David Elyachar AKA Big Bob on Timeless Entrepreneurial Wisdom
Always on the GROW with Manny Vargas
Release Date: 03/07/2024
Plant the Seed, Play the Long Game | Keith Baulsir
Always on the GROW with Manny Vargas
Keith Baulsir sent a single image, a mockup of a company's name on a building, to someone who had told him no years before. No lengthy pitch. No follow-up sequence. Just the right idea at the right moment, delivered to someone he had never stopped believing in. That one follow-up turned into a tens of millions of dollars naming rights deal. That's what playing the long game actually looks like. A 19-year sports sales veteran who helped launch the Vegas Golden Knights as one of their earliest employees, Keith has closed hundreds of millions in partnerships revenue across pro sports, college...
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Following Through on Your Purpose | Shab Azma
Always on the GROW with Manny Vargas
Shab Azma walked into a four-hour plant medicine journey feeling spiritually bankrupt, directionless, and gutted from losing her biggest client. She walked out with a business plan. The founder of Arc Collective, a women led entertainment management company representing some of the most mission driven talent in the industry, Shab has spent 25 years in entertainment building relationships, managing careers, and quietly becoming one of the most connected people in the business. But it wasn't until she hit rock bottom, losing a client she had poured five years into, questioning everything about...
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The Last Job I'll Ever Take | Ronn Nicolli
Always on the GROW with Manny Vargas
Ronn Nicolli sat in a nearly empty Wynn on Christmas night in 2005 no retail open, barely a soul on the casino floor and watched that same property become so packed 20 years later that his family stood in line 45 minutes for an ice cream cone. That contrast, he says, is the entire lesson of what brand integrity, follow-through, and knowing who you are can build over time. The CMO and Chief Experience Officer of the Meruelo Group, overseeing the Sahara Las Vegas, Grand Sierra Resort, three radio stations, two Latin TV networks, and a portfolio of businesses that spans well beyond hospitality,...
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The Follow-Up Is the Close | Dietmar Doehring
Always on the GROW with Manny Vargas
Dietmar walked into a company president's office unannounced, pitched himself on the spot, and walked out having been offered a bigger role than the one he applied for. That same boldness is what he says most sellers are missing, not in their pitch, but in their follow-up. The Sales Director for North America at Trimble, where he leads 23 reps across SMB, mid-market, and enterprise, Dietmar has spent over 15 years climbing every level of the sales ladder from technical engineer to director. Along the way he's developed a follow-up philosophy rooted in one simple truth: if prospects aren't...
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We're Back: The Follow-Up Behind the Follow-Through
Always on the GROW with Manny Vargas
After a year and a half, Always on the Grow is back with a new focus. Host Manny Vargas, That Follow-Up Guy, explains the pivot, the work that happened behind the scenes (the book, the planner, building the brand), and what the show is about now: the unseen disciplines that separate those who start from those who finish. This isn't about motivation. It's about the follow-up behind the follow-through. The relentless habits. The systems. The moments when everyone else quits and you keep going. Starting next week, we're dropping 4 consecutive episodes featuring conversations with high-level...
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The Mindset of Growing and Scaling your Business with Joni Wolfswinkel
Always on the GROW with Manny Vargas
“You have the audacity to come knocking on my door, you better get off my property before I shoot you” The words were not copied word to word from a Hollywood movie. They’re the actual words Joni Wolfswinkel had to face from a man in Texas because she knocked his house which was about to be auctioned. Yes there had been times where Joni was carrying her baby to knock on pre-foreclosure doors. “Doing the things that I wasn't comfortable doing, eventually you do more and more of that, it just becomes natural to you” is what Joni believes. Her grit and perseverance eventually made her...
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Have Faith after Disappointments
Always on the GROW with Manny Vargas
“Rebounds are happening at every moment of our life, if you choose” Imagine being the team that goes all the way to the finals and then loses. Imagine a relationship you’re in that goes on for 5 years and then fails. Imagine building a business for 10 years and then it crumbles. What do you do? The least thing you want to do is go swimming in it, making it a theme park that you're living in and having a good time around. Because that's where it starts to become a problem, you've lived in it too long. You see “Life is full of adversity, life is nothing but adversity” And when you see...
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How to Stay Consistent with Podcasting
Always on the GROW with Manny Vargas
“Commitment means you're committing to something and you're in it to win it, you're burning the boats”. I Manny Vargas, the moment I’m committed to doing podcasts, I knew I was ready to go on a 10, 15, 20 year run. But what about the vanity metrics everyone is going after? Big brand name, status, becoming famous, looking cool etc. Am I getting them? No. Do I not like them? Of course I do. I too got into podcasting just for those metrics? But, what if I do not get the results as I wanted them to be? Will my podcasting disappear? It’s never going to disappear. There was always going to...
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How to Sell High Ticket Offers
Always on the GROW with Manny Vargas
There's different types of environments that you can get the opportunity to sell high ticket offers. I've been selling high ticket offers for quite some time, probably about 7 years. These different environments that I've sold were: Live Events, over the phone, and one to ones. Interesting part — a lot of the hard work is not done by someone like me in this High ticket environment, but a lot of the work gets done by the speaker themselves when they're on stage. I've sold products anywhere from $2,000 all the way up to $250,000. Right now, my sweet spot is in between $10,000 and $50,000....
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Take Responsibility and Recreate Yourself
Always on the GROW with Manny Vargas
Leadership, hiring and training, and other sorts of the intricacies of business are the building blocks of business. Back in the day when I was running restaurants here in Las Vegas, I was doing a pretty good business. At least, that’s what I thought. Till the day, I received a nasty email from one of my employees. It’s a resignation letter where she explained what a laziest and most self-involved person I was. I was hiring employees, finding fault with every small thing, putting the blame on them for every mistake of mine — it was all a “big mess”. Now it was back in 2013, the year...
info_outlineThis was a good ball bustin' conversation! And loaded with tremendous wisdom. Big Bob and I had fun!
Bob’s best year in business did about 50 million dollars.
His business also won awards ‘Small business of the Year’ from the greater Kansas City Chamber of Commerce, ‘The Blue Chip Initiative’ from the US Chamber of Commerce, ‘Ernst and Young’ finalist for Entrepreneur of the year.
But Bob did not start that business with a million dollars cash.
It was a just $15,000 startup.
Watch FULL YOUTUBE INTERVIEW HERE
Because Big Bob took time to work and build a business around the brilliant idea that struck him one day.
He didn’t like the carpet in his house when he got married to a girl he fell in love with. Just then he moved into Kansas city and bought a new house. When he wanted to get rid of the old carpet, he put a 3 line classified Ad which got an overwhelming response.
In came his brilliant idea to sell used carpets.
Bob founded 'Big Bob's used carpet stores' and quit his full time job in a few months.
Soon they started opening more stores. They licensed the idea, monetized the licensing, and franchised the idea.
Most of the people he sold franchises to were more successful than he was, made more money than he made. But he was doing something for them they couldn't do for themselves and they recognized it and saw the value. But those who thought they were more successful made more money and smarter than he was and had all the answers he'd say 'Sorry! this is not for you'
Big Bob had stores from Anchorage to Boston, Winnipeg to Corpus. They've opened between 105 to 110 stores over 40 years. Their best year did about 50 million dollars.
In this episode you will take away many promising insights as below
-Entrepreneurial journey of Bob: successes he had and the great big companies he built, the twists and turns
-What are those success stories or what are the things that Bob did that helped be more successful. What are some of those hours and days and weeks and months like where it was the hardest
-What is lose-lose negotiation and an example of it
-What is Bob’s approach in negotiations. What did Bob do for a vendor to give him 20 to 35% discount when the norm is just 5%.
-How does one think that ‘Almost everything is negotiable if asked in the right way’
-Is manipulation always ugly?
-Beginner Entrepreneur’s work week and life style. How did Bob keep going during those trying entrepreneur’s moments.
-Perspective of Bob on 40 to 45 year olds who think they’re late and giving up on themselves and having a hard time because they think didn’t fulfill their potential.
-Bob’s advice on secret to success
-Chicken or Egg first: Is it get revenue first before you hire people or hire people first to get the revenue?
-Why do people reject sales so much on a more macro level, why do normal humans hate doing sales
-How are people buying some products without the presence of a sales person trying to influence their decisions
-Advice to Entrepreneurs who do not like sales and refuse to sell
-What is Manny's natural gift according to Bob
-Side businesses Bob is involved in
Inspirational Quotes from the Episode:
-Being an entrepreneur is not a 40-hour work week. It is probably a 60 to 80 hour work week. It’s cutting pay, it’s cutting benefits. You’re the one who has to clean the bathrooms you're the one who has to do the dirtiest nastiest jobs until it monetizes. In the beginning, you're the first one in, last one to leave and you do not make a big paycheck
-A great idea might make you one or two or 5% more money but avoiding a great mistake could save your whole business
-Addressing negatives is probably one of the best ways to ensure lack of failure
-In entrepreneurship, one of the first things you do is read contracts right, don't assume
-A lot of things in life are non-negotiable. But in the things that are negotiable in life, lose-lose is the best
-It can't always be about you
-Almost everything is negotiable if you ask the right way
-Manipulation is ugly if you're taking advantage of somebody for your own benefit but if you're manipulating a situation where both people benefit, manipulation is okay
-80% of new startup businesses fail
-Fear of failure was my great motivation at the beginning. Fear of not fulfilling to the potential was my next motivation
-Working hard and getting lucky are the keys to success
-Building a business isn't linear, it's leverage. You have to leverage the energies of the people around you
-If you're maxed out on time you're going to be maxed out on potential. So the answer is, how do I free up my time to free up my potential