Avoiding Shiny Object Syndrome: An Approach to Entrepreneurial Success featuring Tiago Fiara, Solopreneur, Business Coach, and Consultant.

00:00:00 Exploring Small Business Origins

[00:00:00] Intro: Tell me your story.

[00:00:01] John Kelley: Tell me your story.

[00:00:02] John Kelley: How did it all start?

[00:00:03] John Kelley: Do you remember?

[00:00:04] John Kelley: what happened.

[00:00:05] John Kelley: How did it start?

[00:00:06] Tiago Fiara: You're now tuned Intro the Small Business Origins podcast.

[00:00:10] Tiago Fiara: I love an origin story.

[00:00:11] Tiago Fiara: Each week, we dive into the real stories of entrepreneurs and businesses from across the nation.

[00:00:17] Tiago Fiara: Louisian, what's his origin story?

[00:00:18] Tiago Fiara: Who started with just an idea and are now making waves.

[00:00:21] Intro: I told you this was a good idea.

[00:00:23] Tiago Fiara: This is Small Business Origins.

00:00:31 Interview with Tiago Frea - Solopreneur, Business Coach, and Consultant from Portugal

[00:00:31] John Kelley: What is up, everybody?

[00:00:32] John Kelley: Welcome back to another episode of small business origins.

[00:00:35] John Kelley: I'm your host as always, John Kelly, aka John the marketer on Instagram and TikTok, and you're tuned in.

[00:00:42] John Kelley: It's our nationwide search.

[00:00:43] John Kelley: We're looking for entrepreneurs that have a story to tell.

[00:00:46] John Kelley: But y'all know I say this almost, I would say, every other episode at this point.

[00:00:51] John Kelley: Maybe you don't see it because I don't release them in that sequential order, but every episode that I I log in to record, it seems like every other one, I've got somebody that's like, hey.

[00:01:00] John Kelley: I'm not from your nationwide search.

[00:01:02] John Kelley: I'm outside of the nation there, but can I be on the show?

[00:01:05] John Kelley: And the answer is always yes.

[00:01:08] John Kelley: I love nothing more than seeing this podcast reach people overseas, reach people in countries next door to ours, whether that's from the listener side or people wanting to be on the show, I think it's amazing.

[00:01:19] John Kelley: So today, we're traveling all the way to Portugal.

[00:01:22] John Kelley: I've got Tiago Frea.

[00:01:23] John Kelley: He is a solopreneur, business coach, and consultant.

[00:01:26] John Kelley: Tiago, welcome to the show, man.

00:01:28 Solopreneur's Journey to Entrepreneurial Freedom

[00:01:28] Intro: Man, thank you so much for having me.

[00:01:30] Intro: It's a true honor.

[00:01:31] Intro: We're just chatting offline.

[00:01:32] Intro: I'm on the other side of the Atlantic.

[00:01:34] Intro: We're just having a cool chat here.

[00:01:36] Intro: It's like it's amazing.

[00:01:37] Intro: Amazing.

[00:01:38] Intro: Thank you so much for having me.

[00:01:40] John Kelley: Absolutely.

[00:01:40] John Kelley: And, of course, you know, all that practice beforehand to make sure I'm saying your name right, and I didn't say Feria correctly.

[00:01:46] John Kelley: I I had to mess that up just a little bit.

[00:01:48] John Kelley: I rolled my r a little too hard like I'm used to over here in Texas, you know.

[00:01:51] John Kelley: So

[00:01:52] John Kelley: But, man, it is my pleasure to have you on the show.

[00:01:55] John Kelley: It's always my pleasure to have people on the show because, truly, this is a passion for me.

[00:01:59] John Kelley: It's just helping other people who are trying to expand their reach, who are trying to make a living doing what they wanna do with that entrepreneurial freedom.

[00:02:08] John Kelley: And the fact that you're a solopreneur that's out here just really trying to get on your grind and make this into something bigger, it it fits the bill just well.

[00:02:17] John Kelley: Like, I I'm so happy to have you here and and get talking to you.

00:02:20 The Importance of Talking to People Before Creating a New Offer

[00:02:20] John Kelley: But before we get into it, we always start out with an icebreaker question.

[00:02:24] John Kelley: And today's icebreaker is, what takes a lot of time but is totally worth it?

[00:02:31] Intro: What takes a lot of time?

[00:02:34] Intro: I'd say maybe one thing that I love to do well, jumping now to the business side of things.

[00:02:39] Intro: Right?

[00:02:40] Intro: I think it's something that could be useful for whoever is listening.

[00:02:43] Intro: Whenever I create a new offer, a new program, a new service, a new mentorship, whatever it may be, it takes a lot of time to do something that is extremely necessary, but most of us avoid it.

[00:02:55] Intro: I don't know why because yeah.

[00:02:56] Intro: Because it takes a lot of time.

[00:02:57] Intro: It's it's a lot of work, which is talking to people first.

[00:03:00] Intro: Before you create whatever you are trying to create, decide, first of all, who is the niche, specific person you're trying to talk to, the problem you're trying to solve, and then simply reach out to your network and talk to 5, 10 people that are in that specific niche and area.

[00:03:15] Intro: And ask them questions like, what are your main frustrations?

[00:03:17] Intro: What is going through your life?

[00:03:18] Intro: Like, how's the day your day to day look like?

[00:03:20] Intro: What are your goals?

[00:03:22] Intro: Because having those chats, you you get a lot of a lot of amazing intel.

[00:03:28] Intro: You get the emotional words that that people are using that you can then reuse for your own benefit Intro reflected in your offer, in your communications, your marketing, etcetera.

[00:03:38] Intro: And, and it opens up lots of doors.

[00:03:40] Intro: Just the fact that you talk to people around you, it opens up for you to sell to them afterwards.

[00:03:44] Intro: It opens up for you to ask them for referrals afterwards.

[00:03:48] Intro: So it's it's a task that takes a lot of time, and it feels like, oh, it's a bit of time.

[00:03:52] Intro: I don't wanna do it.

[00:03:53] Intro: I wanna faster to the fun marketing and hardcore selling stuff, but, it's so damn worth it because you will create something that the market actually wants to buy.

[00:04:03] Intro: Right?

[00:04:04] Intro: Because you're reflecting exactly what they want and need and just using their own words, and, yeah, it's magical.

00:04:11 The Importance of Networking and Gathering Information

[00:04:11] John Kelley: It's something that I almost want to just, like, cut right here and then put a little duplicate of it right after you're done saying that where you just start over and say it again because that is so important.

[00:04:23] John Kelley: Like, I've been through coaching programs, sales programs, all of these things where you're learning how to scale a business, how to build a business from scratch, how to add a new service like you just offered, how to bring in pun intended, a new offer to your business, those kinds of things.

[00:04:39] John Kelley: And that's something that we've gone through on the marketing side with, you know, for instance, adding some type of lead generation to someone's business, whether that's through paid advertisement on SEO or Google.

[00:04:53] John Kelley: I'm sorry.

[00:04:53] John Kelley: SEO, social media or Google.

[00:04:55] John Kelley: Doing SEO, doing, all these different things to kinda generate these leads.

[00:05:00] John Kelley: It's like, what's the best way to hop into that new lead generation outlet that you're moving into?

[00:05:05] John Kelley: And that was the biggest thing that we had always heard from our coaches was tap into your network first because that's where your easiest and quickest wins could come from.

[00:05:15] John Kelley: And then exactly what you said is it's not I'm not hitting up these 5 people to sell to.

[00:05:20] John Kelley: I mean, I did this myself with a friend of mine who owns an AC company because we were thinking about the HVAC niche.

[00:05:25] John Kelley: And I called him and I said, hey.

[00:05:27] John Kelley: So I know a little bit about HVAC, but I don't know everything about HVAC.

[00:05:31] John Kelley: If I was calling you right now to sell you and I was the best salesman ever, what are things that you need to hear?

[00:05:38] John Kelley: How much are you making average per job?

[00:05:39] John Kelley: How much money do you have in that budget?

[00:05:41] John Kelley: You know, all of these things so that, first of all, I can figure out if this is a niche that I John go into.

[00:05:46] John Kelley: Mhmm.

[00:05:46] John Kelley: Because if they're telling me an average customer makes them 100 or $200, but I wanna charge $2,000 a month for my services, I need to bring him a lot of leads in order to make it worth it.

[00:05:55] John Kelley: You know?

[00:05:56] John Kelley: So, I mean, not to get off into this, like, huge marketing lecture, but you're a 100% correct.

[00:06:01] John Kelley: Just taking that time to talk to your friends, have a 30 to 45 minute conversation or however long it it lasts, whether it's shorter, longer, doesn't matter.

[00:06:09] John Kelley: Gather as much information as you can so that when you go to that next person, you sound like the expert in that industry instead of sounding like a brand new, hey.

[00:06:18] John Kelley: We're just now starting Google Ads, and we've never done this for HVAC before, so let me sell you as my first client.

[00:06:25] John Kelley: It just builds that confidence when you can come in and say, hey.

[00:06:28] John Kelley: I know I can bring you x number of leads per month.

[00:06:31] John Kelley: I know that you can get this much business from it, you know, whatever the case may be.

[00:06:36] John Kelley: So I love that.

[00:06:37] John Kelley: It's a great great way to kinda get into business.

[00:06:39] John Kelley: My answer is much more along the lines of my personality, and that's gonna, like, draw right back to food.

[00:06:46] John Kelley: And that is something that takes a long time, but it's totally worth it.

00:06:50 Introduction to Brisket and the Texas Experience

[00:06:50] John Kelley: And you haven't been to Texas, so I don't know if you've had this or not.

[00:06:53] John Kelley: If you have, I can tell you if you haven't been to Texas that you haven't had the right type, but brisket.

[00:06:59] Intro: Brisket.

[00:06:59] Intro: Okay.

[00:06:59] Intro: I haven't heard of it.

[00:07:00] Intro: I have to search for it.

[00:07:01] John Kelley: See?

[00:07:01] John Kelley: Oh, man.

[00:07:02] John Kelley: So we're gonna have to get you to Texas, and then I'm at I'm at to smoke a brisket for you, man, or at least take you somewhere like Tejas here in town that has some of the best brisket I've ever had in my life or Bexar barbecue.

[00:07:13] John Kelley: So brisket, man, you just you take this it's basically I don't know.

[00:07:17] John Kelley: The best way for me to kind of align it for you is like a pot roast.

[00:07:22] John Kelley: Right?

[00:07:23] John Kelley: You know, it's a it's a big chunk of meat off of a cow.

[00:07:26] John Kelley: It's beef.

[00:07:27] John Kelley: And then what we do is we throw that on a smoker

[00:07:30] John Kelley: And we just we just sit there and smoke that thing.

[00:07:34] John Kelley: Usually, it's about an hour per pound.

[00:07:36] John Kelley: Depends on the smoker, your temperature, you know, the meat, a number of things.

[00:07:40] John Kelley: So the best people that smoke brisket are gonna tell you not to go based off of a time, but to go based off of temperature.

[00:07:47] John Kelley: And that's the thing, man.

[00:07:48] John Kelley: So you get one of those big briskets, I'm talking, you know, anywhere from 12 to £17, and it can take you anywhere from, like, 6 to 12 to 18 hours depending on how you cook it.

[00:08:00] John Kelley: It takes a while, but that meat comes Outro, and it's so juicy and tender, and it's just it's perfect.

[00:08:05] John Kelley: So I will have to get you to Texas so you can have some brisket perfection.

[00:08:09] John Kelley: Yeah.

00:08:09 Tiago Fiara Interview Highlights

[00:08:09] Intro: I hope I'm definitely looking forward to it, man.

[00:08:11] Intro: I just love meat.

[00:08:12] John Kelley: Yeah.

[00:08:13] John Kelley: You can you can Google, like, some guys, out of the UK that come to Texas and have that Texas barbecue, and they just absolutely lose their mind for it, and it's definitely worth it.

[00:08:24] John Kelley: It is 100% a legitimate response that they're having.

[00:08:27] Intro: Man, that's a business ID here for for Portugal.

[00:08:30] Intro: Maybe.

[00:08:30] John Kelley: To Right.

[00:08:31] John Kelley: Bring that brisket in.

[00:08:34] John Kelley: I'm telling you, man.

[00:08:35] John Kelley: It is great.

[00:08:36] John Kelley: But before we hop into it, we always have to take a second and talk about our sponsors.

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[00:08:59] John Kelley: You can capture leads using landing pages, surveys, forms, and more.

[00:09:02] John Kelley: You can nurture them with personalized messages via voice mail, SMS, emails, and even Facebook Messenger.

[00:09:08] John Kelley: And you can close those deals with built in tools to collect payments, schedule appointments, and track analytics.

[00:09:13] John Kelley: So say goodbye to multiple marketing tools and hello to Wingman, your unified platform for all of your business needs.

[00:09:19] John Kelley: Enhance your online presence, manage your reputation effectively, and cultivate leads effortlessly.

[00:09:24] John Kelley: If you're ready to take your business to new heights, visit trust your wingman.com today and let Wingman be your copilot to success because every business needs a wingman.

[00:09:34] John Kelley: But Tiago, we're here to talk about you, man.

00:09:36 Tiago Fiara's Entrepreneurial Journey from Cinematography Aspirations to Anti-Marketing Methodology

[00:09:36] John Kelley: So let's talk about where you came from, how you got into entrepreneurship.

[00:09:41] John Kelley: Take us through your origin story.

[00:09:44] Intro: Yeah, John.

[00:09:45] Intro: Thanks so much for for for asking.

[00:09:47] Intro: I it's like, it's been a journey.

[00:09:49] Intro: You know?

[00:09:49] Intro: I've, of course, I didn't start thinking about this when I was younger about, like, digital marketing and stuff like that.

[00:09:56] Intro: I actually wanted to be a cinematographer.

[00:09:58] Intro: I wanted to be a movie director.

[00:10:00] Intro: Did a lot of, like, those stop motion movies at home and and stuff like that.

[00:10:04] Intro: I actually tried to go to the conservatory of cinema.

[00:10:07] Intro: Here's how we call it in Portugal.

[00:10:08] Intro: But, I figured out quickly it was a very elitist, world.

[00:10:12] Intro: I didn't get into it, so I got upset with it.

[00:10:14] Intro: And I changed my mind.

[00:10:15] Intro: Okay.

[00:10:16] Intro: The closest thing to it is, like, advertising and marketing.

[00:10:19] Intro: So I did my, my, an undergrad, degree on that area.

[00:10:25] Intro: But then I needed to be more specific, so I started going to okay.

[00:10:28] Intro: Let's focus on strategic consumer marketing.

[00:10:31] Intro: Then I went to the UK to Manchester to make a master's degree exactly on that.

[00:10:35] Intro: And that's exactly when when I started, okay, shaping this where I am right nowadays.

[00:10:41] Intro: Which all started with a, a gentleman called Adrian Thomas, was my tutor at the time.

[00:10:46] Intro: He was 73 year old man, and he told us, you should look at digital marketing.

[00:10:49] Intro: It's the future.

[00:10:50] Intro: It was in 2008 or something like that.

[00:10:53] Intro: It was the present at the time, but for him, it was like, he's gonna grow like crazy.

[00:10:56] Intro: So I changed the top topic of my, thesis, my final thesis to, you know, the impact of Google and, search engine marketing and UK consumers.

[00:11:06] Intro: And that's that's why I, my passion started growing.

[00:11:09] Intro: Like, okay, Google.

[00:11:10] Intro: It's like amazing.

[00:11:11] Intro: The the the Kelley grail of of this of this digital marketing.

[00:11:15] Intro: Came back to Portugal, worked a bit for half a year in a a, an agency as an Intro, but I always had this on my on top of mind.

[00:11:21] Intro: I have to go to Google.

[00:11:22] Intro: The Google.

[00:11:22] Intro: Google is the Kelley grail.

[00:11:24] Intro: So, I started slowly touching my network, seeing if someone knows someone that works there, you know, at the at the European headquarters in Dublin, Ireland.

[00:11:34] Intro: And it happened that someone knew someone, and, I made a nice CV using my design Kelley, as my CV as as if it were if it as if it were a Google search of my name and then the results for my experience and my background, etcetera, somehow captured attention of people there, of recruiters.

[00:11:49] Intro: And there I went, 2011 to Google.

[00:11:53] Intro: It was, 8 incredible years.

[00:11:55] Intro: Yeah.

[00:11:55] Intro: Very, very, very, very fun.

[00:11:58] Intro: I had the chance to work with some of the the biggest companies in Europe, at least.

[00:12:01] Intro: Had a lot of fun.

[00:12:03] Intro: But at some point, I got a bit tired of the corporate world.

[00:12:07] Intro: Felt a bit limited, about working only with one single product, like Google Ads.

[00:12:12] Intro: And Facebook ads were growing like crazy at the time.

[00:12:14] Intro: I I I felt I wanted to use my creativity to consult businesses and, also the fact that I have a boss nagging my nerves every week was I realized I was psychologically unemployable very early on and, started thinking, okay.

[00:12:31] Intro: I need to find a a different path.

[00:12:32] Intro: I need to find something else to do.

[00:12:34] Intro: And, and then I decided in 2019 to come back to Portugal, quit Google.

[00:12:40] Intro: My wife, thank thank god she supported me on that, and she yeah.

[00:12:42] Intro: Let's do it.

[00:12:43] Intro: You know?

[00:12:43] Intro: Let's follow your follow our dreams and, came back here to, I bought a house here in the middle of the countryside, still close to the civilization, but like a more calm life.

[00:12:52] Intro: And I wanted to help local businesses, small businesses, and entrepreneurs using everything I had learned.

[00:12:58] Intro: But, at some point, I felt like I was sitting against a brick wall because, you know, creating your own business is a bit different than consulting huge companies.

[00:13:06] Intro: Like, they already have proven offers.

[00:13:08] Intro: It's very easy to to help them make more even more money.

[00:13:11] Intro: But to create your own business, not exactly the same thing.

[00:13:14] Intro: I was making my life too complicated, my life and my clients' life with using extremely complex strategies with Google Ads and funnels.

[00:13:23] Intro: So for 2 years, I I fell into all the traps possible.

[00:13:26] Intro: But that that mix that mixed with all the gurus, Intro marketing gurus, telling me, yeah.

[00:13:31] Intro: Follow this shiny object.

[00:13:32] Intro: You're one funnel away and etcetera.

[00:13:34] Intro: So I was following to all those traps.

[00:13:37] Intro: And, yeah.

[00:13:38] Intro: After 3 years, I decided, okay.

[00:13:39] Intro: I have to do something.

[00:13:41] Intro: I need to follow find a mentor, someone that already walked the path, and that helps me be responsible, be organized, and make a plan.

[00:13:48] Intro: That happened in 2021.

[00:13:50] Intro: I worked with Terry Dean.

[00:13:51] Intro: I don't know if you know him.

[00:13:52] Intro: He's like a a dinosaur of Internet marketing.

[00:13:54] Intro: Creating my vision, my plan, decided clearly who I wanted to help, and started simplifying my approach, of marketing.

[00:14:01] Intro: Going back to the basics and and the timeless strategies of business and and and marketing.

[00:14:07] Intro: I'm inspired by this gentleman, Jay Abraham, getting everything you can out of all you've got.

[00:14:13] Intro: I focus on this last sentence, all you've got.

[00:14:16] Intro: So, what do we have?

[00:14:18] Intro: We already have network.

[00:14:19] Intro: We have connections.

[00:14:20] Intro: We have established relationships around us.

[00:14:22] Intro: We have followers.

[00:14:24] Intro: And that got me to create this anti marketing method, which is exactly that.

[00:14:27] Intro: So you already have everything you need in your own world.

[00:14:30] Intro: You don't need to follow those shiny objects, those crazy complex strategies.

[00:14:34] Intro: You don't need that, at least when you are at the beginning stages.

00:14:38 Transition from Corporate World to Entrepreneurship

[00:14:38] Intro: You you already have, everything at your disposal.

[00:14:40] Intro: You just need to fall to use the people around you to create an offer like we discussed, at the beginning of our conversation.

[00:14:48] Intro: And then simply sell it to those who need it around you.

[00:14:51] Intro: And to those who don't need it, you can still create an amazing, business around them because everyone needs money.

[00:14:58] Intro: So you can create a referral program to for your own a new offer and create a a sales team around you that will start sending you clients constantly and be and you can reward them with commissions, etcetera.

[00:15:09] Intro: So that's the basics of of my anti marketing and how I got here.

[00:15:14] John Kelley: Yeah.

[00:15:15] John Kelley: It's crazy how you kind of so many entrepreneurs can relate to that story of leaving the corporate world, having that cush John.

[00:15:22] John Kelley: You know, it's something that I struggled with forever.

[00:15:25] John Kelley: I mean, I'm still I'm not in a corporate world, but I'm still working for someone.

[00:15:30] John Kelley: I'm still making my money based off of taxpayer dollars, in my case.

[00:15:34] John Kelley: And then on top of that, I work my other jobs where I am an entrepreneur in one business.

[00:15:40] John Kelley: I'm also marketing agency who's my business partner, my friend, and my boss, you know, all 3 wrapped up into 1.

[00:15:48] John Kelley: But it's crazy how I listen to his story.

[00:15:51] John Kelley: You know, similar to you, he was working for Apple, and he had that that cush job.

[00:15:55] John Kelley: I think he was doing, like, corporate training, basically, for store openings.

[00:15:59] John Kelley: So he would go represent everything that needed to come from corporate, how to open a store, you know, do all the training revolving around that.

[00:16:08] John Kelley: And, I mean, he started in the store just working as an employee, moved his way up as Kelley, and truly enjoyed Apple.

[00:16:14] John Kelley: To this day, he's still an Apple fanboy, but that was the big thing for him was just like you said, he had this opportunity where he could go make his own.

[00:16:22] John Kelley: Mhmm.

[00:16:23] John Kelley: And he looked at the the company and his managers and his bosses, and he said, hey.

[00:16:28] John Kelley: I wanna Kelley, but I'm scared if it doesn't work out.

[00:16:31] John Kelley: Where do I go from there?

[00:16:33] John Kelley: How do I come back?

[00:16:34] John Kelley: And the thing that they said is probably something that you had said to you or is still in your mind either way, which was, look.

[00:16:41] John Kelley: Apple's not going anywhere.

[00:16:42] John Kelley: Apple's gonna be here.

[00:16:44] John Kelley: You have to chase your dream and go do what's gonna make you happy.

[00:16:47] John Kelley: And that's the most important thing that anybody can do.

[00:16:49] John Kelley: So it's crazy to hear kind of how those things coincide for all these entrepreneurs because it's that freedom that they're after.

[00:16:57] John Kelley: But like you said, kind of going into the the marketing side of things and the consulting side of things, you know, behind me over here, I don't know if you can see, but, you know, $100,000,000 leads.

[00:17:07] John Kelley: I mean, Alex Hermozy, like all these guys, Jay Abraham, there's so many really good books out there that you can read from people.

[00:17:13] John Kelley: You know, the 4 hour work week and, all of these things that are going to kind of help guide you along your path.

[00:17:20] John Kelley: But the the big thing for me is it's kinda like going to college.

[00:17:23] John Kelley: I can read the book and I can understand.

[00:17:25] John Kelley: And for many people, that'll probably be just fine and you can get along.

[00:17:29] John Kelley: But if you really want to unlock that secret to success, you pay for a little bit of tutoring.

[00:17:33] John Kelley: Yeah.

[00:17:33] John Kelley: And you get that person to kind of explain to you like, hey, out of these 368 pages in a book, you only need to know these 2 pages or these 6 pages or this one chapter or whatever the case may be.

[00:17:46] John Kelley: You need to set it up this way.

[00:17:48] John Kelley: You know, I've said it before on here with other, consultants that it's almost like going into the woods and you can beat down your own path and get to that same place, or you can speed things up and go down somebody else's path that's already been beat down and then branch off just a little bit at the end to make your own way, you know, which maybe you're gonna have more success and you're gonna lead people to that same path that you're now beating down.

[00:18:12] John Kelley: But the point is, why not unlock the cheat code?

[00:18:15] John Kelley: Why not take the easier way to make the money?

[00:18:18] John Kelley: Because the end goal is the same.

[00:18:20] John Kelley: Right?

[00:18:20] John Kelley: So I'm sure that you kind of feel that same way.

00:18:22 The Importance of Hiring a Coach or Consultant

[00:18:22] John Kelley: What is your biggest difficulty in selling people on hiring a coach or consultant?

[00:18:29] Intro: Yeah.

[00:18:29] Intro: It's because most of us have this, natural tendency of, I can do everything alone.

[00:18:33] Intro: I can just read a ton of books and watch YouTube videos and purchase a couple of courses, and then it's it's all good.

[00:18:40] Intro: But, yeah, the problem is that we get lost in in the amount of information we consume.

[00:18:45] Intro: And then it's just a it's basically a new that you create yourself because there's so many options in out there.

[00:18:50] Intro: You can do everything, and everything works, basically.

[00:18:53] Intro: If you keep consistency and you dig deeper until it actually works, not not try something for a bit and then, okay.

[00:19:00] Intro: It didn't work immediately.

[00:19:01] Intro: I'm gonna try something else.

[00:19:02] Intro: And that is a trap that most of us get Intro.

[00:19:06] Intro: And some of us take longer.

[00:19:07] Intro: I took 3 years to get out of that trap.

[00:19:09] Intro: Some people are still there in that trap for more than 10 years, which is insane.

[00:19:14] Intro: I've I've found people actually like that that are basically addicted to buying courses and then having this feeling that I did accomplish something, that I did something just because I bought the course, and then most of the times, they don't even finish it and they just keep it there.

[00:19:29] Intro: So, yeah, the the that's the main difficulty is, to get people to understand that that's the correct mindset to have, to to actually have someone at your side that will keep you accountable, that will keep you focused, and doesn't let you just get distracted with other things.

[00:19:44] Intro: And because the power of of everything that that works in business world is is to be consistent and choose something simple and just do it until it works.

[00:19:53] Intro: Not not not not like, it has to work right now, and otherwise, I will go to something do something else.

[00:19:59] Intro: No.

[00:19:59] Intro: Everything takes some time.

[00:20:00] Intro: You need consistency and to do it for long periods of time.

[00:20:04] Intro: Sometimes you're lucky and it get get it get faster, but at least you're focused on something.

[00:20:07] Intro: And, that that's absolutely key, that most people don't have it intuitively.

[00:20:14] Intro: I didn't have it.

[00:20:15] Intro: It it now has to be something that maybe you have to go through on your own experience, the trying to break the stone alone and trying to be successful alone.

[00:20:25] Intro: And it's actually I found out I found this out.

00:20:27 The Importance of Having a Mentor in Entrepreneurship

[00:20:27] Intro: I figured this out.

[00:20:29] Intro: Actually, I had my own podcast at the beginning of my of my career, as an entrepreneur.

[00:20:33] Intro: I interviewed tons of experts and, celebrities in my area, and I found that the pattern was exactly that, that they most of them or all of them chose to have a mentor early on in their career because they wanted the fast path.

[00:20:45] Intro: They wanted the the fast growth.

[00:20:47] Intro: And so there's a pattern there.

[00:20:48] Intro: Right?

[00:20:48] Intro: So none of them tried everything on their own and, tried to reinvent the wheel.

[00:20:54] Intro: It all always starts that with following a proven path.

[00:20:57] Intro: And then, of course, you start adding your own viewpoints.

[00:21:00] Intro: You choose something from a mentor and then mix with some other mentor and then put your own taste onto it and you find your own voice.

[00:21:07] Intro: But, yeah, it's absolutely crucial.

[00:21:08] Intro: And, I think only when you're prepared, the mentor will come.

[00:21:13] Intro: Right?

[00:21:13] Intro: So as they say.

[00:21:15] John Kelley: Yeah.

[00:21:15] John Kelley: I've seen the shiny object syndrome because I've been a victim of it.

[00:21:19] John Kelley: It's it's so easy.

[00:21:21] John Kelley: I mean, because, again, you become an entrepreneur because you want to work on the things you wanna work John, and you wanna do the things that you wanna do.

[00:21:26] John Kelley: But we don't realize is that there are still rules in place.

[00:21:28] John Kelley: There are still things that you're going to have to follow standard operating procedures that you have to have.

[00:21:31] John Kelley: And, you know, one of those most of operating procedures that you have to have.

[00:21:35] John Kelley: And, you know, one of those most important things is you've got to make money at what you're doing.

[00:21:38] John Kelley: Otherwise, you're not going to be doing it for very long or at very at the very least, very comfortably.

00:21:46 Unlocking Freedom Through Business Success

[00:21:46] John Kelley: And so if you're not making that money, you're not gonna last very long, and sometimes it's easier to make money from the mundane or boring things than it is from the shiny objects that we see where we're like, hey.

[00:21:58] John Kelley: You know what?

[00:21:58] John Kelley: I wanna start a podcast.

[00:22:00] John Kelley: Oh, I wanna do video.

[00:22:01] John Kelley: I wanna do, photography and photos.

[00:22:03] John Kelley: I wanna do social media management.

[00:22:06] John Kelley: I wanna do Google Ads.

[00:22:07] John Kelley: I wanna do social media ads.

[00:22:08] John Kelley: I wanna do websites.

[00:22:09] John Kelley: I wanna do graphic design.

[00:22:11] John Kelley: I wanna do branding.

[00:22:12] John Kelley: And it it's so easy to get caught up in all of that stuff, and that seems like a long, exhaustive list of people like, there's no way somebody's out there doing it.

[00:22:20] John Kelley: Well, beefy marketing did for years.

[00:22:23] John Kelley: For years, that's what we were doing.

[00:22:24] John Kelley: We were doing everything because why?

[00:22:25] John Kelley: We love the creative side.

[00:22:27] John Kelley: all of those things.

[00:22:28] John Kelley: And now what we've done is we focused on making our customers money, and then that, in turn, leads to more money for them to spend on marketing, which once you have everything set up the way that you need it, now you can focus on your podcasting, and you can do those things that you want because you're making enough money.

[00:22:45] John Kelley: So what do you think is kind of like your your process to getting someone to understand that and then start down that path of actually making money and unlocking their own freedom?

[00:22:57] Intro: Yeah.

[00:22:57] Intro: So, it goes back again to what we discussed initially.

[00:23:00] Intro: It's the okay.

[00:23:02] Intro: We have to be very clear who you John serve.

[00:23:04] Intro: It starts with that, with the the person and the kind of the problem that you're trying to help, solve or the the the the outcome you're trying to give to those people.

[00:23:13] Intro: It has to be very clear.

[00:23:14] Intro: Otherwise, you're gonna be a generalist.

[00:23:15] Intro: You're gonna be just another guy, another digital agency, or another coach or whatever.

[00:23:21] Intro: You cannot do that anymore in Intro current status, in this current competitive landscape.

[00:23:27] Intro: Otherwise, you're just gonna, you know, just gonna stay here for a couple of months and then disappear.

[00:23:32] Intro: So being very specific on who you're serving and then talking to people, like we said.

[00:23:36] Intro: Interview a lot 5 to 10 people in that area, to understand them as much as possible to get the words that they use.

[00:23:43] Intro: Because if you do that, you'll have all the emotional words that words that that people use and what is what comes in their mind.

[00:23:50] Intro: You don't need to invent anything.

[00:23:51] Intro: You don't you don't need to be an amazing copywriter.

[00:23:53] Intro: You can simply copy paste and then and talk exactly the language of the people that you want to serve because that will naturally attract them to you.

[00:24:01] Intro: They will it'll naturally they will resonate with your message, and it will be much easier.

[00:24:07] Intro: Your life becomes so easy because you can communicate easier with them.

[00:24:10] Intro: You can sell to them because, you know, all the objections they might have and what they actually want to achieve.

[00:24:16] Intro: And then this also makes your life easier to to deliver whatever you're you're serving, like, your service, your program, whatever, because you know exactly what's the path from a to b.

00:24:11 Tips for Finding Your Niche and Attracting Clients

[00:23:53] Intro: You can simply copy paste and then and talk exactly the language of the people that you want to serve because that will naturally attract them to you.

[00:24:01] Intro: They will it'll naturally they will resonate with your message, and it will be much easier.

[00:24:07] Intro: Your life becomes so easy because you can communicate easier with them.

[00:24:10] Intro: You can sell to them because, you know, all the objections they might have and what they actually want to achieve.

[00:24:16] Intro: And then this also makes your life easier to to deliver whatever you're you're serving, like, your service, your program, whatever, because you know exactly what's the path from a to b.

[00:24:25] Intro: They have this problem.

[00:24:26] Intro: They wanna achieve this solute this Outro.

[00:24:28] Intro: So okay.

[00:24:28] Intro: I know how to figure it out and make it something almost like a factory, a factory of of results, of transformations.

[00:24:36] Intro: Because they're all also something that I, I'm thinking more and more nowadays is, that to the fact that we as solopreneurs, we are it's a dangerous situation to be because everything depends on you.

[00:24:47] Intro: Right?

[00:24:48] Intro: Imagine if you get sick 3 3 months or a year or like a family accident, whatever your business just simply disappears.

[00:24:54] Intro: Right?

[00:24:55] Intro: Yeah.

[00:24:55] Intro: So if you don't have that structure of, okay, specific audience, specific process to generate transformations, that can be outsourced in the future.

[00:25:04] Intro: Right?

[00:25:04] Intro: You can you can you can document the process.

[00:25:06] Intro: You can, make something very reliable and replicable.

[00:25:13] Intro: It makes your life easier and also makes life easier in the future for you too if you wanna leave the company at some point or depend less make the company depend less on you.

[00:25:23] Intro: I'm sorry.

[00:25:23] Intro: I went on a tangent there, but the the that was basically the the message I was trying to so first of all, decide on a niche, interview people, create the offer around that, what people actually want to achieve and want to, resolve, and then you can simply go back to those people and say, hey.

[00:25:40] Intro: I just got this offer.

[00:25:41] Intro: This solves the problem you're talking to me about.

[00:25:43] Intro: What what do you think about it?

[00:25:44] Intro: What's your opinion?

[00:25:45] Intro: Most likely, you'll get a couple of clients like that.

[00:25:47] Intro: And if they if they don't need it right now, you can ask them, do you know anyone who actually needs this specific, process?

[00:25:55] Intro: Actually, I have a a referral program for you, and I can give you a commission if you send me over a client that becomes a client.

[00:26:01] Intro: And like this, you can start just by interviewing people, It opens up tons of doors as you see.

[00:26:05] Intro: You can have immediately new clients.

[00:26:07] Intro: You can create your, referral team and people send you clients all the time.

[00:26:11] Intro: So and simply by this this, simplest step, which will give you quick wins for sure if you create an offer that actually solves a now problem, a problem that people are actually suffering, that they wanna solve it urgently now.

[00:26:24] Intro: If it's just a a nice to to to know, thing, people won't buy because they won't have the reason a strong reason to buy now.

[00:26:33] Intro: For example, if you're you say to someone, hey.

[00:26:35] Intro: I'll help you, lose weight, in the next 30 days or whatever.

00:26:39 Tiago Fiara Coaching Programs Overview

[00:26:39] Intro: It's something a bit more generic nowadays.

[00:26:41] Intro: Right?

[00:26:41] Intro: People are used to that.

[00:26:42] Intro: They they tried tons of things before.

[00:26:44] Intro: It didn't work.

[00:26:44] Intro: So you will come inside 1 year and leave through the other.

[00:26:47] Intro: But if you focus your message on something that more specific that solves a now problem for them, an urgent problem for them, like, for example, you will lose weight, but I'll also fix your knee problem that doesn't let you go upstairs to your apartment or pick up your daughter or your or your grandson or whatever.

[00:27:05] Intro: So focusing on now problems, it's is a key for you to unlock and make it easy for you to market, to sell, etcetera.

[00:27:12] Intro: Yeah.

[00:27:13] Intro: Those are the things that I would do for someone starting right now.

[00:27:16] John Kelley: Is there anyone that you don't work with as far as industries or business types?

[00:27:23] Intro: I'm focused more John, on people that work in this kind of Kelley industry, people that generate results for others, service providers, coaches, consultants, because it's it's a different a different, math, you know, because if you're a drop shipper or if you sell very low tickets, physical products, the math doesn't work if you have this approach of talking to people, tapping into your network.

[00:27:47] Intro: It has something some has to be something that you can, charge for high ticket.

[00:27:51] Intro: So you don't need a huge volume of sales for free to achieve your results.

[00:27:55] Intro: You you can do very well with 3 to 5 clients per month, something like that.

[00:27:59] Intro: So that's that's actually my my my focus, to the moment.

[00:28:03] Intro: Yeah.

[00:28:04] John Kelley: And as far as geographic location for working with people, is there any type of limit to that?

[00:28:09] John Kelley: Or is most of our work gonna be done virtually?

[00:28:12] Intro: Yeah.

[00:28:12] Intro: It will be done virtually, most most likely.

[00:28:15] Intro: Some people like like to do, like, higher versions of their programs in whether they do a retreat in some location John in in their own country or for those highly motivated clients that already purchased their program.

[00:28:27] Intro: But, yeah, mostly online, we can why not leverage what we have here.

[00:28:30] Intro: Right?

[00:28:30] Intro: Everything we have.

[00:28:32] Intro: Internet connection, computer.

[00:28:35] John Kelley: Yeah.

[00:28:35] John Kelley: So what does it look like to kind of work with you then?

[00:28:38] John Kelley: So is that something where we're meeting once a week?

[00:28:41] John Kelley: Are we meeting once a month?

[00:28:43] John Kelley: Am I attending classes?

[00:28:44] John Kelley: You know, I know that you just mentioned, obviously, if I wanna have a nice big retreat, you would not be heartbroken to fly out somewhere for a retreat.

[00:28:51] John Kelley: But, you know, how does it look working with you every single day, week, or month?

[00:28:56] Intro: So my my programs usually have, access to me directly.

[00:28:59] Intro: I like to keep the 1 on 1 approach, through chat, through email, to unlock some problems that people might have, obstacles, give feedback to something they've done.

[00:29:08] Intro: And then once a week, I like to meet with the person, you know, to, unlock more obstacles, go deeper into some specific problems.

[00:29:15] Intro: Because then the the the program itself or the delivery of the lessons and the things people have to do, I usually deliver by short videos that have something actionable for them to implement immediately with the help of some, let's say, some, worksheets and, things that can actually replicate templates and stuff like that.

[00:29:33] Intro: But I I like to meet weekly and then throughout the rest of the days, always have chat and and the because this accountability, step is I figured out after many years doing these things is crucial because if you just give videos to to the people, most of them will never watch them all.

[00:29:50] Intro: I've seen a a scary data, a scary study that said, like, around 3 percent only 3% of people actually finish online courses.

[00:29:58] Intro: And imagine what percentage of them have actually success with the course.

[00:30:02] Intro: Right?

[00:30:02] Intro: It's like something scary.

[00:30:04] Intro: Because people just buy courses then put them in some some folder, never watch it again.

[00:30:09] Intro: So it's it's usually, it's better to have some sort of access to you or the team that you later will, you know, expand on.

[00:30:16] Intro: This accountability is crucial to keep people responsible, organized, and actually make sure that they implement things so they start having quick wins and get them motivated and then actually have the results.

[00:30:30] John Kelley: So what is the best way for me to find out more information about you and about what programs you have to offer and how to, you know, if I'm a good fit to work with you and how to get started.

[00:30:40] Intro: Yeah.

[00:30:40] Intro: So I'm, actually, the beginning stages of internationalizing my brand.

[00:30:43] Intro: So my assets assets are still in Portuguese.

[00:30:46] Intro: But if you go to Tiago Fiara dotpt, t I a g o f a r I a dot p t, You can alert me a bit.

[00:30:52] Intro: You can use Chrome, Google translate to to see what what I've been doing.

00:30:57 Maximizing Your Network: The Key to Entrepreneurial Success

[00:30:57] Intro: You can send me an email if you have any questions about this strategy, at Tiago at Tiago Fire dot pt.

[00:31:03] Intro: Or if you wanna have a call with me, I I love to know new people and figure out if we can have a diagnostics call to see how what you have in your world, if see if someone can do something about it, if you want to expand your reach, etcetera.

[00:31:14] Intro: I have other other kind of problems I could help out with.

[00:31:17] Intro: So John my top right corner, you can just book a free call.

[00:31:22] Intro: That's how you can, can get more of me.

[00:31:25] John Kelley: That's perfect, man.

[00:31:26] John Kelley: So if you had one piece of advice that you could get out to every single person listening, maybe it's something that you see quite often.

[00:31:33] John Kelley: I know we've kind of we've touched on some of the big problems, you know, the shiny object syndrome quite a bit.

[00:31:38] John Kelley: But is there anything out there that you feel like entrepreneurs need to hear right now as they're starting their journey or maybe they're in the middle of it and struggling?

[00:31:46] Intro: Yeah.

[00:31:46] Intro: I think it's, not being afraid of talking to people in your network constantly.

[00:31:53] Intro: Like, ask around, interview people every day, that is in your niche, of course.

[00:31:59] Intro: And those that are not in your niche that don't need your offers, that don't need your programs, keep talking to them and asking, hey.

[00:32:05] Intro: Do you know someone that would be a good fit for this?

[00:32:08] Intro: Have chats with them, book video calls daily because that starts to unlock so many opportunities.

[00:32:13] Intro: It's incredible what we have.

[00:32:15] Intro: We have gold mines on on our contact lists, on our email lists, on our, network, on our LinkedIn networks.

[00:32:22] Intro: And if we do that consistently every day, it's it's unavoidable that you will get results.

[00:32:27] Intro: It's just a matter of just systemizing that approach and, of talking to people, not hiding behind our computer all the time.

[00:32:35] Intro: You'll be surprised by what could happen with that.

[00:32:38] John Kelley: Amazing advice, man.

[00:32:39] John Kelley: Something that I struggled so long because I I felt so good with sales that I struggled to see that there is a problem with that shiny object syndrome, with your time management, with all of these things.

[00:32:51] John Kelley: So I can't recommend any more than I already have to people that you've gotta get you a coach or consultant, someone that you can talk to, someone that can show you the way and guide you so you're not wasting your time.

[00:33:02] John Kelley: So I really appreciate you coming on and sharing all this information with us today.

[00:33:05] Intro: Thank you, John.

[00:33:06] Intro: It was true true honor and pleasure.

[00:33:07] Intro: I hope someone gets something out of this conversation.

[00:33:10] John Kelley: I think they will.

[00:33:11] John Kelley: If they don't, they weren't really listening, man.

[00:33:13] John Kelley: And it's always our pleasure to have you on.

[00:33:14] John Kelley: And listeners, same thing for you.

[00:33:16] John Kelley: It's always our pleasure to have you tuning in for another episode of Small Business Origins.

[00:33:20] John Kelley: As always, down in the show notes, we're gonna have all of Thiago's links.

[00:33:24] John Kelley: That way, you can find him, connect with him, see if he's a good fit, maybe even try working with him.

[00:33:30] John Kelley: This is something that I have to urge you to do if you're an entrepreneur out there because if you're not, you're probably wasting time somewhere.

[00:33:37] John Kelley: And the best way to do that is have an uninterested third party, someone who is not worried about competing with you or anything Kelley, someone who is on your side that can look objectively at what you have going on and say, hey.

[00:33:49] John Kelley: This is where you can get better.

[00:33:51] John Kelley: And I think Tiago can do that for you just fine.

[00:33:53] John Kelley: So please, if nothing else, check out the show notes, check out his links, see what he has going on, share it.

[00:33:59] John Kelley: It costs $0 to be a good person and share these entrepreneur stories who are trying to go out there and make a difference.

[00:34:07] John Kelley: But for us, that's it.

[00:34:09] John Kelley: It's been another entrepreneur, another great episode traveling across the world now to the other side of the Atlantic, to other parts of this world instead of just this Outro, making an impact in more than one place.

[00:34:20] John Kelley: So all I will ever ask you to do is please like our show, follow it, review it, share it with a friend, and that's it for us.

[00:34:27] John Kelley: We'll see you on the next one, and as always, stay beefy, my friends.

[00:34:34] Tiago Fiara: Thanks for listening to another episode of Small Business Origins.

[00:34:37] Tiago Fiara: I love an origin story.

[00:34:39] Tiago Fiara: If you like what you just heard, leave us a review, subscribe, and share with a friend.

[00:34:44] Tiago Fiara: You guys, check this out.

[00:34:45] Tiago Fiara: They're gonna love it.

[00:34:46] Tiago Fiara: You're gonna love it.