Brian Will Podcast Transcript
Brian Will joins host Brian Thomas on The Digital Executive Podcast.
Welcome to Coruzant Technologies, home of the Digital Executive Podcast.
Brian Thomas: Welcome to The Digital Executive. Today’s guest is Brian Will. Brian Will, the ultimate industry expert in sales and management consulting and best-selling author of the Wall Street Journal and USA Today hit book, The Dropout Multi Millionaire, and his newest release, Know, The Psychology of Sales and Negotiations.
With over 35 years of experience as a serial entrepreneur, Brian has a proven track record of success, having created seven highly successful companies across four different industries. with a combined worth of over half a billion dollars at their peak. Today, Brian is a visionary business leader, owning a growing chain of restaurants in the Atlanta area, an insurance and technology company in Denver, and a residential and commercial real estate business in Georgia and Florida.
Brian’s expertise in turnaround projects and ability to drive billions of dollars in sales has made him a highly sought after consultant and speaker in the business world.
Well, good afternoon, Brian. Welcome to the show.
Brian Will: Hey Brian. How are you? I’m glad to be here.
Brian Thomas: Awesome, man. I appreciate it. You hailing out of Georgia. We’re getting up early to do a podcast, but I’m in Kansas city. I’m sure the weather’s a little bit chilly there, but not like we have negative five today, so appreciate you jumping on, making the time.
Brian Will: I don’t want to trade with you. Otherwise, Brian, you can have that negative five.
Brian Thomas: Yeah. Oh, and my brother in law lives in a Dunwoody, Atlanta area. So I understand it’s much nicer there. So Brian, I’m going to jump into your first question here. From your perspective, what are the most common reasons startups fail? And how can aspiring entrepreneurs mitigate these risks?
Brian Will: You know, Brian, I get that question a lot. And I will tell you, there are a couple of reasons. The first one is. They have no idea what they’re doing, right? And I say that because there are many times when businesses get started, that they are started by what I call the technician, as opposed to somebody who actually knows how to run a business.
And in my book, I use the example of Joe the plumber. Joe’s a plumber for another company. He does really well. He makes 50 bucks an hour. They’re billing him out at 150 bucks an hour. One day, Joe wakes up and says, Why are they getting more money than me? I’m going to start my own business. So Joe starts Joe’s plumbing.
Now Joe’s a good plumber. And if Joe’s business fails, it will not be because Joe doesn’t know how to be a plumber. It will be because Joe doesn’t know how to run a business. And those are two distinctly different things. Most people fail because they don’t know how to run a business as opposed to understanding what it is they think they sell or the product that they’ve got.
Brian Thomas: Thank you. And that’s very simplistic, how you gave an example there of that. And a lot of people have a lot of different reasons to start a business, but sometimes they just jump in and they don’t do any research and understand what’s really behind the business.
It’s more than just providing that one service. So I appreciate your insights on that really do as a current entrepreneur. And the next question I have for you, Brian. And in your book, the dropout multi millionaire, you share 37 business lessons. Which lesson do you believe is the most critical for new business owners and why?
Brian Will: I have what I call the five reasons people succeed, and they’re the same five reasons people fail. And I’ll give you two of the most critical reasons. And the first is that if you’re going to start a business, you need to find somebody who’s actually been there and done that before you, who has had success in building a business.
and get their advice. And then when you get their advice, you need to listen. That’s number one. Number two, most small business owners have no idea how the financials work in the back end of their business. I can’t tell you how many businesses I’ve looked at that either don’t have a P& L, profit and loss statement, or don’t know how to understand or analyze a P& L.
And because of that, They’re basically running their business in the dark. So two lessons, number one, find somebody who’s been there and done that, get them to help you. And number two, even if you’re not good at math, you need to learn how to understand and analyze a profit and loss statement because it is a crystal ball to the future of your business.
Brian Thomas: Thank you. I appreciate you breaking out two of those for us. Listening is obviously a big key. And I just talked about this recently, you know, we were given one mouth and two ears and we really need to utilize those ears. But I really do appreciate your insights on that. And Brian, as someone who has built and sold multiple companies, what advice would you give to entrepreneurs preparing their businesses for acquisition?
Brian Will: Yeah, this is a good one. So I tell people all the time the value of your business is significantly less if you are the primary driver in that business of either the product or service sold or the information behind the scenes. In other words, if I buy your business, Brian, and all of your customers know you and all of your customers call you and you take care of all the problems and you have all the knowledge inside of your head and I buy that business from you and you leave.
The knowledge base is gone. The customer relationships are gone and that business will probably also be gone. So if you want to prepare a business for acquisition, you need to understand delegation, putting the right people in place, the right human resources, and build your business. In fact, my fourth book is called The Invisible Multi Millionaire.
You need to build a business that you are invisible inside of to the public so that when somebody buys you, the value of that business is still there.
Brian Thomas: I really like that. You know, I obviously follow quite a bit of entrepreneurs in their space and people like Alex Hermazi, they talk about the same thing.
I think that’s really important in delegation, just like it is outside of the business. If you work as a leader in a company, it’s important that you have that right balance of delegation as well. So I really appreciate you highlighting that today for us. And Brian, last question of the day with advancements in technology and shifts in consumer behavior, how do you foresee the future of sales and negotiation evolving?
Brian Will: I love this one. And this one goes right along with another question people ask me, and that is. Is there any opportunity left in America to build big companies and big wealth? And I use the example of Henry Ford. When Henry Ford built the Ford Motor Company, there was no internet. There was no technology base.
You have to understand that today, anybody that has a smartphone in their hand has access to every book ever written, every speech ever given, every bit of knowledge that’s out there. Elon Musk says, you don’t need to go to Harvard. You can learn it all online. Your ability to access information today, literally from a phone in your hand, puts you 1000 times ahead of anybody in the past who’s ever tried to build a business.
Now, the problem with that is then you’re in a sales and negotiation environment. Your potential client or customer also has that knowledge. And I always use the example of a car salesman. When you go into a car lot today, who hasn’t already looked up what the wholesale cost of a car is. Everybody has, because we have the information in our fingertips.
So if you’re going to succeed in the sales and negotiation environment, you better understand what your client understands. And learn a new way of selling, which again, I hate to keep saying this, but my third book is called the psychology of sales and negotiation. You need to learn the psychology behind sales, not just these price driven word tracks, slick, cheesy sales lines that they used to use.
When people didn’t understand what it is they were looking at. So if you have the information, so does your client, you need to learn a different way to do it.
Brian Thomas: You’re absolutely right, Brian. I appreciate you highlighting that there is so much more that goes into it. Now that our consumers, our clients, our competitors, everybody has access to the same knowledge now.
And that’s really important as you walk into negotiate or, you know, close a sale that is so important. I appreciate that. And Brian, it was such a pleasure having you on today and I look forward to speaking with you real soon.
Brian Will: Brian, I appreciate it. It was fun. Thank you.
Brian Thomas: Bye for now.
Brian Will Podcast Transcript. Listen to the audio on the guest’s Podcast Page.