a lot of training, it needs a lot of attention, it needs a lot of feedback and, yes, eventually it will be a rock star employee. And there are very little things it can do out of the box very well right now. But when we do market research, there's probably 85 different prompts we put into the AI to get it to give us the information we want.
Speaker 2:You can't just ask it hey, can you give me a business plan? Well, it can, but it may not be a good one for you. It'll make stuff up just to answer your question, but it may not be the good one for you. It'll make stuff up just to answer your question, but it may not be the right answer to your question. And so just saying hey, I've got AI doesn't help you. You got to actually know how to use it, know what to do with that, and that means you're either going to spend the time learn it and train it or you bring in somebody who knows what they're doing.
Speaker 1:This is amazing and it makes so much sense for me because I see we have a similar background. We transitioned from the IT and technical side into marketing and everything that's about experience and digital business growth. So I absolutely can relate and I have seen so much pain around this and about lack of understanding and about the painful journey and all the pitfalls around it as well, that I can imagine how helpful it is, because that's true when you push in only one prompt and get an answer. Yes, it is some kind of answer, but it is not the answer which is going to take you where you want to get, and what took you here is not going to take you there, which means that you need to redefine your vision, your understanding and your strategy, and I love this part with leadership. So let's circle back a little bit towards mindset and leaders, who are defining the programs for development. So, rob, what are the top misconceptions or mistakes that leaders make when incorporating advanced artificial intelligence solutions into their scaling strategies and how can they avoid them?
Speaker 2:Yeah. So the big one for me in working with it, with a lot of leaders, is the misconception that you just invest in AI and it does everything for you. No, it really doesn't. That's that's we both know. The other is is really where it comes down to like.
Speaker 2:I see posts all the time on LinkedIn or Facebook say well, ai is going to replace you. Well, we said that 30 years ago about automation. And yet a lot of us still have jobs. Ai is going to change your job, but it's not necessarily going to replace you. And just like back with the automation days, a lot of CEOs would say how many people can I get rid of if we automate this? And I'd say you're looking at it the wrong way. How much more could those people do if they didn't have to do those mundane things? How much quicker could you grow your company if you weren't bogged down by that? And some of them get it, and those are the ones that grow and some of them don it. And those are the ones that grow and some of them don't and those are the ones that go out of business, and that's a fair deal, I would say, because that is about the mindset.
Speaker 1:And exactly this part reminds me of many other episodes of this podcast where we're discussing exactly the same problematics with different leaders and they all see the same that if you understand it, you're going to grow, you're going to retain your talents, you are going to expand. If you don't get it fast enough and soon enough, you are going to be out of the market and you are just going to lose your human capital.
Speaker 2:Yeah, absolutely. You know again the whole misconception about we just put it in and it works. No, like you got to realize, and you have to be willing to learn and willing to be adaptable. When we first started building the market research module, I was not an expert at market research. I knew enough to get started and then I realized how, what I didn't know and went and did that research and it's constantly a feedback. So now we can do market research. We couldn't do that before. But I didn't know. I didn't know what I didn't know essentially, and so you got to be willing to explore that and be willing to take on. Hey, you know what? I don't know this. And people have. People have said you know, we've been doing this for 35 years. Yeah, I'm finally getting to the point where I know how little I know.
Speaker 1:That's true, but that's how it works. The more you learn, the more you understand how much you don't know or didn't know before, and that pushes you even more into the learning course.
Speaker 2:Yeah, you know, originally, when I got out of IT and went into marketing, I thought, you know, it will be so nice not to have to be learning constantly. Well, I was wrong, because marketing, now marketing and technology are very much merged and and you are constantly learning and updating and growing. And you know, I probably spend an hour a day watching YouTube and not the cute cat videos, Although we do like those but learning, okay, this is what we're doing with AI now, this is what it can do, and there's so much. Even I still sit there and go, wow, I need to focus. Where do I focus? Because I can't do it all, can't learn it all. It'll never happen. So what do I need to focus on to be able to help my clients in a way that they want to invest in and I still enjoy doing so? That's kind of went full circle, I guess, but that's really where I see AI and the future of AI and AI in business.
Speaker 1:And I totally agree with you in business, and I totally agree with you. I also thought that there is less to learn once you step out of IT purely IT, but no, not at all. And I also noticed an interesting thing After corona pandemics, the human behavior started changing drastically, which means that it's learning not only about the latest technologies, latest trends, et cetera and purely professional knowledge we need to acquire, but also knowledge about the changes in the world, about the changes in behavior, about how we can meet those latest shifts in the best possible way, because it goes in two ways and we have to connect those dots together.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and you know that's another great area where AI comes in, not just with the research, but prior to the pandemic, if you were doing an event, it was usually live. You know, you had a local audience. Now, even back then, if you went to another city or you know, across the country, like the U? S, the East coast and the West coast are very different, so you need to know how to adapt what you're saying and what you're doing. Now that we're online and there are no barriers worldwide, it's very different, like how we would market in Europe is not how we would market in the U? S, which is not how we would market in Canada. So you also have to take in, well, geographic considerations and cultural considerations, you know. So here here's one from from the seminar world, which is a good, good explanation, I think, of what we still now need to do with AI.
Speaker 2:But we were doing an event down in South Carolina which is right in what they call the Bible Belt, and so one of the people we were working with down there said well, what are the hours of the seminar? So well, you know nine o'clock till five o'clock Saturday, sunday, he went no, what do you mean? No, because you cannot start before 11 o'clock on Sunday because everyone's in church, they are not coming to your seminar, good to know. So now what I'm, what I'm prompting AI it's like okay, this is what we're doing, oh, and here's the market where we're doing it and the geography and the people, and it'll come back and go. Well, in that case, here's what you need to change.
Speaker 1:Totally.
Speaker 2:Yeah, but it but it's knowing to ask those kinds of questions. Now it's like okay, if we're going to Europe, do they do things differently? Or they're like, ah yeah, here's the 200 pages of things they do differently.
Speaker 1:Exactly, and just yesterday I referred to one example and it reflects exactly what you just said. Because I've been to an event today's event and the second day people just dropped off. Because I've been to an event today's event and the second day people just dropped off and it was so inconvenient, to say the least. But what happened is that the organizers forgot to check what other events are happening at the same time in the same area, and there was a lot going on, so people just moved into the next event and this event was partially abandoned, which is not optimal.
Speaker 2:Yeah, we've had that in the past where we didn't know. So you know you're doing an event and all of a sudden you realize Tony Robbins is in the next room. Nobody came to your room Usually. All of a sudden you realize tony robbins is in the next room. Nobody came to your account.
Speaker 1:You say, oh, I guess you, tony robbins, how we could say hey, who else is doing an event in this city at this time that we need to know about 100? Totally speaking about Speaking about the trends and the future and looking five steps forward what major trends or breakthroughs in AI do you predict will most significantly impact business growth and how can leaders prepare right now?
Speaker 2:I think the biggest one is more around planning or strategic use of AI. Rather than hey create this article, it's like, help me create a business plan for the next year. These are all the considerations. These are where we want to go. What is the future trend looking like? And we put all of that now into the AI and we've trained it. We use a process called entrepreneur operating system, which is used by a lot of bigger companies now, and we've trained it on. Here's how you set up EOS, here's how you do it, blah, blah, blah. So we put in all the variables and they'll say you need to do this first, this second, this third, because if you try and do it this way, it's not going to work. Rather than just, hey, can you write a book, Because that's cool, it is cool, but if you really want to grow a business, you better have a business plan. And now here's where AI is getting into planning and strategy and tactics and things like that, rather than just creating content, if you know what I mean.
Speaker 1:I agree. I totally agree, Rob. How do global market dynamics impact AI adoption and shape business growth strategies for companies scaling from seven to nine figures?
Speaker 2:Well, I'll give you a perfect example that just happened. So you know, donald Trump gets elected in the US, says hey, we're going to put a tariff on Canada. Okay, ai, what exactly does that mean? How do we react to that? And if you look, canada had a. I'm not saying anybody's right or wrong, I'm just saying Canada had a plan of action very quickly, because they put it through their AI and say how do we respond to this? What's the best way? Well, that times a hundred is what's going on in the world right now. So there's different dynamics in the European Union. There's different dynamics with BRICS. There's global conflicts. There's different dynamics with BRICS. There's global conflicts. If you're not keeping on top of that and those are some of the key strategic markets you've identified you better know what's going on in those countries and you better be able to plan accordingly.
Speaker 2:Otherwise you're in trouble to say the least, yeah, so that's really where I see it. In the Otherwise, you're in trouble, to say the least. Yeah, so, so that's really where I see it in the future. In in the global dynamics, no one person can take that all in their head anymore. There's just too much going on everywhere. So that's where you've got to say, okay, I need help.
Speaker 2:And that's where AI, although it doesn't always get everything perfect, it can at least crunch a lot of information very quickly, and it's getting better and better. Like you know, what we could do six months ago is not what we can do today. We can do way more today than we could back then. And now, you know, chatgpt has just launched a deep dive research piece. Deepseek just came out of China, and what's interesting is that my wife is Chinese and we put one prompt into ChatGPT and one into DeepSeek. Well, she understood the DeepSeek answer way better than the ChatGPT, because she thinks in Chinese.
Speaker 2:So does DeepSeek, and if you look and go, well, there's a lot more people in China than there are in Canada and the U? S. So how do we want to be able to address questions? And now it's not even just put this question into chat GPT anymore. It's which AI do we need to be using for what area of the world we're actually looking at? That's where it starts to get really complex. And you know, most people aren't looking at that. They're like I created an article, I created a video. You're going no, that's cool, but when it comes to business, that's not the cool thing. The cool thing is like knowing what's going on and how to react to it and how to plan around it. That's the cool thing is like knowing what's going on and how to react to it and how to plan around it.
Speaker 1:That's the cool thing that's so true and I couldn't agree more. Rob, could you tell us more about your power push system version 5.0 and walk us through the core principles? Please reveal some details on how it enables businesses to achieve 300% year-over-year growth and, of course, real-life stories. Can you share some success stories with us?
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, absolutely so. Power Push was kind of a couple of different companies coming together to do this. So I had certain IP, my partner, lee, has certain IP, the other people we work with have certain things, and we said, okay, what if we put this all together and looked at what does it actually take end to end to make marketing successful so people can scale without fail? And it works every time? So we basically came up with what we call the five pillars of marketing success, and the first pillar really is the market research and ideal client avatar, because that forms the foundation of everything we do from then on. So we, we analyze the markets, we analyze the competition, we understand the future trends where everything's going. We look at those global dynamics that you just talked about. We take all that into account and go okay, now we know this is the client, this is what they want, this is what they'll pay for, this is what they need. Then step two, or pillar two, is the lead generation. So, instead of just going out and hitting everybody on LinkedIn, we say who exactly do we want? Let's target that, and I'll give you an example of that. So, having done the research and I just did a campaign last Tuesday I launched and I said, okay, these are the hundred people we're targeting, these are all the specifications. Okay, go. So out of the hundred new connection requests, I'm now at 72 new connections, which is pretty much unheard of. Impressive nine sales meetings, incredible, unburied people. So people go. How does that work? Well, that's how it works now. Now we put them into what we call pillar three, which is the lead conversion piece. So we're going to basically send them a series of videos, one every few days talking about their biggest pain points, exactly how to solve them, somebody we've solved them for and how they can get help with them. So we and we drip them out until they say I need to meet with these people. By the time they meet with you, they know what you do, they know how you can help them, they know you are the solution to their problem. They're willing to buy at that point.
Speaker 2:Then we bring into other pillars, which are client retention. It's not enough to sell them, but are you constantly keeping them up to date? Are there changes they need to be aware of in the market? Are there things they could be doing better? And then final is formal referral programs. Everyone says you know we love getting referrals. Okay, have you built a program that encourages people? Have you trained them on how to refer people to you? Have you given them material that they can use to refer people to you? And those are really the five pillars. And then we version five really comes in. Is we created what we call a client insight database? So all of this gets fed back into the system. So, as changes occur in the market, as global dynamics change, it tells us, hey, you're going to need to adjust your marketing, you're going to need to do this. These are some of the feedback from your clients. Here's what they want to see next. So all of that is constantly being analyzed as we go through. So when we engage with a client, that whole thing is considered.
Speaker 2:Now an example so some of the clients where you know we've launched, we've done the market research and we've launched and built, built all their videos. And, uh, it was one client where they had, uh, they have about four, four, 4,000 people in an email list and said, hey, let's launch this to the entire email list. I said you know, I would really not recommend that. It's not a good idea. They said, no, no, go ahead, do it. So we launched it to their email list. They got through the first video. The next day I got a call from the CEO and said turn this off. I said what's wrong? He goes you just filled all our sales calendars for the next three months. We cannot keep up with this.
Speaker 1:Unreal.
Speaker 2:Won't you.
Speaker 1:It worked. This Unreal, won't you it?
Speaker 2:worked. So that's just one example. But you know over the years like we've put over 500 clients through forms of this system, and so when we say the 300%, we used to guarantee that because we knew we could get them at least 300%. A lot of clients do way more, but it's just putting the right message in front of the right people and then only meeting with those people that you can help, that are willing to buy. That's the secret to growing, because you're not wasting your time with people that aren't going to buy. When you're not wasting time marketing to people that have no interest in what you're doing. That's really. It's kind of like precision marketing these days. It's like I'm only talking to these hundred people. They go. Why would you do that? Well, because I got 39 sales calls.
Speaker 1:I can't handle 39 sales calls Exactly. And another side effect a positive side effect as well is that the business owner and business side remains motivated, because when you are engaged, when you are doing something really meaningful and get not so much disappointments on a daily basis of course, it's easier to keep developing and growing Of course it's easier to keep developing and growing.
Speaker 2:Yeah, absolutely. And that also feeds into what we love to do. A lot of is joint ventures. Because what will happen is, you know, once we started getting people, all those leads, and they were having all these sales calls, some of them didn't really know how to sell. So that's where we reached out to you know sales trainers and sales experts and said, hey, these guys need help, do you want some clients? And they're like, yeah, okay, then they start closing all these sales and go we can't deliver all this. Great, do you need some help? We'd reach out to you know, you know fractional chief operating officers or people that did that kind of work and said, hey, we've got some clients that need your help. So now you're not just growing a business, you're growing like a whole collection of businesses, all designed to help people get ahead. And you know the government keeps saying, well, small business is the backbone of the economy. It's like, well, that's great, what are you doing to help?
Speaker 1:them. I can tell you what I'm doing to help them. You are developing such an empire and it's so wise and it's always a win-win Really impressive, and I think the world needs more people with your mindset because it is really creating this sustainable transformation in the world where people is more satisfied, more successful, enjoying what they are doing more, and it also motivates and pushes them to learn more and invest more time in what they are doing and, as a result, become even better and create higher quality of their products and services, and it is really beneficial for all the players.
Speaker 2:Yeah, we have this one clause in all of our contracts, um, it's called the no douchebag policy. So so if you're a bad person or you do bad service, you have a bad reputation. You're not allowed. We will not sell you our system. No matter how much money you offer us, you cannot buy it. You cannot be in our collective Game over. If you've ripped people off, if you're doing bad deals, no, you're out. You can never join us. I know that's a little judgmental, but if you know somebody who's a really bad person, you don't want them in your group?
Speaker 1:No, exactly, and you know, I applied this principle all my life to everything I've been doing, because I don't want to empower something I don't think is going to change the world to the better and be a part of that transformation, which is not what I really want to live after me and spread around me. So, no, absolutely. I think this is very fair and we all need to apply our values to our talents and gifts and to what we are doing, because when you are really good at what you are doing, your impact, your capacity is incredible, and then it's up to you to choose where to apply all that.
Speaker 2:Yeah, absolutely, I agree 100%.
Speaker 1:Now we are back to the leadership questions. I love this. We are circling around technologies and innovation and leadership and marketing and human centricity. So, rob, which leadership qualities and decision-making styles do you see becoming most critical for effectively driving and managing exponential growth?
Speaker 2:So there's a few. A big one, though, is integrity. And when I say integrity, it's not. A lot of people say well, they're not a nice person. Well, that's morality. That's not integrity.
Speaker 2:Integrity is did you do what you said you were going to do? When you said you were going to do it, and have you sort of kept an empowering context about doing it? To me, that's integrity, because everything nowadays, everything's so quick, everything is so interwoven. If you're constantly dropping the ball, you're going to be a problem. You're causing problems, so we can't have that.
Speaker 2:Um, then there's also ones like you know well, are you there to actually empower your people, or are you there to make money? It's not that you can't make money, but you can make more money empowering your people If you know what you're doing doing than you can just by being a nasty person. So things like that. You know what are you giving back to the community? Are you giving anything back? And I don't mean you got to go out Saturday and do Habitat for Humanity, I mean it's a cool thing, but you don't have to do that, but are you giving back? You know like do you have charitable causes you believe in, and are you supporting them with the money you're now making in your business. Are you a positive influence on your community?
Speaker 2:So that's where you know ironically, now with AI we can analyze a lot of these things very quickly Say is this company a good corporate citizen? Because if they're not, maybe we don't want to help them grow, uh so so those things are kind of really important, like are you a leader or manager? As manager you know, I'm thinking the best way to describe this they tell people what to do. Leaders kind of inspire people and they set a direction and say hey, do you guys want to go there? Does this make sense? They're very inclusive. Where managers are, do what I said. Don't ask questions. Those people are dying. They're a dying breed.
Speaker 1:Exactly. You know. It's interesting because exactly yesterday, I participated in an event for innovation leaders and business owners and I had exactly this conversation with one person who said I'm more of a manager and business owner than a leader. So I see my goals, I get my results, but I'm not the type of inspirational leader who is going to care about how you feel and what you are doing outside of working hours, and I would love to become more of that. So you know, that's where it starts when you evaluate what you are doing and how you approach it, and then you fill up the gaps in between to develop yourself in the right direction.
Speaker 2:Yeah, absolutely. And you know, just realizing we're all different, we're all individuals. You're like, sometimes I have insomnia so I'll get up at three in the morning and do work. I don't expect my team to do that, I wouldn't expect anybody to do that, that's just me. But you know, at the same time, they want certain things, they want certain lifestyle balance, as long as the goals are being achieved, like, let's figure out a way to make both work. How can you have a lifestyle you want that you're excited, so that you're still excited when you come into work. And how is work empowering you so you're still excited when you leave work?
Speaker 1:True, I guess, way more productivity than than any ai to absolutely. And that's so true that you know it's important to feed your life and business into that 24 7 so it works for you. But at the same time, it is important to keep up with what you need to do and still stay on track and find those models which are good exactly for you, for your goals, for your lifestyle and for your preferences as a person. In life as a human being, because our bodies are reacting differently as well. In life as a human being, because our bodies are reacting differently as well. So it is so important to understand all that complexity and respect it as well and give it some space to fine-tune in order to operate in the most potent way, in the best way you can yeah, and and you know, recognize everyone's different.
Speaker 2:like you know, my, my wife, she's a staff accountant and she's so. She does payroll, bookkeeping, all that sort of stuff for for a bigger company and she likes to work a certain way, which is not the way I work. So we have to find a way that works. The two of us, you know it could be something as simple as, like you know, grocery shopping. So I don't like to grocery shop on the weekend because when I go to the store, I don't. The two of us, you know it could be something as simple as, like you know, grocery shopping. So I don't like to grocery shop on the weekend because when I go to the store, I don't want anyone in my store. Now she works nine to five, so she has to go after hours or weekends, so I would I would rather say, I'll do it during the week, you don't have to come with me, I'll do it.
Speaker 2:And then we created an AI system where we could say okay, what do we want to eat each day of the week? Now create the shopping list, create all the menu items. So now there's no more wasted food, there's no more wasted effort. We know exactly what we need to buy, to cook what we want, and I go do the grocery shopping so so't know what business is. But that's our life. But why can't business be that way too?
Speaker 1:Exactly the perfect balance, and that's exactly what we all need more of, because there is more and more to deal with and all those things we have to juggle with on a daily basis. It becomes overwhelming from time to time, and it's also important to pay more attention to people around you so that they feel that you are still around, not just in form of your body, busy with something else, but engage with each other and be present and be here now. It's great that you remind about that, rob. I would love to keep this conversation going for another week or two. Now I would like to ask you about something really important, what we can share with all our listeners and viewers. Okay, if you had to offer one piece of strategic advice for business owners and leaders aiming to leverage AI for growth beyond seven figures, to eight and nine figures, what would that be?
Speaker 2:Wow, one piece of strategic advice. I don't know that I can narrow it down to one, but essentially it would be find something you love to do, that you want to do every single day. Create an environment where your team wants to do that too. Then bring in AI and teach it. Hey, this is the kind of company we want to build. This is how we want to operate it Now what are the?
Speaker 2:plans, because if you give it the parameters up front to say no, we don't want to work on Sundays, we don't want to work on Saturdays, we want to be able to go spend time with our family, give that as a parameter right up front. Say now, build me a plan, rather than build me a plan and oh, that doesn't fit my lifestyle Exactly.
Speaker 2:So yeah, understand, you know, like you don't just buy AI and start using it, you got to have a plan and go okay, how do we train this so it works the way I want to work, Does things the way I want to do things and still gets great results. Far better off, especially when it comes to scaling your company and wanting to go in and work at your company. That would be a way better way to approach things.
Speaker 1:Brilliant, absolutely brilliant, thank you. It's so important to personalize everything and adjust it and optimize to get exactly those results you want to get in an enjoyable way, but at the same time, it's about clarity in advance, and so many details are missed in the beginning and then they reflect later on and create the situations you would prefer avoiding, just because you didn't mention them before and didn't take them into consideration at the right moment yeah, you know, I I see a lot of people, especially some of the younger people, and and they put out, hey, here's a prompt to do this, and you go like it's two sentences, yeah, cool, what do your prompts look like?
Speaker 2:I'm like they're two pages Because I've thought of everything I want. I don't want how I want it to work before I ever even ask the question and that for me, that creates a better answer for what I wanted to do. So it's the thoughtfulness versus the expediency. I guess Everyone wants a quick answer. It's not always the best answer.
Speaker 1:I totally agree, and I guess that's the only one case where micromanagement is a good thing, where you manage all the details and feed them in from the beginning yeah, yeah, yeah, unfortunately.
Speaker 2:Yes, you do have to micromanage the guys. I was trying to get into analysts today. Uh, I was redoing a lesson plan and there's 20 sections and it came back and there was 14. I went what happened to the others? Well, they were kind of similar, so I just combined them. I did not tell you to combine them.
Speaker 1:It needs to be 20 lessons that's how it works and it's important to keep it in mind as well. But experience is also helpful. The more you work with it, the better you understand how it works and what you are going to get. But I absolutely love your recommendations and your advice and, Rob, you are truly awesome. Now I understand why you are the awesome, Rob, Because this is amazing, Everything you've been sharing with us today how you're working, how you're helping your clients and how you are rolling this game. It is so impressive and so inspiring. Thank you so much for being here today and sharing with us your wisdom, your experience and your life.
Speaker 2:Well, thank you for having me. I appreciate it, and the one thing I would like to say after that is I screwed up a lot, so you guys don't have to, so just keep that in mind.
Speaker 1:Well, it makes two of us. So that's why we're sharing all this to help somebody else to avoid pitfalls and all those mistakes and just learn from best practices and others' experiences to move forward in a faster and more powerful way.
Speaker 2:Absolutely.
Speaker 1:Thank you for joining us on Digital Transformation and AI for Humans. I am Amy and it was enriching to share this time with you. Remember, the core of any transformation lies in our human nature how we think, feel and connect with others. It is about enhancing our emotional intelligence, embracing the winning mindset and leading with empathy and insight. Subscribe and stay tuned for more episodes where we uncover the latest trends in digital business and explore the human side of technology and leadership. Until next time, keep nurturing your mind, fostering your connections and leading with heart.
