Episode 61: Stop Being The Best Kept Secret: The Five-Star Approach To ECommerce With Curt Anderson

Feb 18

Curt Anderson

Curt Anderson is the founder and CEO of B2Btail a consulting firm that helps Awesome Companies Achieve Manufacturing eCommerce Success. He is the author of the book - SBBKS - and He is the co-host of Manufacturing eCommerce Success, a live Linkedin show that airs Monday and Friday at 12:32 est.

Authenticity is the cornerstone of success—when you're true to yourself, doors open, connections deepen, and possibilities become endless. In this episode, Curt Anderson, the founder and CEO of B2Btail, talks all about how being true to oneself can open up doors of opportunities in the professional world, especially in the manufacturing eCommerce space. He shares his secret sauce to success: a dedication to passion and serving others. He talks about how authenticity isn't just a buzzword; it's a guiding principle that fosters trust, opens doors, and builds meaningful connections. So stop being the best kept secret. Let your authentic self shine. Tune in now and learn the power of staying true to yourself.

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Stop Being The Best Kept Secret: The Five-Star Approach To ECommerce With Curt Anderson

Curt Anderson is the Founder and CEO of B2Btail, a consulting firm that helps awesome companies achieve manufacturing eCommerce success. He is the author of the book Stop Being the Best Kept Secret and the co-host of Manufacturing eCommerce Success, a live LinkedIn show that airs Monday and Friday at 12:32 Eastern. Curt is someone who radiates positive energy. He supports everyone, and he wants them to be successful in their roles no matter what they are. It's going to be an energizing episode, and I'm so excited to welcome him to the show. Curt, welcome.

Sara, thank you. What an honor and privilege. I couldn't even sleep last night. I was so excited to be on your show. Thank you for this wonderful opportunity.

I'm so happy to have you. Because I've been a guest on your LinkedIn live show, I know that you end all of the interviews with an icebreaker question. I'm going to start our interview by asking your question back to you. I'm going to ask you. Do you like baseball?

A little bit. I have this book right here that covers baseball. I'm a huge baseball fan. I love baseball.

Who's your favorite team?

I'm a Yankee fan.

You're based in New York. Let's say that you are a professional Yankee. You're playing for the Yankees. It's a tied game against a big Yankee competitor, the Red Sox. It's the bottom of the ninth. You're tied with the Red Sox. The score is tied. The bases are loaded. You're walking up to bat. What is your walkup song?

I need something that fires me up. I'm going to go with Baby Shark.

I don't think I've told you this. I swear to God. Before I have to do heavy negotiations, I listen to the Baby Shark song and dance around.

That's your song. Who doesn't get fired up over Baby Shark?

We're going to have to hold a separate episode. I have one on a negotiation coming up, and that is one of my little hacks to loosen my mood. It's Baby Shark. You got the whole crowd bumping and they're doing the dance.

Quick side note, I've been to every Major League baseball stadium. Since my daughter was born, I'm doing it with her. We have two stadiums left at the time of this recording. Baseball season is not going on right now. When she was a little girl, when Baby Shark first came out, she had gone away to camp and came home. I had never heard of Baby Shark before, and I don't remember how old she was. She did the whole Baby Shark thing. Baby Shark holds a dear place in my heart for my daughter and baseball. I have to go with Baby Shark.

Maybe that's why we get along so well. We're Baby Shark fans. For all the parents who are triggered listening to this, we're sorry.

Everybody has PTSD from Baby Shark.

I want to get into your book because you have a very particular niche, which I'm going to ask you to define. Your book had so many good takeaways from a mindset and basic business practices. I know that you're pretty focused on manufacturing eCommerce but to any and all of our audiences, you have to stay and listen to all of the things we're going to dive into in the book because I had a look at the mirror in a hard way going through the book. We're going to get into the book but before we do, to orient everyone, can you define what you mean when you say manufacturing and eCommerce?

I got into eCommerce years ago. It was 1995. It was early scary like, "What is this whole thing?" It was very challenging back then. Fast forward, I was fortunate and blessed that we built that company up, and I sold it. I was looking for a business to get into and I was targeting a lot of manufacturers. I wanted to find the widget expert because I was like, "Maybe I could strike lightning again and help a company. We're experts at selling this widget thing but I don't understand this whole eCommerce thing." As I was knocking on doors for a lot of manufacturers, they were like, "What is this eCommerce thing? How does it work?" I started discovering that these people need help.

To address your question specifically, it goes like this. A lot of manufacturers are either 1 or 2 things. Typically, they're OEMs or original equipment manufacturers, or they manufacture a finished good or a widget of some type. A lot of manufacturers don't have a proprietary product or a finished good. They make a part that goes into something. If you're an original equipment manufacturer, you have that finished good. It's a lot easier to go, "I manufacture phones, a pen, my book, or these things on my desk here. I'm going to put them on eCommerce. I'm going to put them on Amazon. I'm going to go on Shopify and put them on a website."

The custom manufacturers felt left out of the eCommerce party. There are a lot of opportunities where they're like, "I don't have a finished good that I'm going to put on eCommerce." There's a lot more to it than what we think of traditionally, "Pull out the credit card and hit the buy button." Maybe there's an RFQ or a request for a quote from another company. Maybe there's a thing called a configurator where I can make my product. Without getting super deep, there's a lot of opportunity in that B2B space. It's massive. Where B2B eCommerce now is where business-to-consumer eCommerce was twenty years ago. It's just getting started. That's my answer to that.

Is that where the origin story of B2Btail, your company name, comes from?

There's a website called Naming Force. I couldn't come up with a good name for my business. This is before ChatGPT, AI, and all this because now, you could go on AI and come up with a name. I couldn't come up with a good name. It's a crowdsourced thing where like, "I'm going to do this business. It's B2B. It's eCommerce consulting." I got 1,000 names, and I narrowed it down to 3 or 4. I liked B2Btail. It's a play on words for retail and B2B. Shamelessly, I didn't create it. Somebody did it for me.

That's one of your tips for overcoming change. Outsource your support. That's awesome. They did a great job. It's exciting to talk to you because you have had to change the mindset of a lot of traditional business models. I don't want to assume but I would assume that was probably one of your biggest objections when getting into this space in 1995.

I was young at the time and I got into it. I had a wholesale business and I was an absolute train wreck. This is a gospel true story. My accountant said I was the biggest disaster that she had ever met. I was not a good business person. This eCommerce thing came out in 1995. I'm not sure how old you were at that time but I was in my twenties, and I was running out of options. At the time, there was a company called America Online, and they were sending out these little discs to get people on the internet. That's how long ago it was. I'm sitting there and I'm like, "I don't know what else to do. I'm going to try this internet thing. Maybe there's something to this eCommerce," which in 1995 was pretty risky and daring. I'll take no credit other than it was out of desperation to get into eCommerce in 1995.

I thought that would be an interesting icebreaker to start asking people, "What was the first purchase you made on the internet?"

That's a great idea.

My uncle Andy listens to the show. He's very cool and on the forward trends on gift giving. I remember for Christmas, one year, probably in 1995, we got gift cards to Amazon when Amazon sold books, CDs, and movies. I bought Toy Story on VHS, and that was my first internet purchase. Do you remember yours?

What's funny is I almost feel like I bought a computer from a company called Gateway. I don't know if you remember their computers. They came in big giant cow boxes. I might have bought a computer. It might have been one of my first purchases in the '90s.

You weren't afraid to buy things on the internet. In your book, one of the things that's cool is your case studies. You talk about getting these companies online and then 400,000 orders from different parts of the world. It does crack open access to all of your customer base if you can get that online presence.

If you're a traditional, whether retail, wholesale, or manufacturer, or wherever you are in that vertical, it doesn't matter. At the stage where we are, the absolute first thing somebody is going to do is go online. All the risk is from twenty years ago. All those people figured out all the risks, Google ads, how to be found on your website, and that type of thing. Not to say that there isn't a risk but it's the risk is so much lower than the overhead, paying for rent, or paying for infrastructure.

What I love about manufacturers is putting up a website or a webpage. Take some product and put it out there. A lot of people are like, "Let's research, ask questions, and study." I'm sure that works great. For me, eCommerce is we're talking about baseball and sports. Get in the field. Get in the game. Put yourself out there. The market will tell you whether you have a good idea or not.

Let's talk about your book a little bit. What does it mean to stop being the best-kept secret? What does that mean?

After I sold my eCommerce business, I was looking for a business to buy. I could write a book on how to not buy a business because I was a disaster at that as well. I was knocking on all these doors and trying to find a business to buy. I'm like, "Could I find a traditional company and marry that with little eCommerce?" As I kept talking to people, I was targeting manufacturers. I would be like, "Mr. or Mrs. Manufacturer, tell me about your business." Over and over consistently, they're like, "We're the best-kept secret." I'm like, "I don't think that's a great marketing strategy. I don't think you should be the best-kept secret." There's another great line that says, "Closed mouths don't get fed."

Maybe in pre-internet days, you took pride because there was word of mouth, or maybe you went to a trade show or how you drummed up business at that time. Life is completely different. I don't care who the company is. Unless you've found this golden monopoly or tiny niche that nobody knows about, you can't be the best-kept secret. That's where the name came from. Let's stop being the best-kept secret.

In your book, you mentioned that certain people would almost wear it as a badge of honor to resist change. We all do that in different ways. I was chatting with a potential client, and we were talking about how to get to high-profile decision-makers. I didn't ever have a fancy schmancy title but I could always get to the top guy because I know how to build relationships. I mentioned that, and the person said, "People use not having a title as an excuse why they can't do their jobs." "I can't get to a high-profile person because I don't have a director title. I don't have a VP title." It reminded me of the line in your book, "We wear certain things as a badge of honor to resist change or to not try something."

If I can take a little detour, I want to give you credit because you were on our show. I have a little live show, and you came on as a guest. We were connected through a mutual friend, Tony. You came on the show, and it was a blockbuster. You and I had a couple of one-on-one calls, and I very rarely ever do this. I call it when you do that first meet-and-greet coffee date. I asked you to come to our live show if you recall. I was so captivated and blown away. You came on the show, and you gave so many powerful golden nuggets. Our show has a chat box, and our chat box was on fire that day.

You gave me a tip about going to trade shows. I shamelessly borrowed it, stole it, or whatever you want to call it. There was a big manufacturing show that we were going to, and it was in Buffalo, New York. All these people were sending out emails ahead of time, "Stop by our booth, see us, and do this." I'm like, "What could I do differently?” Thanks to my friend Sara.

I sent a guide on what to do in Buffalo, "Go to Niagara Falls. Here's the best place to get chicken wings or buffalo beef on weck." I sent a whole thing and it was a home run. The people who were running the conference came up to me and thanked me. I said, "You must go to Niagara Falls. A group of us are going on this day at this time." They felt like I was organizing or coordinating a bus or something.

I became Mr. Poplar all because of you and an idea that you shared. Talk about that change. At my age and stage, you got me out of my comfort zone. You got me thinking differently. I thank you, commend you, and applaud you because it was a total home run. Did I get any business out of it? It was all about the relationships that you helped me build. It's exactly what you preach with your show here. Thank you.

I am so honored for that feedback. Thank you for that because one of the things that I've noticed, especially as we're talking about change, is when I started my business, I was a little fearful, "I'm younger than someone. I haven't been in the industry as long," but one of the biggest takeaways is that if we have an open mind and an open heart to always be learning, we can always learn stuff and try new things. I love that story because that's the epitome of ABAV, Always Be Adding Value. It gets responses because you're not asking for anything, especially from people you don't know. Thank you for sharing that.

At this trade show, states are represented. All these different states were coming up to me with people that I had never met and people that I couldn't get a door open to like Louisiana and Arizona. I would be at a restaurant, and the whole crowd from Arizona was there. All of a sudden, I was Mr. Popular again because of a little tip and golden nugget that you shared about how you can deliver value with no expectations. I could go on and on about it, and I give you 100% credit for that idea.

Thank you. I reconnected with a former colleague who was a friendly competitor or a frenemy. He's such a nice guy though. There's power in having good relationships with your competition because there's enough opportunity for everyone. He saw me on the show. He watches your show. We reconnected, and he said, "I watch that show every Friday. All of a sudden, I'm like, 'I know her.'" We're looking at ways to work together too, and that was been very fun. Even how you and I met is through connections, talking to each other, showing up on different LinkedIn lives, or networking groups. I've been meeting so many people throughout 2023. It has been very rewarding. I'm so happy we met.

We have been instant friends, and I appreciate you more than you know.

We have the Baby Shark kindred spirit. Let me ask you. One of the things in your book that was a hard look in the mirror for myself and my business was this concept of webpression. Can you give us a definition of what that is?

I do training and webinars, and that's my shtick and jam. We call it edutainment. Who wants boring and stuffy? I book a lot of speakers, and we always kid around, "No death by PowerPoint. If you have a slide that people have to read and a bunch of bullet points, nothing personal, you're not allowed to play in the sandbox. It has to be fun, educational, and high-value." That's why you and I connect so well. You have an incredible sense of humor.

I'm a digital immigrant. I'm in my 50s. If you were born before 1980, you're a digital immigrant. That's who a lot of manufacturers are. That's who I'm targeting. What I've tried to do is I'm not trying to talk to them like they're in third grade. I'm trying to talk to them like they're in their 50s, Gen X-ers, and Baby Boomers. I'm trying to talk to them at their level and meet them where they are.

We make a lot of these fun and catchy terms, "Who's your ideal buyer? Who's that buyer persona, the ICP, or the avatar?" I appreciate you plugging my book. We call it my mom's favorite book. Who's your soulmate? Who is your ideal buyer? Some of the toughest guys in manufacturing are like, "Our soulmate is such-and-such, this engineer, or this buyer." How do you connect with your soulmate? Who is your soulmate? How do you help your soulmate?

How you help your soulmate is you want to make a great first webpression. You have one chance to make a good first impression. In this world, it's not face-to-face. It's probably not in person. It's on your website, social, LinkedIn, or YouTube channel. If you don't have LinkedIn or YouTube, you've made even worse than a bad impression or webpression. You've made no webpression, and they're going to your competitors.

What I love to say is you have to know who your ideal customer is, AKA who's that soulmate who has a problem that needs your solution, your product, or your service right at this minute. When they land on that website or your social, we want to capture them at hello. How you make that great first webpression in what you preach is trust. Instantly, how can we resonate that trust as fast as possible? That's the whole backstory of how you make a great first webpression.

For the website, one of the biggest things that I am aware of but need to work on personally, and I'm speaking for myself but people can probably empathize or identify with it, is the website, your LinkedIn profile, your YouTube, and the webpression vehicles out there. They're a 24/7 sales rep for you. That's what you said in your book. Can you talk about that a little bit more?

I'm going to throw a little pop quiz at you. Did you know that every person on the planet has one favorite radio station? They have one favorite radio station that they want to listen to. By chance, do you know what that radio station is?

The sound of their voice or name.

It's WIIFM, every person's favorite radio station on the planet, What's In It For Me. When they land on your website, what are they thinking about? I'm an engineer at Boeing. I'm in the manufacturing space. Whether in retail, service, accounting, healthcare, or whatever industry you're in when your soulmate or your ideal buyer lands on your social or our website, what are they thinking about? When somebody lands on my website, do they care about me? Not really. Other than my mom, there are not a lot of people who are worried or thinking about me when they're landing on that website.

In the example I gave you, the engineer from Boeing came in to work. Somebody at the food chain came in and said, "You need to buy these 25 products for the wing of the 747. Ready? Go." They're thinking, "How am I going to accomplish my problem? How am I putting out my fires today?" When they land on your website, they're not thinking about you. They're thinking about themselves. Here's a big thing with the WIIFM. I call it the WIIFYS. It's What's In It For Your Soulmates. There's this disease that has been going around the world for the past few years. Did you know there was this thing? It's a pandemic. Did you catch that?

I've been aware.

It's called the We-We Syndrome. Are you familiar with the We-We syndrome? Have you heard of this, Sara? It's this terrible and awful disease. I'm a recovering We-We culprit. This is what the We-We syndrome is. My world is manufacturing. You land on somebody's website, and it says, "We have a great product. We deliver on time. We have a wonderful team. We have wonderful services. We have won wonderful awards. Ask us. We will tell you how great we are. You need to buy from us."

If you and I were at a trade show, and you came up to me and I'm like, "I'm the best at eCommerce. I've got my mom's favorite book," and if I'm raving about how great I am, you can't get away from me fast enough. Hopefully, we won't do that in person. Why are we doing that on our websites? Why are we doing that with our LinkedIn profile or our social? What we need to do with them or the WIIFYS, What's In It For Your Soulmates, is let's flip the script and talk about them.

"Did you lose sleep last night because you were worried about XYZ? You're not finding those high-profile buyers. On this website, we have your back. We're going to dig into this." I use the word we but the goal is this. How can you use language? At B2Btail, our goal is to help you get into the end zone. The point is to flip the script. Pull your soulmate into the story and let them see the hero become the hero of that story and how you can help them move the needle.

I have a question there but to recap, everyone's favorite radio station is WIIFM or What's In It For Me. That's hysterical, and I am going to borrow that. Thank you. I'll give you all the credit. What's In It For Your Soulmate or WIIFYS. We have to flip it from WIIFM to WIIFYS and avoid We-Wes at all costs.

Avoid the dreaded and awful We-We syndrome. It is a terrible syndrome.

2024 is the year of the anti-We-We and the no-We-We zone. What would you suggest if people have a We-We website or a We-We web presence? Can you give us some tools or some quick tips on what can we do to start to flip the script and make it a WIIFYS website versus a We-We website?

I would be honored. Here's what we love to preach and what we educate, and I try to practice this myself. We're doing it. We're on this show. You've been on my live show. You've done many workshops. What's everything that we're trying to do? Educate. The tagline for your audiences is instead of trying to outspend your competition on marketing, messaging, and so forth, we want to stop being the best-kept secret. Those models don't get fed. However, we want to out-teach the competition.

On your website, I'll tell you what's one of the most prominent things to do. Have a learning center. I hear this all the time, and I probably do this as well. We make a lot of assumptions. If you're an accountant, "Our customers know the tax laws. Our customers know that taxes are due on April 15th." They don't know. Your customers are busy. They're worried about their family, their kids' college tuition, mortgage, and car payments. They're worried about everything but your expertise. That's why they're coming to you.

On your website, one of the most prominent things to do is have a learning center.

On your website, if you could be a fierce and relentless educator, what a separator because now, you're in the WIIFYS zone of making it What's In It For Your Soulmate, "Here's a how-to video. Here are tax laws. Here's a guide to what to do in Buffalo, New York." Providing that extra value to your customer with no expectations is how you avoid that We-We syndrome. That's how you make a great first webpression. Commit to out-teaching the competition.

That was helpful. That's a great easy takeaway. Out-educate your competition and always be coming from a place of service and ABAV or Always Be Adding Value. That's what you're doing with your LinkedIn live show too. You have a lot of very loyal listeners who are coming because they're getting so much education from you. That's something you put on at your expense.

Thank you. You're doing the same thing right here. I can't thank you enough for this opportunity. I can't thank you enough for coming to our show. I have the show. You've met me and my co-host, Damon. We kid around. We're two old goofy guys who are doing our thing. What we love is we're never the smartest guys in the room. We never want to be the smartest guys in the room but hanging out with brilliant folks like you helps elevate our street cred or tries to establish that trust.

We have a couple of hundred episodes. Here's a perfect example. I'm going to take a page out of your book. I'll reach out to an agency that can open up the door. How can I make that one relationship that would open up the door to multiple soulmates? I try to get one soulmate at a time. It's great, and it takes a lot of work but let's be a little bit on the lazy side. I can connect with one agency that would open up the door to 5, 10, 20, or 100 of my ideal customers, my ICPs, or my soulmates.

I'm talking to a woman. She's in charge of these agencies that I target. She's the director of Connecticut. I don't have any relationships in Connecticut. We have gone back and forth. I invite her to our live show. I can't wait for her to come on. We plotted out this whole thing. She's super fired up. She sends me this wonderful note. I'm not calling her, reaching out to her, and saying, "Would you buy from me? Would you do business for me?" I'm not coming to her with the We-We syndrome.

I'm making it all about her. I don't know if I'll ever do business with her but now, she's coming onto our show. It elevates more street cred for myself and Damon. My genuine or authentic intention is I want to build a relationship with her because I'm passionately trying to help manufacture this eCommerce thing. She targets manufacturers. Maybe something comes out of it.

I like that we're peeling back the curtain on why we do these things because it is incredibly time-consuming. It is expensive to produce a podcast episode. It takes a lot of time and money but we do it because of the future. We're planting seeds for the future, whether that's relationship or education. It's self-serving because we wouldn't do it but I love the concept of how we're doing it from, "How can we serve our community, our audience, and our clients and then use it as a tool?"

I already have a couple of people. Once this interview is done, I'm going to send it to them as a marketing tool. It's an easy way to add value. It's different because we're on the show but it's something that can translate very easily, "I watched this LinkedIn live show. It reminds me of a problem that you mentioned. Check it out." Being able to not only provide education but also be consuming is important too. We have to be out there learning so that we can better serve our clients.

I'll hammer it home. I almost feel guilty when people come on our show because I'm getting free counseling, free guidance, or free consultation sessions from some of the most brilliant people in a space that I'm trying to improve at. I can't put a price tag on the folks who dedicate and volunteer their time to share their expertise. Iron sharpens iron. I'm such a better person week in and week out interviewing these amazing people.

I feel the same. Here's one hack that I shared in Tony's episode. Our mutual friend Tony is how we met. One of the biggest and coolest things for me this year is reading business books and then knowing I get to talk to the author of the book and ask specific questions. I would implore anyone who's reading a business book to read it as if you're about to talk to the author because I'm underlining things. I'm understanding how that takeaway can apply to my business. I'm retaining things a lot more. It's so cool. That has been how I've been reading books. I've been reading it as if I'm going to talk to the author.

Here's another perfect example. Somebody connected with me on LinkedIn from Canada. The guy was like, "My business partner or colleague knows somebody who knows you." I'm like, "Who's that?" "Sara." Somehow you and I had a mutual connection with this guy in Canada. You don't realize how small the world is. I don't know if they caught the show or somehow knew you. You don't know who knows who. It's such a powerful tool for broadcasting this, whether podcast, livestream, or so on and so forth. I'm all in on this whole strategy.

I'm going to take us on a quick detour but it's funny, and you won't be surprised. I have three different ideas for Christmas movies. It's random but they're original. I haven't seen them done before. It does seem harder to write a Christmas movie if I'm being honest. There's a formula. I took a Christmas writing workshop because I like to educate myself on different things. The man who started the workshop is the former president of Paramount Pictures, and he was such an interesting guy from an edutainment perspective. He brought in all these different producers and writers and hosted this workshop, and it was so interesting. I watch Christmas movies, and I'm like, "There's the formula."

I have an idea for a Christmas movie. It involves a certain popular boy band. I'm telling someone about my Christmas movie idea, and they're laughing. I was like, "I could get the boy band because Mike who was on my show has a direct line to them. I'm going to ask this guy who started Story Summit to be a guest on the show." Forget if you have a LinkedIn live show or a podcast but when you start to connect the dots, it feels like the doors of opportunity are limitless.

When you start to connect the dots, it really feels like the doors of opportunity are limitless.

I couldn't encourage you enough to pursue that dream. I have a dear friend. She's a Wall Street Journal bestselling author. She's amazing. Her name's Dorie Clark. Do you know Dorie Clark?

I know of Dorie because we have shared connections but I've never met her.

I'm friends with Dorie. She has written and trying to get live a Broadway show. She has no theater in her background whatsoever. She's a fierce consultant and speaker who's nationally renowned and so forth. It's exactly what you described. Years ago, she was like, "I'm going to do a Broadway play." She's making it a reality. I commend you. I applaud you for your idea for a Christmas movie. I can't wait to watch it on the Hallmark Channel. That is a brilliant idea. I almost did do a boy band for my walkup song.

Baby Shark was the plot twist. I didn't think you were going to go there. You need to tell Dorie that she needs to get a good entertainment lawyer and keep her book rights and her movie rights for her play. That's what I learned in the workshop. Once you start putting yourself out there in terms of not being resistant to change, anything is possible. That's in your book. You have nineteen tips to overcome change. I want to do one of those and then get into another piece in your book. You have nineteen tips for curing the I Hate Change syndrome. I liked all of them but my favorite was number nine. Dedicate yourself and your team to be in a constant state of continuous improvement. Can you talk about that a little bit?

Was it Peter Deming? I'm going to quote him correctly. He says, "There are two things in life. People hate change. Life changes every day." I'm butchering that whole quote. Everything changes on a daily basis, and people hate and resist change. Whether you're a solopreneur or whatever your situation is, you can fiercely commit to continuous improvement. I remember years ago when I had my eCommerce business, and social media was just coming out. I'm on record saying, "This Twitter thing is the dumbest thing ever. It's never going to work. Who's going to type 140 characters? I'm sitting in this coffee shop."

Everything changes on a daily basis and people hate and resist change.

Kudos to me for that one. What we did at the time was we got on Twitter immediately because I didn't want to get beat out by a competitor because I said no, and I'm going to ignore this new thing called Twitter. Who knows what's going on with Twitter now? My point is you can do that continuous improvement. I have another one on that list. Consult that accountability partner or find a tough-love consultant who's going to tell you that you have food in your face. Who's going to tell you that you're being resistant or stubborn? Reduce the ego. I'm not great at that but reduce your ego to accept constructive feedback or improvement. Thank you for pointing that out in the book. I appreciate it.

I read a quote that reminds me of the point you made. There's a difference between being nice and being kind. The nice person won't tell you that you have food on your face but the kind person will. It resonated with me because it's hard to be open to feedback. Do you have any tips on dissolving your ego a little bit and being open to that?

Even at my age, I'm working on it on a daily basis. Without going on a diatribe, the big thing is you can have a clear and concise goal. You know where you want to get to. A perfect example is the show. You want to write this TV show. If you can rally every resource around it and whatever you need to do to get there, then come in, "That's the bottom line. This person is kind enough to tell me I'm doing this wrong or I'm taking the detour when they have done it before. I should be going this way, not over here." It's easier said than done because I don't think anybody is intentionally sabotaging themselves but if you can be open-minded and laser-focused on the goal, that would be a big help to get through that.

That's helpful. Thank you. You find a way that this connects to your business and your role. You said that you need to market your manufacturing facility online like a five-star resort. I thought it was brilliant because I've been in the hospitality space. I've always sold the top-tier product but I'm a firm believer that anyone can deliver a luxury experience. It doesn't have to be a posh product, and you don't have to have the fanciest voice. Can you dive into what it means to market your facility like a five-star resort?

I can't thank you enough for digging into the book. I appreciate that so much. Here's the story. I might have used this example in the book. I had a client, a massive manufacturer. Their facility was multiple football fields. This was in 2013 or 2014-ish. It was here in New York. A gentleman from Milwaukee, Wisconsin flew to this facility, took a tour, and was blown away. They do massive weldments for things that go on a Navy ship. It's a big deal.

The gentleman flew in from states away, came in, took a tour of the facility, was blown away, and closed a multi-hundred-thousand-dollar deal. The guy said on the tour, "I want to tell you that I almost didn't come here. Your website was so bad. I felt like if your website is that bad, what does the facility look like?" That's back to that webpression. What I preach in my manufacturing space is you could be a two-person operation, and you're working out of your uncle's garage.

It's greasy, dirty, and ugly but if that Boeing engineer needs that little widget, you have a machine that nobody else has, and you're cranking out this little widget that I need, that could be the most posh five-star Ritz pool and luxury spa. That widget would help me make a bonus for the quarter. That's going to save my job or whatever the case might be. Whatever industry you're in, healthcare, accounting, finance, or whatever it is, think about your soulmate. What's in it for them? What's music to their ears? What's eye candy to them?

"I have a tax code challenge. I have a legal issue." It could be the most boring and mundane thing on the planet but when you describe to me that I understand it and I get it, and I'm going to make money or improve my business, or it could be insurance, you're providing safety for me, or whatever the solution is that you're providing, it's not so much the visual of the five-star resort. You're providing me with a five-star resort experience because you're showing me that you're dedicated to improving myself, my life, my family, my business, or whatever that case might be. That's my five-star resort comparable.

That is such an interesting framework and lens to view everything. That could almost be a guiding light for us. Is this how a five-star resort or business would handle this? Maybe that's a way to reframe it. How am I delivering this? What's the experience? When somebody attends a workshop, what's the workflow that they get? What are the deliverables they get? How can we deliver this luxury experience no matter what our roles are? It could be as simple as making sure our proposals don't have spelling errors, or we say thank you and express gratitude. That's very cool. I thought it was such a great way to frame the manufacturing experience, and it translates nicely to other industries.

Let's say we're going to go to a conference, "I'll meet you at this conference. Where are you staying?" I'm going to stay, "At this hotel." You're a fitness person, "What does the gym look like? What does the restaurant look like?" You want to know those things.

You're creeping on the website to see what the fitness center looks like.

Odds are you probably wouldn't go somewhere without checking it out. In the case that I gave you, if you're going to be doing my taxes, I need to trust you, and I'm going to do my research on the website before I even pick up the phone, email you, or reach out to you. With the manufacturing situation, it's not easy. During COVID, we found out people can't travel but even now that we can travel, it's not easy. It's expensive for me to travel to 4 or 5 states.

Why don't you bring the facility to me on my phone so that I can make a buying decision on my phone without having to jump on a plane? If I'm captivated here, then I'll jump on a plane. Why don't you give me a video of the machinery that you have, your facility, your engineer, your top key employees, or the solutions that you provide? It's almost inexcusable because I can do it right here for free.

That's such a powerful takeaway. That man who shared that feedback with them saying he almost didn't come was kind. He gave that piece of feedback because I'm sure that people think it all the time, and they don't want to say it because they don't want to be rude but it's not rude if it can help someone's business. Giving the gift of feedback is a way that we can help reframe that for people.

I've been working with Forbes Travel Guide, and I will be a featured speaker at their 2024 summit in February. All of the five-star hotels from around the world come in and get their five-star rating. I'm presenting a workshop. It's called Prospecting on Purpose: Embracing Authenticity and Luxury because those two words go hand in hand, authentic and luxury.

Anytime you're delivering an experience to a guest, you're catering to their authentic self but the way you do that is with your authentic self. One of my favorite things about you is you're bursting with authenticity. What I see with Curt is what I get. I would like to ask you. How does authenticity serve you in your business? Part two to that question is this. How would you define authenticity?

Without sounding cliché, it's truly being yourself. I'm a family man. I had my 25th wedding anniversary. I'm a guy of faith. Being of integrity is much more important to me than a lot of other things. I don't want to sound selfless. We're all here to make a living. We provide for our families, live a good life, and so forth but it's being laser-focused on being in integrity and doing things with high ethics.

Warren Buffett has the newspaper rule. If you wouldn't want it on the front page of the newspaper, you probably shouldn't be doing it. That's a pretty simple policy. I read that probably when I was in college years ago, and I have not lived up to that many times. I made thousands of mistakes. It's focusing on that and finding your passion. They say that when you get chills or goosebumps, you're in your zone of favor or doing what you should be doing.

You're very passionate and dedicated to connecting people and helping people. You shared a great story. You were trying to get your foot in the door and you dropped off a book or a card. It's those little simple things of how authentic you were. Somebody said something to you. I believe it was a book. Did you show up with a couple of different books?

I wrote a little thank-you card because I read the book because I like to read. I went through my Kindle app in my car. I wasn't even having a meeting with her. I dropped a card on her desk and said, "Here are the books I read I think you would enjoy." She had a book club that night, and she was like, "You saved me." It took no money and 30 seconds of time.

Look how authentic and thoughtful that was. You're so dedicated to helping your clients with prospecting, your workshops, your show, and everything that you do. When you come in with that reckless abandon of throwing caution to the wind, you're so dedicated to helping other people that you don't care what they think. That might be a decent way to describe authenticity.

Live in integrity with who you are and don't be afraid to let people know who you are. Be very focused on your passions and how they shine through, what lights you up, and what fills up your cup because that's how your authentic self is going to shine through. Continue to be so laser-focused that you don't care about what other people think. That helps with the ego thing we were talking about earlier. I'm so focused on serving and helping my clients. I'm not saying I but us collectively. There's no We-We here. It's the no-We-We zone here.

How would you describe authenticity?

I'm kicking myself for asking you that because now you threw it back at me. One of the things that I like about embracing authenticity is that when we're our authentic selves, it gives other people a chance to be their authentic selves. That's where real confidence lies, "I'm confident enough to show up. This is who I am." It has been pretty much my whole life that I've noticed this. When you're your authentic self, people show you who they are too.

I can't tell you how many high-profile leaders and important people have opened up to me, and it doesn't have to be in a vulnerable way or an open way but they know what they see is what they get. It establishes this area of safety. There's no fakeness there. Being authentic is being comfortable and confident in who you are because that's going to open the doors for other people to be comfortable with you.

You make it look very easy and natural.

Thank you. It's taking practice. That's what we do when we put ourselves out there. I feel so grateful that this journey has led me to people like you. I feel so happy to know you and to have shared friends in common. One day, we get to meet in person and go to Niagara Falls together. Before we wrap up, I want to ask. Is there anything else that we didn't talk about that you would like to lead the audience with?

Gratitude. I don't mean to be gushing over the topic. We're sharing a lot of praise with each other. I'm honored to be here with you. I'm so grateful for our friendship. We talked about focusing on others. We kid around about the We-We syndrome, your soulmate, and all those other things. This is more for myself than for your audience. When I find that I'm completely committed and in a zone of gratitude, it's almost impossible to be in a bad mood. It's almost impossible to have fear, doubts, or insecurity creep in.

Not to go super deep, psychological, or all that other stuff but I want to leave everybody with this. If you could relentlessly focus on being in gratitude of what you have, your blessings, your gifts, your talents, what you've provided, family, friends, health, and the little things that we take for granted that I've taken for granted for decades, my big thing would be gratitude.

Thank you for sharing that. That was very powerful. The show is on YouTube now if you want to see how silly we're being. How could people find you if they want to work together?

It's B2Btail, or find Curt Anderson, a goofy guy, on LinkedIn. I would be honored and privileged to connect with anybody. Sara, thank you. I appreciate you. What a great time this was.

Curt, thank you so much for being on the show. I'll talk to you soon.