MBA2434 How to Think Big and Act Small

0:09Heyo! Welcome to the$100 MBA show, business insights you can count on with our practical business lessons. I'm your host, your coach, your teacher, Omar Zenholm. And in today's lesson, you will learn how to think big and act small. Thinking big and acting small is one of the smartest things you can do in your business. I learned this concept and this strategy from Felix Dennis in his book, How to Get Rich. Felix Dennis was one of the most wealthiest people in the UK as the owner of Felix Publishing, The publisher that made magazines like Maxim, Blender, Stuff, and a whole lot more. Thinking big and acting small allows you to grow and push the boundaries in your business without going broke.

0:51Too many people in this comparison game social media world are doing the opposite. They're thinking small and acting big, spending money they don't have, putting themselves in their business into debt, and rolling the dice on gambles that just don't pay off. In today's lesson, I'm going to show you what thinking big and acting small looks like, how it works and how to implement it in your business, and all the benefits that you should expect by doing so. It's time for you to leverage some of the best practices, some of the best strategies and methodologies and standards of the big-time players without the big-time costs.

1:28Let's get into it. Let's get down to business. Thinking big and acting small. What does this all mean? Well, in essence, it means raising your standards to the highest levels in your industry, looking at who does it best in your world and doing it at that level, but implementing it in a practical, cost-effective way. Let me give you a real practical example from my own experience. When I was growing Webinar Ninja, the software company that I built and sold, We were launching a new version of the software in 2016, and I wanted to launch with a great video campaign, with a great commercial, really, that I can use on social media to display all the great features and make it a memorable brand.

2:13This video had to be really high level, but I didn't have a lot of money. We're a bootstrap business. We didn't have a big budget. So I researched all the best companies that market their products. I looked at all the commercials that they released during the Super Bowl, during their product releases. I was looking at companies like Squarespace and Pepsi, GoDaddy, and a whole lot more. But there was one commercial that caught my eye that was so, so impactful. It was Apple. And it was an Apple commercial for their new iPhone featuring all their amazing features in their phone in a short amount of time.

2:51It was like 100 seconds or something like that. But I looked at the video. It felt high quality, high production. It really evoked emotion. And I really wanted to do the same with my software, but hey, I don't have a budget of Apple. But what I noticed about the commercial is that about 70 % of the video was typography. That was timed with some really upbeat music. That typography was mixed in with some images, some videos, some quick cuts that were showing the phone and its features. There was no narration, just text and images on the screen. and of course that music I talked about. When I looked at the raw ingredients of this video, of this amazing commercial that did incredibly well and it cost millions upon millions for Apple to produce, the raw ingredients were simple.

3:38Text, music, images. I was thinking big. I wanted to create an Apple-like commercial but I needed to act small, meaning small budget, small production team, which at the time was just me. Small time. I didn't have much time to produce this either. I had a couple of weeks. So I asked my graphic designer to create some images that I can use for this video. I also asked my EA to create some screen captured video displaying some of the most important features that we were releasing. I also realized I can have an impactful video. It can be punchy. It can be great, but it didn't have to be that long.

4:11It'd be a hundred seconds. It could be 45 seconds. And that's what we'd settled on. I then thought, how am I going to create this typography animation with the images? Well, I knew a little bit of Adobe After Effects. I couldn't create something from scratch, but I was pretty good at editing current projects. So I actually went online and bought a template, a typography template. And with those templates, they tell you what music goes well with this typography, with this template that you purchase. And I purchased one of the songs that goes with it. It was a really nice, upbeat song that I had the rights to because I bought commercial rights for it.

4:49I bought the template. it. I put it all together with the video and the images. I timed the music with the beat and incorporated a very punchy script that I wrote myself and implemented throughout the video with the typography. Now, don't get me wrong. It took me about a week of solid work. I'm talking about like 90 hours that week I worked. My eyes were bloodshot by the time I was finished because of all the edits I was doing in Adobe After Effects. But after it was all said and done, I had one incredible promo video for Webinar Ninja. It cost me less than$500 to put together. I did it pretty much all myself with the help of some of my team members.

5:28And when we released Webinar Ninja's latest version with this video, it made a huge splash. We would play this video when we sponsored events or conferences. We'd play this video on our website. We play this video as an ad. And one of the number one things people said to me when they met me in person at any event was, I love your ad for Webinar Ninja, all because I was thinking big and acting small. Big ideas, good ideas don't have to cost you an arm and a leg. In fact, most of the time, there is a version of this idea that you can afford. This goes not just for videos or promotional material, but for your products and services, for your business itself, for any content that you're creating, anything that you're doing.

6:12Think about who do you admire that does something similar. They don't have to be in your niche. For example, I'm in the process of creating videos and video ideas for our upcoming YouTube channel. I love YouTubers and they're great, but I love high quality documentary style videos. One of my heroes is Anthony Bourdain. Rest in peace. I loved the way he narrated his stories, how he wrote them to perfection and put them together in a great little episode on his TV shows. I also love the classic show Top Gear out of the UK, which is a car review TV show. Again, very well scripted, very well shot, very well put together.

6:52Now, even though I don't have a huge production team like Anthony Bourdain when he was working for CNN or Top Gear, which was produced by BBC, but most of the quality that we see on screen or most of the quality we see in business products or business services are concepts, our words, our delivery and implementation. What version can you pull off? So for example, with my videos that I want to create, I can really focus on creating a fantastic script and that can lead me to creative ideas for shots and for a great narrative. And hey, with technology today, your phone has an incredible camera that can shoot better footage than a$10 ,000 camera that you would have to buy 10 years ago.

7:38So think big. Who do you admire? What can you take from them and implement with your own budget? Now, let's talk a little bit about the acting small part. Acting small is all about being conscious of getting an ROI and getting the most value out of your project. What do we mean by that? Well, we don't want to overspend. We have to understand that we want to invest a little bit, But understand, we want to get a 10x, 20x return on that investment. I can't tell you how many sales. I'm talking about thousands of sales, thousands of new users of Webinar Ninja because of that one$500 video. We got to think in these terms.

8:15How can I make sure that I don't not only break even, but make a tremendous profit on this investment? Where do I need to spend and where do I do not need to spend? Where can I actually do things myself, hire somebody that's a freelancer, get somebody on my team already that can do this and get a version of whatever big idea I have that can work for me within my budget, but also within my target for a return on investment. So I actually like to start any project with a spreadsheet. I know that sounds like a big nerdy move, but it's a good way to make sure that we are successful because a great creative project, a great product, a great business, a great endeavor that doesn't actually make you money is really a hobby.

8:59It's not a business anymore. So I want to make sure that I'm in business, that I'm actually making a profit. So I start with a spreadsheet and I just jot down all the expenses that I think I'm going to need to spend on that project. This could be a new product. This could be a new service I'm implementing. This could be a new website that I'm putting together. I'm going to write down everything. And then I'm going to say, okay, what's absolutely necessary? What here can I do myself? I can get somebody else on my team to do. I can cut completely. I can delay for later. I don't need it immediately so that I can just get the ball rolling, make some money first.

9:32And then look at the things that are left that I have to pay for and see what version of it do I actually need? How can I just get the ball rolling, get started? do a beta version of this. I don't have to have the deluxe version of this project. And then lastly, I highlight in yellow, what are the things that make or break the impact of this idea, of this thing? For example, in Webinar Ninja, we launched NinjaTown, which is a community forum where people can share ideas, get feedback, learn from each other. The most critical ingredient here was somebody to manage that group. It needs to be somebody who can be responsive, answer questions, and mitigate any concerns that were in the community.

10:12The actual software we ran on it, the form software, not super important. We can actually do it on Facebook if you wanted to, in a Facebook group. But the person who's actually communicating and making this a community, a community leader, that person's important. We gotta make sure that we spend money on that, implement that right, so that the main ingredient that makes this dish work is not messed up. Now, I have an exercise for you so that you can get started with thinking big and acting small. You don't have to start something new. You can take a look at your existing business, your existing activities, your existing costs, and think, how can I implement the same thing, the same goal, the same vibe I'm looking for without having to spend a lot of money while acting small?

11:02One of the examples that Felix Zennis shares in his book, How to Get Rich, is instead of having fancy furniture in the lobby of your office building or in your office entryway, have some comfortable but basic furniture, but put some fresh flowers in the middle. Fresh flowers delivered once a week, it's gonna cost you$20,$30, but it's gonna make a lot more of a difference than gaudy furniture that's gonna cost you hundreds of thousands. Maybe you're spending a lot of money on software tools you're not using. Cut those out, and to make more of an impact on all your customers, maybe just hire a freelance designer to redesign the homepage, only the homepage of your website to give it a new coat of paint and create a new vibe and a new tool to get more conversions because your homepage is the most frequent page on your site.

11:49Look at your business closely and see where all your expenses are going. How can you keep that vibe, that professional vibe alive, thinking big while acting small? Is there an alternative way to implement the same goal? Thanks so much for listening to the$100 MBA show. If you love what you hear, make sure you hit subscribe or follow on your favorite podcast app. Here's why you would want to do that. Number one, by hitting follow right now on Spotify or Apple Podcasts, you get our next episodes automatically so you don't miss a beat. Next, you also get access to over 2 ,400 business lessons in our archives by doing so.

12:21It's the only way you can get access, so go ahead and do that. Lastly, it's the best way to support the show. If you have gotten anything from any of our episodes, subscribing, following to the show makes a huge difference. Thank you in advance for doing that. Before I go, I want to leave you with this. The most important thing about thinking big and acting small is doing it consistently. Okay, don't just do it once and done. It's a mindset. It's a practice. It's really a culture that you want to have in your business. Even when you start getting traction and making some profits. Don't be fooled by social media.

12:54The best entrepreneurs, the real ones, they're not extravagant. They're Pennywise. Thanks so much for listening, and I'll check you in Wednesday's episode, Q &A Wednesday. I'll see you then. Take care.

13:26Thank you.