Crafting Your Business Edge

Jason · 00:00Welcome to episode 207 of The Numbers Game. I'm Jase. I'm here with Nick and Marty. How are we fellas?

Marty · 00:06Pumped up, pumped up, Jase. That's all I can say. Really looking forward to today. Nick, how are you, my friend?

Nick · 00:11Oh mate, I'm good. I'm good. Good to have you back. We were a bit lost last time. We were fumbling around.

Nick · 00:17Trying to work out who was saying game over. I think I said over game at once. We had no idea. We had no idea. So it's good to have you back. We don't have to think too much. Was

Marty · 00:27I insulted in any way? Did you take the Did you take the moment to just dig some knives in, or what was it actually

Nick · 00:35the opposite.

Nick · 00:36It was the whole way through. It was praise. It was praise the whole way through. So, um, How do you

Marty · 00:42do this behind my back? And then, you know, face to face, you just, just constantly fish slapping me. It's just, nah, I love you guys. You know, I love you guys.

Jason · 00:52We were just talking about you being the best on the podcast.

Jason · 00:55So, you know, we've got, we've got you back. That is embarrassing. We are giving the people what they want, and

Jason · 01:00it's more Marty V. Um, you only have to go to Instagram and see there's a reel with hundreds of thousands of views and comments. Uh, you know, and, and you're a great man, Marty. You reply to people. So, you know, if you, if you do want to get involved in the conversation, Marty is active on our Instagram page and he will respond to your comments.

Jason · 01:16Um, so if you haven't been on there, go to Instagram, at the Numbers Game podcast, plenty of engagement there. Um, just to get that, uh, off the bat up front. And mate, Marty, we'll see you soon. Like always, you

Nick · 01:25have enough on your plate, Marty.

Marty · 01:28Just go great. There's my Tuesday gone.

Jason · 01:34Yeah. That's why, that's why you're the favorite mate.

Jason · 01:35I'm just giving the people what they want. Um, you know, speaking of Marty, uh, you've, you've brought a really great topic today around the point of difference. I'm keen to unpack that and explore that with you. So yeah, talk us through it, mate. What's, what's happening today.

Marty · 01:48Yeah. Just. I was doing some research and I saw that there were, you know, 87 percent of regions throughout Australia were seeing over the next 12 months is forecasted for

Marty · 02:00business sort of delinquencies to go up, which is quite, you know, quite significant.

Marty · 02:05Now when I say that, that's off a low base, um, so it's probably, you know, there might be four or 5 percent delinquencies, uh, expected, but that's looking to rise to about 8 to 9%, but that's significant, right? And, um, And I was just thinking there, there was one stat that in particularly, I thought was quite shocking, like a sharp decline in business orders, um, year on year since July, 2024, that the average invoice value had dropped by 51.

Marty · 02:335 percent year on year. That's, that's shocking. That's an extraordinary drop in revenues on invoicing. Um, they're saying that court actions against businesses has surged before pre, uh, beyond pre pandemic levels. So again, there's just some signs just with cost pressures in general, and just, you know, there's a little bit of hardship in the market.

Marty · 02:57Now I'm seeing two ends of the market. I'm saying some

Marty · 03:00businesses that are doing it tough and some businesses that are just shooting it out of the water. And I always think to myself. What is, what is that difference with the businesses that do really well in these times, compared to, you know, compared to other times when it's more a fairer market across the board, and everyone's sort of, sort of that rising tide effect?

Marty · 03:21And I just thought, it's point of difference. It's, it really is. And I wanted to talk about that today with you guys a little bit more. And, and there was a great quote, like it says, if you, if your customer cannot differentiate between you and your competitor, they'll make a choice based on price and not value.

Marty · 03:40And I think so often we think about, uh, we'll just give our services and goods out at a better price and that'll win the day, but it's not necessarily the case. It's, you have to bring value to the table. And I think about it. Um, in our industry, Jase, a lot, like I go, we got 20, 000 brokers out there

Marty · 04:00that have access to the same types of products, you know, that we, so what is, what is the point of difference?

Marty · 04:05And really it comes back to the point of difference of the individual in what you bring, not only to the relationship in building trust, how you're showing someone how to save money. How you're setting up their future plans, how you execute your service delivery. So it's a lot of, it comes down to like a personal point of difference.

Marty · 04:24And then you also have a business point of difference. Like I look at our logistics and our back office, I think our financial planning is a point of difference in the market. I see other brokers that have a buyer's advocacy as well, like in different types of businesses. Like they have something unique that they're demonstrating.

Marty · 04:44Um, out there in the market that's, that's winning the day in the days that are more challenging. And I think, you know, I think of you, Jase, I think future advisory. Yes, you do accountancy work, of course. But it's the advisory piece, it's how

Marty · 05:00you, How you challenge business owners to think beyond where they're at and where they're going and how you can cashflow that and come up with strategy.

Marty · 05:08I think it's a massive point of difference as well. And I I'll elaborate a bit more on it, but, um, yeah, boys, initial thoughts.

Nick · 05:17Yeah. Well, I was actually going to go a different direction when you said, um, why businesses do well in these times versus others. My initial thought was, well, they, they get the basics, right.

Nick · 05:31Um, and to elaborate on that, you know, when you look at the basics, I think of the basics of being efficient, good customer service, quality product, um, you know, just, just to name a few, whereas I think when markets are pumping or flying. There's business everywhere for, for anyone. And I think, um, sometimes the basics get overlooked.

Nick · 05:57Um, are you doing things on time? Are you

Nick · 06:00delivering it at a good price? Um, whereas now people start to look for value. They look for good products. So I, I initially thought, okay, you got to make sure you're always getting the basics, right. And that you've got your foundations, right. So that, you know, you can, well, not only do you continue to to, to gain, to have market share.

Nick · 06:20But in times like these in our industry, you, you need to get more market share to stay on par because, cause, cause the market has contracted. So, but yeah, I like what you're saying in the point of difference.

Marty · 06:33But you make it, you make a good point, Nick. And this is the thing to me, it's sameness, but difference.

Marty · 06:38Like I go, if people have got more time, cause they're not as busy. Surely the fundamentals are looked after, right? Like you go you now, maybe that's a false expectation on my behalf, but I go Surely you're servicing the clients. Well You can do the one percenters in the back office because there's not as much volume potentially coming through So

Marty · 07:00definitely you want the fundamentals, right?

Marty · 07:02But how do you win more business in these markets? If you've got a competitor across the road doing the same thing, let's say it's good service, let's say it's covering off a lot of those points. How are you setting yourself apart as a business and as an individual as well? So I think you're totally on point with the foundation piece.

Marty · 07:21But again, let's say they've got the foundation piece. How are you challenging yourself to be different in regards to the similar type industry? Like that's, that's where I'm, that's where my head's at. Yeah, yeah, I

Nick · 07:32like it. Yeah, I like it. Jase?

Jason · 07:34That's a great point. And you know, when I think about, you know, even that last bit, challenging yourself to be different, if you think about what your business looked like and how it was running five or 10 years ago, if you weren't adapting, taking on new technology, making changes, you know, bringing on good people, if you were the same business you were five years ago, would you be competitive today?

Jason · 07:53If you kept on doing the same thing, delivering the same product, chances are probably not, but then what do you ever think about today

Jason · 08:00is not the same. So if you're not getting complacent, just offering the same service at the same price, you know, at the same value, you know, in markets like this, where it is getting tougher and more challenging, what is that point of difference?

Jason · 08:11You know, what is the extra thing you're doing that the competitor across the road is not doing. Um, and that it was a bit of mindset around that too. And, you know, It is getting tough out there. And if you're not thinking that point of difference, um, and, you know, Nick, you said the word value, what is the value you are providing?

Jason · 08:28And if you can't You know, if you can't convince someone that, that the service you are offering or the product you're offering is valuable, they're not gonna deal with you. Mm. So that, that's a big, big, big part of it is that value exchange piece. So I like the conversation though.

Marty · 08:41Yeah. And I think what you said is right Chase, in regards to if you are servicing a client like you were five years ago, you're not only going sideways, you're actually falling behind because there are.

Marty · 08:52Innovative businesses implementing the tech and, and coming up with new concepts that, you know, surprise and delight the market, which

Marty · 09:00can take that market share. So if you're not, uh, if you're not exploring what that uniqueness is, and again, you can get direct feedback from your customer base. You know, if you know your demographic of client location, Um, what motivates them to make a buying decision?

Marty · 09:17What's important to them? And I think you've got to understand your clients inside and out in order to find what that, what is that niche driver that makes them want to utilize you based on that value as well. And I see, Yeah, I see a lot of franchise models that have similar systems, similar models, similar deliveries and you always see there's one franchise, a franchisor that comes out and blows the market apart.

Marty · 09:45And generally it'll be something that's done within that system at a whole different level that again, surprise and delights their client to do a lot better out there. It's, um, and I think, um, for me it's with

Marty · 10:00competition. I've always had two trains of thought on it. I think both are relevant. I think you have to understand your competition, but you do have to focus on your own game of innovation.

Marty · 10:11So you need to know basic fundamentals, like what's everyone else doing in the industry? What results are they getting? What are their margins? How do they get their sales? So you want to understand that and you want to, you can do a couple of things with that is you can look at great performers in your industry.

Marty · 10:29And, you know, you can pretty much find out what they're doing is a point of difference to get the revenues, um, that they're getting, because results don't lie. So if you have someone over performing where you're at, you can go in, have a discussion. It's amazing how open people are to, to sharing information.

Marty · 10:46Have a discussion to find out where that, where that potential lack is in your own system. Great way, great way to learn. But also in regards to that, I think it's really powerful to have a, have a

Marty · 11:00debrief with your own team in regards to where you think there might be a lack, but also where you might think there's an opportunity and how do you communicate that effectively to clients, uh, out there in the market.

Marty · 11:12So it's consistent. So you're really driving that opportunity out there. And then obviously clients telling more clients about that, that sensational delivery piece. So it's important to understand the competition, but you don't want to spend all your time analyzing the competition because then you're not putting in the effort to extend your benefit and have discussions around that.

Marty · 11:37And, um, and I've had people say, well, how do you, if you're coming, if you're an employee starting a business, how do you distinguish your own point of difference? Because, you know, it's, it's hard enough running a business sometimes, let alone trying to, trying to work that out. But I think if you can't distinguish what that is, You should hold off from

Marty · 12:00starting and a great way, a great way to establish that is if you are in an industry already and you're, you're saying, why don't they do this?

Marty · 12:10Well, my clients are always asking about this. Why don't they do this? You know, you might actually get Intel directly from, like I used to get it from Westpac with business clients. Like they'd be going, why is it the more business I do with Westpac, the more I get charged? And the fees go up and I'm going, cause they're looking at return on efforts.

Marty · 12:30Whereas in mortgage broking, you're basically putting the client in a position to best represent the client and use competitive tension to get them a better price. So I got very early on, you could distinguish going, Clients can't understand why they're not getting the best possible price with their lender.

Marty · 12:50And that's because the lender's got all their business in one place and they can, they have control. So you can start to spread risk, you can start to shop against

Marty · 13:00other lenders, you know, utilize that to advantage for the client and representing the client. So these are the points of difference I could see working in the bank that I thought, Wow.

Marty · 13:09This is the future. We can actually represent the client, use competitive tension, put them in a greater position. So if you're an employee out there, you know, it could be in any industry where you're going far out. This is what I'm hearing with the clients all the time. Why is this not happening? Bang, you've got something to start with where you've got a point of difference on a specific that you know, and understand that maybe not everyone understands, um, but you just got to have the balls to go and execute.

Marty · 13:39Right.

Nick · 13:41So. Marty as a, this is not to put you on the spot, I'm just trying to No, no. Give some, like a, like, examples with this stuff. So as a, as a cons as a consumer and, um, if we're talking maybe a service based, um, industry at the moment, but as a consumer, what would you

Nick · 14:00see as an example of a point of difference?

Nick · 14:03So if you are choosing one service provider, maybe it was Jace over another, um, what, what are you looking for?

Marty · 14:11I'm looking for value outside of the norm. Like I know I can get my accounts done anywhere, but I'm looking for who's coming to me with advice that I'm not getting anywhere else, who's being proactive on that, um, who's giving me that point of difference that's getting me ahead.

Marty · 14:30If I'm the consumer and, um, and understand my goals, understand me as a person and help me attain what I want to attain, be a part of that journey. And I feel like the difference is it's such a busy world that people want to be in and out pretty quickly and move on and get on to the next thing. So I want.

Marty · 14:52I want that depth of relationship, but also execution in a way to surprise me in something

Marty · 15:00that I'm not thinking about or that I'm, you know, that is beyond my level of thinking. That's really important to me as, um, you know, as a consumer, um, like I think I talked about that koala mattresses that time.

Marty · 15:16They called me back on a Sunday when I called in to inquire, like I did not expect that. And they gave me information about a mattress that I had no idea about. And by the time I was online searching, I just, um, yeah, I just thought, wow, that is, that was beyond my expectation. And it was, I was surprised and delighted and, you know, made a move.

Marty · 15:41So it was, um, yeah, I hope I answered that, Nick.

Nick · 15:45Yeah, yeah, that's exactly what I wanted, an example. Yeah, and you gave it, yeah, spot on.

Marty · 15:50The other thing I'm, I'm working out is, um, As I go on, like, because you do, because you position yourself well in regards to your niche,

Marty · 16:00you know, in the market that not everyone does, whether it's the shyness or a little bit of, uh, embarrassment in not wanting to sell too hard, whatever the case may be.

Marty · 16:12But again, if you've done a great job for someone and you're not positioning how you win business then I think that can be a real deficiency. Um, because if someone's experienced your service at another level and they're happy then they want to support you and they want to tell their friends about you.

Marty · 16:32And a lot of the times People just don't recognize that and people will always still refer on a good experience and capability, but it's a small percentage compared to if you position that that's important to you. Like, I mean, if you're not a big business, you haven't got extreme marketing budgets to go out there and test things and see what happens.

Marty · 16:54You're basically coming back to your level of quality of service and delivery. And

Marty · 17:00then, yeah, again, if there's satisfaction in that, uh, All you have to do is say, you know, how I build my business is through word of mouth and word of mouth referral is, um, it's highly convertible because someone's already had a great experience with you that they want to share with your friends.

Marty · 17:18So again, don't. Don't hold back. Don't keep yourself a secret. You don't have to be the silver tooth salesman either, or the gold tooth sales, depending how well you're doing. But, um, what you, what, what you really need to be able to do is have enough confidence to extend the benefit. And position well in order to go, this is how we grow our business.

Marty · 17:41We do a good job for you. Um, or you have a great experience with a product, please tell your friends, cause that's how we grow our business based on what we do.

Jason · 17:50That, that in itself can be a point of difference that others aren't doing, you know, being afraid to ask for more business or to say that, you know, we, We want to help more people.

Jason · 17:59I think

Jason · 18:00very early on, or, you know, especially, you know, I can speak to the accounting industry for ages, but you know, in the early days of the fast growth that Greg and I were experiencing, you know, we'd go to industry events and other accounting firm owners would be like, man, guys, like, how are you growing so fast?

Jason · 18:14And we'd say, cause, cause we ask our clients to refer us business. Like we, we look them in the eyes at the end of a, of a meeting or a conversation or, Service delivery, we've delivered them a product or a service and something's happening. We say, then, Hey, if you know somebody else, we can help, you know, we're growing, we're hiring more people and we're, we're really happy to help more customer, more people like you.

Jason · 18:33That in itself is a point of difference that other accounting firms weren't doing at the time. They were scared to ask a business. They, they didn't know how to handle it and how to scale it and how to do it. So, you know, and I look at, um, good product businesses too, like, and even if it's a really good online store, you know, the marketing that gets you there, you know, The checkout experience of the, you know, the user experience on a website, you go to the checkout, maybe might even suggest another product you might like based on your activity on a website.

Jason · 18:57I'll look at that and go, all these little things are

Jason · 19:00point are a point of difference that maybe the competitor is not doing that gets you coming back. Um, you know, after checkout, you get sent a coupon code because it asked you to what your birthday was. You know, and all of a sudden you've got a gift voucher for your birthday.

Jason · 19:13Um, you know, some restaurants are doing that, especially, you know, the restaurant cafe game at the moment is really, really difficult. Um, there's a business that I follow called TableSide Creatives. They work specifically, they are a marketing agency that works just with cafes and restaurants. And they're going in and helping cafes and restaurants set up a system and a process for driving more sales from.

Jason · 19:34If you're interested in learning more about it, check out our link right down here. And you know, we'll be talking about it for a little bit longer. But we really want to put it out there, you know, all the ways that you can make a specific donation to Support Health. So, yeah, go to our website at supporthealth.

Jason · 19:49ca. And it's just, it's been a ton of You know, defining, you know, your business, your offer, the value you're bringing, and then building that out to go, how can we make

Jason · 20:00this feel special? How can we add something to this that is different to what somebody else down the road is doing? And that's where I'm saying, you know, cafes and restaurants that are half empty versus, I went for a walk yesterday and there'd be two different cafes on, on bridge road in Richmond.

Jason · 20:15One of them's absolutely pumping and one of them wasn't. And I went to their Instagram page and looked at, you know, what kind of marketing and advertising they're doing, how they capturing people and engaging them. One of them, their Instagram page looked garbage. It looked like it was run by a five year old and the other one, it's Instagram page was curated, stunning, beautiful, sponsored ads that had deals and you know, things coming on this certain day, this will happen.

Jason · 20:39And I'm like, no wonder there was 40 people outside this particular cafe lined up waiting for a table, waiting for a product. And the other one was empty. You know, and, and, and, and admittedly, maybe, maybe the coffee's comparably as good if they're waiting for a takeaway coffee and, and, you know, a sandwich.

Jason · 20:57It didn't have the notoriety. It didn't have the, the

Jason · 21:00feel or the brand or the vibe that the one down the road did. So yeah, plenty to think about, but it's so important. And you know, if you are in business, when the times get tough like this, you know, the economy, and even when you're not, even when times are good, you still want to be able to identify what is my secret sauce.

Nick · 21:16But even that example, um, that you gave Jase. I look at that and I go back to, well, that's getting the basics right again, like I mentioned at the start. You know, an Instagram page, well, that really for a cafe should be basic, that's marketing, right? So again, in a really busy market or when everyone's going out for lunches because interest rates are 2%, you know, one cafe gets full pretty quick.

Nick · 21:41So they go to the next, the one next door. But when those choices aren't there or when you've got to make a choice, um, you go back to the one that does the basics, right. Good food, good marketing, has some deals that attract people in on particular days, add value back to the client, um, whether that's, you know, free coffee after

Nick · 22:00five, like all these little things.

Nick · 22:01It's, it's basic business, but it can so easily get forgotten about. When we're really busy and you see that in any market, like you're seeing it in real estate at the moment, you're seeing a lot of consolidation in real estate. Um, because real estate obviously went through a massive boom through COVID and I'm, I'm, I'm referring mainly to Victoria now, but it's tightening up.

Nick · 22:22There's not as many houses selling and you know, who's doing really well. It's the good businesses, good foundations, um, good rent rolls. Uh, that are doing really well and those that, that don't have those foundations are struggling or those that are reasonably new into the market are struggling. So yeah, I just, um, I'll just go back to continuously doing the basics right and making sure you don't let them slide because you are so busy.

Nick · 22:47Or business seems quite easy.

Marty · 22:49Your point there, and the difference is, your basics, Nick, are at an elite level. This is, this is, when you talk about basics, that's what a lot of

Marty · 23:00business owners are striving for. To get to, and I think, I think when I look at it, like if I'm looking independently to innovate looking in, I'm going massive front end referral delivery, finance solution to refer us, you know, massive opportunities in that other businesses haven't established.

Marty · 23:19I'm looking at, back office logistics that is always evolving and second to none to allow brokers more time to have deeper discussions with clients and create greater results. I look at the Google reviews, five star Google reviews, NPS score over 90. Like you can talk about a business falling over by a death by a thousand paper cuts.

Marty · 23:40But when you talk about the basics, you know, you've created a business that has those basics that are at absolute elite level. And then you've got. the, the benefit of brokers to being able to be developed at a whole different genre to what's happening out there in the market because there's desperation in

Marty · 24:00people trying to win business.

Marty · 24:01So when you talk about the basics, how have you in your own thinking, And maybe it's just, I'm assuming experience of seeing what's happening on the ground and making adjustments. But how have you, in your mind as an MD got to that point for the business? Cause it's across financial planning as well.

Nick · 24:23I think it's a want to get there.

Nick · 24:24Number one. Um, so you've got to have the constant want to grow the business and, you know, we've got a, you know, year on year, uh, remit to grow this business. Um, So obviously, years of experience and, and making mistake mistakes, but I would put it down to, to education. Number one and, and support partners, you know, like there's absolutely no doubt that we do things in this business because of other people, not because of me.

Nick · 24:55So, you know, I think, um, you know, when you, when you've got good partners around

Nick · 25:00you, everyone's got different, And they think in different ways and they're out there learning in different ways. And they come, they come to the party with different ideas. So for me, it's been getting the right people in around me, but also educating myself, like we're, we're always learning.

Nick · 25:18Like we're learning on this podcast today, Marty, where we're always, you know, you're flat out reading and, um, listening to the podcast. Podcasts and YouTube stuff on business. So you've got to keep exposing yourself to good people and what the good people are doing, and then you've just got to make sure you implement it in your business.

Nick · 25:36And if you're not the best person to do it in a lot of cases in our business, I'm not, um, then give the right people the scope to do it. Um, so I'm not sure if that answered your question, but, um No, no, it

Marty · 25:48does. But, Jase, wouldn't you agree that's Nick's point of difference, to understand that? And most business owners would not give up that control in fear of putting investment to an

Marty · 26:00area they might feel vulnerable around, or just not having the understanding of how important that is as a business?

Marty · 26:07Cause that's, I think that's Nick's point of difference is understanding that and finding great people to, you know, work with him in collaboration.

Jason · 26:15Yeah. Couldn't agree more. And look, I think, um, you know, Nick's got the benefit of time and experience in the game too, you know, 15 plus years as a business owner has given this lens of, You know, what does the basics mean?

Jason · 26:27Um, whereas I guess if you go back to startup land, you know, when, when there's so many hats to wear, so many things to do, it's about then, you know, maybe your attention goes to the wrong place and you don't develop what that point of difference really looks like. You, you left a business and started a business because you thought you could do it better, or you think you can do it better.

Jason · 26:45Um, but you went up replicating the same business you came out of. And you've just created a, you know, copy paste of the same. And I've seen it happen in my industry. I've, you know, account, accountants that leave a business and they open up a new one down the street, basically, that's a cookie cutter,

Jason · 27:00copy, paste, exactly the same model, you know, the tax return will come out the same.

Jason · 27:04The pricing's the same, the branding, the, the, everything looks and feels the same. So maybe it doesn't grow or go crazy or expand because. Yeah, there wasn't that point of difference, but yeah, I'm, you know, I love Nick's view of the basics. Um, but yeah, I think, uh, you know, when, when you put your mind back into startup days, maybe that's where people get and people get the basics wrong because they don't actually understand what the basics are.

Jason · 27:29So Marty, I might throw it to you to kind of give some final context around, you know, if you're a business owner. And you are thinking, well, shit, you know, my business, you know, isn't necessarily growing how I want it to, or, or hasn't gone the way that I thought it would, if they need to review and look at that point of difference, where do they start?

Jason · 27:47What, what are the couple of steps to look at? You know, what is my point of difference?

Marty · 27:52Yeah, I think you've got to do a couple of things. You've got to absolutely know where you're at and, you know, your results will dictate where you're at

Marty · 28:00and you'll know that there might need to be some change and understand that it doesn't take a lot to sometimes move the needle a lot and what you've got to decide is it could be a simple strategy that's a point of difference that changes the game.

Marty · 28:15Now, what I would encourage is. If it's not within your own industry, go and explore other industries. Talk to people that are doing well. Always come back to people that are getting a particular result that you want. Come off the facts of life instead of, you know, the various different, you know, people saying different stuff out there.

Marty · 28:36But come back to who's performing well. Go and explore other industries and you might pick up one thing that you can, you can actually bring into your own industry as a point of difference because you've seen wider and further than someone else. We get very industry specific, um, and I would encourage that if you can't find that niche or point of difference to, in your own industry,

Marty · 29:00Go and explore different people in different industries performing well and try and extract something that's very, very unique, that's going to enhance your industry and give you a market edge.

Marty · 29:12Um, that's something, if you have got an edge, just scale. You know, scale, you know, sensibly, but scale in a way that you really drive that, you drive that edge out in the market. Because challenging times presents greater opportunities to do well. When others falter and they're not stepping up, then you can really get more market share in those times and, and keeping current, like people are a big factor too, Jase.

Marty · 29:39I feel like. You know, if your team is rocking up going, yeah, I'll just clock in on my nine to five and, uh, just go home and have a, you know, champagne, whatever people do, but, uh, but you know what I mean? If there's, if your team's not enthusiastic to make a difference out there in the market, that people can be a

Marty · 30:00big point of difference.

Marty · 30:00If you get. A rising tide of great performers that keep supporting each other and encouraging each other to perform and, you know, really give value to the market, then the market's going to respond. Like, you know, you know, if there's a team member, you come away feeling a bit de energized as opposed to one that you walk away going far out, I want to do what that bloke's doing or that lady's doing.

Marty · 30:24You, you know, you know those people over the years and years of business. So again, if that's the impact on you, then that's going to be the impact on the market of that person, right? So you quickly can address that with that person if you need to, but you want people really enhancing the experience, being enthusiastic about what they do, and then having the capability to execute at a high level as well.

Marty · 30:46So there are a couple of tips there, Jace, that yeah, I think people can do well with.

Jason · 30:51No, absolutely love it, Marty. I think, um, you know, beyond that understanding who your customer is to, you know, that, that avatar of, you know, who do you serve best, you know, and.

Jason · 31:00Unpacking that and the other one, you know, the, the, I think about some of the stuff that we do in our business is every year we revisit a swap, you know, we look at our strengths and weaknesses and, you know, we get our team involved, um, you know, annual planning days, all those things aren't an accident.

Jason · 31:14It's all about making sure that our businesses continue to be. Different and going above and beyond than the ones who maybe aren't putting in the work that aren't doing the effort to, you know, and as that last point, you touched on money, the team showing up as well. Like I know, you know, having a team that is part of your secret sauce, having a team that care, they show up, they do, they go above and beyond for their clients.

Jason · 31:37That care factor is a part of a point of difference that maybe somebody else who is punching the nine to five clock and just. sending out a job or doing a particular task without that extra meaning behind it. They are all things that point towards a great point of difference for a business. So I think you've nailed that really well.

Marty · 31:53Yeah. I think, I think business at the end of the day, whether you're an employee or a business owner, it's a lifestyle.

Marty · 32:00It really is a lifestyle and you've got to embrace it and, you know, and from a employee point of view, you know, they're the people that progress, you know, that actually understand the attributes of, um, really great performance and serving people and adding great value in the market.

Marty · 32:15Yeah, it's known, it's always known, people see it and people respond well to it.

Jason · 32:19If you're going to be in business or have a job as an employee, you might as well love what you do and have a good time doing it. Um, you know, show up and smile, like enjoy, enjoy it. That's that's what I've always kind of lived and breathed by.

Jason · 32:30So, um, you know, for those playing at home though, it's that time of the episode where I tell you to like, review, subscribe, follow, jump onto YouTube and check out how good Marty looks. Uh, you know, we've enjoyed having you tune in again and listen to the show and thank you for your ongoing support until next time,

Marty · 32:45what's your pod.

Marty · 32:47Go out there and sell it. Enjoy it. Game over.

Jason · 32:51This podcast is for educational and informational purposes only. The conversations are of a general nature and do not qualify as financial or tax advice.

Jason · 33:00We recommend before you make any financial decisions, you consult a licensed professional. Individuals on the podcast may hold positions in the companies discussed. ---