In this episode of The One Small Change Podcast, host Yvonne McCoy chats with marketing expert Chuck Anderson about the power of simplifying and focusing within a business. Chuck shares how a significant shift towards specialization and consistent delivery has transformed his career. He discusses the importance of narrowing down tasks, tracking results, developing mastery, and how this approach has surprisingly increased referrals and strengthened client relationships. Chuck provides practical advice for entrepreneurs looking to apply focus in their businesses and explains the unexpected benefits of doing so.

Guest Bio:

Chuck Anderson is a seasoned marketing consultant with nearly 30 years of experience. Formerly a director of marketing and chief marketing officer, Chuck now specializes in affiliate marketing, helping businesses grow their client bases and enhance their marketing strategies. Known for his innovative approaches and dedication to clarity and focus, Chuck has significantly impacted the entrepreneurial journey for many.

Key Points Discussed:

1. [00:01:43] Specialization and Focus: Chuck discusses how shifting focus to specialize in affiliate marketing simplified his business and life.
2. [00:03:26] Eliminating the Non-Essential: Chuck explains how he streamlined his commitments by making a list of routine tasks and eliminating those that didn't contribute to his desired outcomes.
3. [00:05:18] Unexpected Benefits of Consistency: He highlights the surprising result of developing fans and receiving referrals from consistently delivering the same workshop.
4. [00:07:52] Measuring and Improving Results: The importance of tracking the performance of consistent actions is explored, showing how Chuck's conversion rates improved over time.
5. [00:16:53] Importance of Letting Go: Chuck emphasizes the value of letting go of non-productive activities to fill that space with more productive and successful endeavors.

Main Quote:

"When you let go of that 80%, then the 20% now grows and fills up that void."

Links:

• Free Affiliate Workshop (happens every month)
• ChuckAndersonCoaching.com
• AffiliateManagementExpert.com

Hi, everybody. I am so glad you're back with me for another

episode of the One Small Change. And,

you know, one of the things we're looking at is what are the unexpected

and surprising consequences that you've had in your personal

life in your business from one small change, that you would

like to share with other people? And so today, we have one of my favorite

people, Chuck Anderson. And I have to tell you, I'm also

a client of Chuck's, and he has been a big

change in my life. But, his

wisdom and his story is something that you're gonna really

learn from and be able to put into action, I think.

So, Chuck, first of all, hello. I'm so glad you're here to

share with us. And second, what would you say

would be that thing, that affected

your business and your personal life so unexpectedly and

hopefully in a in a in a great happy way. Mhmm.

Well, thank you, Yvonne. And then I'm so happy to be here, and

I know we've been looking forward to this for a while. And, you know, I

don't know how small of a change it was. I mean,

it it I mean, it's a matter of perspective. It it could be

perceived as a big change. But one of the things that I

did about 2 years ago and I've been in

business now almost 30 years, so there's been a lot of small changes and

big changes along the way. But the most recent one was about 2 years

ago where I was felt like I was

sort of drowning in the complexity of my

business. And, I was doing a lot of

marketing consulting. And as a former director of marketing and chief marketing

officer, there was all these all these different things I was

working on. And 2 years ago, I decided that I wasn't going

to try to, be a marketing consultant for all

things. I was just gonna specialize in one thing.

And and so so I did that

and decided that, really, the

roots of my journey has been affiliate marketing, so

I decided to specialize in that.

And and what I'm gonna say, a sub small change may and maybe this

is the small change. I had too many webinars, too many events, too

many things going on, and I decided I'm just gonna have one

talk. I'm gonna have one webinar, and I'm just gonna do that

one over and over and over again. And,

really, when I look at it, that has probably you know,

the the the the focus has been great, but that decision

to only do the same workshop every month instead of a new

workshop every month, that has been an absolute game

changer for me. So I I know exactly what you're saying,

and so the, you know, the change has to do with stop doing

so many things all the time and trying to balance so

many things and focus and get really good at what

you're doing. And I think, you know, people may have heard this before, like, find

your niche, you know, but we're we're talking about more than just that.

We're talking about just making the whole thing streamlined,

and I've had that situation. So if you were to if you were to

say to people, you know, how could you implement this?

What would you where would you say for them to look or to start? Mhmm.

Well, I'm no expert in this, but I will

I will I will tell you what I did. And the first thing I did

was I made a list of everything that I was doing on a

regular basis, whether it be weekly or monthly or

quarterly. Most of them were weekly. I was doing a lot of routine

things, and I made a list of all of them. And then I went

back over that list and said, does this really

contribute to the outcome? I just read a book that

said, you know, 80% of your results come from 20% of your

efforts. And I looked at it the other way.

That means 80% of what I was doing was wasteful

energy or maybe not all that productive. So I went back over

that list and said, okay. Well, what's in the the 20%

that's contributing the 80% of my results and what is not?

And I eliminated everything ruthlessly.

Right? It's like, oh, no. That did not contribute to sales or that

did not contribute to productivity or that did not contribute to the desired

outcome. It's gone. Either parked or deleted or

eliminated. And so I intended to come back to some of

those things later on. I'm like, I'm just gonna stop doing these things for

now. And it's been over 2 years, and I have not gone back

to most of them. So in some ways, you're following

my productivity ahead. It's like, you know, what can you put on

hold? Right? What can you eliminate? But I think a lot

of people find that really scary. You know, the idea

that you would do the same workshop, you know, every

month or twice a month and, you know, it's like it's gonna get stale

and people are gonna so what was the

unexpected, you know, consequence of doing that for you? I mean, what did you

discover that you didn't expect?

Yeah. There's there's been a few, but I'd say the most notable

is that we developed fans.

And so by doing the same workshop every month,

I found that there were people who

would put it on their calendar and plan

to attend the next one. And if I look at a

lot of the clients I'm working with right now, the majority of

them attended that workshop 2 or 3 times before they

decided to sign up with me. And the

other side benefit to this is now those

people want to share this workshop and this

webinar with other people that they know. And so

I'm getting a greater number of referrals today than I've

ever received, and I get messages from a lot of my

clients going, hey. When's the next workshop? I have someone to invite to it.

And, and so that has been, a really

welcome change. It's been super exciting to the point where

now where we're encouraging others to do the same thing in their

businesses and with their affiliate programs.

That really didn't happen before. That when we were writing a

new workshop every month and and, expressing that

creativity, it was a lot of fun. It's a lot of work, and but people

were confused. They didn't you know, it was like, are you doing this? Are you

doing that? And, you know, everything just by this

this change, it's brought everything into such crystal

crystal clear focus. People know who I am. They know what I do.

They know how I can help them, and they're excited to to

follow and learn more. So that's probably more

than what you asked. No. It's actually perfect

because, you know, I talk about the entrepreneurial journey,

and there's certain patterns and certain potholes and pitfalls that

we all go through. And the first challenge that we all

have is getting in front of enough people.

And when you're doing something new every day, every week, you're

hoping that your client is gonna be able to figure out what mood you're in

and where you're gonna be. So, what you

said actually addresses that,

in a wonderful way. So

for instance, do you find that

people tend to come to your workshops more than once before they sign

up, or is is there a pattern?

Yeah. I think there is a pattern, actually. I would

and I'm just summarizing here, but I'd say about

80% of the people who are in my program right now

attended my workshop at least twice. Some of

them, three times. And I've even had

people that have attended every workshop for the last

several months because, you know, what and whatever

process they're going through mentally, they're, you know, learning, they're

absorbing, they're deciding to take

the the next step. So and

even though even whether they become clients or not, I've even

had those people refer other people to the workshop, and

they've become clients. And

and so we're developing great affiliates for that as well. And so

that's what I'm finding by by just focusing on that

one thing versus a 100 different

things. People are getting more and more excited about it

than ever before. And it was interesting because I was creating

if we look back, I was creating all of these other workshops because

I wanted people to be excited, because I bought into the whole

idea and taught it for a long you know, for a couple

of decades. Content is is king, and you gotta be,

you know, creating all this content and adding value

and all of that. And, and so I did that

for nearly 2 decades. And now

finding out that, hey. Wait a minute. I could have just built one thing and

did that one thing over and over and over again,

to the point where now, when I give that talk or I

do a podcast interview, there's some of my best

talks because I because I do the same one over and over again,

it gets better and better and better each time, and I'm developing mastery

over that one talk. So, you know, this whole idea of

creating content and being creative and adding value,

I think, can be our own worst enemy if not

channeled correctly. Well, I know. The first time I

heard this idea, I was like, what do you mean?

You know, this is gonna be boring for me, and it's gonna be boring for

the people that, you know, I'm serving because they're gonna hear the same talk over

and over again. Can you talk about that a little bit?

Yeah. And I went through that exact mental

process. I'm like, yeah. I I don't know. I don't know if this is

gonna work. But now looking back, hindsight being 2020,

it was one of the best decisions I ever made. People are more

excited about it now than than they were

before. I think before, it's like, okay. Well, what is he gonna do this month?

Do is it a topic I want? Is it a topic I don't

want? Or what is it? And I think we we inadvertently created

confusion in the minds of our because we were always doing

something new. And, you know, one of the the signs

of success, I believe, is consistency. And I I

know when I'm looking for a mentor, or a source

of information, I look for consistency. It's one of the things that I

value the most. It's like, are you doing the same thing today

as you were, you know, 2, 3 years ago, or is

it a new flavor every month? And and

I'm realizing now more and more, and I wish I had realized it

2 decades ago, but that consistency doing that same thing

over and over again, it develops mastery, but I think it also

develops confidence and excitement in your

audience. So the opposite is true. We worry that we're not creating

enough value for our audience. We're not creating enough content for our

audience. But they, you know, they

wanna be able to consume and absorb this and understand it when we're

always giving them something new. I think we're we're we're creating a

constant state of confusion or uncertainty.

And so so there has been unexpected byproducts for

the of this. And I would say that fear of

by narrowing down to just one thing, am I

limiting myself? Because here's what happens, and I hear this all the time, and

I was in this, state as well. It's like, well, I don't wanna

I don't wanna exclude anyone. I need clients,

and, yes, I can do social media, and, yes, I can do paid advertising,

and, yes, I can do, affiliate marketing and

strategy, and I and and and probably a 100 other things that I

could mention. And and so I don't wanna say

no to a potential client. Like, if someone came to me and said, oh, I

need help with this. Sure. Oh, I need help with this. Sure.

And so I didn't wanna say no. And that was that that's the comment

that I receive a lot when I talk to people about niching

down and and focusing on one thing is that they don't wanna

exclude. They feel like that, you know, things are already

scarce, and they're only gonna get scarcer. When the opposite is

true, what you're doing is you're creating that clarity and consistency,

and that opens the pathway for more

people to come to you. Well, you know, you said that. And

one of the things that came to mind for me was if you do

the same thing over and over again, you start to create you you start

to find your niche because pea those people will be attracted to

you. It's as if you had a store, you know,

and you kept moving the location. Like, today is Thursday. I think I'll go a

couple blocks away. I'll go someplace else. Where if you keep your store in

the same place, people will come to you that want

what you have. And so, you know, you're not you

know, you're getting better and better what you're doing. And I think the other thing

is that I think what we don't

factor in that is even though the information may be basically

the same, because you may have a different mix of

people coming to the workshop. You've got some people who are repeating.

You've got some people who are, you know, are who are clients. You've got some

people who are new. That mix keeps changing, and so

the the vibe in the the Zoom room is different.

Do you know? I mean, I have you know, for when I do this, it

depends on what's on my mind at that time. I mean, I still have the

the talking points that I go through, but my examples can be different,

do you know, of what I'm doing? And and the other thing I

think, and you can speak to this, is as

entrepreneurs, we tend to not

evaluate and measure our results. We just jump from

one thing to the next. Can you talk about that a little bit? Oh,

yeah. For sure. And I think this is, a

a result of a very common I don't

know. Mindset's not the right word, but belief that, you know,

do do what you love and and the money

will come and, you know, and just follow your heart.

And I I do follow my heart. I think that's important.

But I at the same time, I think we have to, you know,

do ourselves a favor and and follow that direction. And I

think oftentimes, and I won't speak for other people, but I know

there were times where I got confused by, you

know, what my right path was and

what my you know, the little voice that that that speaks to you

in fear and says, no. You should be doing this instead. That'll never work.

And and so we we we end

up going off on a lot of

different directions. And, I don't know if that answered the question or

not, but that was what came to me when you asked the question. It it

does. But I think also if you're only doing one thing, it's a lot

easier to track the results. Oh, it's very easy to track the results

because so now it's okay. So now it's

not what is our new idea for a webinar. It's when

is the next date and time. And we can compare. We can we

know how many registrations we've had. We know how, our

our what our show up rate is for that webinar. And

there was a time where we we would look at that and go, oh, okay.

Well, we we we don't like our show up rate. Let's do something about

that. And with having those measures, we were able to implement some

other strategies and go from a dismal, you

know, like, 12% to well over 30%

show up rate. And, our conversion rate in the

beginning, was, I mean, maybe 5%.

And, again, by keeping track of that, we

were able to say, well, jeez. How how could we do better? And I think

that's what it it causes us to ask better questions of ourselves. How can we

do better? And so it started off at 5%. Now it's

closer to 30. And I think, you know, the way we attribute that

to a few things. Number 1, we would never know that if we didn't keep

track. So we need to measure along the way, how am

I doing, and then how can I do

better? And when you ask yourself that question of

how can I do better, then notice the ideas

that come to? That's where you wanna pour your creativity. And

Right. And and that's where our best new ideas come from is by asking

that question. I gotta ask you this because, you

know, the part of my thing is, you know, having a bold

vision, you know, innovating during change and and and

working with your own unique, you know, your own uniqueness to

increase your profit. What would you say

that you wanna be remembered for at your 100th birthday?

You know, what is your vision of how you've had an impact on the world?

Mhmm. You know, I think I I want

my legacy to be, you know, that I was helpful,

that people were grateful that, you know,

they had a relationship with me in their life and that I,

in some way, was able to help them,

you know, achieve something that they wanted to achieve or live a better life

for them. And, you know you know, there's there's a difference

between tactics and and vision and mission.

My mission is simply to elevate the

well-being of of other humans. And

today, I do that through helping them implement

affiliate programs and get more clients and leads for their business.

That's my chosen path. Who who knows? Maybe a decade from

now, I'm called to do, you know, something else, but the mission will

remain the same, and that is to elevate the happiness and

well-being of other humans. And and that's what

drives me forward. And I think that that's the part that's really

important. I think, you know, you can start out with

a very small vision or mission, and it

can, you know, it can be more concentrated or it can get

bigger so that you're having a bigger impact. Alright. Let's have a little bit

of fun, though. Let's let's I I like to be practical. So

if there was some practical advice that you would give people about how they

could put what you learned into practice,

you know, when they walk away. Because I I I really feel like if you

learn something, you have to know how to apply it. Mhmm. So that you

can, you know, you can do it. So what would you what would be

the one thing it can you can do more say more than 1,

but at least 1 Mhmm. Piece of advice you would

give people? The well, my first piece of advice

is do yourself a favor and understand that this is

a process, not an event. And

and so people wanna be able to wave the magic wand and get an

instant result, and you have to be willing to do the

work. So first and foremost, you have to approach it with that mindset.

And then and then this is the hardest part,

and I struggled with this too, is you need to be able to let

go of that 80 to 90% of the things

that you are currently doing repeatedly

that are not producing your desired outcome. In fact,

they're probably even preventing you from getting your desired outcome.

You feel productive because you're busy all the time. And, you

know, I work hard a lot. You know, do I have to work 10,

12 hours a day? I don't. But I I'm doing things

that I love to do. And and so,

but, you know, you gotta be willing to let go of the things

that don't serve you. And it's been interesting because,

and, you know, one of my favorite authors, Dan Sullivan, says this all the time.

When you let go of that 80%, then that that

the 20% now grows and fills up that void.

And then, you know, every every so often, revisit

this, and you'll have a new 80% to get rid of and a

20% that's that's that's producing your results. So

probably every 6 to 12 months, have a check-in and say, what am

I currently doing? Is it contributing to my desired

outcome? And if it's the answer is no, either park it

or eliminate it. And but you gotta approach it

with with, you know, you gotta be you gotta be willing to let

go. And and a lot of times you can't do that by

yourself. I mean, you know, one of the things that that someone said,

I heard someone say recently is the brain that created this

problem is not the brain that can naturally solve it.

Do you know? So that's one of one of the good things about

working with other people and and, you know, because they can look at what you're

doing and go, wait. You don't need that. And and, you know, and that's

probably the thing that you're most wedded to. It's like, no. Not

this. Right?

So you've got something to offer us that we are gonna put in the notes.

Right? I do. What is that? Tell us more.

Awesome. Well, and and we've been hinting at it the whole time

because I talked about how my strategy is to do this one workshop

every single month. And, look, you're you're

getting this at a good time because if you came, you know, 2 years

the way I deliver that workshop today is at its absolute

best. It is exponentially better than it was 2 years ago because I do the

same workshop every single month, and I've developed mastery over

it. So this is my, my free

workshop. It's my free affiliate workshop where you're going to learn how to

get affiliates to send you clients and fill

your events. And and so if you want to

build your list, if you need more leads to be able

to sell your products or your services to, or if you're

hosting events such as webinars and challenges

and master classes and all of those things, There's no easier

way to to to accomplish that by using other people's

lists and creating partnerships or affiliate relationships with

other people. So you come to the workshop. You're going to learn

how to do that Step by step, you'll learn the tech and the

marketing and all of the things you need to do to be

successful with that. And, it's free. So come and

join me, and you'll get to see, you know, you'll get to see,

my mastery and but you'll also get to learn some really

practical things that you can put into,

into, practicing your business right away.

And and I just have to add my own little 2¢ to this.

One of the things that I love about Chuck is that he helps

you to do this in a way that is not salesy. This

is truly it this is truly a way to build a

community and connection and attract people that are

complement what you do that, you know, are happy to tell

other people about your business. It's not about putting out a sign and saying, you

know, everybody come in. You know, I got this for sale.

It's we're marked down today. It's not that kind of thing at all, and it

makes all the difference in the world, not only in the

relationships that you're building, but also in the results that you

get. I mean, it gives you, 3rd party

credibility. It brings you people that are already

slightly warm in terms of the leads. It it it it

is worth going to even if you're not thinking about doing affiliates,

the whole process and the thought process that goes through it is

definitely worth watching at least once. I mean, I sat through it a

couple times, both as as somebody for the

first time and repeat and then finally, you know, signing up to buy. So

that's full transparency. Alright. Let's end with my

last question, which is just kind of a fun question. When was the

last time that you did something for the first

time?

Great question. I'm gonna say

and it's hard to I challenge myself to do new

things all the time. Because if there's one thing theme from

this whole conversation is we don't need to do

we don't need to work more. We need to work different. So

I'm challenging myself to do that all the time. It

was I'm gonna say that it was Tuesday,

right, which was 2 days ago. And,

and so I was in a in the middle of a meeting, and,

you know, usually, you know, I'm

really I mean, really trying to stay focused on my

my other things. And one of the one of the

ideas is partnering and investing in other businesses, and and it and

it became very clear during that meeting that there was an

opportunity to become business partners with this person. And I

usually would say no to that or or not go there because that's not really

what I do. But it came up,

and it was impulsive is not the right

word. It just felt like it was the right thing to do at the right

time. And I'm like, you know what? That's not what we do,

but it's aligned, so let's go for it. And

and so so and that's going to, that's going

to, you know, spawn a whole other,

you know, hopefully, still focused and aligned

work, but something I would normally say no

to, I said yes to, and it feels like the right thing to

do. Fantastic. So, you know, we

probably could go on because we have many times. Yeah. But we need

to wind this up. And I just wanna say, make sure that, you know, one

of the ways that you can keep this going is that you subscribe, that you

check on, click is the word I'm looking

for. You click on the link for Chuck's, free

workshop, that you come back and hear who the other people.

We have a lot of interesting people lined up, entrepreneurs

that you can learn from. And, you know, the idea is that

we want you to take a look at this and find a

way to use it. So, you know, my philosophy is that you learn

something, Chuck has told you how to apply it. So the next thing is

that you share this with somebody so that you make sure that you understand

it and share the link so that they can go through that

experience with you because there is power in community and connection.

So, Chuck, thank you so much. And, like I

said, I am so glad that you joined me on the one small change where

we could take a look at the incredibly rocky

and exhilarating entrepreneurial journey both

with, you know, the ups and the downs and the innovative possibilities.

And, you know, I hope we'll see all of you next time. So stay curious

and join us again.