David J. Greer, Entrepreneurial Coach, Author, and Professional Speaker

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TRANSCRIPTION WITH SPEAKERS
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[00:00] SPEAKER_01: It's VanCouver's podcast on the Canada's podcast network.
[00:05] SPEAKER_01: Hello everyone, I'm Angela Faye, Hubb Builder and co-host of British Columbia's Podcasts.
[00:12] SPEAKER_01: Part of the Canada's podcast network, your source for great insights from entrepreneurs
[00:17] SPEAKER_01: from across Canada.
[00:18] SPEAKER_01: We talked entrepreneurs who are making it happen here so you can listen, discover and engage.
[00:24] SPEAKER_01: Today we are talking to David Greer, and who's based here in Vancouver.
[00:29] SPEAKER_01: I'm going to let David introduce himself by telling and sharing a little bit of your entrepreneurial journey.
[00:37] SPEAKER_01: Dave, how did you get here?
[00:38] SPEAKER_00: Thanks Angie.
[00:40] SPEAKER_00: Yes, so you can ask this question a lot in the last week or so, it turns out I grew up in Ableton and when I was in junior high,
[00:49] SPEAKER_00: I remember two things.
[00:51] SPEAKER_00: I got taught Octo Larismic and that the fact that we counted ten is because we have ten of these,
[00:57] SPEAKER_00: but it's kind of arbitrary.
[01:00] SPEAKER_00: I got taken a tour of the government buildings and saw a computer room.
[01:05] SPEAKER_00: I knew at age 14 I wanted to take computers and business and put them together.
[01:11] SPEAKER_00: I'm fortunate in that I had this very early vision.
[01:15] SPEAKER_00: I ended up out here in the coast and going to the University of British Columbia.
[01:20] SPEAKER_00: I joined a young software startup as the first employee while I was still in fourth year.
[01:26] SPEAKER_00: Part of condition of my employment was that I had to apply to the Hewlett-Packard International User Group Convention to give a paper,
[01:34] SPEAKER_00: which I did and which I wrote.
[01:36] SPEAKER_00: So I gave my first, I had to go to my profs at UBC and ask for a week off to go to this convention where I gave my first technical talk.
[01:44] SPEAKER_00: I was 22 standing up in the San Jose Convention floor selling software and having no idea that's what I was doing.
[01:50] SPEAKER_00: I was like a techie geek telling a bunch of other techie geeks about this cool stuff and what I could do for them.
[01:58] SPEAKER_00: And years later I learned that's the essence of marketing and sales.
[02:02] SPEAKER_00: You understand their problem, you have a solution to, they have a pain, you have a pain pill.
[02:11] SPEAKER_00: Anyways, I like the place I stayed 20 years and built it into a powerhouse.
[02:17] SPEAKER_00: I, in a bunch of corporate different organizations, it was named for Robert and Annabelle, so it's called Robelle, a concatenation of their two names,
[02:25] SPEAKER_00: which still Googles well because it's a made-up name.
[02:29] SPEAKER_00: And then in 91 Annabelle wanted to retire and so I ended up buying out her shares and becoming a full partner.
[02:36] SPEAKER_00: And then in 2001 we had a totally different vision of where we wanted to take the company and we settled that difference by him buying you.
[02:46] SPEAKER_01: Okay, and then so from 2001 what's been the pathway, the David pathway?
[02:52] SPEAKER_00: Well, first of all, my wife had sold her physioclinic, so we have a family with two entrepreneurs.
[02:59] SPEAKER_00: That's always scary.
[03:01] SPEAKER_01: And three kids.
[03:04] SPEAKER_00: So we decided to do something completely different.
[03:07] SPEAKER_00: We commissioned a sailboat in the south of France and took our three kids and homeschooled them for two years while selling more than 10,000 kilometers.
[03:15] SPEAKER_00: Wow.
[03:15] Speaker UNKNOWN: And then we had a couple of years of 10,000 miles in the Mediterranean.
[03:18] SPEAKER_01: That's fantastic.
[03:20] SPEAKER_01: And digital nomads lifestyle there.
[03:23] SPEAKER_00: Yes, well, and really disconnected a lot.
[03:25] SPEAKER_00: I did stay in touch with people and I wrote an online diary, but for those who remember 2001 to 2003 was the dot com meltdown.
[03:33] SPEAKER_00: So if you're going to take a time out in the technology sector, like that was the perfect time to do it.
[03:40] SPEAKER_00: I'd like to say I was so smart that I knew that and did it on purpose, but of course that wouldn't be true.
[03:47] SPEAKER_00: And then after I came back, I did a number of years of angel investing, working for options, sitting on boards, making investments.
[04:00] SPEAKER_00: I looked on average at a hundred deals a year.
[04:03] SPEAKER_00: So I saw a lot of business plans.
[04:05] SPEAKER_00: Met a lot of people saw a lot of angel pitches.
[04:09] SPEAKER_00: You know, I learned a lot of things like it.
[04:12] SPEAKER_00: Robo was just a privately run, you know, self-financed out of profit business.
[04:17] SPEAKER_00: So this whole having outside investors and managing them and boarded directors and kind of all the best practices around that.
[04:24] SPEAKER_00: I learned that kind of during that period.
[04:27] SPEAKER_00: And then ultimately it wasn't fulfilling for me.
[04:30] SPEAKER_00: Too much energy, too much I wanted to do.
[04:33] SPEAKER_00: Too many entrepreneurs that didn't want to listen to what I said, you know, which is their right.
[04:38] SPEAKER_00: But it's not like I wanted to continue with that.
[04:40] SPEAKER_00: So then I did a series of gigs with entrepreneur friends of mine.
[04:45] SPEAKER_00: Typically in a senior executive like marketing and sales role,
[04:49] SPEAKER_00: but I was often coaching or working behind the scenes in the overall strategy and strategic planning.
[04:55] SPEAKER_00: I worked for my friend, Berkut Foster, I had known for 30 years, I guess probably 40 years now.
[05:01] SPEAKER_00: His company is based in Ottawa Valley.
[05:04] SPEAKER_00: So I worked three weeks in Vancouver and flew out to Chesterville in Ottawa Valley a week a month.
[05:12] SPEAKER_00: And the last gig I did was VP of Marketing with WebTech Wireless, which is a local telematics company.
[05:20] SPEAKER_00: So it's a company that has technology.
[05:22] SPEAKER_00: It's bolted on to vehicles and then you track them in real time.
[05:26] SPEAKER_00: And WebTech was a pioneer in that now.
[05:29] SPEAKER_00: It's subsequently in my leading.
[05:30] SPEAKER_00: I mean, I left in 2014.
[05:32] SPEAKER_00: So it merged with another company got bought with another company, which I think got bought with another company.
[05:37] SPEAKER_00: And I don't even remember who it is now.
[05:42] SPEAKER_00: There's still a lot of WebTech people around and it's still a going concern of Bernabé.
[05:49] SPEAKER_00: And after that I decided like I hired an awesome coach on my 50th birthday in August 2007.
[05:56] SPEAKER_00: Kevin Lawrence and Kevin and I did a lot of amazing things together and I decided after I came out of WebTech Wireless
[06:03] SPEAKER_00: that I, the gifts that I got from Kevin, I wanted to be able to offer to other entrepreneurs.
[06:08] SPEAKER_00: So I made the choice of becoming a coach.
[06:12] SPEAKER_00: And then I had done a lot of work with Vern Harnish's One-Pay Strategic Plan and the Gazelle's Mythology.
[06:19] SPEAKER_00: So I had some expertise in that.
[06:21] SPEAKER_00: So I also have a facilitation practice around strategic planning.
[06:25] SPEAKER_01: Who do you work for in the strategic planning realm?
[06:27] SPEAKER_01: Would it be direct with entrepreneurs or more?
[06:29] SPEAKER_00: Yes, so I work with, so it's always the CEO hires me, but I work with the CEO slash entrepreneur and the senior leadership team.
[06:36] SPEAKER_01: Okay. And then if you could describe a particular profile of people in your client list
[06:42] SPEAKER_01: and maybe if we could narrow that down to the profile of your favorite.
[06:49] SPEAKER_01: Your favorite and why, what do you love about working with that particular group?
[06:55] SPEAKER_01: What is it about them?
[06:55] SPEAKER_00: So on the facilitation side I tend to attract considerably bigger clients either with a lot of money to
[07:03] SPEAKER_00: invest or to manage other companies or super, super ambitious innovative companies.
[07:09] SPEAKER_00: I mean, I have one who's my favorite.
[07:12] SPEAKER_00: I have confidentiality with all of my companies.
[07:16] SPEAKER_00: If I even said the industry they were in, it would give it away.
[07:21] SPEAKER_00: Okay.
[07:21] SPEAKER_00: But they're pre-revenue with a five-year plan to get to 100 million.
[07:26] SPEAKER_00: And it's like it's a believable plan.
[07:29] SPEAKER_01: What are the characteristics of a company like that today?
[07:33] SPEAKER_00: Characteristics are they have a Fortune 100 company that's made a huge bet on them and believes in them
[07:39] SPEAKER_00: and has invested a lot of capital.
[07:42] SPEAKER_00: So I don't spend a lot of time worrying about money with them.
[07:45] SPEAKER_00: A super, super brainiac inventor.
[07:49] SPEAKER_00: Been inventing since he was well, I had my epiphany in grade eight.
[07:53] SPEAKER_00: He started inventing in grade eight.
[07:55] SPEAKER_00: And he's invented this incredibly disruptive technology in a particular sector.
[08:01] SPEAKER_00: The sector doesn't have much operation here in Vancouver, but the brainiac lives here.
[08:06] SPEAKER_01: So that's our geographical, special niche that he's here, right?
[08:12] SPEAKER_00: Well, and Vancouver companies like Robele was an international company.
[08:16] SPEAKER_00: It was based headquartered in Surrey.
[08:19] SPEAKER_00: But we maybe had 15% of our customers were in Canada.
[08:23] SPEAKER_00: 60% in the US.
[08:26] SPEAKER_00: And then I mean, in Asia, all through Europe.
[08:29] SPEAKER_00: So this notion of being based here, but operating globally is not foreign to some of us.
[08:37] SPEAKER_01: Let's actually just delve into that a little bit, David, if you don't mind, because we're in an
[08:42] SPEAKER_01: interesting time. And I'm still trying to decide if we're still in crisis management,
[08:47] SPEAKER_01: or if we're on the path to recovery.
[08:50] SPEAKER_01: But it's not the first time that with a dot-com crash or a financial crash in 2008,
[08:56] SPEAKER_01: but this time it seems to be a little bit more global, globally impacted with COVID-19 today.
[09:03] SPEAKER_01: What are you seeing in regards to companies' perception or their vision for working locally versus
[09:13] SPEAKER_01: globally? Just anecdotally, what do you think?
[09:16] SPEAKER_00: I guess I don't have enough, you know, my clients, I tend to attract people who look,
[09:21] SPEAKER_00: tend to look at bigger opportunities.
[09:25] SPEAKER_00: Like for this one, I'm super excited about. In fact, they see this crisis because of
[09:31] SPEAKER_00: their technology can eventually be used in food handling.
[09:35] SPEAKER_00: So by the time they actually get the technology ready to release, they just see even bigger market pull.
[09:42] SPEAKER_00: So for them, it's like, they're already at a hyper speed.
[09:47] SPEAKER_00: Like it's unbelievable what they're trying to do this year.
[09:49] SPEAKER_00: Really unbelievable. But it's like the CEO is and we've got to go faster.
[09:53] SPEAKER_01: Right. Well, and certainly hearing in my spheres of influence that, you know, there's definitely
[09:59] SPEAKER_01: the businesses and particularly small businesses that have kind of ground to a little bit of a
[10:04] SPEAKER_01: fault or certainly pause or are massively pivoting. But there is definitely a trend of companies
[10:12] SPEAKER_01: that are thriving in this environment. How would you describe those? You mentioned
[10:19] SPEAKER_01: food handling. Are there any other sort of sectors that you think stand out as being pandemic proof?
[10:25] SPEAKER_00: As a woman I know in Australia, who does remote support and basically enables companies to operate
[10:34] SPEAKER_00: remotely from a technology platform point of view. Her plans the next three to five years is
[10:40] SPEAKER_00: like to just grow massively because people are trying to learn where their infrastructure is
[10:45] SPEAKER_00: really falling down to how people work at home and or all I can't have people go in the office.
[10:50] SPEAKER_00: So I can't manage this and they have spent years figuring out how to do exactly that.
[10:55] SPEAKER_00: Basically remote management of data centers of critical IT infrastructure and they offer, you know,
[11:02] SPEAKER_00: an outsourced solution. So absolutely thinking in terms of longer terms, thriving growth,
[11:10] SPEAKER_00: I've seen some significant pivots. But again, it's really for most entrepreneurs it's either kind of
[11:18] SPEAKER_00: fold and collapse under the pressure of all of this and like I don't work with people in retail or
[11:24] SPEAKER_00: restaurant or some of these ones who've I think really really being impacted. I'm not as certain
[11:31] SPEAKER_00: as them and then you know others have just made sure to manage their cash and then you know
[11:38] SPEAKER_00: let's look at the next 12 to 24 months to make sure we don't run out of cash and what's our plan
[11:45] SPEAKER_00: to get us both through that but beyond. I mean part of the planning that I do is that
[11:51] SPEAKER_00: the core planning looks three to five years out. It always starts by looking like when I
[11:57] SPEAKER_00: went over and I were running Robel we tend to do you know do a little better next year than we did
[12:02] SPEAKER_00: last year. And it got us far and we were very successful but the kind of people I work with now
[12:10] SPEAKER_00: have bigger visions and we start by this looking and the gazelles process asks us to first look
[12:16] SPEAKER_00: three six years where do you need to be? Like if you're in a growing market and you have 20%
[12:22] SPEAKER_00: market share but that market is growing at 10% a year then in five years you're not going to hold
[12:27] SPEAKER_00: your 20% market share unless you go at least at the rate of the market. So it forces you to think
[12:33] SPEAKER_00: completely different about your strategy and then when you know where you're going in three years
[12:36] SPEAKER_00: well then it's like well what do we have to do in the next year so we got a chance to get where we
[12:41] SPEAKER_00: want to go in three or six and then you know so what do we have to do then get done this quarter to
[12:47] SPEAKER_00: get us to where we have to go this year. So that that's more in my planning methodology but that
[12:54] SPEAKER_01: clients are determined to thrive right and maybe that's one of the kind of takeaway tips is
[13:02] SPEAKER_01: start with where do you need to be in three and five years right or where where the industry trends
[13:08] SPEAKER_01: are and I realize it's a little bit difficult to predict right now but you know we there is some
[13:14] SPEAKER_00: foreseeable statistics and trends that we can follow. Well or in least you you can so part of the
[13:22] SPEAKER_00: gazelles methodology as well is like what are the top five or six trends that are going to impact
[13:26] SPEAKER_00: your business and the thing is to write them down like it's not that it's static it's we're
[13:32] SPEAKER_00: basing a plan based on like if you need travel or you need to go to events or travel is your business
[13:40] SPEAKER_00: like you know the reading that I see because I love to travel is maybe in three years time we'll be
[13:49] SPEAKER_00: back to where we were before this all happened. So that's like an assumption I would put into a plan
[13:54] SPEAKER_00: that's the trend that we're going to say for now that's that's what the trend is going to be and then
[14:00] SPEAKER_00: build a plan around it. Now as you move forward you've got to adjust the new facts like maybe it'll
[14:06] SPEAKER_00: go slower maybe it'll go faster. Right. There's like the question right. Well and right now that like
[14:12] SPEAKER_01: all we know is we don't know. Yeah exactly exactly. Well and one thing I would like to shift
[14:18] SPEAKER_01: tax a little bit and talk about you a little bit more. So if that's okay let's just pull a
[14:26] SPEAKER_01: little bit of uniqueness out of David right now you in our introductory interview I was excited you
[14:32] SPEAKER_01: have a goal of impacting 100,000 entrepreneurs. So how are you looking at doing that? What's your
[14:39] SPEAKER_00: what's the plan? So my plan is I published a book and it's continued to
[14:46] SPEAKER_00: use that book as a resource and I wrote it very intentionally as an evergreen resource.
[14:52] SPEAKER_00: I worked with my publisher last year to do the audio version of the book and I found two paragraphs
[14:58] SPEAKER_00: that were out of date. Out of 150 page book. You know it focuses on what I think are trying to
[15:04] SPEAKER_00: 10 core strategies or pieces of your business and then a lot of practical advice of how to apply.
[15:10] SPEAKER_00: Like so these are how you should think about it and then this is how you apply it and a third of
[15:14] SPEAKER_00: the book is entrepreneur friends of mine whose case studies I feature. They're all BC based.
[15:20] SPEAKER_00: So it's not just like my experience but you're getting the experience of 10 other successful
[15:24] SPEAKER_00: entrepreneurs. So I'm doing that I do a little bit of public speaking. My current focus a little
[15:31] SPEAKER_00: bit last year a lot this year and probably again next year's due podcast interviews like this
[15:36] SPEAKER_00: and then one on one I did do a lot of attending of local events tech Vancouver
[15:44] SPEAKER_00: other events which is another way to connect with people and have an impact with them.
[15:49] SPEAKER_00: So you know I don't I've never figured out a way of having like a hundred how to measure my
[15:54] SPEAKER_00: 100,000 person goal but you know I'm a big believer in Jim Collins. It's good to great.
[15:59] SPEAKER_00: You know and having a big big hairy adacious goal. So this gets me out of bed in the morning.
[16:04] SPEAKER_00: This keeps me on the march towards this goal. Absolutely it's fantastic and if
[16:12] SPEAKER_01: so if you could describe it as a legacy what would be the legacy piece that you would like to
[16:19] SPEAKER_01: instill in the mindset or the hearts of the entrepreneurs that you touch.
[16:22] SPEAKER_00: Did I help them step into their single biggest challenge?
[16:26] SPEAKER_01: Step into it and address it and work through it. Right.
[16:30] SPEAKER_01: Nice. Okay. Love it. Let's let me ask what do you have any inspirational quotes or motivational
[16:35] SPEAKER_01: quotes that are you know sitting on your computer right now or framed on your wall that drive
[16:41] SPEAKER_00: you or that are favorite? Well the classic one it's very very well known is Einstein's you know
[16:47] SPEAKER_00: doing the same thing over and over in the same way and expecting different results is the
[16:52] SPEAKER_00: definition of insanity. And this is part of why I think people should hire a coach is that we get
[16:58] SPEAKER_00: into our way of thinking and we get very close to our problems and we need if you can't afford
[17:05] SPEAKER_00: to hire a coach find a mentor find someone else like in preparing for this I looked at one of your
[17:11] SPEAKER_00: interviews with Yuri Fulmer and he talked about you know entrepreneurs rarely ask for help and
[17:18] SPEAKER_00: they're rarely humble but if they don't get humble or don't ask for help then they're just
[17:23] SPEAKER_00: Einstein's definition of insanity because they tend to just do the same things over and over
[17:28] SPEAKER_00: and hope for different results which aren't going to come. Well and I I had a beer conversation I
[17:34] SPEAKER_01: experienced a local brewery that was partially open right with some covid precautions and there
[17:41] SPEAKER_01: with screens and space out tables yesterday for the first time so I was very excited about that
[17:45] SPEAKER_01: but one of the things that we talked about was you know how you get into a groove in whether it's
[17:52] SPEAKER_01: business or even personal and it you know your perception is really only just your perception and
[17:59] SPEAKER_01: it's not necessarily truth and it does take a David or you know a Yuri Fulmer or you know some
[18:07] SPEAKER_01: people to maybe offer new perspectives new insights just an alternative question on how you perceive
[18:16] SPEAKER_00: things. Right coaches don't have answers all we've got are good questions. Fantastic what would be
[18:23] SPEAKER_01: a question that you would ask a prospective client. Yeah why'd you start your business. What type
[18:29] SPEAKER_00: of answer are you looking for in a perfect world. What I'm looking for is to see you know what they
[18:35] SPEAKER_00: what the original vision was and then at some point in the conversation what will usually show up
[18:41] SPEAKER_00: is like how aligned they are to like either their vision change which is perfectly fine but I don't
[18:48] SPEAKER_00: know what happens is they started a vision they did really well that was the part that was super
[18:53] SPEAKER_00: exciting for them and now they're running a big business and they're making millions of dollars
[18:57] SPEAKER_00: and that's not what that's not what's fun for them like what was fun was when they had the original
[19:03] SPEAKER_00: vision and they did that original work and so some of what I'm listening for is is this are you
[19:09] SPEAKER_00: still having fun and oftentimes when you ask an entrepreneur point blank they'll say of course
[19:16] SPEAKER_00: so you you have to ask questions. Yeah you have to ask questions around it because they've kind
[19:23] SPEAKER_00: of normalized to this well isn't answering 200 emails a day well of course that's what I do
[19:28] SPEAKER_01: yeah right that's what you want to do. The importance of fun I think is something that we've lost
[19:35] SPEAKER_01: a lot of in in this day and age maybe even this maybe one of the COVID effects is that people
[19:40] SPEAKER_01: have spent a little bit more time with family and with friends having fun right and if you're not
[19:47] SPEAKER_01: dealing with crisis but certainly in a in a personal we're doing stuff we're we're playing games
[19:53] SPEAKER_01: and we're doing some of the things that maybe we've lost touch with doing when we're also busy.
[19:57] SPEAKER_00: We're trying new things we're playing games on zoom my kids have found an online version of
[20:03] SPEAKER_00: Settlers of Catan so they sometimes are getting together with friends with their siblings and playing
[20:08] SPEAKER_00: that right and so we have this opportunity where we're playing more because we have to right and
[20:15] SPEAKER_00: sometimes it feels uncomfortable and we don't really want to do it there's kind of friction but
[20:21] SPEAKER_00: that's that's okay like because we're trying a lot of new stuff. Are you still getting outside?
[20:26] SPEAKER_01: I know you're a sailor and then for just a moment I am going to mention the name of your book which
[20:31] SPEAKER_01: is when when in your sales so I just love the analogy because I can totally envision you know
[20:36] SPEAKER_01: literally wind in your sales and moving forward but you know the analogy is that it's related to
[20:42] SPEAKER_01: sailing of which you have done lots of in the past. Are you getting out and doing some sailing today?
[20:47] SPEAKER_00: I haven't been sailing yet partly because the Coast Guard has been asking us not to do much
[20:53] SPEAKER_00: sailing and also I don't have a boat right now so I rent boats from my yacht club and those have
[21:00] SPEAKER_00: been locked down they're supposed to come available after June 6 because I've been checking.
[21:04] SPEAKER_00: I'll be checking. But anyways I do get out every day like I ran on the beach yesterday morning
[21:09] SPEAKER_00: I need to get out of the house every day. I'm with you David tell me a little bit about
[21:14] SPEAKER_01: Vancouver one of the fun things about Canada's podcast is we are coast to coast we're across Canada
[21:20] SPEAKER_01: we have podcasters and so we we'd like to highlight some of the uniqueness of distinctive features
[21:27] SPEAKER_01: and attributes of the business climate but also the ledger and personal climates of the communities
[21:34] SPEAKER_01: in which our entrepreneurs live so you're in are you rate downtown Vancouver?
[21:38] SPEAKER_01: I'm Kitsolano so very oh yeah anybody who needs to look up Kitsolana is like this
[21:43] SPEAKER_01: hip cool beachy community in Vancouver but what do you what do you love about Kitsolano?
[21:49] SPEAKER_00: Kits beach I just love walking being around all the people in the summertime I often take a blanket
[21:56] SPEAKER_00: go lie in the grass have a nap you know if I'm having an afternoon break or after work I mean
[22:02] SPEAKER_00: because it's light now to the 9 o'clock yeah I just love it and you know in the business climate
[22:08] SPEAKER_00: you know I find a real difference like Toronto people tend to live to work and I think people
[22:17] SPEAKER_00: are attracted to Vancouver because they they they work to live like the work is you know the work
[22:25] SPEAKER_00: needs to be fulfilling and sustaining but it's like it's not working all hours for all things
[22:32] SPEAKER_00: because it's only a part of their life because you move here because you want to go hiking in the
[22:37] SPEAKER_00: mountains or you want to go kayaking on the water or like me sailing or in the winter go up skiing like
[22:44] SPEAKER_00: when you're surrounded by this much natural beauty it's very hard not to want to go out and be part
[22:50] SPEAKER_00: of it and I think it really attracts and in fact even you know we pay less for software engineers
[22:58] SPEAKER_00: like we have an incredibly robust and growing tech sector but where no one is like underpaying
[23:04] SPEAKER_00: a little not just by American standards but even maybe a little bit compared to Toronto
[23:10] SPEAKER_00: Canadian standards right yeah and and what is HR and what do entrepreneurs do to attract people
[23:15] SPEAKER_00: while they keep selling beautiful Vancouver and BC right it's an easy sell it is an easy sell
[23:21] SPEAKER_01: yeah let's talk about some value ad for our listeners so if you could offer maybe some
[23:28] SPEAKER_01: tips or you know some compelling questions that people can take advantage of right now from
[23:34] SPEAKER_00: from David's wisdom and insight well I started a new program just before COVID broke out
[23:41] SPEAKER_00: but it is I did finish building it out and it is live and so if you go grow your biz quiz.com
[23:48] SPEAKER_00: and there I have I think kind of six fundamental questions about growing your business
[23:53] SPEAKER_00: so I've already thought about it and you can feel free to just fill those out and I'll get the
[23:59] SPEAKER_00: responses and I'm also happy to spend an hour in a coaching call with any entrepreneur and no
[24:05] SPEAKER_00: charge so if someone wants to do that and wants me to follow up with them I'm happy to offer that
[24:12] SPEAKER_00: I don't have a because often an entrepreneur instigates reaching out to me so then the question is
[24:19] SPEAKER_00: why did you reach out to me and then kind of everything falls into place from that and I don't have
[24:26] SPEAKER_00: my grow my biz quiz questions right in the top of my head of course but one of the news the why you
[24:32] SPEAKER_00: started your business the other one that I ask very often is describe to me everything you know
[24:39] SPEAKER_00: about your ideal customer and it's surprising how often entrepreneurs can't do that they don't
[24:45] SPEAKER_00: really know oh well I have this kind and that kind and they're that's usually a sign of a
[24:49] SPEAKER_00: strategy that's scattering kind of all over and so it's very hard to marshal enough resources to
[24:54] SPEAKER_01: really go after one segment actually that's a great observation that and the other thing I would
[25:02] SPEAKER_01: potentially add that I hear is instead of creating the ideal you know the pathway to the ideal client
[25:08] SPEAKER_01: people test will where's demand what are people looking for and I'll create a product
[25:14] SPEAKER_01: service to to go after where I think there might be a demand or money and even then even after you
[25:20] SPEAKER_00: go figure out the market demand and where it is I still think you sell to people you don't sell to
[25:25] SPEAKER_00: markets you don't sell to businesses at the end of the day there is a person like you or like me
[25:31] SPEAKER_00: who makes a decision right and so you so who is that person and when you're looking at market
[25:38] SPEAKER_00: demand who's the person who has the pain so that's another very common question of mine right like
[25:43] SPEAKER_00: what's the pain that you're solving and is it a need or a want because people rarely will pay very
[25:49] SPEAKER_00: much for once they'll pay a lot for a need and the bigger the need and the better your pain pill
[25:54] SPEAKER_00: than the more they'll pay but that's actually you still got to know who the who the person is what
[26:00] SPEAKER_00: their pain how it shows up in their environment and that's where value comes from and I'm a big believer
[26:06] SPEAKER_00: in value-based pricing and figuring out where people really value products and services
[26:13] SPEAKER_00: so a lot of my questions tend to go in things that try and elicit more information around that
[26:20] SPEAKER_00: I guess my one advice to entrepreneurs if you are doing any kind of market research you're trying
[26:24] SPEAKER_00: to figure it out or even if you're trying to figure out for an ideal customer you know they bought
[26:28] SPEAKER_00: it but you don't exactly know why is you ask them why but you have to ask them three times
[26:35] SPEAKER_00: so why did you buy our product well because it made me feel better so why was it important to you
[26:42] SPEAKER_00: that you feel better and then from that there'll be another underneath that so it's the three
[26:48] SPEAKER_00: layers of wise yeah so if you get three layers deep you're usually getting fairly close to the
[26:54] SPEAKER_00: root challenge problem that the person is experiencing and that's what you really want to be
[27:02] SPEAKER_00: knowledgeable about because usually the first thing they tell you about is a symptom right and
[27:06] SPEAKER_01: there's a big difference between the symptom and the 10th yeah I'm cold you know and you dig down
[27:12] SPEAKER_00: it's because my furnace is not working but the person told you why be why do you have a problem
[27:17] SPEAKER_01: because I'm cold well they are cold that one I cannot understand it gets a little more complicated
[27:24] SPEAKER_01: I know when you're talking about multi-million dollar businesses right so that's that's
[27:29] SPEAKER_01: partially your gift is being able to uncover some of that yeah it's peeling away the layers
[27:34] SPEAKER_00: until you get to the essence like so a lot of my work in all of my career like I think I've always
[27:40] SPEAKER_00: been one you know I've given over a hundred papers and presentations my former partner and I had
[27:46] SPEAKER_00: a policy of writing a new paper every year and traveling the planet and giving it to people and
[27:51] SPEAKER_00: so I do have a gift of taking complicated and making it understandable nice and that that gift
[27:56] SPEAKER_01: is also the finding of the essence how can well how are we going to get a hold of David next so
[28:02] SPEAKER_01: are there any events or virtual events or live things that you have coming up I don't have any
[28:09] SPEAKER_01: current events so how can post podcast people get a hold of you what's the best way my website coach
[28:17] SPEAKER_00: djgrir.com and those are my initials coach David James Greer my phone number and my email address is on
[28:25] SPEAKER_00: every page so perfect so you're open to like I said I am open for anyone to do a free one-hour coaching call
[28:34] SPEAKER_01: awesome thank you very much David for some insight today I look forward to
[28:39] SPEAKER_01: falling up and grow your biz quiz.com myself and then you know to kind of cross promote that
[28:45] SPEAKER_01: or for any listeners hopefully we'll please comment and let us know that you've connected with David
[28:50] SPEAKER_01: thank you for joining us on Canada's podcast thank you for seeing again you back
[28:57] SPEAKER_01: thanks for taking the time today to listen to british Columbia's podcast on the Canada's podcast
[29:02] SPEAKER_01: network we hope to enjoy the show today make sure you sign up for our newsletters and write a
[29:07] SPEAKER_01: review for us on iTunes connect with us on twitter facebook instagram linked in or at canada's podcast
[29:15] SPEAKER_01: dot com you can check out what other entrepreneurs are doing across the country I'm Angela Faye see
[29:21] SPEAKER_01: you next time