Tuesday, June 23, 2015

Hawk Mikada, Speaker, Author & CEO

Marketing Strategy, The 3 Killers of Business, Why Businesses Fail, How to get leads, business challenges, 3 challenges,

Hawk Mikado is a speaker, best-selling author, & the CEO of InVert.

Tell us a bit about your background in business.
Over the last 17 years, I’ve started and co-founded over 23 companies. 7 of those have been profitable. I mentored under several coaches who taught me about selling, language, relationships and speaking. I focused on my main business Project Hawk and created a brand underneath it for my coach programs called Get Results Coach. From there I partnered with Caitlin Mueller who is now my fiancee to create the Magnetic Media Marketing Company which brought together the strategy I used with my clients and the video from Caitlin’s business. After a year we rebranded to InVert which conveyed more clearly to our clients and prospects what our business does.

What first attracted you to the business field?

In 6th Grade, everyone in my class had the opportunity to start a company. By that point I had already had a few businesses, and I was helping with family companies. By the time I was 18 I had started 6 companies. To this day I’ve started over 21 companies and 7 of them have been profitable. Including my current company which started in that 6th grade class and had developed over the years.

It hasn’t always been easy, there have been many companies, projects, products, etc. that I’ve launched, and they completely failed, and given me the experiences that have helped me to get our company to where it is today.

How did you first learn about the 3 Major challenges and what inspired you to write a book about the 3 Major challenges in business? 

The first was thinking that I could grow off of referrals alone. I didn’t have enough qualified leads to grow my business and follow up on. So I went out and found leads, and things began improving.

Once I had leads, I assumed that everyone would want to buy my program, and I had people who could buy, but I didn’t understand how to sell to them. I had to learn how to sell to them. Which led to me selling small ticket programs for $100 - $200. Those caused me more problems than I could have ever imagined. I soon figured out that selling a $200 program was just as much effort as selling, the exact same program for $2,000, but the people buying it were much more satisfied.

The last was thinking that I could do it all on my own, because it was my baby and I was the only one who could do it right... Boy was I wrong! The moment I brought team members on it made things better. I had to fire my entire team because of performance issues; I learned the value of having the right team around me. Our company now has 3 partners, a core support team, and over 70 people who help us deliver, as we need them.

I felt that everyone should know how to resolve these core challenges and so we wrote the book.
 
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Author & CEO Hawk Mikado.
Who could benefit from reading your book?
Anyone that is experiencing a challenge with attracting quality leads, making high end sales, and building a super star team. In particular CEOs, VPs and other executives looking to take their business to the next level.

What are the 3 Major challenges?
The biggest change that I saw was when we were generating highly targeted & qualified leads, we started offering big ticket sales, and we got the right people on our team.

Helping businesses succeed and be excellent is a passion of mine. Over the years I’ve seen the same 3 major challenges arise in every project, business, product launch, etc.

These are 3 Major challenges that every business will face at some point. The challenge becomes how to overcome them if you're in the middle of them AND how to avoid them if you haven't experienced them yet.

In our eBook The 3 Major Challenges That Can Kill Your Business... And How to Avoid Them we discuss the simple yet important keys to developing a business that will grow with you through the million and multi million dollar marks in your growth.

The best part about this is that these 3 “laws” of business are seen by businesses that are making multiple Billion’s to those just starting out.

The first challenge is all about your relationships. Building relationships with the leads you have, with new leads, and most importantly with your centers of influence who will bring you more leads.

You’re not going to get the QUALIFIED leads your business needs to grow if you can’t get leads to come to your door in the first place. In our ebook we share very cool techniques on how to develop these relationships.

The second challenge is related to making sales. This means you have to convert the leads you get into PAYING customers. Yet not just any type of paying customer, you’re going to need some BIG-TICKET products & services that you can offer and sell.

The amount of energy you spend to land a $500 client is about the same as a $5,000 or event $50,000 client. So why are you focusing on the $500’s when you have $1,000’s laying at your door! We share with you some strategies and tactics to make the transition in the book.

The last is around your team. Most companies hire fast and fire slow... we believe that you should be hiring fast and fire faster.... ONLY if they’re not a good fit. The right team can make all of the difference, and having the tools that get you the results you want to begin with is even better.

Another part of your team are your center’s of influence. They are the JV’s, Affiliates, & promotional partners that give you the ability to leverage everything you’re doing.

If you’re interested in learning all of these things you can download our book and watch the free training video inside as well.

Text InVert to 96000 or visit http://NVRT.ME/3Killers.

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Hawk at a speaking engagement.
One of the main points in your book is about building relationships. How has social media influenced building relationships in the business world?
It has done two things. One is that you can now build a relationship with anyone, there are no more gatekeepers. Two is that there is now a lot of saturation in social media and you must be intentional in the way you build relationships for business otherwise you come off as only self serving and that is a lot more obvious online then offline.

Another important topic in your book is the value of a good workforce. What steps can businesses take to connect the right potential employees with themselves?

Have a company culture that reflects the company’s values. It will attract the employees that would want to work there anyway. If you look at Google, Zappos or Disney you have great people chopping at the bit to join their community and support the business and values that they are accomplishing.

Outside of the 3 Major challenges businesses face, what are some mistakes business should avoid?
Relationship Arrogance. This is a term from the book City of Influence and it describes people looking to connect with someone with an expected outcome. You don’t know what people have to offer and automatically assuming they can’t help you will be detrimental to your business.

What do you think are the biggest misconceptions first-time business owners have about what it takes to succeed in business?
That when they set out to provide a service or product they have expertise in that they will know how to run that as a business.

There are 3 pillars of a business structure. Marketing/Sales, R&D/Production, & Admin/Operations.

Most companies put 50%+ into Admin/Operations 30% into R&D/Production and only 20% into Marketing/Sales. This is a recipe for disaster. How can your business grow, let alone survive, if you only give it what it needs 20% of the time.

Put 67% into Marketing and Sales. This doesn’t mean that you have to spend $7 out of $10 on marketing & sales, it means that you are investing 70% of your resources overall to attracting the right qualified leads, and a lot of them. Developing relationships with those leads to close sales. And those relationships will lead to centers of influence. One key with this is when your team builds relationships first and sells second your sales will increase by 199%... 300%... or over 1500% in our case.

You put 23% into Admin and operations. This includes delivery of your services, products, programs, etc. YET Just because it's only 23% doesn’t mean that you’re going to want to slack on performance.

The last part is your R&D and Productions. This 10% is crucial to your growth, AND your best results will come when you do 2 things. First is only create something after you’ve sold it (pre-selling) and second is create something new at least every 6 months to keep your company relevant. Your customers/clients will also have something new to buy.

What is the single biggest thing to attain success in the business world?
Model excellence. Who is already doing what you want to do successfully?
Take a leaf from their notebook and learn from their mistakes and challenges.

I overcame the challenges I faced by seeking out mentors who could help me through the pains and “demons” I had. I learned about psychology, Neurolinguistic Programing, Tactical Influence, Leadership, Accountability, and Mindset Shifting Techniques. Eventually I developed my own process that I call Neuro Communication Systems. I use the processes to remove immediate doubt, pain, fear, sadness, and more. Overall I’ve spent around $100k in my personal development, and I continue to invest in myself to continue to learn.

Tell us a bit about the free training video you offer.
We are offering a free training that takes a deep dive into the 3 Pillars of a successful business. We are teaching best practices and giving examples of what works and what doesn’t. You get it as a gift when you claim your copy of the 3 killers of business... and how to avoid them

Want to contact Hawk?

Email: Concierge@InVertStrategies.com
Call: 855.350.4295
To download your copy of this free book Go to http://nvrt.me/3killers
or Text InVert to 96-000.

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