Pam Hendrickson was the Executive Vice President of Content Development for Tony Robbins, where she created and delivered dozens of high-end products, live events and coaching programs. Today, Pam works with both beginners and established experts to create a portfolio of information products and programs that brings in raving customers and serves as a support for their overall business strategy and lifestyle goals.
Subscribe to EOFire
Resource Mentioned:
- Your Big Idea: Successful Entrepreneurs have One Big Idea. Follow JLD’s FREE training & you’ll discover Your Big Idea in less than an hour!
Success Quote
- “And the day came when the risk to remain tight in a bud was more painful than the risk it took to blossom.” – Anaïs Nin
- “It’s not what happens, it’s what you do that determines your future.” – Jim Rohn
Business Failure
- Pam has faced oh-so-many challenges, obstacles and failures, but the one she decides to share is quite touching.
Entrepreneurial AHA Moment
- Pam’s mother passed along words of wisdom that will never leave Pam’s side. Listen close.
Current Business
- Pam is loving how she is leading her life and is passionate about focusing on her clients. She truly has found the key to success.
Lightning Round
- 5 knockdown killer responses by Pam, but at this point in the interview, could you expect anything less?
Best Business Book
- The Lean Startup by Eric Ries
Interview Links
Killer Resources!
1) The Common Path to Uncommon Success: JLD’s 1st traditionally published book! Over 3000 interviews with the world’s most successful Entrepreneurs compiled into a 17-step roadmap to financial freedom and fulfillment!
2) Free Podcast Course: Learn from JLD how to create and launch your podcast!
3) Podcasters’ Paradise: The #1 podcasting community in the world!
Subscribe to EOFire!
Full Transcript
John Lee Dumas: Hire Fire Nation and thank you for joining me for another episode of EntrepreneurOnFire.com, your daily dose of inspiration. If you enjoy this free podcast, please show your support by leaving a rating and review here at iTunes. I will make sure to give you a shout out on an upcoming showing to thank you!
John Lee Dumas: Okay. Let’s get started. I am simply elated to introduce my guest today, Pam Hendrickson. Pam, are you prepared to ignite?
Pam Hendrickson: I sure am, John.
John Lee Dumas: Alright! Pam was the Executive Vice President of Content Development for Tony Robbins where she created and delivered dozens of high end products, live events and coaching programs. Today, Pam works with both beginners and established experts to create a portfolio of information products and programs that create raving fan customers and support their overall business strategy and lifestyle goals.
I’ve given Fire Nation a little overview, Pam. Why don’t you take it from here and tell us who you are and what you do?
Pam Hendrickson: Great! Well, thank you so much for having me today. In a nutshell, I work with entrepreneurs, small business owners, authors, speakers, experts, coaches, and anybody really who has a small business. What I do is help them make, market and launch products and services that provide valuable solutions to their target market. So in English or in simpler terms, basically, it’s about creating quality products and services that sell.
So we look at things from how do you take your expertise and your knowledge and your life experience and package it so you can create a sustainable business model out of it. If I were to take it one step further, what it’s really about is it’s about looking at what it is you want for your life, the impact you want to have, the lifestyle you want to have for yourself, and saying, “Okay. How can I leverage this so I can make money while I sleep and be able to stop trading time for money, so to speak? How can I increase my impact and how can I create a legacy based on my own unique life experience?”
John Lee Dumas: Awesome! That makes a lot of sense, Pam. It’s a great summation. I really look forward to delving more into that later on in the interview. Let’s transition now into our first topic, which is our success quote because here at EntrepreneurOnFire, we love to get the motivational ball rolling, and we do that with a success quote, one of our favorites from the spotlighted entrepreneur. So Pam, I know you have maybe even two for us today? I’m really excited. What do you have?
Pam Hendrickson: I do, and my favorite quote really changes as things change and as I change and develop and grow so I can give you a different answer on almost any given day. But there are two I pulled for today that I thought might be appropriate for this audience. Number one is one I just ran across recently from Anaïs Nin where she says, “There comes a time when the risk to remain tight in the bud is more painful than the risk it takes to blossom.”
I love that because I think it really sums up what we, as entrepreneurs and business owners, go through because it really is – gosh, it’s just for me, and we’ll get into this more in the interview, I was playing small. I was really happy with what I was doing and having a big impact in many ways, but it was all behind the curtain, and I was playing small just because I was afraid.
So there comes a point where you have to take a leap of faith and have to recognize that, gosh, to get to the next level, it’s time for me to take that leap of faith and put myself out there and take that very human risk that we all do. So that’s quote number one.
Quote number two is a more practical quote, which comes from our beloved departed colleague, Jim Rohn, who said that “It’s not what happens, it’s what you do that determines your future.” I love this quote because it really is – I mean, it’s not going to be a straight line. We’re all going to have bumps in the road, and we’re going to have successes and we’re going to have a lot of learning experiences along the way.
So I think if we can understand that it’s all part of the journey and we just need to learn from each one, and it’s not so much even there’s nothing that you can’t overcome. That’s the great thing about our society today, but we all need to understand that we’re in the driver’s seat and it’s how we respond to situations, how we react and what we do as a result that’s so much more important than what happens.
John Lee Dumas: I love both those quotes, Pam. Here at EntrepreneurOnFire, we really like to take things down to the ground level and see how these things apply to you and your life. Can you just get specific and tell Fire Nation, our listeners here, how you’ve actually applied one of these quotes to a specific moment in your life.
Pam Hendrickson: Great! Well, I mean I can talk about briefly how I did both of them, but the Anaïs Nin quote in terms of the risk to remain tight in the bud is more painful than the risk it takes to blossom, when I really look at it, what was preventing me for so long from moving forward was really fear. And it wasn’t even fear so much of that I could do this or that I’d be successful at it. I mean I’ve created so many products and services and I’ve done it for so many people for so long, I know what to do. The risk was the emotional risk. The risk was putting myself out there and having people really get to know who I am and the transparency that comes with being in the online world today was really, really scary to me.
So there comes a point where I think things happen in your life and you just realize life is incredibly precious and it’s fleeting, and if not now, then when? So for me, I think just the whole leap of faith to go from what I really, really enjoyed, working for other people – and I still do some consulting. But really kind of being behind the scenes and just saying, “Okay. I am going to build my own business. I’m going to become an example of what I teach and I’m going to do it for myself.”
John Lee Dumas: That is truly inspiring. Do you have an example for the second quote?
Pam Hendrickson: I do. It’s not what happens, it’s what you do that determines your future. I mean we’ll get into the plethora of mistakes that I’ve made along the way here in a little bit.
John Lee Dumas: Pretty shortly.
Pam Hendrickson: Exactly. I think that’s it, is I think one of the things I’m really fortunate is I’ve been able to be around the personal and professional development and improvement industry for so long and I make mistakes all the time. It’s just being able to pick yourself up and go, “Okay, what did I learn from this? What am I going to change moving forward? I can’t change the mistake.” Then also, really to take it one step further, to realize that when we make mistakes, that actually is one of the things that helps humanize us and connect us to other people.
I mean I don’t think anybody can relate to anybody who is perfect, who is always polished, who always says the right thing, who never makes a mistake, who always does exactly what makes the most sense. I think that feels really unattainable for most people and I think it actually creates a lack of connection. Whereas if we can be real about what we’re going through and really share our experiences and our triumphs, as well as our defeats, that’s what creates the human connection that inspires all of us to keep moving forward.
John Lee Dumas: That is so great. We’ll use that to keep moving forward ourselves into the next topic, which is failure, as you just did allude to. EntrepreneurOnFire is all about the journey, and your journey as an entrepreneur definitely at some point had failure. We don’t need to define it as the word “failure.” It can be an obstacle or a challenge that you faced and somehow overcame. As entrepreneurs, again, we just really don’t want to let this define us as a person, these failures and these challenges, but we want to use them to help us move on and improve exactly what we’re trying to build. Pam, can you take us to a time when you faced an obstacle or had a challenge that you had to overcome?
Pam Hendrickson: Yes. I’m going to give you kind of a broad answer to this question, and then I’m going to narrow it down to a couple of specific circumstances here, but really, when I talk about this and being an entrepreneur, especially in this specific field of personal and professional improvement, my career really could be looked at as 2,487 mistakes I’ve made and how to help other people not make the same mistakes. So when I think about mistakes or lessons or learning experience or failures or whatever word you want to put to it, I don’t know that it’s one big thing. I think it’s 200 small things that have happened. I’ve made every mistake out there in my field. I mean sometimes a product doesn’t work right or a marketing piece doesn’t convert the way you want it to convert.
I’ve certainly had all kinds of situations like promising customers they would receive a product for a major brand by Valentine’s Day and it just didn’t happen. So we had to secure all these salespeople to start making calls at the 11th hour before Valentine’s Day to let them know their Valentine’s gift wasn’t going to be there for their honey. That was a tough experience. I’ve had typos on runs I’ve done of 2,00o units of a product or a service or manual. I’ve had the wrong DVD shipped abroad in a package because something happened at the manufacturer and we didn’t do the final QC thing.
I don’t mean to sound like a job interview when you’re interviewing somebody for a job or you’re interviewing for a job and you get that question or you ask that question, “Okay, what’s your greatest weakness?” Then the person gives the answer, whether or not really sharing their weaknesses, they’re really kind of [Unintelligible] the weakness. They’re like, “Well, I’m really busy, and so I tend to have difficulty balancing my life,” and you’re like, “Yes. You’re just trying to tell me you work really hard.”
So I don’t mean to say it that way because I’ve certainly had my share of mistakes and moments. I think the ones that I really think about and the ones that really hurt the most are the ones where I had not been elegant in my communication with other people. If I had been intense with a colleague or employee or vendor just in the stress of the moment of trying to get things done.
I think those are the things that I really, more than anything, seek to work on and make sure they don’t happen because it’s just when you’re stressed and you have that urgency and that kind of adrenaline going inside, sometimes it’s tough for that to not leak out. So I think particularly in my younger days, those moments are the moments that I think about and I think, “Okay. Well, how I treat people is so much more important than the process.” So in terms of how it’s changed me, I think that might be one of the biggest things.
John Lee Dumas: That’s great. Let’s really just use that to move on to the other end of the spectrum here, which is the aha moment. You’ve already shared some great insights in the past failures and challenges that you’ve had. You were very specific and we really appreciate that. Now I’m going to ask you to really get specific on that aha. That light bulb moment that you’ve had that it just really resonated with you. I mean you’ve alluded to the past where you said you don’t want to trade time for money, and that’s such a great revelation that so many entrepreneurs have. I really want you to get specific. Take us to the time when you just had the clouds part and the sun shone through. What was your aha moment, Pam?
Pam Hendrickson: Sure, and I don’t know that it was the sun and the clouds part. I think it was more a big, fat thunderstorm that woke me up. It was related – as it is for most of us, I think – to a significant emotional event that happened in my life, which is I was really, really close to my mom. She was one of my role models. She was a piano teacher, but she used to lecture around the globe, teaching students and teachers, and she was all about empowering children, empowering teachers to learn, and grow and develop and reach our true potential. A very, very positive person who taught me a lot just about life and teaching and what it means to really empower another person.
About three years ago, she got sick and passed away from cancer in a five week span of time. The week before she passed away, literally, she said two things to me that profoundly changed things for me. The first thing she said is she said, “Honey, life is fleeting and that’s what makes it so precious.” When she said that, it just really, really got to me because I had two young boys at the time. I mean literally, very, very small. I was working in a corporate job and I would come screaming home in the driveway at [8:30] at night, rushing upstairs, throwing my things down, praying I would get home in time to kiss my boys goodnight.
I thought, I love the work, I will always love the work. I have a great work ethic, but I’m missing out because of the way my schedule is because my time isn’t my own. I’m missing out on what’s the most important to me, which is my family and my children. So for me, one of the greatest gifts of being an entrepreneur is the flexibility and the freedom. It’s not even the impact or the economics and those other things. Those things are nice. It’s the freedom to be able to define your time and to really live life the way you want to live it and spend the time doing the things and with the people you want to be doing it with. So that was the first thing she said.
Then the second thing she said that really kind of kicked me over the edge was she quoted her favorite quote, which comes from Dr. Wayne Dyer, which is “We come into this world with nothing, we leave this world with nothing, and all we have, we give while we’re here.” I realized that I was doing so many great things. I was helping other people have such a great impact in the world, but I wasn’t living my own true gifts and I wasn’t having the impact and I wasn’t giving all I’m capable of giving.
So those two things really were the moment I thought, I really need to make a change here. You couple that with the fact that when you’re working in a job, there are so many great things about it, but there is a ceiling on what you’re able to do. There’s a ceiling on your income, there’s a ceiling on your earning, and you’re dependent to be there. I mean, you’re not making money while you sleep. You’re trading time for money, and that is a limit.
John Lee Dumas: Pam, that was such a touching story. Thank you so much for sharing the insight into that and sharing a little window into your life. So you were working at this corporate job, screaming home at night, kissing your sons goodnight as they were falling asleep. You have this revelation. What specific actions did you take following this revelation?
Pam Hendrickson: Yes. Decisions is something I learned from all my time with Tony Robbins, but decisions happen in a moment. You might take 10 years to lead up to the point where you make the decision, but the decision to change or to do something different is only made in an instant. For sure, that was really the instance that I made the decision inside.
So it took me a year to transition after that just because I was still working for the Tony Robbins Organization and I love my job. I had been there a long time so I wanted to transition elegantly in the right way, and also just make sure I was being intelligent about it. I think on one hand, there can be power in just saying overnight, “Okay, I’m stopping doing what I’m doing here. I’m leaving my job and I’m going to dive in full force as an entrepreneur.” I have a family, I have a husband, I have young kids. So from a risk tolerance point of view and a safety point of view, it just made a lot more sense for me to transition.
So I transitioned over the next 6 to 12 months just to make sure I was supporting the organization that I loved and was with for so long, and also just so I could really build up some things for myself so that when I did make that final transition, I was in a position to do that.
John Lee Dumas: So take us to day one of that leap. You finally made the break from Tony Robbins. Now you’re on your own. What next?
Pam Hendrickson: Well, I think the first thing is always start with your target customer. It’s just getting super, super clear who is it that I want to help, that I’m passionate about helping and who I can help the most with my experience and what I know and what my expertise is. I think the plan always has to start with the client and the customer and the market that you’re here to have an impact on. So I spend a lot of time getting really clear about that market, and then what their biggest problems were so I could create solutions that would really help them and really help them overcome some of the things that have been challenging them for a period of time.
So I really just started getting out there, creating products and services. I really believe in beta testing, so the first product I did was really a beta test, if you will. It was a six week webinar course with about 30 people. That was invaluable because I was able to really interact with my target market, and really understand where they were, what was working for them, where they needed help, and it really helped shape what I was doing in terms of products and services. So that’s one piece of it.
The other thing is it’s different, depending on the industry you’re in, but in this industry, you’ve got to build your platform. So you’ve got to start speaking, getting your name out there and publishing and doing the things that just kind of get you known by your target market.
John Lee Dumas: What would you define as your breakthrough moment?
Pam Hendrickson: My breakthrough moment? Gosh! There have been many. I think my breakthrough moment was I did my first big online product launch, and I did it in partnership with – I have one my businesses as a partnership with Mike Koenigs, who’s a renowned online marketer, and we created this program “Make, Market, Launch,” and we did a huge product launch.
It was so interesting because I had two experiences from that. Number one was I am floored at how vulnerable it made me feel because all of a sudden, you’re going out there to a large number of people in a very short period of time and you’re showing. I mean you’re showing your stuff. So it’s just a very, very vulnerable feeling and I was really taken aback by that vulnerability, but at the same time, having done it, having been able to deliver on the backend of it, just creates such a confidence. It’s like that first big success. Success builds on success, right?
So you start with a bunch of little successes, and that builds up to a bigger success. But that was a really big turning point for me because I did something that was really scary to me that I wasn’t sure I would be able to do on some level. I wasn’t sure how well it would do. I think once you do that, then all of a sudden, so many other things that you didn’t think you could do open up and become accessible to you.
John Lee Dumas: Now Pam, what was the biggest challenge that you did encounter within your first six months of actually breaking out on your own?
Pam Hendrickson: That’s a great question. The biggest challenges were really probably emotional more than anything. It was just not realizing how vulnerable and scary it is to be to not have anybody or anything else you’re really leaning on. I mean it’s you at the end of the day when it’s your business. I think that in terms of what happened, the challenges in getting things going is that when it’s your business, you’ve got to be managing revenue. You’ve got to be making sure. You can’t just look two weeks ahead.
For me, it was learning to look 6 or 12 months ahead and make sure that I have a plan that has some diversity to it because some things are going to do better than you think, some things aren’t going to do as well as you think, and just making sure we could manage the cash flow starting out so it wasn’t so bumpy and up and down. It was like feast or famine and just getting that steadied out by making sure we had a plan that would really make things work.
John Lee Dumas: That’s great stuff. Pam, I’ve thrown you some curveballs today. I mean I’ve asked you some questions that are kind of off topic and kind of off format, but I’ve just been really inspired and enthralled by your story that I just want to keep digging for more. Just thank you for continuing to share and I’ve just really enjoyed what you’ve had to come back with.
Pam Hendrickson: I’m happy to do it, and I think we can be genuinely transparent. I think transparent gets thrown around as a word that’s in vogue at the moment. I think being real or being authentic or just being willing to share what we’ve been through for all of us is probably the best way we can help others. I will throw out there that as a woman – and for men too – I mean we all have our unique set of challenges, but one of my passions is really just helping everybody, but specifically, if I can help women overcome some of what’s blocking them, and also just help them realize that it is possible to balance being a mom and being a parent and a wife, and all the things, all the rules that we take on as women and still creating a powerful business result, that it is possible.
John Lee Dumas: Great stuff. Pam, have you had an I’ve made it moment yet?
Pam Hendrickson: I think one of them was after that first product launch. I mean we just sat there. Like we did a webcast on the last day, it was a Saturday, and the webcast ended at [9:00] PM, Pacific Time, which was midnight on the East Coast. It was over and we just had a little celebration when it was done in the studio, and it was just this, “Wow! Look what we did.” I mean it was like a five or six month journey to get everything ready for that. I just remember that moment of taking it in and just, “Wow! Look what we did.”
Then about two weeks later, one of the things in this product that I launched has a forum, and so people can ask questions or just share what they’re going through and such. So it was about 10 o’clock at night, my time, and I’m in San Diego, and I was just wrapping up my emails and such before I was going to bed. I looked online on the product forum and there was a woman who said, “Oh my gosh! Module two was just released. I’m so excited! I guess I’m not going to bed right now. I’m so excited to dive in!”
I thought, I’m going to bed. This is so [Unintelligible]. I have a customer who’s going through this module who’s excited, who’s going to get value out of it and learn some distinctions that can move her forward, and I get to go to bed while that’s happening. That’s so cool. So I remember that. That’s a moment that stands out for me.
John Lee Dumas: That’s a great moment. I just love those I’ve made it moments and the fact that you’re appreciating them because at EntrepreneurOnFire, we all know here that it’s so important to set the goals and to set these high standards, and then work hard to achieve them. Then once you do achieve those goals, you’re definitely needing to push the bar higher and go forward to that next goal, but at the same time, you need to take a step back, take a deep breath and appreciate the achievement that you’ve so far accomplished. That is so important. It’s about the journey. It’s not just about the destination. So I’m really glad to see that you are of the same mindset, Pam.
Pam Hendrickson: Absolutely. I love what you’re doing and I love your questions because you kind of get used to doing these media interviews, and it is largely a lot of the same questions, and I like that you’re going in a different direction and going deeper to what’s behind really being an entrepreneur and building your own business and putting yourself out there in the market because I actually think this stuff is what drives all of the practical tools.
John Lee Dumas: Well, that’s so true, and the thing is is that you’ve already alluded to this earlier in the interview, but one of the major things that was holding you back, that holds everybody back, is fear. So many people just see you right now, Pam Hendrickson, the finished product. You’re the successful person that’s doing these great things and you just have this great air of confidence about you. But there was a time when you weren’t that person. That you actually were, like a lot of listeners now, just about to make your leap and actually make that start. When people can relate to that and realize that they’re in the exact situation that you used to be in and that you made it, they can too, it’s very inspirational.
Pam Hendrickson: Absolutely, and I hope I’m not a finished product. I hope I’m never a finished product because I think about the life lessons you get, and being in business, it accelerates your lessons. I mean it magnifies so many things. It magnifies the good, it magnifies the lifestyle, it magnifies the impact you’re able to have, but also, it magnifies your learnings and lessons and how you grow and who you become. I do think that. I mean it’s going back to the beginning days of the personal development industry, but it is who you become in the process. We achieve great things in our business, but it really is because we’re willing to grow as people and we’re growing as our business grows.
John Lee Dumas: Great point. I’m just going to have to move on to the next topic, as much as I want to stay here and just keep talking about this because it’s such great stuff. You’re right. It’s the journey. We’re never finished products. We’re always getting up and just continuing to improve and be enthusiastic about it. I love that. So thank you.
Pam, you’re ruling in your current business right now. You have a lot of great things going on. What’s one thing that’s really exciting you right now?
Pam Hendrickson: I’m not a one thing excites me kind of person. I’ll be honest. There are several things that are exciting me, but I think I’m going to pick two. One is just the lifestyle. It’s just being able to really be there for my family and really take care of myself in that process has just been amazing, and I continue to be excited about that. What I’m excited about from a business standpoint is just taking everything I’ve learned. I’ve got another big product launch coming up next year, and I’m really, really excited about the brand rebuilding and what we’ve been able to do. I think it’s like a snowball going down the hill. You have an initial success, but then that just grows and grows and grows. I’m really excited to see what comes of it, and I’ve had customers with me for long enough now that they’re doing awesome things. I mean I’m so proud of our clients and what they’ve been able to do and their success stories. I think that, to me, is oh my gosh! If you can create one success story, that’s awesome.
John Lee Dumas: What’s your vision for the future, Pam?
Pam Hendrickson: My vision for the future is my passion is if you think, what did I really do when I was at the Anthony Robbins Organization? It was really doing anything I could to help empower him and his mission to go out there and touch as many lives as he possibly can, and that is one committed man, by the way, going out and touching lives.
If I can take that and use it to help multiple people go out and have a greater impact in their area of expertise and in their unique market, then that is an incredible vision to have achieved in my life. So if I can go and create tens, hundreds, thousands, tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands of people who are empowered to go out there and really build their business and have an impact on other people’s lives based on what they know, then boy, that’s a life well spent.
John Lee Dumas: Well, best of luck in that venture. So Pam, we’ve now reached my favorite part of the show. We’re about to enter the Lightning Round. This is where I provide you with a series of questions and you come back at Fire Nation with amazing and mind-blowing answers. Does that sound like a plan?
Pam Hendrickson: It does. I’ll see if I can blow any minds.
John Lee Dumas: [Laughs] What was the number one thing, besides fear, that was holding you back from becoming an entrepreneur?
Pam Hendrickson: Great question. I have a really low risk tolerance. I have lived my life really safe. I come from a conservative background and a traditional background. So just learning that, you know what? There are risks that come with the territory and I’ve got to manage that risk. I’ve never going to eliminate the risk.
John Lee Dumas: What is the best business advice you ever received?
Pam Hendrickson: Great! I’m in a fortunate position because I know a lot of the top names in my particular industry. I’ve been doing it a long time so I’ve gotten to know a lot of people. So I can get advice from people – top marketers, top businesspeople, people in virtually the top of this industry. Literally in the last week, I had two different people at the top of the industry give me completely divergent advice. One said, “You know what? Sell a low price point thing. Like $20.00, $30.00 a month. Then just go out and get as many customers as you can.”
The other one said to me literally about three days later, “No, no, no, no, no! Just sell a high price point thing. Sell an $8,000.00 to $10,000.00 thing and just get 30 people in it. That’s what you need to be doing.” So what do you do when you get divergent advice? Well, you’ve got to be able to filter it based on what it is you want. You’ve got to understand. The butcher wants to cut, the baker wants to bake, the pharmacist wants to drug.
So you’re going to get so much advice, especially when you’re an entrepreneur and when you’re in business for yourself. So it’s the ability to still take that advice. Hear it because it’s always good advice, but understand that you’ve got to be able to filter it against the veil of what it is you want and what you want for your life and what you want for your business, what your ultimate vision is so that you can take that advice appropriately.
John Lee Dumas: So whose advice did you take in that situation?
Pam Hendrickson: Neither. Something kind of more of a hybrid. I like to kind of cross-pollinate and use different pieces from different people. It’s having a funnel, right? You want to be more broad as you get to know people and help them get results as they get kind of into your system. Then the people who want to go deeper, you want to have stuff for them to be able to go deeper. So it’s really both.
John Lee Dumas: Good stuff. What is something that’s working for you or your business right now?
Pam Hendrickson: Yes. Two things. Number one, focus on the customer. When you don’t know what to do, you know what to do because the answer is always focus on the customer. I just spoke at an event last week and it was an entrepreneurial event in the online marketing industry. There were some people feeling stuck getting started. Like, “Gosh! I just feel I’m struggling getting my website up,” and I said, “You know what? It’s because you’re focused in the wrong place.” Don’t worry about that stuff. Yes, it’s good to have that stuff done, but focus on the client. Focus on the customer, and that’s where the growth is. That’s where the learnings are and that’s where all the joy is as well.
So focus on the customer. Then number two, build your platform. You’ve got to get out there. You’ve got to get your name out there. You’ve got to connect with customers. So it’s social media, it’s interviews like this, it’s speaking, it’s blogging. Guest blogs, guest articles and things like that.
John Lee Dumas: Yes. I’m huge about the platform. In fact, we’ve had Michael Hyatt on the show who speaks about platform in his book “Platform.” Have you read that?
Pam Hendrickson: I haven’t, actually. I know of it, and I’ll be honest, I haven’t read it yet. It’s definitely one that needs to go to the top of my list.
John Lee Dumas: Oh, it’s a great book, Pam. It’s all about the platform and just really inspiring a lot of different areas.
Pam Hendrickson: Great.
John Lee Dumas: Speaking of which, what’s the best business book that you’ve read in the last six months?
Pam Hendrickson: That’s a great question. It’s a book called “The Lean Startup.” I don’t recall…
John Lee Dumas: Eric Ries.
Pam Hendrickson: Eric Ries, yes. Yes. As much as I love the emotional and impact sides of the business, I’m a very systemic person and I love what they talk about in there. I love the concept of you’ve got to test and measure everything, but it’s got to be no vanity metrics, only metrics that really make sense. There’s just so much good business advice in there. So that’s been one of my favorites.
John Lee Dumas: Well, that goes back to what is working for you right now, which is focusing on the customer. That’s all about getting your product out as soon as possible so you can get feedback from the customer because until you’re getting feedback, you have no idea what you’re creating.
Pam Hendrickson: That’s right. I can teach my kids all day long. I can talk to them about riding a bike, I can show them pictures of riding a bike, I can read them books about riding a bike, but the way my kids are going to learn to ride the bike is if I put them on the bike, let them go down the street and fall down.
John Lee Dumas: [Laughs] Thanks for that visual. So Pam, this last question is my favorite, and it’s kind of a tricky one. So take your time, digest it, then come back at Fire Nation with a great answer. If you woke up tomorrow morning and you still had all of the experience, knowledge and money that you currently have right now, but your business had completely disappeared, leaving you with a clean slate, which many of our listeners find themselves in right now, what would you do in the next seven days?
Pam Hendrickson: A couple different directions. I mean I think the gift when things fall apart is that it’s an eye-opener. I mean you can finally go, “Okay, go back to what you love.” So I think you’ve got to go back to what your greatest passions are. So for me, my greatest passions are teaching. I mean my fun answer to that question is I would love to coach a professional football team. I mean, I’m completely not qualified, but I love football. I love the NFL. So it’d be really fun to own a football team. That would just be very cool. So that’s my fun answer. My business answer is I would really probably create something in the teaching profession and I would put together a small little course that I could do for customers and just go out and teach.
John Lee Dumas: I love it. Pam, that was, plain and simple, actionable advice. You’ve given us some great actionable advice this entire interview, and we are all better for it. Give Fire Nation one parting piece of guidance, then give yourself a plug, and then we’ll say goodbye.
Pam Hendrickson: [Laughs] Great! Well, the parting piece of information is really something I think we all know, which is it’s about progress. It’s that Peter Guber, who’s a famous moviemaker, famous in the Hollywood industry who wrote a great book on story, said something once, which is that nature abhors a straight line. It is never a straight line to get from where we are to where we want to be. So the key is it’s about progress and it’s about being kind to ourselves in that process and recognizing those little steps. You know what? Your first dollar that you make in your business is actually more important and more exciting and more of a milestone than the first $100,000 you make in your business because it’s just that defining moment. So I think if we just focus on making progress, that’s really awesome.
So in terms of a plug, I would just say just get to know me. Look me up. Go to pamhendrickson.com. I have some awesome free tools that I give away and really help not only on the business front, but for anybody who wants to create products and services, which really is the ticket to getting away from trading time for money. You’ve got to have, whatever your industry is, it doesn’t have to be an information product. It could be a widget that turns lights on and off or an awesome pillow that helps you sleep better at night, but you’ve got to have your own products and services if you’re in business.
So those are the types of tools that I provide. Just come check me out and come get to know me. Ping me, leave me a message, and let’s get to know each other.
John Lee Dumas: Great, Pam. Well your website, your book, your quote – everything is going to be linked up on the website. Fire Nation, we salute you. Thank you again so much for the time that you spent with us today, and we’ll catch you on the flipside.
Pam Hendrickson: Thanks, John. Have a great day.
