235 | 4 Tips to Build a Lasting Impact Business with Paul Zelizer
This week on the pod is a solo episode with Awarepreneurs founder Paul Zelizer. Paul shares 4 tips to hlep you build a lasting impact business in a world obsessed with quick profits and short term gains.
These tips include:
1) Treat your business as your most important asset.
2) Cultivate a nuanced relationship with your customers.
3) Build systems instead of chasing shiny objects.
4) Join or create an ecosystem.
Resources mentioned in this episode are:
4 Tips to Build a Lasting Impact Business: Transcript of Podcast with Paul Zelizer
NOTE: While it’s not perfect, we offer this transcription by Otter.ai for those who are hearing impaired or who don’t find listening to a podcast enjoyable or possible.
SPEAKERS
Paul Zelizer
Paul Zelizer 00:01
Hi, this is Paul Zelizer, and welcome to another episode of the Awarepreneurs Podcast. This podcast is all about the intersection of three things, conscious business, social impact, and awareness practices. Three times a month, I do an interview with someone who really making a difference in that intersection. Once a month, now I do a solo episode. And that's what we have today. Before I get into the topic, and the tips I have for you today, I have one request. If you could go over to Apple podcasts, whatever app you're listening to the show on, hit subscribe and do rating and review. It helps tremendously. Thanks so much for considering. Today, our topic is 4 Tips to Build a Lasting Impact Business. And I don't know if you know this, but in January this month, this is my 15th year in business. And it's kind of exciting. Previously, those who've been on the journey for a while you might have known I had a 15 year Career and Community Mental Health. And about 15 years ago, I pivoted and moved in the direction of entrepreneurship, and then social entrepreneurship, full disclosure, I have not been working with social entrepreneurs for all of that 15 years, but certainly a majority of it, I have. Let's call it nine years right now focusing on conscious businesses and social entrepreneurs. I've learned a thing or two about being around that long and in over 230 episodes, talking to impact founders who've built a lasting business. There's a there's a mindset and some behavioral differences that I see between the person who's kind of chasing the shiny object, going for the most likes on Instagram, or looking for that exciting new marketing, you know, strategy to somebody who's digging and building something for the most impact, and also for their best quality of life over the long haul. Someone who’s focused on building a lasting business. And that's what I want to talk to you about today. So, four tips for you, I'm going to tell you what they are. And then we're going to go into each one. And as always, I love dialogue, your questions or thoughts. So please be in touch on LinkedIn or send a message via our contact page on the Awarepreneurs website. What are these tips mean for you? And how can you make them yours is something that I'm really passionate about. So the four tips are, first, treat your business as your most important asset, we're gonna unpack that one as a meme. Number two, cultivate a nuanced relationship, a deep one, a meaningful one with your client or customers. Number three, build systems instead of Chase shiny objects. And number four, join or create an ecosystem.
Paul Zelizer 02:46
So let's dive into each one of these. And what does it mean for you, as somebody who's interested in having a lasting impact business and all the good benefits that that brings. So number one, treat your business as your most important asset. Now, if you're not an entrepreneur, you're how some people will say your house is your most if you own, you're fortunate enough to own your home, or maybe some, you know, your retirement funds, those are all really helpful assets. And I love owning my own home, I love my place. And when you are an entrepreneurs thinking about long standing impact, and building something of value, I see entrepreneurs who have that long haul and treat their business as usually the most important asset that they have, or is certainly in the top three, they respond, they think about they approach their business in a different way. And then somebody is just thinking about, I just kind of need a side gig for now. Or, you know, this is what I'm doing this month, and next month, I might be doing something totally different.
Paul Zelizer 03:52
When you think of your business as your most important asset or as one of your most important assets. And let me back up. Let me say why I'm thinking about that way. And then I'll suggest what does this mean when you do this?
Paul Zelizer 04:07
When you're making a full time living at a good quality of life right now, that depends where you live, if you live in San Francisco, or Singapore or London, that's going to be really different than if you live in the rural Midwestern United States or a more rural area or in a country where the cost of living is less. So there's no one number that I think provides for the kind of quality living, I'm talking about every place but I do think that there's a you know, it's expensive to be alive
Paul Zelizer 07:44
There a word that comes up in businesses continuous improvement, right, so you're not trying to do something most people when they buy a house and when like, do everything when they move in. Some people have that kind of budget. Most don't, I don't. But it's more a matter of I just finished painting the whole downstairs in my home. There's other things, we're doubling the size of the garden, and I'm leading that initiative in the complex that I live in, I live in a condo, right? Partially because I love to garden, but also it like makes it a better place. Right? Continuous improvement. Think about your business. Step.
Paul Zelizer 08:18
Number two, cultivate a nuanced relationship with your client or customer. So one of the things I see that's different between people who are thinking about their business in a long standing way, they're not just trying to get a transactional, separate the humans from the dollar type of living. They're more thinking about their clients or customers in an ongoing way providing value and really showing up and helping this person in a way that is thinking about their long term well being and benefits in whatever way you serve them. And, and connecting that up with your long term well being it's not a short term transactional. I don't know that much about this person. I'm grateful thank you for buying my product or service. But most businesses don't have that long term commitment to their clients or customers. And in an impact business, that is even more important, I think, then a business that you know, doesn't have making the world a better place, front and center and what they're trying to do the folks who are
Paul Zelizer 09:25
oriented towards an impact approach, they want to feel you caring about them. So how can you do that? One is get to know them as best you can. If you're in person and it's your neighbor who lives you know, five minutes up the street, right? In they walk into a shop or restaurant. It's kind of it's right in front of you literally this person is sitting in the same physical space with you. That's one kind of opportunity to get to know that person through being relational and asking questions and just being clear
Paul Zelizer 10:00
and warm online, it's a little different. But I still think that opportunity is there. Let me give you an example. Colleague on LinkedIn, who I didn't know, at all, recently reached out and had a comment and wanted to thank me for something that she learned on this podcast. Well, I went to her website, she's on LinkedIn, she's an entrepreneur, co founder. And I went to her site, and I learned a little bit about what she was doing. It took me like a minute. And I was like, wow, she's actually up to something really cool. And I went back and said something. And it turns out that it led to somebody in their business being a guest on this podcast and other podcasts that I was able to connect them up with, because I saw a bunch of podcasters. Again, it took me about a minute to like, say, oh, what does this person who are they I don't know them? I'm not familiar with them. And because of social platforms, and things like Google, right, we can find out about almost anybody in second. So that gives you a sense of what I'm talking about getting to know them. And now that I understand who this person is, like I said, it's led to other podcasts, interviews, and just a sense of being able like, what is this person's values? What are they trying to do in the relationship that we have the context of our connection in social entrepreneurship? Obviously, that's the focus of this. As a social entrepreneur, what is she doing? What does she passionate about? What might help her if there's anybody in my network that I can, without doing a gazillion hours of work, there have been some things that I could do to help this person meet her goals. And that's led to, you know, a nice connection, deepening a connection, multiply that out over years and decades. And somebody who invests in that kind of relationship with the people who are using their products or services, I'm going to go way out on a limb and say, it's going to lead to better results and a more lasting business, than somebody who has a more transactional nature, have a great product or service, don't really know or really understand who's using it very much, the person in the former condition, who goes that little bit of extra is going to have a much more enjoyable ride over the long haul.
Paul Zelizer 12:15
Number three, building systems instead of chasing shiny objects, early on, in starting impact business, there's a lot to think about. And particularly when you're in pre revenue, or you know, you're not yet earning what it costs you to live in a good quality way. It can be attractive to, you know, you see some of your colleagues touting a certain marketing approach, or a certain style of business development, or, you know, joining a certain kind of program, and this is kind of do everything, and then they're on to the next. And that's kind of the way, this world of rapid, whatever this online world,
Paul Zelizer 12:59
which is kind of fickle, and goes from thing to thing to thing, never really, at least as a whole, aren't very deep. I'm thinking of the book, Deep Work by Cal Newport, I'll put a link in the show notes, right. And one of the things that Cal is talking about is how that online, you know, just going from shiny object to shiny object literally changes our nervous system in our wiring. And I love online tools. And I'm very grateful for this podcast and everybody, I've met through it and LinkedIn, and I'm not knocking these tools, but I'm encouraging you to think about building sustainable systems. Very obvious one for me, in my businesses, this podcast, every Tuesday, a new episode comes out, takes work, and it takes blocking time each week, you know, probably like 4849 episodes, you know, I take three or four weeks off a year, to around the holidays, and a couple other trips or family events. You know, it's only three or four weeks out of the 52 weeks in a year that I take a break. And I announced that and other than that an episode goes live. I want to drama, it's something I do part of my business development and marketing systems. And that means having certain things in place in terms of vetting guests in the process I use for the episode to come out every Tuesday, I meet with each gas, we talk strategy to quick meeting 15 or 20 minutes, but it's important and it changes the flavor of the conversation than interviewing a complete stranger. We've heard each other's voices. We've come up with an episode titled together, I have some idea of what they're doing that might be most interesting to you listeners. And we think of three to five kind of bullet points in terms of strategies or things that they're doing that we can highlight in the conversation. So there's a variety of things that I'm doing just using this podcast as an example, where there systems in place
Paul Zelizer 15:00
Unlike building something that is working and has, you know, certainly developed over the years, but you get a sense of what I'm talking about, and I don't have time, for instance, when clubhouse first came out, a number of colleagues said, You need to join clubhouse. And I was like, I have my systems, I'm not against new, you know, platforms coming online. And it was a shiny object. And you know, some of the hype has died down. And I think clubhouse can be a fabulous way to grow your business. But I had certain things in place, and I didn't need another marketing effort, I just need to keep, you know, getting more intentional about what I was already doing. And those systems helped me invest my time wisely in such a way that I get more and more return over time, as opposed to going from thing to thing to thing to thing which I see some folks doing. And over the long haul, that's not going to serve you eventually, I want you to kind of sink your reach down into certain areas, whether that's in your marketing systems, or the products or services that you offer, doing things in terms of client care. I'm a big fan of templates, and I keep them in Google Docs, I can get them on any device Aman and I can just cut and paste certain types of frequent responses. Whether it's, you know, the template I use for when I meet with my one on one clients in terms of giving them the, you know, important data, their their notes, and action steps in the recording from that meeting, I have a template for that I can just cut and paste and customize posts to writing that the new every single time. Simple systems, they don't have to be complicated. It's a Google forum. I mean, it's a Google Doc, for God's sake, it's not complicated. But that system allows me to provide in the number of clients and supply all your notes, my goodness, I've never seen anything like it in the consulting world, right? There, I try to be crisp, but I really try to help clients not just give them a recording of our meeting, which I do in many of my peers do but I try to provide some nuanced, here's exactly what we talked about. And here's your exact action steps that we talked about, and then follow up. But that when we meet, so there's a kind of a through line. And we're tracking things, we're not just kind of randomly meeting each time. Over the years, I can't even remember how many times people have said, Paul, that's really, really helpful to me.
Paul Zelizer 17:22
Simple systems, and people who build them, in my experience have more lasting and more impactful businesses than people who don't.
Paul Zelizer 17:30
The last suggestion I have for you is to create or join an ecosystem.
Paul Zelizer 17:37
ecosystem has become a word that's more and more important to me. I'm somebody who's interested in gardening and permaculture, it's literally a word from nature, right? Whether you are a tree, an aspen tree, or an apple tree, or a deer, or a mouse or a hawk, you don't live in isolation in nature. And I would suggest that impact businesses that want to do well have that similar mindset.
Paul Zelizer 18:04
People who are like I have this awesome product or service, and it's going to change the world, I don't really know, they're somebody I know calls them niche buddies or coopetition. Or I like to think of your ecosystem partners. The deer needs, the tree needs, the grass needs, the water needs the air, and they're all connected. And when you're in an ecosystem, other impact business owners, whether they build websites for impact business owner, or you know you're in the helping women's space, and they're in the helping kids space. There's ways in which when you're in an ecosystem, you're both going to get the resources you need in a much more holistic, enjoyable, organic,
Paul Zelizer 18:51
inspiring way, as opposed to a transactional linear, always got to do the same work. When you invest in an ecosystem over time, that ecosystem will bring. If you build trust, if you're doing a good job, you're providing a product or service that's valuable, and you're contributing to that ecosystem in a meaningful way, providing value over time, 10 years in, you're going to get much more return than somebody who's doing a mechanical marketing strategy. In most cases, this mechanical marketing strategy, I don't know maybe it's SEO. SEO is constantly changing Google changing the algorithms and SEO is great. I do my best to work it into my business. I teach clients about it to work them into their business. But that is a linear, mechanical transactional way to grow a business and 10 years in maybe your your you'll get more benefits than somebody who hasn't been paying attention. But nowhere near the benefits of somebody who's important and has deep, meaningful, lasting relationships with other businesses who share similar goals. have values that you can provide value, make referrals, you know, help them amplify their message on LinkedIn, or whatever social platform, right, somebody who's doing that kind of ecosystem building and joining it is going to over the course of decades, it's going to see much more return is going to be much less susceptible to algorithm changes, or, you know, this platform was super hot. And it's not, that's just how this online system works. But humans are humans, if you've earned somebody's trust, and you're continuing to vest in the ecosystem, and they see you being a good citizen and a caring person, not just about your own business, but other kinds of businesses that are working towards positive impact, you're going to get what you need in just an abundance of referrals, and shout outs and visibility, and opportunities to collaborate, and bring investors to you, etc, etc. So those are the four tips I have, I want to really encourage you to build something lasting, right? Don't jump from impact area to impact area, because you're not likely to have either the positive impact that's gonna bring you a lot of meaning and make your life feel purposeful, it's also going to really disrupt your ability to earn a good livelihood, take a look at a you know, look at a time frame. That's, that's both realistic and inspiring. And dream ups, big goals of what you're going to accomplish in five or 10 years. And, you know, keep working towards that. And having a business that's lasting, that provides you with meaningful work and a great quality of life, and is really moving the needle on making the world a better place. It's one of the biggest gifts I know. So I hope you can give that to yourself and to turn down some of the whatever noise glamour glitz, you know, but not very substantial models of you know, entrepreneurship that sometimes get the most attention in this capitalist world we live in and go deeper than that. Create something that's meaningful to you, provide you with a quality of life that you're good with,
Paul Zelizer 22:24
don't take other people's reference points, what does a good life look like to you make that a real priority and dig in and a, you know, get your fingers in the soil kind of a way. That's my hope for you. Before we go, I do want to say if you could use help with this, I do offer consulting, one on one consulting either strategy session, which was a one time like work on some part of your business, for instance, how do you come up with a business model that both impacts a lot of people or allows you while allowing you to live a really high quality of life? Or maybe you need some help with kind of the full big picture of, you know, why are you doing, what you're doing? And who are you here to serve? And what is the product or service, it's really going to, you know, help both have that positive impact and provide you with the quality of life. So you can go check out my services at Paul zelizer.com. I love working with impact entrepreneurs like you to help you build something lasting, really help you achieve your goals in terms of positive impact and the quality of life that'll allow you to really enjoy yourself. Go check out Paul Zelizer calm. There's any questions about might we be a fit to work together, I'd love to talk to you. I do want to say before we go, we love listener suggested topics and guests. So if you have a topic either for our solo episode or you have a gas that you think would be a fabulous fit, please go to aware printers.com Go to our contact page, take a look at our guidelines and we'd love to hear your idea. For now I just want to say thank you so much for listening. Please take really good care and these intense times. And thank you for all the positive impact that you're working for in our world.