Shownotes
This episode we speak with Tiago Fiara, a solopreneur, business coach, and consultant from Portugal. Hear Tiago's journey from working at Google to becoming an entrepreneur, the common traps entrepreneurs fall into, and advice for starting and growing a business.
Main Discussion Points:
- Leaving corporate jobs to pursue entrepreneurial dreams
- Dealing with "shiny object syndrome" and lack of focus
- Importance of getting a business coach/consultant
- Steps for identifying your target customer and finding product/market fit
- Leveraging your existing network to generate leads and sales
Guest Bio:
My name is Tiago Faria, and I help coaches, mentors, consultants and other professionals in the help industry to unearth premium dream clients from their current follower/subscriber lists. My “Anti-Marketing Method” is based on 3 pillars: turning generic services into irresistible offers, turning your contact network into your own sales team, and uncovering dream clients that are hidden in your current audiences.
Key Quotes:
"It takes a lot of time to do something that is extremely necessary, but most of us avoid it...talking to people first." (Tiago at 02:39)
"The power of everything that works in business world is to be consistent and choose something simple and just do it until it works." (Tiago at 19:53)
"I focus more on people that work in this kind of industry, people that generate results for others, service providers, coaches, consultants..." (Tiago at 27:23)
Links Mentioned:
Transcripts
[00:00:01] John Kelley: Tell me your story.
[:[00:00:03] John Kelley: Do you remember?
[:[00:00:05] John Kelley: How did it start?
[:[00:00:10] Tiago Fiara: I love an origin story.
[:[00:00:17] Tiago Fiara: Louisian, what's his origin story?
[:[00:00:21] Intro: I told you this was a good idea.
[: :: [:[00:00:32] John Kelley: Welcome back to another episode of small business origins.
[:[00:00:42] John Kelley: It's our nationwide search.
[:[00:00:46] John Kelley: But y'all know I say this almost, I would say, every other episode at this point.
[:[00:01:00] John Kelley: I'm not from your nationwide search.
[:[00:01:05] John Kelley: And the answer is always yes.
[:[00:01:19] John Kelley: So today, we're traveling all the way to Portugal.
[:[00:01:23] John Kelley: He is a solopreneur, business coach, and consultant.
[: :: [:[00:01:30] Intro: It's a true honor.
[:[00:01:32] Intro: I'm on the other side of the Atlantic.
[:[00:01:36] Intro: It's like it's amazing.
[:[00:01:38] Intro: Thank you so much for having me.
[:[00:01:40] John Kelley: And, of course, you know, all that practice beforehand to make sure I'm saying your name right, and I didn't say Feria correctly.
[:[00:01:48] John Kelley: I rolled my r a little too hard like I'm used to over here in Texas, you know.
[:[00:01:52] John Kelley: But, man, it is my pleasure to have you on the show.
[:[00:01:59] John Kelley: It's just helping other people who are trying to expand their reach, who are trying to make a living doing what they wanna do with that entrepreneurial freedom.
[:[00:02:17] John Kelley: Like, I I'm so happy to have you here and and get talking to you.
:: [:[00:02:24] John Kelley: And today's icebreaker is, what takes a lot of time but is totally worth it?
[:[00:02:34] Intro: I'd say maybe one thing that I love to do well, jumping now to the business side of things.
[:[00:02:40] Intro: I think it's something that could be useful for whoever is listening.
[:[00:02:55] Intro: I don't know why because yeah.
[:[00:02:57] Intro: It's it's a lot of work, which is talking to people first.
[:[00:03:15] Intro: And ask them questions like, what are your main frustrations?
[:[00:03:18] Intro: Like, how's the day your day to day look like?
[:[00:03:22] Intro: Because having those chats, you you get a lot of a lot of amazing intel.
[:[00:03:38] Intro: And, and it opens up lots of doors.
[:[00:03:44] Intro: It opens up for you to ask them for referrals afterwards.
[:[00:03:52] Intro: I don't wanna do it.
[:[00:04:03] Intro: Right?
[: :: [:[00:04:23] John Kelley: Like, I've been through coaching programs, sales programs, all of these things where you're learning how to scale a business, how to build a business from scratch, how to add a new service like you just offered, how to bring in pun intended, a new offer to your business, those kinds of things.
[:[00:04:53] John Kelley: I'm sorry.
[:[00:04:55] John Kelley: Doing SEO, doing, all these different things to kinda generate these leads.
[:[00:05:05] John Kelley: And that was the biggest thing that we had always heard from our coaches was tap into your network first because that's where your easiest and quickest wins could come from.
[:[00:05:20] John Kelley: I mean, I did this myself with a friend of mine who owns an AC company because we were thinking about the HVAC niche.
[:[00:05:27] John Kelley: So I know a little bit about HVAC, but I don't know everything about HVAC.
[:[00:05:38] John Kelley: How much are you making average per job?
[:[00:05:41] John Kelley: You know, all of these things so that, first of all, I can figure out if this is a niche that I John go into.
[:[00:05:46] John Kelley: Because if they're telling me an average customer makes them 100 or $200, but I wanna charge $2,000 a month for my services, I need to bring him a lot of leads in order to make it worth it.
[:[00:05:56] John Kelley: So, I mean, not to get off into this, like, huge marketing lecture, but you're a 100% correct.
[:[00:06:09] John Kelley: Gather as much information as you can so that when you go to that next person, you sound like the expert in that industry instead of sounding like a brand new, hey.
[:[00:06:25] John Kelley: It just builds that confidence when you can come in and say, hey.
[:[00:06:31] John Kelley: I know that you can get this much business from it, you know, whatever the case may be.
[:[00:06:37] John Kelley: It's a great great way to kinda get into business.
[:[00:06:46] John Kelley: And that is something that takes a long time, but it's totally worth it.
:: [:[00:06:53] John Kelley: If you have, I can tell you if you haven't been to Texas that you haven't had the right type, but brisket.
[:[00:06:59] Intro: Okay.
[:[00:07:00] Intro: I have to search for it.
[:[00:07:01] John Kelley: Oh, man.
[:[00:07:13] John Kelley: So brisket, man, you just you take this it's basically I don't know.
[:[00:07:22] John Kelley: Right?
[:[00:07:26] John Kelley: It's beef.
[:[00:07:30] John Kelley: And we just we just sit there and smoke that thing.
[:[00:07:36] John Kelley: Depends on the smoker, your temperature, you know, the meat, a number of things.
[:[00:07:47] John Kelley: And that's the thing, man.
[:[00:08:00] John Kelley: It takes a while, but that meat comes Outro, and it's so juicy and tender, and it's just it's perfect.
[:[00:08:09] John Kelley: Yeah.
:: [:[00:08:11] Intro: I just love meat.
[:[00:08:13] John Kelley: You can you can Google, like, some guys, out of the UK that come to Texas and have that Texas barbecue, and they just absolutely lose their mind for it, and it's definitely worth it.
[:[00:08:27] Intro: Man, that's a business ID here for for Portugal.
[:[00:08:30] John Kelley: To Right.
[:[00:08:34] John Kelley: I'm telling you, man.
[:[00:08:36] John Kelley: But before we hop into it, we always have to take a second and talk about our sponsors.
[:[00:08:47] John Kelley: Wingman is an all in one marketing automation software designed by experienced marketers who understand your struggles.
[:[00:08:59] John Kelley: You can capture leads using landing pages, surveys, forms, and more.
[:[00:09:08] John Kelley: And you can close those deals with built in tools to collect payments, schedule appointments, and track analytics.
[:[00:09:19] John Kelley: Enhance your online presence, manage your reputation effectively, and cultivate leads effortlessly.
[:[00:09:34] John Kelley: But Tiago, we're here to talk about you, man.
:: [:[00:09:41] John Kelley: Take us through your origin story.
[:[00:09:45] Intro: Thanks so much for for for asking.
[:[00:09:49] Intro: You know?
[:[00:09:56] Intro: I actually wanted to be a cinematographer.
[:[00:10:00] Intro: Did a lot of, like, those stop motion movies at home and and stuff like that.
[:[00:10:07] Intro: Here's how we call it in Portugal.
[:[00:10:12] Intro: I didn't get into it, so I got upset with it.
[:[00:10:15] Intro: Okay.
[:[00:10:19] Intro: So I did my, my, an undergrad, degree on that area.
[:[00:10:28] Intro: Let's focus on strategic consumer marketing.
[:[00:10:35] Intro: And that's exactly when when I started, okay, shaping this where I am right nowadays.
[:[00:10:46] Intro: He was 73 year old man, and he told us, you should look at digital marketing.
[:[00:10:50] Intro: It was in 2008 or something like that.
[:[00:10:56] Intro: So I changed the top topic of my, thesis, my final thesis to, you know, the impact of Google and, search engine marketing and UK consumers.
[:[00:11:09] Intro: Like, okay, Google.
[:[00:11:11] Intro: The the the Kelley grail of of this of this digital marketing.
[:[00:11:21] Intro: I have to go to Google.
[:[00:11:22] Intro: Google is the Kelley grail.
[:[00:11:34] Intro: And it happened that someone knew someone, and, I made a nice CV using my design Kelley, as my CV as as if it were if it as if it were a Google search of my name and then the results for my experience and my background, etcetera, somehow captured attention of people there, of recruiters.
[:[00:11:53] Intro: It was, 8 incredible years.
[:[00:11:55] Intro: Very, very, very, very fun.
[:[00:12:01] Intro: Had a lot of fun.
[:[00:12:07] Intro: Felt a bit limited, about working only with one single product, like Google Ads.
[:[00:12:14] Intro: I I I felt I wanted to use my creativity to consult businesses and, also the fact that I have a boss nagging my nerves every week was I realized I was psychologically unemployable very early on and, started thinking, okay.
[:[00:12:32] Intro: I need to find something else to do.
[:[00:12:40] Intro: My wife, thank thank god she supported me on that, and she yeah.
[:[00:12:43] Intro: You know?
[:[00:12:52] Intro: And I wanted to help local businesses, small businesses, and entrepreneurs using everything I had learned.
[:[00:13:06] Intro: Like, they already have proven offers.
[:[00:13:11] Intro: But to create your own business, not exactly the same thing.
[:[00:13:23] Intro: So for 2 years, I I fell into all the traps possible.
[:[00:13:31] Intro: Follow this shiny object.
[:[00:13:34] Intro: So I was following to all those traps.
[:[00:13:38] Intro: After 3 years, I decided, okay.
[:[00:13:41] Intro: I need to follow find a mentor, someone that already walked the path, and that helps me be responsible, be organized, and make a plan.
[:[00:13:50] Intro: I worked with Terry Dean.
[:[00:13:52] Intro: He's like a a dinosaur of Internet marketing.
[:[00:14:01] Intro: Going back to the basics and and the timeless strategies of business and and and marketing.
[:[00:14:13] Intro: I focus on this last sentence, all you've got.
[:[00:14:18] Intro: We already have network.
[:[00:14:20] Intro: We have established relationships around us.
[:[00:14:24] Intro: And that got me to create this anti marketing method, which is exactly that.
[:[00:14:30] Intro: You don't need to follow those shiny objects, those crazy complex strategies.
[: :: [:[00:14:40] Intro: You just need to fall to use the people around you to create an offer like we discussed, at the beginning of our conversation.
[:[00:14:51] Intro: And to those who don't need it, you can still create an amazing, business around them because everyone needs money.
[:[00:15:09] Intro: So that's the basics of of my anti marketing and how I got here.
[:[00:15:15] John Kelley: It's crazy how you kind of so many entrepreneurs can relate to that story of leaving the corporate world, having that cush John.
[:[00:15:25] John Kelley: I mean, I'm still I'm not in a corporate world, but I'm still working for someone.
[:[00:15:34] John Kelley: And then on top of that, I work my other jobs where I am an entrepreneur in one business.
[:[00:15:48] John Kelley: But it's crazy how I listen to his story.
[:[00:15:55] John Kelley: I think he was doing, like, corporate training, basically, for store openings.
[:[00:16:08] John Kelley: And, I mean, he started in the store just working as an employee, moved his way up as Kelley, and truly enjoyed Apple.
[:[00:16:22] John Kelley: Mhmm.
[:[00:16:28] John Kelley: I wanna Kelley, but I'm scared if it doesn't work out.
[:[00:16:33] John Kelley: How do I come back?
[:[00:16:41] John Kelley: Apple's not going anywhere.
[:[00:16:44] John Kelley: You have to chase your dream and go do what's gonna make you happy.
[:[00:16:49] John Kelley: So it's crazy to hear kind of how those things coincide for all these entrepreneurs because it's that freedom that they're after.
[:[00:17:07] John Kelley: I mean, Alex Hermozy, like all these guys, Jay Abraham, there's so many really good books out there that you can read from people.
[:[00:17:20] John Kelley: But the the big thing for me is it's kinda like going to college.
[:[00:17:25] John Kelley: And for many people, that'll probably be just fine and you can get along.
[:[00:17:33] John Kelley: Yeah.
[:[00:17:46] John Kelley: You need to set it up this way.
[:[00:18:12] John Kelley: But the point is, why not unlock the cheat code?
[:[00:18:18] John Kelley: Because the end goal is the same.
[:[00:18:20] John Kelley: So I'm sure that you kind of feel that same way.
:: [:[00:18:29] Intro: Yeah.
[:[00:18:33] Intro: I can just read a ton of books and watch YouTube videos and purchase a couple of courses, and then it's it's all good.
[:[00:18:45] Intro: And then it's just a it's basically a new that you create yourself because there's so many options in out there.
[:[00:18:53] Intro: If you keep consistency and you dig deeper until it actually works, not not try something for a bit and then, okay.
[:[00:19:01] Intro: I'm gonna try something else.
[:[00:19:06] Intro: And some of us take longer.
[:[00:19:09] Intro: Some people are still there in that trap for more than 10 years, which is insane.
[:[00:19:29] Intro: So, yeah, the the that's the main difficulty is, to get people to understand that that's the correct mindset to have, to to actually have someone at your side that will keep you accountable, that will keep you focused, and doesn't let you just get distracted with other things.
[:[00:19:53] Intro: Not not not not like, it has to work right now, and otherwise, I will go to something do something else.
[:[00:19:59] Intro: Everything takes some time.
[:[00:20:04] Intro: Sometimes you're lucky and it get get it get faster, but at least you're focused on something.
[:[00:20:14] Intro: I didn't have it.
[:[00:20:25] Intro: And it's actually I found out I found this out.
:: [:[00:20:29] Intro: Actually, I had my own podcast at the beginning of my of my career, as an entrepreneur.
[:[00:20:45] Intro: They wanted the the fast growth.
[:[00:20:48] Intro: Right?
[:[00:20:54] Intro: It all always starts that with following a proven path.
[:[00:21:00] Intro: You choose something from a mentor and then mix with some other mentor and then put your own taste onto it and you find your own voice.
[:[00:21:08] Intro: And, I think only when you're prepared, the mentor will come.
[:[00:21:13] Intro: So as they say.
[:[00:21:15] John Kelley: I've seen the shiny object syndrome because I've been a victim of it.
[:[00:21:21] John Kelley: I mean, because, again, you become an entrepreneur because you want to work on the things you wanna work John, and you wanna do the things that you wanna do.
[:[00:21:28] John Kelley: There are still things that you're going to have to follow standard operating procedures that you have to have.
[:[00:21:35] John Kelley: And, you know, one of those most important things is you've got to make money at what you're doing.
[: :: [:[00:21:58] John Kelley: You know what?
[:[00:22:00] John Kelley: Oh, I wanna do video.
[:[00:22:03] John Kelley: I wanna do social media management.
[:[00:22:07] John Kelley: I wanna do social media ads.
[:[00:22:09] John Kelley: I wanna do graphic design.
[:[00:22:12] John Kelley: And it it's so easy to get caught up in all of that stuff, and that seems like a long, exhaustive list of people like, there's no way somebody's out there doing it.
[:[00:22:23] John Kelley: For years, that's what we were doing.
[:[00:22:25] John Kelley: We love the creative side.
[:[00:22:28] John Kelley: And now what we've done is we focused on making our customers money, and then that, in turn, leads to more money for them to spend on marketing, which once you have everything set up the way that you need it, now you can focus on your podcasting, and you can do those things that you want because you're making enough money.
[:[00:22:57] Intro: Yeah.
[:[00:23:00] Intro: It's the okay.
[:[00:23:04] Intro: It starts with that, with the the person and the kind of the problem that you're trying to help, solve or the the the the outcome you're trying to give to those people.
[:[00:23:14] Intro: Otherwise, you're gonna be a generalist.
[:[00:23:21] Intro: You cannot do that anymore in Intro current status, in this current competitive landscape.
[:[00:23:32] Intro: So being very specific on who you're serving and then talking to people, like we said.
[:[00:23:43] Intro: Because if you do that, you'll have all the emotional words that words that that people use and what is what comes in their mind.
[:[00:23:51] Intro: You don't you don't need to be an amazing copywriter.
[:[00:24:01] Intro: They will it'll naturally they will resonate with your message, and it will be much easier.
[:[00:24:10] Intro: You can sell to them because, you know, all the objections they might have and what they actually want to achieve.
[: :: [:[00:24:01] Intro: They will it'll naturally they will resonate with your message, and it will be much easier.
[:[00:24:10] Intro: You can sell to them because, you know, all the objections they might have and what they actually want to achieve.
[:[00:24:25] Intro: They have this problem.
[:[00:24:28] Intro: So okay.
[:[00:24:36] Intro: Because they're all also something that I, I'm thinking more and more nowadays is, that to the fact that we as solopreneurs, we are it's a dangerous situation to be because everything depends on you.
[:[00:24:48] Intro: Imagine if you get sick 3 3 months or a year or like a family accident, whatever your business just simply disappears.
[:[00:24:55] Intro: Yeah.
[:[00:25:04] Intro: Right?
[:[00:25:06] Intro: You can, make something very reliable and replicable.
[:[00:25:23] Intro: I'm sorry.
[:[00:25:40] Intro: I just got this offer.
[:[00:25:43] Intro: What what do you think about it?
[:[00:25:45] Intro: Most likely, you'll get a couple of clients like that.
[:[00:25:55] Intro: Actually, I have a a referral program for you, and I can give you a commission if you send me over a client that becomes a client.
[:[00:26:05] Intro: You can have immediately new clients.
[:[00:26:11] Intro: So and simply by this this, simplest step, which will give you quick wins for sure if you create an offer that actually solves a now problem, a problem that people are actually suffering, that they wanna solve it urgently now.
[:[00:26:33] Intro: For example, if you're you say to someone, hey.
[: :: [:[00:26:41] Intro: Right?
[:[00:26:42] Intro: They they tried tons of things before.
[:[00:26:44] Intro: So you will come inside 1 year and leave through the other.
[:[00:27:05] Intro: So focusing on now problems, it's is a key for you to unlock and make it easy for you to market, to sell, etcetera.
[:[00:27:13] Intro: Those are the things that I would do for someone starting right now.
[:[00:27:23] Intro: I'm focused more John, on people that work in this kind of Kelley industry, people that generate results for others, service providers, coaches, consultants, because it's it's a different a different, math, you know, because if you're a drop shipper or if you sell very low tickets, physical products, the math doesn't work if you have this approach of talking to people, tapping into your network.
[:[00:27:51] Intro: So you don't need a huge volume of sales for free to achieve your results.
[:[00:27:59] Intro: So that's that's actually my my my focus, to the moment.
[:[00:28:04] John Kelley: And as far as geographic location for working with people, is there any type of limit to that?
[:[00:28:12] Intro: Yeah.
[:[00:28:15] Intro: Some people like like to do, like, higher versions of their programs in whether they do a retreat in some location John in in their own country or for those highly motivated clients that already purchased their program.
[:[00:28:30] Intro: Right?
[:[00:28:32] Intro: Internet connection, computer.
[:[00:28:35] John Kelley: So what does it look like to kind of work with you then?
[:[00:28:41] John Kelley: Are we meeting once a month?
[:[00:28:44] John Kelley: You know, I know that you just mentioned, obviously, if I wanna have a nice big retreat, you would not be heartbroken to fly out somewhere for a retreat.
[:[00:28:56] Intro: So my my programs usually have, access to me directly.
[:[00:29:08] Intro: And then once a week, I like to meet with the person, you know, to, unlock more obstacles, go deeper into some specific problems.
[:[00:29:33] Intro: But I I like to meet weekly and then throughout the rest of the days, always have chat and and the because this accountability, step is I figured out after many years doing these things is crucial because if you just give videos to to the people, most of them will never watch them all.
[:[00:29:58] Intro: And imagine what percentage of them have actually success with the course.
[:[00:30:02] Intro: It's like something scary.
[:[00:30:09] Intro: So it's it's usually, it's better to have some sort of access to you or the team that you later will, you know, expand on.
[:[00:30:30] John Kelley: So what is the best way for me to find out more information about you and about what programs you have to offer and how to, you know, if I'm a good fit to work with you and how to get started.
[:[00:30:40] Intro: So I'm, actually, the beginning stages of internationalizing my brand.
[:[00:30:46] Intro: But if you go to Tiago Fiara dotpt, t I a g o f a r I a dot p t, You can alert me a bit.
[: :: [:[00:31:03] Intro: Or if you wanna have a call with me, I I love to know new people and figure out if we can have a diagnostics call to see how what you have in your world, if see if someone can do something about it, if you want to expand your reach, etcetera.
[:[00:31:17] Intro: So John my top right corner, you can just book a free call.
[:[00:31:25] John Kelley: That's perfect, man.
[:[00:31:33] John Kelley: I know we've kind of we've touched on some of the big problems, you know, the shiny object syndrome quite a bit.
[:[00:31:46] Intro: Yeah.
[:[00:31:53] Intro: Like, ask around, interview people every day, that is in your niche, of course.
[:[00:32:05] Intro: Do you know someone that would be a good fit for this?
[:[00:32:13] Intro: It's incredible what we have.
[:[00:32:22] Intro: And if we do that consistently every day, it's it's unavoidable that you will get results.
[:[00:32:35] Intro: You'll be surprised by what could happen with that.
[:[00:32:39] John Kelley: Something that I struggled so long because I I felt so good with sales that I struggled to see that there is a problem with that shiny object syndrome, with your time management, with all of these things.
[:[00:33:02] John Kelley: So I really appreciate you coming on and sharing all this information with us today.
[:[00:33:06] Intro: It was true true honor and pleasure.
[:[00:33:10] John Kelley: I think they will.
[:[00:33:13] John Kelley: And it's always our pleasure to have you on.
[:[00:33:16] John Kelley: It's always our pleasure to have you tuning in for another episode of Small Business Origins.
[:[00:33:24] John Kelley: That way, you can find him, connect with him, see if he's a good fit, maybe even try working with him.
[:[00:33:37] John Kelley: And the best way to do that is have an uninterested third party, someone who is not worried about competing with you or anything Kelley, someone who is on your side that can look objectively at what you have going on and say, hey.
[:[00:33:51] John Kelley: And I think Tiago can do that for you just fine.
[:[00:33:59] John Kelley: It costs $0 to be a good person and share these entrepreneur stories who are trying to go out there and make a difference.
[:[00:34:09] John Kelley: It's been another entrepreneur, another great episode traveling across the world now to the other side of the Atlantic, to other parts of this world instead of just this Outro, making an impact in more than one place.
[:[00:34:27] John Kelley: We'll see you on the next one, and as always, stay beefy, my friends.
[:[00:34:37] Tiago Fiara: I love an origin story.
[:[00:34:44] Tiago Fiara: You guys, check this out.
[:[00:34:46] Tiago Fiara: You're gonna love it.
