Today on the More Cheese Less Whiskers podcast, we're talking with Craig Alsup from Ft Worth Texas.

Craig has a neat business. He has an office that does a lot of family and marriage counseling, but with the current situation, they're shifting to do a lot of virtual, telephone and zoom type of sessions.

We talked a lot about the transition to this model, and I shared a lot of the experiences I had in writing a book with a marriage counselor called Stop Your Divorce, which we've had online since 1998 at stopyourdivorce.com.

Craig's business model is similar to the way we were working back then, but now it's become very possible for people to have a meaningful conversation in a virtual way. In fact, as we're all getting used to gathering in this way now, it might turn out to be a more preferable way for people to meet.

We had a great conversation about the model, and how to expand the opportunity by narrowing the focus.

There are a lot of great ideas for us all in this one.

Today on the More Cheese Less Whiskers podcast, we're talking with Heather Prestanski from Ontario, Canada, where she runs a great design business.

Heather's an interior designer who helps people get the best designs and the best outcomes when they're remodeling their home. It's become a very successful business, and although she's been in the industry for some time, this new business, so we talked a lot about target markets and an approach to making sure she's establishing a brand.

You'll hear how we define that term to resonate in the minds of the people who happen to live within a radius of Windsor, Ontario, where she's focused, and we also talked about some very specific target audiences and how to really stand out to a very specific group of people.

As we describe in our Profit Activators, this is really a plan to dominate your category.

I really enjoyed this conversation. There's so much potential in this business, and I you're going to get a lot of ideas from it.

Today on the More Cheese Less Whiskers podcast, we have a very interesting situation.

You may have noticed there's a little bit of a virus going around! Now imagine if your business was 100% dependent on travel and not just any travel. Not business travel or essential travel, but on vacation travel. Expedition trips to be precise, the kind of discretionary lifetime bucket list type of travel.

Your business might be in a little bit of flux right now.

So today, we're talking with Ashton Palmer, who just happens to own a business that specializes in expedition trips. We actually recorded this a week or two ago, right at the beginning of the travel restrictions. The US had started quarantining, no-one knew where this was going to land, and we talked about some immediate things Ashton could do to make the most of a situation that's quickly evolving.

I think you're going to enjoy this episode. It's a great look into some rapid responses.

Today on the More Cheese Less Whiskers podcast, we're talking with Brett Ruffino from Georgia.

Now, this is an episode that we just recorded on the spur of the moment to address some of the opportunities that small businesses have to adapt too in the midst of this current shutdown.

Everybody is being asked to stay inside. Business locations are forced to close. Many of the businesses most affected by this, of course, are service businesses in local areas like restaurants, salons, gyms, all businesses that deal with people locally and in-person.

Brett is one of those businesses affected. He owns a restaurant, so we discuss how a restaurant can really adapt and serve the needs of the community and be best positioned to survive through what's going on right now.

This is obviously very timely, and I hope the thought process here will be something you can adapt for your business, and make a pivot at the same time.

Today on the More Cheese Less Whiskers podcast, we're talking with Kevin Kennedy from Bergen County in New Jersey, where Kevin and his wife Deirdre have a great fitness studio.

Like most studios, they have a certain number of sessions they run each week that they're looking to fill, and we had a great conversation about the model of think about it like a hotel, with available rooms (sessions) that if not filled, are perishable.

We talked about the reality that every one of his clients or potential clients is really within a three-mile radius of where he is right now, and we outlined an idea for focusing on becoming 'Three Mile Famous' and target all the people in his chosen avatar.

We dialed in on Facebook as the mechanism because you can specifically target exactly who you're looking for and target the messaging directly to them.

I really enjoyed this conversation. We left Kevin with some homework I'll keep you posted on how it all unfolds.

Today on the More Cheese Less Whiskers podcast, we're talking with Alyson Caffrey from Nashville, Tennessee, about something that is very, very pivotal to growth in your business.

So, you've figured out something that works for your business. You figured out how to do it. You figure out how to get clients, and it starts to grow and get traction.

But as an entrepreneur, you start to get busy, too busy. Too busy to do it all yourself, so you start to build a team, and that can be the most freeing, or it can be the most frustrating experience.

That difference between it being freeing or frustrating is having the right process, the right standard operating procedures in place

That's what Alyson specializes in helping people do.

She helps people get off the operations or agency hamster wheel… finding yourself running crazy, trying to keep up with everything, and bring a sense of calm, peace, and order to your day to day operations.

We had a really great conversation about the role of operations and procedures in a business and what to do to really get some traction in that area.

It was a fun conversation, and you're going to enjoy it, no matter what stage of growth you're at.

Today on the More Cheese Less Whiskers podcast, we're talking with Lawrence Neal, who's calling in from Ireland, where he helps personal trainers grow their business.

He has a nice membership community, and we talked about the difference between growing something organically and growing something with paid advertising.

It really comes down to the velocity you can gain from paid traffic and the access you have to a bigger volume of people, so we talked about how to safely do that in a way that helps you figure out the right way to get people on board.

We talked about the different philosophies of people trying something on a free trial basis, and I think if you're in that kind of situation, where a free trial is a practical way for people to trial your service, you're going to enjoy this episode.

Today on the More Cheese Less Whiskers podcast, we're talking with Jeff Jones, and this episode is a really interesting topic because it's something you may have heard me talk about on other podcasts.

One of the desires I have, whenever we talk about home services, is I have a desire personally for home management for homeowners.

We often think about property management for people who invest in real estate, but if you own a house, you're the property manager for your own property. Anything that goes wrong or anything that needs to be done; ultimately, you're the one responsible for it.

I've been thinking about this as a category for a long time, and the way I describe it to people is 'I want to live in my house like I'm a guest in your house'.

I want someone who can be the responsible adult and do all the things a responsible adult would do, proactively, to take care of a house, and I would happily pay for that service.

Well, Jeff has heard me talk about that, and he's taken it on himself to put this kind of service together.

So this is a great conversation to brainstorm what it might look like, the implications of a service like this, and how to start the process and leverage the referrals form people who already know, like, and trust us.

Today on the More Cheese Less Whiskers podcast, we're talking with Paul Baeppler from Cleveland, where he's a police officer and private investigator.

Have you ever wondered if someone was spying on you, or thought there was a hidden camera watching you, and listening to your conversations? Well, apparently, that's big business, and Paul has a way to help people in that situation.

He does it all the time in person, helping businesses and individuals who are concerned about being surveilled, but now he has a system that can help individuals anywhere, not just locally in Cleveland.

We talked about the psychology of how do you get into the conversation that's going on in the mind of the person who is suspicious or suspects they are being followed, tracked, or spied on in some way?

So we walked through a really great breakdown of how to apply the 'Before Unit' profit activators to this challenge, starting with who's our target audience, what's the thing that's going to get them to raise their hand, and how can we start the conversation?

This conversation was a lot of fun, and I think we hatched a really actionable, practical plan that, if you listened to the ideas behind it, will apply to whatever you're doing as well.

Today on the More Cheese Less Whiskers podcast, we're talking with Randy Redinger from South Dakota on his way to Washington.

We talked about a very interesting part of the startup phase, trying to figure out the best model for approaching people.

He's in a situation where he has a really great opportunity with a unique product making custom closets that people can fully design. They know exactly what they want, and he can have it cut out and delivered right to them.

It's a unique process for selling one at a time, but we talked about the possibility of selling through distributors or people who can actually install the closets, people who have a chance to create a kit, and buy multiple at a time.

When you're looking at something like this, the opportunity of being able to sell anywhere to anyone, it can sometimes blind you because there are too many opportunities. Often, the best thing to do as you're figuring it out is to artificially constrain yourself to a geographic area so you can get all your ducks in a row, and then roll out with a proven model.

We had a great conversation about the opportunity. You're going to love the discussion.