Podcast

EU 113 audio

[00:00:00] John Howard:

It is amazing the money that’s being left on the table, which, which explains why, you know, most businesses fail and unfortunately, even the businesses that succeed, these small percentage of guys that quote unquote succeed, 80% of ’em to 90% won’t even sell because they’re not sellable because the business is the owner and they’re barely getting by.

We want to change that.

[00:00:27] INTRO:

This is experts unleashed, revealing how professionals and entrepreneurs transform experience into income while positively impacting the world.

For years, Joel Erway has helped entrepreneurs develop and launch their expert based businesses growing them beyond six and even seven figures a year. Now a professional expert serves their community through paid training education or service. This podcast will help you design and execute your plan to become a six or seven figure expert without a massive team.

To get more information or apply now, visit theperfectexpert.com. Let’s get started.

[00:01:10] Joel Erway:

Hey, what’s going on everybody? Joel Erway here from Experts Unleashed, and I’m super excited about my guest here today. So my guest is John Howard from Market Breakthrough Specialist, and today we are going to be talking about how he can earn a potential six figure semi passive income stream. By being a profit strategist for other business owners.

Now, John and I have been connected for some time now. We’ve talked about this in great detail, and I got super turned down and super excited about really learning more about what he does, which is helping business owners get more cash, get more profits, and optimizing their business through many, many, many different strategies.

And. This is a huge need. Lots of business owners need profit strategists and they need business. I don’t even wanna call ’em business coaches cuz it’s not just business coaching, it’s finding hidden revenue inside of their business. And so I’m really excited to welcome John onto the show. I know you’re gonna love this episode.

We’re gonna dive into what this opportunity is, why business owners need profit strategists. What’s the opportunity for profit strategists if you want to become. And all sorts of other questions that I’ll come up with on the conversation. John, welcome to the show, my man.

[00:02:22] John Howard:

Thanks, Joel. Appreciate you having me here.

I’m, I’m really looking forward to talking about it.

[00:02:26] Joel Erway:

Well, John, give us a quick, you know, 30 or 62nd background about who you are, how you got into this space, and how you discovered what becoming a profit strategist really is.

[00:02:34] John Howard:

Right, right. Well, I, it’d be tough in 60 seconds, but to really condense it, been involved in real estate investing most of those real estate investors know we go into places, we look at the problems and we try to fix it.

We’re problem solvers. Right. And then I’ve had my own businesses starting multiple businesses, and I see many people around me. I’m a kind of a lower baby boomer. A lot of guys have their value trapped in their business and 80% of ’em not gonna get outta their business. And that’s because they don’t understand Their singular focus should be profit.

They look at revenue minus expenses, equal profit. They stop at the revenues, they grow their revenues, but they grow their debt and their expenses and they got no money. And so these guys are broken. They, they don’t have to keep working. And what I realized, not only can we help them, Solve that problem to unleash that value, unleash the profit that that, that they’re not taking advantage of.

But it’s a great opportunity for us because we actually have the potential to have infinite return. Hmm. That sounds too good to be true, but it’s true.

[00:03:34] Joel Erway:

Now, you said you had a background in real estate, correct. So you, you Correct. Had a background real estate investing and what’s the connection between or your transition from real estate investing into becoming a profit Strategy?

[00:03:47] John Howard:

Well, you know, there’s, it’s a great question, right? Because real estate, as a real estate investor, it’s a business. I mean, it really is. Maybe if you hold one or two rentals or you flip a home, maybe you don’t consider it a business. But with what I do, working with multifamily, owning multiple buildings with others, it truly is a business.

And I’ve started other business in the past, and I saw that. So, so many similarities, and that’s why I love talking about your real estate investors because they get it, they understand it, they get the terminology, they understand it’s all about returns and valuations. And what’s that depend upon profits, right?

You gotta have cash at the end. After you collected your income and paid your mortgage. You gotta have cash at the end. They get it. And so what are the similarities? You know, you have to strategically think about things, analyze deals. You have to financially analyze deals as well, right? Whether it’s real estate or a business, you’re a problem solver.

Maybe that at the core of it, you’re a problem solving and multi-family. I go into apartment complexes and I enhance them, what we call value add. I solve the problems in them. Valuations increase. We pull profits out, we get better returns, right? They’re both involve having relationships, you know, communicating with people, impacting people.

We’re both involved with risk management, so there’s a lot of similarities between real estate investors and profit strategies. We’re both looking for that monthly cash on cash return. What we’re looking for, the big payday, but here’s the difference, right? ready for the difference. Let’s do it. And this is why you really want to look at being a profit strategist.

Anybody’s a real estate investor. You’ve gotta look at this because I know we talk about infinite return occasionally in the real estate space, but it’s real here. And why is that? Well, again, let’s take my examples of multi-family. Minimum investment is $75,000. Now I think that’s a great in, I think they’re great investments.

I’m encouraging people to look at that, but the reality of it is that’s a lot of risk and I have the stress of the risk of the investors. , there’s no financial risk being a profit strategist because you’re never putting your money in, you’re always collecting money you’re providing a service, right?

You’re getting an early cash on cash return that monthly fee and you’re eventually getting to a scenario where you participate in the profits. Now you’ve gotta deliver results. But that’s probably the biggest one, is the financial risk is much lower and the returns are much higher because it actually can be infinite because you’re not putting money in.

[00:06:06] Joel Erway:

Yeah, it makes a lot of sense. I. You know, I’ve done a little bit of real estate investing and, you know, we have some vacation rentals, short-term vacation rentals, and it’s great. You know, there’s, there’s many pros to being a real estate investor and there’s many different types of real estate investing, but, you know, usually you gotta have a lot of capital get started.

Right. A lot of education, kind of like learn the lingo. You’re gonna make mistakes, you’re gonna deal with, you know, annoying tenants, or maybe you’re just truly a, a silent partner or, you know, a passive investor, I mean, There’s a lot of hurdles to overcome with, with real estate investing. It’s, can you bring that point up?

[00:06:41] John Howard:

Cause I kinda glossed over because in the space I deal with multi-family, we do have professional property managers, but there’s. Thousands upon thousands real estate investors out there that are fixing toilets at night that are going to Home Depot, picking up the flooring, you know, that are spending hours looking at, you know, what type of granite they want or what appliances they want and dealing with, you know, the banks and the lenders and all the different things they’ve gotta, they’ve gotta deal with.

So, you know, I did gloss over that because from my perspective, we have professional ones doing. But the vast majority of real estate investors actually are dealing with a lot of those, those issues. Yep. And like you said, the capital, again, where I’m coming from, yes, I put capital in, but I have a lot of investors coming in.

A lot of guys are doing this on their own, you know, where are they getting this capital? Trying to talk family into it, other investors, and again, like I said, the stress that you’re, you’re dealing with the fiduciary responsibility of somebody else’s. , right? I mean, the worst that’s gonna happen in pr in a, as a profit strategist is the owner may not, you know, agree with what you wanna implement.

They may not have a key employee, so then maybe the plan doesn’t work. Maybe the whole thing fails because they don’t follow through. They, you know, they don’t follow through on what needs to be done. But it’s not gonna touch your bank account. It’s not gonna touch your reputation. It’s not gonna touch anything like the, the, the stress and the risk of, of real estate.

So if that’s what, that’s that’s a great point. Yeah.

[00:07:57] Joel Erway:

So you say that there is a connection of traits like, so someone who’s a real estate investor, they’ve got the skillset, they’ve got the traits of now being able to take what they’ve learned and how they’ve operated in, in the real estate investing space.

And now it’s just about how do you transition that and translate that over into a new marketplace as a profit strategist for other businesses. And so, Go through that a little bit. Like what are some of those similar traits that are, you know, transferrable skills from one market to the next, and you know, why does this present such a huge opportunity specifically for real estate investors to apply this over to business owners?

[00:08:37] John Howard:

Right. Well, most successful real estate investors have relationships. Wealthy people, right? Or affluent people. And a lot of those affluent people have businesses, right? So they’re already have a captive audience where they should have a captive audience through their networking, through their masterminds, or their meetup groups, or BNIs or chambers.

So they already have a captive audience. They’re generally, if they’re successful, pretty good at communicating, articulating, you know, asking questions, being curious, you know, things like that, right? So that’s, that’s a key. , they’re already really good at problem solving. Like I said, you go into you know, to make money in real estate, you, you’re generally not just buying a place.

Well, some people do. They just buy a place and hope for the best, right? But generally, if you wanna make a lot of money, you’re going in there, you’re, you’re assessing issues and problems, and you’re developing strategies to fix those, to raise the value. It’s exactly the same as a profit strategist. And you’re using your strategic thinking skills.

You know, what, what’s the best opportunity? What niche, you know, what area, what type of owner, you know, where, where can I pull the levers the best. And then you gotta have some financial background in both. You don’t have to be a bookkeeper, accountant, or a degree in finance. There’s just, there’s just basic things you have to learn that, you know, we, we, we enhance your skills and you know, you’ll, you’ll be, you’ll be great at it.

Within, within, within months. It’s. Very, very simple, very key six or seven leverage you have to look at on the financial statements and, and a good real estate investor should do that and maybe, maybe a real estate investor turfs it off more to their accountant as a profit strategy should dealing more with that.

Yeah. You know, both deal with risk mitigation or at least they should. Right. Lessening the chance of the, of the investment going of, of being sour. Successful ones are also very adaptable, right? You gotta change to market conditions. Look what’s happening in real estate now. The ones that have cash on hand, the ones that are adapting are the ones that are surviving the inflation and the interest rate fluctuations.

Same thing with the profit strategist. Maybe a change within the business, you know, what can they do to adapt and make sure those profits keep coming in. So those, those are a lot of the very, very similar.

[00:10:42] Joel Erway:

Now you have a pretty unique offer, and I know when you work with clients and you show them how to become a profit strategist, you show them this offer that is irresistible, that like people can’t turn down.

Right. What is that offer? It’s, it’s something like, you know, you can help them find an extra a hundred thousand dollars in an hour or something like that. Explain what that was, because that was, that was really appealing.

[00:11:03] John Howard:

Yes, absolutely. But it’s key. It’s key. So it really depends on the context of what you’re saying.

I mean, that’s what I say. You know, you can be taken different ways when you just say that outta the box. So what you really wanna do is be curious with that business owner. And it can be on that first setting doesn’t mean you, I mean, being an authority, you know, educating people, having workshops, seminars, being known is great.

And then you can say that quicker, but even in a, a encounter. 10 minutes of just being curious, caring, what’s going on, how’s it going? Well, that must be frustrating. You’re not getting the kind of leads or conversions and just asking all these questions. And then you say, I say at the end it says, you know, I think I could find at least a hundred thousand, if not 700,000, your business, and I could probably do it in about an hour.

Would you like help with that? ? That’s it. No hard sales pitch. And you, that’s because you’ve built up, you know, 10, 15, 20 minutes of caring, of asking curious questions, you know, asking some personal questions, some probing, you know, if the receptive, some probing business questions. And yes, and it’s absolutely true.

It, it is amazing the money that’s being left on the table, which, which explains why, you know, most businesses. . And unfortunately, even the businesses that succeed, these small percentage of guys that quote unquote succeed, 80% of ’em to 90% won’t even sell because they’re not sellable because the business is the owner and they’re barely getting by.

Hmm. And we want to change that. So if you wanna make that impact, not just enhancing your own bank account, but enhancing their bank account, impacting the world. I really do look at this. I mean, I, you know, as a physician at time, right? So I, we, we’ve discussed this and so the, the diagnostic and the therapeutic aspect of it is, is this is almost the same for a physician, a real estate and a profit strategist.

but a physician you normally think of, okay, well he’s the guy that gets the benefit of impacting the human being and saving marriages, and fixing homes and enhancing people’s lives. But that’s not true. I mean, it is true, but so does the real estate investor enhancing communities, and so does the profit strategist enhancing a business so that they’re extracting profits, they’re raising their valuation, they’re teaching them ways to delegate more, to remove themselves from the business, mitigate.

And they can withdraw and sell and you’re impacting lives there. So they all do in many ways the same thing.

[00:13:26] Joel Erway:

Yeah, that’s that’s so fascinating. You know, it’s like, as someone who runs, you and I, we both run businesses, right? And it’s like, you know that you’re too close to. your own stuff to kind of see what the real opportunity is.

That’s why it’s so important to have somebody come in and, and just point some simple things that’s simple to you, the consultant to see. Right. It’s difficult for you, the business owner to see cuz we’re blind to it. Right? Right. And so, you know what businesses are ripe for this opportunity. Like, if, if I become a, a profit strategist, like this is super appealing to me, right?

So if I become a profit strategist, I wanna become a profit. Like what types of business? Should I be looking to target? Should I be looking to go out and prospect or seek out to go, you know, help them optimize.

[00:14:09] John Howard:

Well, in a broad sense, this is kind of my box, right? I want a company with fairly high margins visible, has a good reputation already.

High ticket sales. This is what is so also unbelievably fantastic for the real estate investor cuz who does that describe? that describes all the people that you work with. Basically, it describes contractors that describes roofers. It describes all the trades of plumbers. Maybe not some of the smaller companies, but, but medium size, larger companies.

It, it describes all those electricians, the HVACs, it describes all of them. They all they all got very high margins. They’ve all got visibility. You want the ones with pretty good reputation and tho those targets are tremendous. Now, having said. . You know, if you’re a real estate investor and you have, you know, experience in the manufacturing sectors can be great.

Some of the e-commerce sectors can be great. There’s some professional service firms that are moderate to larger in size, law county firms, et cetera. There’s different, there’s different aspects. Some healthcare that are more cash-based. So there is a huge variety you know, which is one of those differences.

I don’t think I touched upon, just the universe of opportunity is so much greater. Well, why do I say that? Because most real estate investors, Focus, particularly to act like me, focus on one asset class, multi-family for me, right? So I’m not an expert in storage or industrial, so I kind of stick with that profit strategist.

It’s okay to stick with, you might wanna just stick with roofers if you want, but even if you just stick with roofers, I mean, there’s thousands of roofers, right? , right. And, and it’s very easily transferable to contractors and all the other trades. And you can say the same thing for the many other things I listed.

So the universe of opportunity is.

[00:15:55] Joel Erway:

Amazing. How did you discover this? Like how did you come across profit strategy or, you know, becoming a profit strategist for other businesses?

[00:16:03] John Howard:

Yeah, that’s a great question. So you know, I’m plugged into some of the same people that you’re plugged into. You know, I’ve been successful with the multiple businesses I’ve started.

I’ve known that, you know, Is vanity Profit is sanity. Cassius King. Yep. So, you know, I see that. And you know, and I, I’ve seen other successful business owners and but I’ve seen a lot of people that fail and I’ve been tied into the last few years. People in the m and a space Roland Frazier, some other guys Mike Perowitz on the, on the profit.

Profit first guy. And I just attaching, they just, they just make sense. So a combination of of of my own experience, my friend’s experience, tapping into really bright guys that talk about these things, that talk about profit, that talk about, you know, doing consulting for equity, some of these guys call it.

And yeah, that’s, that’s, that’s pretty much it.

[00:16:56] Joel Erway:

So what was the first deal that you did? Like when you realized that this was a huge opportunity to explain that to me? Right. So you’re obviously tapped into lots of different opportunities. You know, as a physician, you’re a real estate investor, but like talk about your first deal as a profit strategist.
What did that look like and when did the, like the big aha moment happened for you? Like, holy crap, this is a, like, this is a big opportunity.

[00:17:19] John Howard:

You know what, it’s amazing. I love the way you asked questions because it stimulates in my mind, The, the first couple of deals I did was, was kind of before some of the stuff I just mentioned to you.

Mm-hmm. , and I didn’t even realize that’s what I was doing. I just didn’t realize that’s what, that’s, I I didn’t realize that’s what I was doing In 2010, I helped a friend of mine start a, a, it’s a kind of a light touch pain management for lunch for a better word. It’s not a pain management physician, but they do.

Back Decompressions physical therapy and joint injections. Right? It’s called physical rehabilitation. And I helped him start it and he really didn’t have any money. And so he gave me a 20% slice of that and throughout the years I would help him. And then actually for about a two year period between 2016 and 2018, and I actually went in as an interim chief operating officer and got even a bigger slice of the sheriff.

So I was kind of, you know, doing it but not necessarily doing it right, not setting up the contracts right, and not, not really understanding all the things that I understand now. I’m not really understanding. The focus on profit, I guess I would say, right? So I was, I was, you know, in there building the business, looking at revenues, trying to increase sales, and I did the same thing similarly with a landscaping company back in 20 17, 20 18.

A friend of mine here from church, young guy, great. Just a brilliant. Thirties, eight year old guy, just starting start. He’s a big time real estate investor too. And you know, I started talking about, about, about his chain of where, you know, he’s, he’s cutting lawns. I said, have you thought about doing insecticides, pesticides?

Have you thought about, you know, You know, cutting trees, just, you know, what’s the, what’s the supply, you know, what’s the horizontal vertical supply? So we started growing into those things and, and by helping him do that, I was also gaining equity in the business. Right. But again, we grew, we did well, but I, I, it was not streamlined until really listening to Roland, you know, listening to Mike and, and, and talking to other people and really learning more and studying this in depth that I became singularly focused on a more profit approach.

Because when you start. Getting those profits in at, at basically no cost and no risk to the owner. That’s what’s gonna segue you into the equity component, whether it’s a profit share arrangement, a revenue share arrangement, equity component. Because remember these two guys, I knew these two guys, right? I knew them.

So there was already a no, like, and trust. That was huge most of us are gonna start meeting cold people. Right. Or, you know, you know, sort of lukewarm maybe, maybe we hit it off immediately. Maybe it takes a few months, you know, whatever. So the key is, is to get it, get in there, get quick wins. You know, look at their pricing, their costs, their accounts payable.

You know, don’t, don’t institute a marketing program that’s gonna take six months. And cost, you know, a hundred thousand dollars, get those quick wins, no risk. He’s, they’re gonna love you. They’re gonna beg you for even more. And that’s when new show you can do with profits. They’ll, they’ll, most of them will be welcome to some kind of profit share equity arrangement.

[00:20:13] Joel Erway:

Well, so let’s talk some numbers, right? So right now, like we’ve talked about infinite ROI and helping people, you know, get a, a piece of, you know increase their profits. But like as a profit strategist, what is the potential that. I could earn if I go work with a business. Like, you know, if, if I go help them make a hundred thousand dollars in an hour, you know, reviewing their statements and, and doing that first step, like, what does this look like for me?

Like, how can I turn this into, let’s say, a six figure semi passive opportunity?

[00:20:44] John Howard:

That’s a great question. And the answer to that is it really depends on one main thing, and that’s what’s in between your ears. I find this is, is, is really. A confidence and mindset issue because you can easily make a hundred thousand dollars off one client.

I mean, easily one client. Absolutely. Absolutely. Because you know, for what you’re doing for the kind of money you’re finding to ask for a four to five to $6,000 monthly fee is, is totally legitimate. Right? And is on the low side if you’re actually doing some of the work. If you’re doing some of the work as a consultant, it should be a lot.

if you’re mainly a strategist, advising, mentoring, coaching, keeping them accountable to implement some of the things you’re talking about, that’s that fee of four, five, 6,000. If it’s a consulting fee where you’re actually going in there and, and developing a new, you know you’re speaking with the accountant about, you know, how the ar and a accounts pay were outta whack, that’s even a higher fee.

So that’s, that’s even before there’s any profit sharing or equity. You tap into a, a, into a new revenue source or, or, or restart one. Or, you know, restarting old clients with a drip campaign and you say, you know, anything above what you have now is part yours too. That easily translates into a hundred thousand dollars per client or more.

That’s, that’s what, that’s year one.

[00:22:01] Joel Erway:

So hang on, let me, let me back up a little bit. Right. So when I first get the client right, I can’t just walk in and be like, oh, it’s $5,000 a month for my services. Or maybe I can, like, when I’m presenting that, oh, let me find some hidden money. In your balance sheets, or you do that first kind of quick win, which is, I bet you I can find a hundred, you know, a hundred thousand dollars in an hour.

Like, do you charge for that? Like how does, how does that work?

[00:22:26] John Howard:

That very first hour you’re talking to ’em?

[00:22:28] Joel Erway:

Well, I mean, when you talked about earlier, so we have that initial consultation and you’re being curious and then ultimately you say, Hey, you know, I think that there’s some, some real potential here.

I think that I could probably find between a hundred and I think you said 700 grand and it’s only gonna take me an hour. Do you do that for free or like how do you get compensated for.

[00:22:44] John Howard:

Yeah, I generally do that hour for free cuz I’m been pretty good about that, that first 10, 50 minute conversation. And again, this is where it’s, it’s fantastic to have investors involved in this, right?

Because they, you know, the successful ones are asking these kind of questions, probing people. They know human nature. They’re, they’re, they’re seeing when somebody’s, you know, being open and vulnerable and really telling you their pain points and what they can do. So I’ve been pretty good at being able to screen successful people into that one hour.

But even that one hour yes, I generally do it for the payday is so massive and the conversion is so high. I mean, greater than 70% that I’ll do that, that that hour, you know, for whatever compliment. So

[00:23:25] Joel Erway:

you do that first hour for complimentary, but like, when do I, like, where does it transition into now?

Like collecting the fees, right? So it’s like you do an hour in, in planning out like where all that hidden money is, right? Mm-hmm. , you Wow ’em, right? And so then where does it go from there? Do you take a percentage of, you know, do you just go straight into a flat fee retainer or do you say, Hey listen, if you want me to help you go get that cash, do you do that as a percent profit share?

Like what’s the, what’s the most ideal opportunity then? The easiest way to get a

[00:23:56] John Howard:

yes. Well, there’s two schools of thought there, and I, I follow my school of thought mainly. I try to get it from the start. Okay. Right. I do try to get it from the start, and the way I do that is I generally start with a very high monthly fee, and even the most successful business usually scorches.

And when they do that, I say, okay, I’ll lower that fee. Maybe I’ll lower from seven to five. And then plug in a profit share. So

[00:24:17] Joel Erway:

you’re saying you would start out around $7,000 and that’s to help them, you know, acquire that, that that cash, right, that profit,

[00:24:26] John Howard:

correct. And then I back that down and I get a profit share.

I put in a profit share and seven outta 10 times. They’re all good with that. Got it. . But there’s also this full of thought, you know, a couple of buddies of mine that do this where, you know, they’ll just go in with a flat fee and you know, after three months when they’ve really shown ’em how amazing it is, they’ve been able to evaluate the books better.

See what profit margins, you know, specify. Exactly. So there’s no, there’s no funny you know, it might be a share of revenue. It might be, it might be different. There might be different arrangements. And they like doing it that way, but I, you know, I like my way cuz I end up doing what they do anyway, right?

Once I get into the business and I can, I, I’m finding even more, cuz you gotta remember in that hour we only have a, a time to, to cover two or three topics, right? We might look at their, their messaging or their offer or their pricing or whatever, right? We can’t look at the literally 40 different points we cover.

And we have a 12 point framework that we go in initially, but we can’t even cover that in the first hour. So this a hundred thousand plus is just covering two or three things. . And so it’s, it’s very impressive. It’s very amazing. And yeah, I, I generally try to get through on the front end. I’m not worried about, you know, well, maybe it should have been eight or 12 and, you know, and have to specify in contracts that’ll all be sorted out in due time.

Yep.

[00:25:40] Joel Erway:

So the next logical thing in my head is like, okay, you know, I feel confident I’m gonna be able to learn how to go in and, and approach these businesses, look at the financial savings, and identify some, some big opportunities for them. I haven’t gone to school for this. Like I haven’t been trained in this.

Like, can anyone be trained in this? I’m assuming they can. I mean, obviously we probably wouldn’t be having this conversation if at least real estate investors couldn’t be trained. But like what, you know, how easy is it for you to learn this skillset of not only, you know being able to identify those opportunities but then fulfill on those promises of helping them capture that that lost revenue?
What does that look like?

[00:26:21] John Howard:

Right. Well, I do get people telling me that and it’s, it’s, it’s quite interesting when they say they don’t have experience in this. Cause I say, well, what do you mean by that? Right. And, and generally as I, if I probe further and further, especially with the real estate investors or other investors or even entrepreneurs and, you know, they actually do have a fair amount of experience.

We’ve talked about some of those, you know, the, the, the, the skill sets and, and the thinking that they go through for opportunities. You know, they do some of the financial analysis for their real estate opportunities. They. You know, they’ve solved problems. So I, I just kind of put that out there. They, they do have a lot of skills that are transferrable.

But having said that, you know, we, we take you by the hand. We, we teach you everything you need to know. You don’t need to know the level of even a bookkeeper and accountant. We, we break it down very simple. There’s seven key levers and we can bring up to, to maybe 10 to 12 that you’ve just gotta focus on when you’re looking, looking at financial statements.
And we take you through there, you know, hold you by the hand. There’s constant communication with all of us in the group. And you’ll become you know, it’s a, it’s a matter of learning some basic finance and having the right mentor, I guess, if I could put it in a, in a, in a nutshell, basic finance plus, right.

Mentor equals success. So you

[00:27:36] Joel Erway:

work side by side with them Absolutely. As they’re working on these businesses. So, Something comes up where they don’t have a experience in solving a specific problem. Or maybe you can help look at it and say, Hey, listen, no, there’s a huge opportunity here for you to go solve this.

You’re there side by side kind of advising them on, on how to, how to implement. Is that correct?

[00:27:56] John Howard:

Absolutely. This is I mean, it’s your own business, right? You have your own business, but this is a community, and this is, this is not one of these things where, you know, You look at you look at our program and the investment and say, well, you know, have a nice life.

See you later. Now, this is a community as a family. Very, very active group, very helpful group. You know, any issue you have with any business you can bring to the group. Bring to me and absolutely we’re there. Lock in, lock in step by step with you.

[00:28:24] Joel Erway:

where is it that most people get tripped up? Like if they decide, all right, John, I’m in, I wanna go learn this skillset of becoming a profit strategist.

I like the idea of having three, five, $7,000 a month retainers, plus profit share, plus potential equity. Like that sounds awesome. Like right. Where do you see most people get tripped up?
[00:28:44] John Howard:

Well, two areas. I personally feel that what I have in this profit acceleration strategy is the Lamborghini of business consultancy work, if you will, or whatever your favorite car is, right?

If it’s a Ferrari, whatever, Porsche, whatever it is, that’s what it is. And we deliver it and we service it, and we’re there with you all the. . But the reality of it is you gotta drive it. Person’s gotta drive it. What does that mean? That primarily means talking to business owners, right? He’s gotta drive that Lamborghini to talk to business owners.

Wherever they are. They might, they, you know, a lot of ’em are in his phone or her phone, you know, are you willing to call those people? Are you willing to email those people, text them, you know, are you willing to go to a mastermind or a Facebook group or you know, a meetup or whatever, wherever you are.

Trade association, if it’s contractors or roofers, right? So that’s one big thing. People, we give ’em the keys to Lamborghini. We got the best service department in the world, and they don’t drive it. The second area is, again, like I was talking about with pricing, it’s, it’s in a mindset and confidence, right?

It’s, you know, we, I have people that have been in business 30 years and real estate investing 20 years been successful. , you know, they have this mental block and we try to help ’em with that as well. That, well, that’s different. And the reality of it is, yeah, there’s some slightly differences, but it’s more, there’s more overlap than you think and you can be up to speed on this within a couple of months.

[00:30:23] Joel Erway:

Is there anything that we haven’t discussed that you want people to understand with this opportunity? Meaning like, it all sounds well and good, right? It sounds like there, there’s. , there’s clearly a market, there’s clearly a need for this. Like, right. What am I not asking that when you talk to somebody who’s interested in becoming a profit strategist comes up relatively often, so is there anything that I’m not asking that, you know, gets asked a lot?

[00:30:51] John Howard:

Well, I know there’s always a big thing about, you know, multiple income streams and it’s like, you know, people go out there and they find, find it from jobs to do for multiple income streams, right. , you know, do you wanna diversify your income stream and have it studied? Do you want that? Do you want that consistent cash on cash return, right?

That’s coming in every month. Do you want that potential big payday at the end? Do you want all the things that you get in real estate investing in other investments? But you get it faster, you get it easier, you get it with much less risk. You get it with no money outta your pocket, and you make a more dramatic impact on the community.

Because even though you get that in real estate, it’s a more personal close relationship. And so if you want all the benefits of real estate investing, but essentially none of the risk , you know, why wouldn’t you do this? Yeah. That’s why I’m doing it more and more, right? I mean, I love my real estate investing, but you know, it’s just, it’s just not, it’s not an, it’s not an equal thing.

[00:31:51] Joel Erway: Caius king baby. When you have no overhead or very little overhead

[00:31:55] John Howard:

and you’re already doing many of the things, you know, you’re already doing many of the things. You’re meeting other people, you’re meeting business owners, some of them affluent, you’re already doing a lot of those things, why not focus on that?

Why not, you know, talk to the contractor you’re dealing with. So, in many ways, you’ve already got a captive audience. You’re using the same skill sets, you’re getting the same benefits without the risk and the financial commitment, I mean, you know, it’s as no-brainer. It is for the business owner to accept your offer, right?

I mean, if you can go in there because you know, I couple it with a risk reversal, right. You know, I, I guarantee my fee. I, I’m that confident that I’m gonna find this profit that I guarantee my fee. So it’s no, it’s no risk to the business owner. Right. That’s as much as you’re putting in, if you wanna consider that an investment, your fee.

[00:32:34] Joel Erway:

Can you walk me through a couple examples of implementation that you’ve done that have gotten huge windfalls for your clients? Like, what are some of the big levers that you’ve pulled? When a client has hired you, like you looked at their, their statement, you found lots of money, and they said, okay, if you’re confident, here you go.

They signed up with you. Like, what are some big wins that you’ve gotten? So someone who’s considering right now can kind of put the, put a little bit more tangibility to like, what they’re, what they’re gonna be doing when they sign up as a profit strategist.

[00:33:05] John Howard:

Right. Well, I’m glad you asked that question too cause it reminds me cuz some people are worried that every single business is gonna be different.

And yes, every single business in what they do may be slightly different. Although if you focus on the trades, again, keep going back to that. Cause real estate deal with that, a lot of it similar, but going in there, you’re gonna be looking at a lot of the same things. At least. At least initially. Right?

Some of the biggest, and, and this is not gonna sound sexy, but it’s just, it’s just what’s, what’s real. I mean, people don’t realize if you take a company, for example, 200 that makes $250,000, say, let’s say as a gross margin of 50% and a net margin of 10. If you raise their prices by 5%, which is easy to do in this economy, and you cut their cost by 5%, do you know that doubles the profit.

Hmm. That doubles their profit. Yep. I mean, so the big wins, Dave’s Barber Barbershop recently, he’s got, he’s got a guy, he’s, it’s kind of a sh barbershop in a salon. He’s got like six locations. Okay. All we do is change his, his messaging. , his pricing, his cost structure, and we bundled some of his products up together and the guy had a 300% profit year one.

Wow. Actually, to be exact, it was 291%, 290%. Year one, it was over $300,000. Right. It wasn’t that hard to do. And so you’re looking at easy levers. You know, what’s their pricing structure? What is their cost? You know? You know, do they have recurring revenue? What is their accounts? Receiv. What is your accounts payable people for some reason, you know pay their bills right away, and yet they let other people pay them in 60 days.

That’s why I’m saying there’s, there’s basic, fundamental, easy things to look at that business owners and even their accountants, they accountants create these financial statements, just hand them to them. , right? So this is not complicated. We’re we’re looking at basic easy levers. Yes. Are there things beyond that?

You know, doing drip campaigns and you know, maybe marketing and looking at other revenue streams or other offers and doing JVs alliances. But if you look at five to six to seven things that are gonna give you immediate quick wins, I just named most of them. So, and, and this works also, you know, even with a lower revenue, like, you know, at today, you know, today was making over a million dollars in revenue.

You know, I worked with a acupuncturist a couple months ago, no, actually about six months ago, and she was only making about $125,000 a year. I mean, we were able to, we were able to triple her profit as well. I mean, that was huge for her, right? So it works for the smallest companies and it works for the biggest companies.

Going in there, focusing on profit, not focusing on what necessarily the owner wants or what you’re good at or anything else you wanna, you wanna zero in on those six to seven levers. that affects your problem. Yeah.

[00:35:48] Joel Erway:

So I mean, this sounds like, it sounds like it’s a lot of fun. Sounds like it’s it’s an easy, very lucrative and a very fun business.

I, I learned that from Joe Polish, like e l f easy, lucrative, and fun, right? And it’s like all you need is one, all you need is one client to make this like infinitely worthwhile. As a pseudo consultant, right? A profit strategist. I mean, your upside is unlimited. That’s why you say it’s, you know, infinite ROI if you do decide to Right.

Get into profit sharing and, and possibly equity. But this is, it’s kind of like, you know, some, for me, I’ve gotten an ADHD brain. I’ve never been diagnosed, but like, you can’t convince me that I do not have a a d, D, right? So this would be like a perfect opportunity for me because I get to. See so many different opportunities, so many different businesses, and use that skillset to become highly leveraged and highly valuable to the client.

And so I love this strategy. I mean, it just makes so much sense. Like go into a business that’s already got momentum. Don’t start a new business. Go into a business that’s already got momentum and help them pull a couple exactly. Levers and you know, and share in those profits, sharing those wins. . There are tons of people who are willing to do that because the business owner is just way too busy to really take a step back and see clearly what’s happening.

That’s why you need people like you. That’s why you need someone like a profit strategist to see through the lens.

[00:37:18] John Howard:

Right. Well, we brought up several great points. One is, yes, they have blind spots. I mean, the question is do they see the blind spots? But, but, but initially, when you first started talking, you brought up another great point was you, This could be, you know, you have a full-time job or you’re working something else, it doesn’t mean you can’t keep doing that.

Right? Because, you know, depending what you wanna make, you could have one or two clients and probably make as much or more than what you’re making now. Right? Or if you want to go with this full steam ahead, I mean, you know, it’s, it’s the sky’s the limit, right? I mean, it’s just, it’s just amazing what you can make with this.

And don’t forget it also, well, don’t forget I didn’t bring it up. So this not only is an in for return, but this also, if you have. if you have the inclination. This also gives you the possibility to acquire businesses, right? or to help them grow and sell and to, to negotiate a percentage of the sale price.

So it’s not just a matter of profit strategies, the monthly income, the making the profits off what you’ve done. , but you may wanna buy the business. You may want to help grow grow it and, and sell it. You may wanna help that business, acquire other businesses and do a rollup of other businesses. So it leads to many different things you can participate in.

I mean, it’s really unlimited and depend on what you’re doing in life. You could do it with your real estate investment, one or two or three clients and still make, you know, several hundred thousand dollars or expand way beyond end of the seven figures if you choose to be. Yeah.

[00:38:37] Joel Erway:

So talk about what it, look a little bit about what it looks like to work with you, like as you train other profit strategists.

Like what can they expect and, you know, what are your guarantees to help bring these people into the marketplace? So you’re very passionate about it. We talked about this in, in great length. You’ve got a lot of experience, a lot of breadth you know, What happens when somebody joins your program? Like, how fast can they expect to get a client if they’re just starting from scratch?

Like how long is it gonna take to kind of get brought up and and build their confidence and learn the skillset? So explain that kind of at a higher level.

[00:39:06] John Howard:

Yeah. I mean, Joel, this goes back to the individual person again. I mean, we had a young lady come in a couple months ago that before she even finished all the onboarding training.

Had three clients because she just went out there and, and did it, right? I mean, she, she tapped into her network and she did it certainly by the end of 60 days. Right? If you wanna get all the training done, there’s an immediate onboarding process. There’s, there’s, there’s it’s not overwhelming. It’s very structured.

It’s key to those leverage. We talked about, you know, there’s massive amounts of material that we have, hundreds and hundreds of hours of videos and written things in audio, et cetera. and people, you know, get hung up on that because all I gotta learn of this. No, you learn the key levers through the onboarding, which is about, you know, five to six hours of videos, not hundreds of hours.

You go through several role, we put you through several role plays. We ask you to do role plays with businesses. You come back to another role play. So there’s a lot of role playing going on. And there’s a lot of education going on, training going on. There’s also a lot of build out of collateral resources that we provide.

Websites you know, books other, we provide a bunch of other collateral resources, so those are going on simultaneously. And so we really focus on that in the first month at all. Those onboarding things, all the, all the training and all the the role plays. That’s right.

[00:40:24] Joel Erway:

You know, I forgot about that.

You actually published, like, they become an author, like when they joined your program, they actually, they get a book, right? A book with their name and, and authority and credibility. Explain that.

[00:40:35] John Howard:

Two, actually two. Two, actually, two actually. White label books that are high quality mean real books, 90 to hundred 20 pages that are phenomenal.

They’re based on those levers we talked about, right? We stand to all, we stand actually to 12, our 12 point framework, and it’s right out of the gate. I mean, over time you can, you can edit them, you can change them. We kind of suggest you, do you maybe make it more towards your niche? It would take maybe 5% of it to change, but out of the gate, just to get you going.

We, we suggest you don’t do that. Use them as they are. They’re high quality. All we ask you to do is, you know, give us a title, give us a subtitle, what name you want on it, and what colors some pictures, . That’s it. Right. So it’s right outta the gate. Right outta the gate. You get this, and that really helps with positioning, authority, credibility.

Oh, no doubt. Yeah. It helps with lead generation. I mean, going into meetings or networking with a book, with your card, you know, in the book as opposed to just a card. And you know, it just, it just, you know, when you say the things you’re saying, , right? I mean, you could hand that business owner a book right then and there.

Even if he said no at that point, he, and I’d have people call me back, you know, a couple weeks later. So, yeah, we do provide it would, it would be too awesome to go into all the resources, but it’s, it’s, it’s, it’s a lot of resources. Yeah.

[00:41:44] Joel Erway:

That’s awesome. Yeah, I mean, the opportunities that becoming a profit strategist provides you are, are limitless.

I mean, I get excited talking about it. I get excited, like learning about all the things that someone can, I. My biggest wins financially and just kind of like, you know, emotionally rewarding are when I have a piece in somebody’s upside, right? If, if I’ve got an, an opportunity to do a profit share or a rev share and we get a massive win together, I mean like there’s no greater joy on both sides cuz not transactional.

It’s like, you know, we all just made a crap ton of money and Right. That allows this business. Do, like, it gives them breathing room, it gives them sanity and it gives them, right, whatever else, whatever else they’re looking for. Like you become best buds. It’s like you just became a new best friend.

[00:42:32] John Howard:

Yeah, a hundred percent.

And I touched on it, but I didn’t go into it. And, and that’s one of the differences. I mean, you know, real estate’s, it can be rewarding, you know, you know, you’re, you’re bettering the community. You’re providing better space for people to live, especially now that it’s almost unaffordable to buy a home.

but in, in, in, in the businesses, you really are becoming much more friendly. You become friendly with the family and you get to know the wife and the kids, or maybe the wife owns with the husband, whatever. And it’s, it’s, yeah, it’s much more impactful. You really see much more directly in individual family unit benefiting.

So yeah, I agree a hundred percent really, really is rewarding.

[00:43:08] Joel Erway:

John, where can people learn more about becoming a profit strategist? Where can they reach out to you? Where can they connect with you if they, if they want to consider becoming a profit strategist and learning and implementing this with you and building a semi passive, multi six-figure income stream?

[00:43:24] John Howard:

Right then go to my website marketbreakthroughspecialists.com. They can check me out on my acquisitionphysician.com website. That’s my multi-family. Acquisition physician.com. The best way to reach me really is my email, John MBS profits. Merry brother Sam profits with an s.com. John mbs profits.com and yeah, that’s pretty much the direct way.

[00:43:48] Joel Erway:

Awesome. We’ll make sure to include those links in the show notes. John, this is a fantastic interview. If you are considering a new opportunity and you are maybe a real estate investor, kind of looking for a, a side income opportunity, like the learning curve for you is obviously going to be the shortest because of all the things that John already talked about.

You know how to read these statements. You’ve, you, you know how to diagnose problems. You’ve managed lots and lots of things with real estate investment, and that’s why John’s so passionate about like, You know, working with real estate investors and showing them this opportunity cuz their, their time to live’s the shortest, right?

It’s, it’s the, it’s the smallest window of learning the skillsets and being able to implement the strategies to get some big wins. So if that’s you, I encourage you to reach out to John and and seriously consider considerate. It’s, it’s a phenomenal opportunity. And I hope you enjoyed our conversation here together.

So, John, it’s been great as always.

[00:44:43] John Howard:

Thanks Joel. Appreciate the opportunity.

[00:44:45] Joel Erway:

For everyone else, we’ll see you on the next episode. Take care.

[00:44:51] OUTRO:

Thanks for listening to this episode of Experts Unleashed. If you are looking for new and innovative ways to design and execute your plan to become a six or seven figure expert without the massive team, apply now@theperfectexpert.com.