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Conversation with the Impact Pilot
102 Plays4 years ago
Tom Jackobs is known as the Impact Pilot for helping business owners sell their services better through public speaking training and a unique sales process which incorporates questions and stories that sell. Over the last 30+ years as an entrepreneur Tom has owned a dozen businesses. His personal training studio was the one he is most proud of. This is where he learned the power of a sales system and public speaking with telling stories . Tom shares his entrepreneurial journey on this episode of The Entrepreneur Speaks Podcast.
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Transcript
Essential Business Skills for Introverts
00:00:00
Speaker
So learn how to sell, learn how to sell and learn how to sell. Whether you're just starting out in business or you're thinking about starting a business, the techniques of selling, even if you're introverted and shy and feel like, oh, I could never sell anything, that is the number one skill in business is to learn how to sell. And the second is learn how to keep your money.
00:00:30
Speaker
It's easy to make money. It's another issue to be able to keep it.
00:00:37
Speaker
So learn how to pay yourself first and to manage the money that you'll be generating with your business.
Podcast Introduction
00:00:44
Speaker
Welcome, friends, to The Entrepreneur Speaks. I'm your host, Kofi Animaidu. Each week, I host an amazing entrepreneur on their journey, successes and challenges. It is my hope that we'll learn from their experiences as we all work towards living a life of passion and purpose.
00:01:06
Speaker
My guest, Tom Jacobs, also known as the Impact Pilot, helps business owners build their businesses through public speaking, creating their presentations, performance, and profits. He is currently engaged in the Tom Jacobs Consulting and other worthy courses. He shares his journey today on the Entrepreneur Speaks podcast.
00:01:37
Speaker
Welcome to my show, Tom. It's great to be here, Kofi. Thank you. So let's get to know you some more. We always want to know our guests. So tell us about Tom Jacobs and how growing up was like.
Tom's Entrepreneurial Roots
00:01:51
Speaker
Um, is actually, I had a really, um, I think privileged, uh, childhood growing up. Um, I was born in the U S in, in the middle part of the U S and Ohio. And we lived in Iowa for most of the time. But, um, you know, it's funny when I, when I look back at, at my childhood,
00:02:14
Speaker
I always had kind of this entrepreneurial spirit. Like ever since I was, gosh, like seven years old, I think seven or eight, I had a paper route because as part of our growing up, like we weren't wealthy or rich by any stretch of the means, but like we always had things that we needed growing up.
00:02:34
Speaker
And so with that said, like we never had allowances either. So we always had to work for our own money and spending money as as children. And I have two older brothers as well. And so we always had
00:02:49
Speaker
fun little side projects that we would do, um, like a paper route or shoveling snow in the wintertime or mowing lawns in the
The 'Impact Pilot' Strategy
00:02:58
Speaker
summertime. So, um, it was, it was a working childhood, I think, but, uh, but a good one. Great, great, great, great. You're also known as the impact pilot. Why that name? Why impact pilot? That's a good story that, um, you're actually the second person today that's asked me that. Um,
00:03:19
Speaker
It's for a couple reasons. Number one, it's.
00:03:22
Speaker
not ordinary, right, to have a title called Impact Pilot. So it starts a conversation and it was very tactical and strategic to pick a name that would cause people to go, oh, tell me more about that.
Early Ventures and Marketing Lessons
00:03:40
Speaker
Especially when you go to networking events or you're on podcasts or doing things like that, people are like, well, what does an impact pilot mean?
00:03:49
Speaker
And so it furthers the conversation. You know, if I just told people I'm a speaker coach or a sales training coach or, you know, I own a call center, people have a preconceived notion of what that already means. But when when you say, oh, I'm I'm the impact pilot, you know, oh, what does that mean? And so then you can start the conversation and impact pilot is basically that I can have an you know, I want to have impact on my client's business in a positive
00:04:18
Speaker
positive way. So that's where the impact comes from. And pilot, I am a licensed pilot for single engine land airplanes. And as a pilot, you're always navigating and to make sure that you stay on course. So it really made sense to me both professionally as well as personally to choose that name because I helped build that impact for businesses by helping them with their sales process, but also keep them navigating towards where they want to go.
00:04:49
Speaker
Very interesting. Now I'm sure we'll get to feel the impact as we move along in this conversation. I hope so. Now let's tell us about your 30 plus years of entrepreneurship. What kind of businesses were you engaging?
00:05:08
Speaker
Yeah, great question. So yeah, 30, I counted 30 years. So I don't count the paper route or the shoveling snow or mowing lawns as a child. But the first entrepreneurial business that I had was a mobile DJ and a string quartet business.
Career Evolution to Fitness
00:05:28
Speaker
And this was, you know, back when the vinyl albums type of DJ, not the CD or MP3 type of DJ today.
00:05:37
Speaker
But I would do weddings and different parties and things like that just around our local area. And I was 16 years old when I started that. And then I also played violin. And I had three of my high school friends, and I created a string quartet. And so we would do weddings and Christmas parties and things like that.
00:06:03
Speaker
And that was where, you know, I learned what the power of direct response marketing is. And it was before I even knew what direct response marketing is because I would go through the Sunday paper and when we actually had papers to read newspapers and I would, I would look for the wedding announcements.
00:06:28
Speaker
and or the engagement announcements, actually. And so people would, you know, say, oh, you know, Susan and Jacob are being are being married on this date, this date and this date, they just got engaged. So they would always announce that into the Sunday paper. And so I'd go there and I would then look up the bride to be her address. And we had these things called phone books back in the day before Google
00:06:57
Speaker
And, uh, it was the white pages and people had their full name and address and phone number listed there. So I would, I would just look up the person and send them a letter and, and a demo tape, inviting them for a consultation. And then during the consultation, I would sell them either the DJ package or the string quartet package or both.
00:07:21
Speaker
So that was, that was really the start 30 years ago. And so, um, the journey from there led me to always have a side hustle. So even when I was going to university, um, I always had like either a job or some type of side hustle that I was doing. And then ultimately I went into, um,
00:07:46
Speaker
the theater, because my degree is actually in theater management, and I produced probably about 11 or 12 plays over the course of about two years in Chicago. And during that period, I was still working in a corporate environment, but quickly realized that the theater business is a very, very tough business. And either I had to go all in on it or not, or just kind of fumble through it. And
00:08:15
Speaker
I decided to just kind of quit that and then go full time in terms of working in a corporate environment so i did that for about ten years but again i had side gigs all the time i had a ticketing business for local theaters and small local theaters in chicago where i would.
00:08:36
Speaker
Sell their tickets for them or the phone and this is before you know online ticket sales and things like that So that was those really kind of an interesting job and business and then I had a shutters business of where you build shutters for people and blinds for their windows and Just kind of weird things whatever kind of suited me and then ultimately the the career that I really fell in love with and this is kind of
00:09:06
Speaker
The idea that I tell aspiring entrepreneurs is don't chase after the money, chase after what you're passionate about and what you love and find a way to make money with that.
Transforming Business Through Sales Skills
00:09:19
Speaker
And if you can't, then keep it as a side hustle.
00:09:22
Speaker
I found kind of the physical fitness and personal training as kind of my passion because I was overweight and had health problems and then went through a body transformation of my own when I was 30 years old. And at that point, I realized that I really loved personal training. I loved teaching people and helping them get healthy.
00:09:47
Speaker
And so I owned a personal training studio for nine and a half years. And I sold that three years ago, but that was really my, my, my big opportunity where I had no net, no safety net that I could fall back on. So I quit my day job and went full in on the personal training business and definitely learned a lot during those nine and a half years. Hmm.
00:10:14
Speaker
Very very interesting. You've had a very remarkable entrepreneurial journey. What has been some of the low moments during this journey?
00:10:24
Speaker
Yeah. So, uh, several moments. Um, yeah. So probably the biggest one was in my, there were two really big ones in the, in the fitness business that I had. The first one happened about six months into owning the business. And I was, um,
00:10:48
Speaker
I was really struggling because I was working 15 hours a day, six days a week. I had traded my 40 hour a week job that I was making $100,000 a year for a, I don't know what that works out to be, 85 hour, 90 hour a week job, making a fraction of that, actually paying into the business itself. So I was still kind of investing in the business after six months.
00:11:17
Speaker
And I realized at that point that I didn't know how to sell and I really didn't like to sell and more money was going out than was coming in. And I realized that I absolutely had to learn how to sell. So, you know, with the last $2,000 that I had on, on a credit card, I invested in a personal training, uh, sales course.
00:11:43
Speaker
And it was kind of an online course. It was over eight weeks. It was kind of a live online course. And they said, well, we're going to teach you how to be a super closer and you're in the fitness industry and you're going to be able to sell these really big packages.
00:12:02
Speaker
And I had been selling 10 sessions for $60 a session up until that point, which $600 for each sale. And in every 10 sessions, I had to resell that client on another 10 sessions. And so it was always this constant struggle, and I never knew if they were going to renew or if they were going to cancel.
00:12:27
Speaker
So when I went through this program, they were teaching how to sell 100 sessions at a time, like a year's worth of personal training. And it really blew me away. I was like, there's nobody's going to buy this. I'm struggling with selling 10 sessions, let alone trying to sell 75 or 100 sessions. I don't think this is going to work, but I'm invested in it because I put $2,000 in it.
00:12:54
Speaker
And it was my last $2,000. In fact, it was an eight week course and I, and I talked to the instructors or the guy who put it together. I was like, can I like jump ahead? Because my, my credit card bill is due in a couple of weeks and I really need to kind of learn the process so I can make a sale. And he let me jump ahead. And I had my first consultation.
00:13:18
Speaker
And I went through exactly the whole process that they had laid out, the scripting that they gave me and all this. It was completely different than I was used to.
00:13:29
Speaker
And I remember sitting down with the lady and I went through the whole consultation. It took about 45 minutes. And at the end of it, I said, you know, based on my experience and what goals that you have, I really think that the hundred session package is what you need. And the investment is that is $5,565.
00:13:52
Speaker
And one very important point that they that they taught was after you kind of lay out the price and or the investment and uh, and all that, just shut up. Don't say anything. Let them make a decision. And so I did that and, and I just shut up for a minute and I was so nervous. I was like, Oh, I don't know if she's going to buy and all these like negative thoughts were going through my head. And ultimately she was like, Oh, um, do you take mastercard?
00:14:25
Speaker
Yeah, I do. Why? It's like, well, I want to put it on my MasterCard. And I think I actually said, are you sure? And she paid in full. And what really blew my mind is here, I had been struggling with selling 10 sessions at a time.
00:14:46
Speaker
And now I was taught a completely different process on selling that was very authentic to me. So I didn't feel like I was being sleazy or anything like that. I was addressing what her problems and her concerns were in fitting a program to her.
00:15:03
Speaker
And ultimately she bought it and she actually ended up being a client for like five or six years with us so that that first $5,000 investment that she she invested in you know turned into more like a $20,000 revenue to me and the company over the course of her lifetime value as a client.
00:15:29
Speaker
And I would never have known that if I hadn't gone out on a limb and got some coaching around how to sell and how to sell at a high level.
00:15:40
Speaker
So that was both a very low moment for me in terms of, you know, not being in a cell and almost being broke and having to close a business to then almost overnight, like within two weeks of buying this program, I sold a $5,000 program, a $5,000 training package. And I'd never done that before. So it completely changed and shifted my mindset.
00:16:03
Speaker
And so that was amazing. And the business grew 400% the next year because I learned how to sell.
00:16:13
Speaker
And that's the biggest thing that I tell any entrepreneur that goes into business or that's wanting to go into business, whether it's a side hustle or a full time gig, you have to know how to sell because that's where the business
Storytelling in Sales
00:16:28
Speaker
starts. If you don't know how to sell, you shouldn't be in business. And if you're uncomfortable making sales, get comfortable with being uncomfortable. Very interesting. So when you say,
00:16:43
Speaker
we should get comfortable with selling. What exactly do you mean? So, you know, I think a lot of people, and it may be changing, but I still get this
00:16:58
Speaker
image of, you know, what the typical sales person is, is either like the wolf of wall street, you know, make them buy or die type of mentality. Just hit them over the head until they buy, or you're like this pushy, um, big personality. Hey guys, you want to like buy this special thing? And it's just, it, people have this image of what sales is and that is not what really good sales is all about.
00:17:26
Speaker
Sales and what I learned and what I've perfected over starting with that first kind of education into what sales was. And I've read, I don't know how many sales books in the last 15 years, but it's a process.
00:17:44
Speaker
There is a step-by-step process to go through to make the sale. And if you follow the process, you will make the sale. And I've been able to turn non-sales people that I've coached into high-closing people. In fact, the first person that I taught how to sell was actually an employee of mine at the fitness business.
00:18:06
Speaker
And because I was getting so much so much clients, I couldn't handle all the sales consultations. So I trained her how to sell, gave her the scripting, give her the questions, give her the order in which it had to go through, went through some role play with her as well. And then she, you know, I sent her off with a with a fresh consultation and she sold a six thousand dollar program on her first sale. Never sold anything before in her life, in fact, had told me
00:18:34
Speaker
you know, Tom, I really don't want to, you know, take on this promotion because it was a promotion that I was giving her. If it means selling, I was like, well, it's, you are going to have to sell. Like if you want to continue working for me, you have to learn how to sell. She's like, okay, well I'll try, but I've never done it before. And I taught her and she, she was, she actually had a higher close rate than me. Very interesting. Anybody can sell. Anybody can sell.
00:19:05
Speaker
You're helping people tell their stories. Why did you decide to do that to help people tell their stories? Yeah. So it goes along with sales, uh, hand in hand because whether you're doing a sales presentation to a whole group of people, like from the stage where you're doing a presentation and then asking people to take action at the end of the presentation,
00:19:31
Speaker
That's called stage selling. Um, whether you're doing that or you're doing one-on-one, uh, selling stories sell so much better. People get engaged with the whole process of hearing a story. I mean, I've, I've, I've shared with you, you know, three or four different stories already. And you and your audience is probably like going, Oh yeah, that's a cool story or, or, or not.
00:19:59
Speaker
But they're going to remember the story more than if I gave the seven step process to selling. Because the story is going to be put into the areas of our brain that we retain a lot better. So that's why when we're going into a sales situation or even a presentation, I always work with my clients on, okay, what stories are we going to
00:20:25
Speaker
incorporate into the sales process or even into the marketing process as well.
Crafting Stories with the Hero's Journey
00:20:30
Speaker
I think some of the, you know, I get a lot of emails these days and I'm on a lot of marketing lists and the emails that I open up are the ones that have the story. You know, I see the subject line and it's talking about, Oh, listen to Jane's story. I'm like, Oh, I love a good story. So, you know, I always open it up.
00:20:52
Speaker
And the other ones that are more salesy or motivational based, sometimes I'll read them, sometimes I won't. But 100%, anything that has to do with the story, I'm opening because I find it interesting. Very interesting. So what's the right structure for a story that sells? What's the right structure? Yep.
00:21:12
Speaker
Great. So I follow the hero's journey. It's kind of a common knowledge or public domain process of storytelling. But I kind of simplify it a little bit. But the first thing is that you have to have what I call an impact sentence. So that's the very first thing that you say in the story. And it has to grab the audience's attention.
00:21:37
Speaker
And when i say audience it could be an audience of one or it could be a hundred people that you're talking to. When you first start the story you need to grab their attention and then usually that attention grabber is the do or die moment.
00:21:55
Speaker
You know, it's like if I would have rephrased my story of going broke or almost going broke with not learning how to sell, it would have been, you know, I was sitting at my desk, staring at my computer screens and my bank account, seeing a bunch of negative numbers. And now you can, with a statement like that, you're drawing people in and they're like, oh,
00:22:20
Speaker
Why would you have a bunch of negative numbers? And then I could go into then I didn't know how to sell and then kind of go on with the story with that. And so you have this impact moment, impact sentence, grab their attention, and then you can go back into what led up to that problem that you had.
00:22:40
Speaker
And then you want to talk about the journey of solving that problem. What did you do? Who helped you? Did you read some books? Did you invest in coaching? What was it that you did and who helped you along the way? And by the way, you can also interject who tried to stop you. Who were the villains in the story?
00:23:01
Speaker
In those villains don't have to be other people. They could be our own negative self-talk as well kind of like when I was talking about learning the sales process and I was talking about the negative self-talk in my head saying oh, she's not gonna buy she's not gonna buy
00:23:16
Speaker
But I just kept my mouth shut and ultimately she bought. So that can be part of the villain that leads the audience on a little bit of a journey. And then you can end the story with the teaching moment. So what did you learn from it and what do you ultimately want the audience to learn from your experience?
The Value of Sales Skills and Seeking Help
00:23:39
Speaker
Thank you so much for sharing this with us.
00:23:42
Speaker
So on your entrepreneurial journey, what has been the major lessons you've picked up? Number one, learn how to sell. I can't emphasize that. Learning the process of selling, and it is a process, saved my butt in terms of just my business.
00:24:10
Speaker
Because if I wouldn't have learned that high level of sales in a sales, that's very consultative. It's not abrasive. It's just, it's a process and the step by step to go through. If I wouldn't have learned that I wouldn't have been in business for the amount of time that I was in. Hmm.
00:24:33
Speaker
So that's the number one is is learn how to sell. And the second is there's going to be hard times that come up. And as entrepreneurs, a lot of times we feel like we're the only ones on this island called entrepreneurship. And we're we're not. I mean, we're not alone in this journey. There's tons of entrepreneurs.
00:24:54
Speaker
But a lot of times none of those entrepreneurs are in our social circles and it's hard to talk to your friends who might have nine to five jobs about going through a particularly hard time or a good time with within your own business. And they just don't understand because they work for somebody else.
00:25:15
Speaker
And so find groups of other entrepreneurs that you can connect with and get coaching as well through the whole process because getting help is okay to do for any entrepreneur.
00:25:31
Speaker
And I know we we hear all the time, you know, especially Instagram influencers are saying, oh, I just grind through it. You can do it. You know, nobody can. Nobody has to help you. Just figure it out. And that's really can be as because we don't know everything. We don't know what we don't know.
No Regrets: Learning from Successes and Failures
00:25:49
Speaker
And it's OK to ask for help and to get that help. However, you however you can. Thank you. Thank you so much. You've had a very good journey.
00:26:00
Speaker
but if you were to do this all over again, what would you do differently? I wouldn't have sold my Apple stock number one. Um, no, I, you know, that that's a, that's a, it's a great question and, and you probably won't like my answer, but I wouldn't do anything differently.
00:26:25
Speaker
The journey of entrepreneurship, I wouldn't be where I'm at now if I wouldn't have had those hard times, if I wouldn't have gone through and had the failures that I've had, because then I wouldn't have learned what I learned.
00:26:41
Speaker
So, yeah, I mean, it would have been nice if I would have learned how to sell before opening up my business and knew that, but I wouldn't have even been ready to learn that without having the crisis that I had.
00:26:56
Speaker
So it's, um, I have no regrets with what, what transpired over the last 30 years of being in, in, um, in business and in different, different businesses, different industries.
The Power of Purpose
00:27:08
Speaker
Uh, so I wouldn't do anything over because everything, everything happens and you know, it's, it's those that learn from the failures and the successes that grow the most. So yeah, I wouldn't change anything.
00:27:25
Speaker
Thank you. So on this journey, have you at any point in time felt like giving up? All the time. Yeah. I mean, that's, I think that's part of the journey is, you know, you're going to have some really hard times and you're like, is this really worth it?
00:27:43
Speaker
And it's at times like that that you need to go back to why you started the business in the first place. You know, what, what was the purpose of you doing this? And if, if you don't have a strong purpose or strong why around why you started the business, then you will give up because it's not strong enough. There has to be a really strong reason to be able to continue on, especially during the hard
Planning for Business Transition
00:28:09
Speaker
times. So definitely know why, um,
00:28:13
Speaker
why you started the business, why you're in the business in the first place. And if it's just money motivated, then it's probably not going to last for a long time. We're just about wrapping up our conversation for today, but I cannot leave a conversation with you without asking for pieces of advice for my listeners. So do the various categories of listeners I have.
00:28:37
Speaker
The first category are people who are into business. They have started business. What will be your pieces or advice for such a group?
00:28:47
Speaker
So learn how to sell, learn how to sell and learn how to sell. Those are like, um, whether you're, you're just starting out in business or you're thinking about starting a business, um, the techniques of selling, um, even if you're, you know, introverted and shy and feel like, Oh, I could never sell anything. That is the number one skill in business is to learn how to sell. And the second is learn how to keep your money.
00:29:18
Speaker
It's easy to make money. It's another issue to be able to keep it. So learn how to pay yourself first and to manage the money that you'll be generating with your business. Learn how to sell, learn how to keep your money. How about those who are?
00:29:39
Speaker
thinking of starting a side gig, which maybe might end up in a full-time job, will be your weights of advice for them. Yeah. So first of all, don't jump all in.
00:29:52
Speaker
and burn the bridges, you know, all the, you know, everybody, it really irks me when I, when I see influencers say, Oh, just jump in, follow your passion, do all that. I, I followed my passion, but I took a year to learn the business and to set the business up before I quit my job.
00:30:13
Speaker
So that when I did quit my job, I had a base kind of, you know, money coming in from the business. So make sure that you do the proper planning in place so that you can turn that side hustle into a full time gig if that's what you really want to do. But don't just.
00:30:30
Speaker
go into the full-time gig without having all your ducks in the row, so to speak, but have it all planned out, know what your marketing is, have your sales training, and know who you're selling to.
00:30:47
Speaker
Get that all planned out and even start selling before you, you know, if you have a daytime job or a full time job before you're quitting that that job so that you know that you're going to be okay and not being stressed around money because if you're stressed in your business, especially around money, you're going to be making some very bad decisions.
Comprehensive Business Understanding Before Commitment
00:31:10
Speaker
So make sure that you have all that kind of figured out before you jump all in.
00:31:18
Speaker
Thank you very much, Tom. But before we sign off, do you have any last words for my cherishlessness? I mean, just to pound this point even further in, is before jumping in, especially for people that are in a side hustle, before jumping all in, make sure that you understand the business, understand all aspects of it.
00:31:46
Speaker
You know, even, you know, intern at a current, you know, somebody else that's doing the business so that you can learn all about it before you start your own business. Because, you know, it's a very steep learning curve and it's better to learn from other people's mistakes than to make them yourself. Thank you very much, Tom Jacobs, the impact pilot for sharing your journey and experiences with us today on the Entrepreneur Speaks podcast.
00:32:15
Speaker
We wish you the very best. Thank you so much for having me. I really appreciate it. So friends, this has been another episode of the Entrepreneurs' Peace Podcast. I'll come your way next time with another exciting episode. I remain your host, Kofi and you may do. Do take good care of yourself and let's continue to keep up our life. Cheers.