Why Most Founders Set the Wrong Growth Goals

[00:00:00] Randall: So every business kinda lives within this certain DNA that there's upside and there's downside, there's gross margin, that it all can kinda just get pushed around in a, in a, in a certain way in which it, it yields some sort of result.

[00:00:13] And so rather than just having some sort of pipe dream of just thinking that we're going to this revenue number, we're going to this earnings number, then we're gonna flip it and we're gonna sell it, and we're gonna live this lavish lifestyle, it's just being rooted in what's, what's actually possible, and then also being rooted in what is it that you actually want.

[00:00:33] Richard: Hey, everyone, welcome to the Ecommerce Playbook podcast. I'm your host, Richard Gaffan, director of digital product strategy here at Common Thread Collective, and I'm joined today by a brand new face, a brand new voice here at Common Thread Collective, a Mr. Randall Thompson, who's our VP of go-to-market here at CTC.

[00:00:48] Randall, what's going on, man? Welcome to the show.

[00:00:50] Randall: Hey, thanks. Thanks for having me.

[00:00:52] Richard: Yeah. Well, so let's, let's kick it off, maybe diving a little bit before we kind of get into our topic for the day. Diving a little bit into your background, uh, how you came to CTC, kind of like what, what your expertise is, why the folks should listen to you.

[00:01:04] Randall: Well, I guess, you know, be, be careful who you t- who you listen to. But, yeah, my background is e-commerce. I started a company in two thousand sixteen and spent about ten years grow- growing the business and then towards the tail end of owning it, I sold it and took a couple of years off, and then here I am at CTC with, uh, go-to-market now.

[00:01:26] Richard: So Randall, tell us a little bit about your role as VP of go-to-market. What does that, what does that mean in terms of your day-to-day?

[00:01:33] Randall: The way that it's been explained to me and the way that I've been tackling it is new channels, new people, new things. So essentially just going out, finding new people that we could solve anybody that has problems, we can go, we can go s-solve those issues for people.

[00:01:50] Where do these people live? So new channels and then new things. Just introducing new solutions for, for new people.

[00:01:58] Richard: Yeah. So, but part of it sounds like it's just expanding outside of... I mean, we have the, the service that we provide, but thinking about ways that we can provide similar or related services to a wider variety of people.

[00:02:09] Does that sound roughly

[00:02:11] Randall: correct? Yeah. Yeah, that's fair.

[00:02:13] Richard: Yeah. So I, I think then that, that segues nicely into what we wanna talk about today, which is how the profit system, uh, I guess maybe a way to phrase it, how the profit system enables you to achieve a specific goal for your business. Now, this is something that I've talked with Taylor before on the podcast, but it's been a while, and that's about setting a specific goal for your business, understanding what you're trying to do with the business, which again, many people come into their businesses without actually a clear sense of what that is.

[00:02:38] But once you have an understanding of what you wanna do with your business, how to build a plan and optimize towards that goal. So, and what that plays into is thinking about ways that we can solve problems novelly, which would be being sort of a second opinion or sort of a due diligence partner. But Randal, why don't you talk to us a little bit about the sort of, uh, mechanics of setting a goal for your business, maybe even in the context of the business that you started, your experience with goal setting and how that kind of played out.

[00:03:08] Randall: Yeah. Th-this is definitely lived experience in which like I li-- I lived an experience in which I was like, "Ah, we're going to the moon. We're gonna, we're gonna grow it to, to f-fifty, a hundred million dollars a year. We're gonna get to a certain earnings level, and then once we get to that earnings level, we're gonna flip it and we're gonna sell it for this, for this multiple, and I'm gonna go live on an island somewhere."

[00:03:30] And the reality is, is like none of that was really wrapped in, i-into reality or what the actual numbers were telling me and what the numbers could actually be. So every business kinda lives within this certain DNA that there's upside and there's downside, there's gross margin, that it all can kinda just get pushed around in a, in a, in a certain way in which it, it yields some sort of result.

[00:03:54] And so rather than just having some sort of pipe dream of just thinking that we're going to this revenue number, we're going to this earnings number, then we're gonna flip it and we're gonna sell it, and we're gonna live this lavish lifestyle, it's just being rooted in what's, what's actually possible, and then also being rooted in what is it that you actually want.

[00:04:14] Richard: So I think that there's a couple contrasting things there that are kind of interesting. One is, uh, this is sort of restating what you just said, but the idea that there is what's possible and then there's what you want, and understanding what both of those things are is sort of key to un- to setting the sort of initial goal.

[00:04:31] So i-in your case, in your experience, you had had an initial goal of going to the moon- Mm-hmm ... becoming so wealthy you could buy your own island. But the actual DNA of the business- Yeah ... didn't necessarily allow for that, so that's one thing. Right. But then, of course, presumably there's other situations where maybe the DNA of your business and your goal kind of align or the other way around, where the DNA of your business-- or, or rather you have a goal to, I don't know, you just want...

[00:04:59] You have a passion for this thing and you want to continue to build it, but it turns out that you have like a growth machine that you didn't realize. So anyway, there's, there's a number of different combinations, but speak a little bit to how you understood or how you get to the understanding of what the DNA of your business is versus your goal.

[00:05:14] Randall: Yeah. I think one of the most important things is you have to have historics, you know. Mm-hmm. E-even-- You have to be able to look back, and you have to be able to see what the past... W-what's happened in the past. But there also is just some things in which that you are, uh... Your cost of goods is your cost of goods.

[00:05:34] So sometimes you're just limited by your cost of goods. Sometimes you're just limited by the actual repeat rate of the customer, whether it's consumable or it's not a consumable or, you know, someti- In my circumstance, I was selling mugs. Most people don't need more than one mug. So there's just certain things within the business that are part of the DNA that you're, you're never gonna escape, and because of that, you can only model it in, in specific ways that gets you to a certain earnings number.

[00:06:07] Richard: Yeah. So ta-talk to me then how, how your personal goal for the business evolved then as this became more obvious.

[00:06:15] Randall: Well, I mean, I, I think that anybody that's, that lived during the COVID boom versus the COVID doom versus kind- Mm. -of the stabilization, uh, there, there was like a three-year stretch in which you didn't really know what the ceiling was and what the floor was.

[00:06:28] And so looking back and trying to make s-sense of the historics, uh, was hard to do because the, the numbers were not rooted in, in reality. So- Mm ... as you kinda continue to see the writing on the wall of what is reality, uh, and, and that's kind of a moving target in itself because the next 12 months aren't gonna be the same as the 12 months prior.

[00:06:51] So it is a bit of a moving target, but within reason, you can kind of get an idea of what is reality, what is the DNA of this business. Mm. And as you kinda get rooted in that and you kind of understand what that is, based on like those things that are n- kind of the non-negotiables, the repeat rate, the, the gross margin- Mm

[00:07:10] uh, the customer acquisition cost, as you begin to really understand those numbers, then what the future looks like based on kind of a, uh, you know, a six to 12 month past, uh, you can kinda get rooted in that and really put together goals looking forward in the next 12 months, and you can start to shape what your future looks like based on everything that we just discussed.

[00:07:35] Richard: Yeah. So I, I think, I think what would be interesting to talk about then is, uh, maybe a, a... What's, what's the word? Like a taxonomy of the types of goals that maybe make sense for a business. Yeah. This is, again, something we've talked about on the podcast before, but, but it has been a while, of like what, what are the kind of the basic categories of goal that you've come across?

[00:07:57] So one obviously is like, I don't know, maximizing profitability over a short-term window for the sake of acquisition. One is growing for the long term. Another is just keeping a business chucky- chugging because you love doing it. So maybe just speak a little bit to like the types of goals that make sense beyond just, "Hey, we wanna grow this into the stratosphere."

[00:08:16] Randall: Yeah. I think, I think you can ultimately put it in three buckets, and o-one of the buckets is, is you're building the business to sell it. Uh, and then another bucket would be you're trying to maximize the business for I hate to say it, but maybe optically you're trying to maximize the business to go and raise money to, to grow it even bigger.

[00:08:38] And then the third would be the, the goal would be for you to kind of understand what you need to get out of it for your specific life- Mm-hmm ... and optimize and ma- maximize and optimize to that specific need within, within your, your life. So I would say that that's the, the three buckets that you would look at it.

[00:08:59] And, and one thing that I've grown to believe that if you're starting, if you're starting your own business and you're running your own business, there's a lot of headache. It's a, it's a, it's a lot of stress, and it, it kind of makes sense that your goal should be make, to make money along the way, to have the profits.

[00:09:17] Mm-hmm. So all things lead back to profit no matter what. If you're going to sell it, if you're going to raise money, if, if you're just trying to create a, a, a lifestyle out of it, no matter what, you wanna be able to optimize towards profit. You wanna be able- Mm-hmm ... to make money.

[00:09:31] Richard: Yeah. Right. A- and so we're...

[00:09:33] At the end of the day, it's, it is about making money, but the difference between what you're saying and just going into it saying, "I want to make money," or like you're saying, "I wanna go to the moon," is that there's very specific ways that you kind of pull the different levers that you have available to you based on in what, based on what window you wanna maximize profitability within, I guess is kind of what you're saying.

[00:09:55] For sure. So if it's a lifestyle thing and you wanna pay yourself in a way that makes sense for the way you wanna live, that's, that's a certain approach to it. If you want to, again, maximize profitability over a certain window in order to raise money or build your company towards acquisition, then that looks different as well.

[00:10:10] So, maybe talk a little bit then about how this all ties into CTC's profit system and how we approach the way we serve the brands that work with us.

[00:10:21] Randall: Where my, where my whole mind goes with this is I went from 1 to 3 million. I went from 3 to 8 million. I went from 8 to 15 million. I went from 15 to 25 million, and as I kind of- grew the revenue number, my mi- my, my understanding of the correct motions to take to not only grow the revenue number, but also to grow the profit number, there was a huge disconnect.

[00:10:49] It's much easier to inflate the top line than it is to- Yeah, of course ... inflate the top line while the, while the bottom line is inflating with it. So wi- with that said, you know, like, it, it's a relatively simple concept to say, "Okay, I spend more and it ge- and it generates more revenue." But you start getting into certain levels of, of business and in- into the game that different things are needed, uh, different tactics are needed, deeper understandings are needed.

[00:11:16] Um, and I think that's what's so special about Common Thread Collective is, you know, we have a data scientist on staff, and he's, he's on here all the time. Yeah. Steve. Being able to actually break down certain metrics that are gonna lead to more profit, especially as that revenue number grows, uh, I think is kind of the secret sauce here.

[00:11:37] Uh, so being one, uh, being a founder and, and trying to rely on the team that you have to optimize just based on Metrics like our return on ad spend. When you start getting to a certain level, that's just not enough. Mm-hmm. Um, and so I think that, that would be the secret sauce at, at CTC.

[00:11:58] Richard: Yeah. Okay. So let's talk through...

[00:12:00] I, I wanna go on a, a little bit of a tangent or just sort of a bit of an offshoot here, which is talk to me about your experience. You had mentioned going from one million to three to eight to 15. Talk to me about how the experience, A, of just being a founder, owner, operator, whatever, how that evolved, and then how the way that you had to track profitability, you had to track success evolved through each one of those stages.

[00:12:22] So how did a million look different than three? How did three look different than eight? How did eight look different than 15? All those sorts of things.

[00:12:27] Randall: I just-- Well, for whatever it's worth, it felt like the whole time I-- it was just going through imposter syndrome, and I just had no idea- ... what I was doing.

[00:12:34] Richard: Yeah, yeah.

[00:12:35] Randall: You know? And, and I think that everybody kind of feels that in, in- Mm ... one level-- one-- Everybody kind of feels that in so- in some cases. But yeah, uh, I, I mean, really it just came down to the, to the basics of just understanding, understanding my numbers and then how the-- all those numbers work together.

[00:12:52] I think one of the, one of the secret sauces of CTC and something that i-if it were me and I could go back in time and something that, you know, ul-ultimately that CTC could, could have helped me with is, they-- p-part of a system that they have, they're able to tell you your optimal AMER for each month. I kind of just blindly just kind of, kind of just blended together quarters and kind of- Mm

[00:13:18] just like, this kind of feels like the, the right spend and trying to model that out and try to really understand, like, how much should I actually be spending for this, for this day or this month, and what does that ultimately lead back to? It's a, it's a hard thing to take on, especially when you're in this, this high growth, environment.

[00:13:36] So if you, if you had somebody come to you and say, "Hey, here's your optimal spend for this month or for, for this day, and, uh, this is what your, your MER should look like on, on a monthly basis or a weekly basis," um, and it's backed, and it's backed by, like, real data, not just, like, hunches. Yeah. Uh, so to answer your question, uh, I just did all the same activities, just more of them, and I don't even know if they were necessarily the, the right activities.

[00:14:06] Richard: So in, in hindsight, being twenty/twenty, of course, like where, where do you think you should have evolved, let's say between eight and fifteen or something?

[00:14:15] Randall: Where should I have evolved as, as we doubled the size of the business? I sh-should have definitely better understood Probably like 90 or 120 day LTV

[00:14:29] Richard: Yeah

[00:14:29] Randall: I should, I should have better understood that and what that actually did to our, to our bottom line over a longer time horizon.

[00:14:36] Mm-hmm. And sh- should have introduced more product launches. Sh- should have understood the, the relationship of those customers coming back for those product launches. Should have better understood the relationship between my customer acquisition cost and what Like for first order profitability and what that actually meant on a, on a 90-day horizon.

[00:14:59] There's all sorts of metrics that I now understand, uh, not necessarily would know how to go and dig up, but I definitely understand and that I could apply to, to, into today's, uh, into today's environment that would take a $15 million company, uh, with lots of, lots of profit on the bottom versus just saying, "Okay, let's just get to this, to this revenue number to just, to just get to the revenue number."

[00:15:27] Richard: Yeah. Yeah, it kind of seems to me that the, uh, that part of, part of like the, the reflection is... Maybe a way to put it is that like it-- what it seems to me is like what you have to do is connect every day to, or, or, or the performance and execution every day to, uh, to the broader outcome. And what tends to happen is you take sort of a broad picture look like we need this AMER over, I don't know, the last couple of quarters, or we need this AMER just generally speaking, when really what you need to do is say, like, "For today, we need to hit this AMER number in order for an outcome to happen in the next, like six, seven, eight months."

[00:16:02] And getting to that precision level is the type of thing that would've been helpful, but it's the type of thing that's very, very, very difficult to do unless you have a system in place like the one that we have at CTC, right? So d- yeah, does that make sense?

[00:16:17] Randall: Yeah. The-- I think the single most important thing is understanding the big picture first.

[00:16:20] What, what is it- Yeah ... you actually want, you know?

[00:16:23] Richard: Yeah.

[00:16:23] Randall: And, and then layering on top of that, what is the DNA of the business? And then the intersection of those two things, and then map down to the day by-- day-to-day. And yeah, and I think- Mm ... a-and then actually focusing on the metrics that actually drive that.

[00:16:37] Yeah. And, and I think that's the, the secret sauce of CTC, and I think that's ultimately the secret sauce of just growing something profitably.

[00:16:45] Richard: Yeah. That's, that's, that's a really good point, actually, because, like, o-one thing that I will hear a lot is when you would ask somebody, like, "What do you want out of your business?"

[00:16:52] They'll say something like a three ROAS, which is like a sort of middle of the pack, a metric that is, like, important in some ways, but only in the context of this other, this whole constellation of metrics. And so actually understanding, like, no, no, no, what I want is this contribution margin, this profitability over this specific period of time.

[00:17:11] That's the big picture- Mm-hmm ... kind of North Star, right? And then at the bottom, like, what are all the sort of like the whole array of metrics that are going to lead up to that, and how I c- how can I be precise about the little stuff in order to bring the big stuff about? Um- Yes. Yeah. But yeah. Yeah, that makes sense.

[00:17:25] All that. So o-one thing that you'd mentioned kind of before we hit record here is this idea that maybe there-- m-maybe money's coming back into e-commerce. So obviously, you know, during COVID, there was a huge boom for the e-commerce industry, then COVID ended, people started going to regular stores again, and that kind of dried up.

[00:17:45] Now, with, you know, some recent kind of high-profile acquisitions, it seems perhaps that's changing. So maybe speak a little bit to that and then kind of how our CTC service- If he plays into it.

[00:17:56] Randall: Yeah, I don't-- I'm never gonna claim to be somebody that actually understands what the heck's going on. But- ... I think that one of the things that I am good at is I'm good at identifying patterns relatively ear-early, and it does seem as if that there are acquisitions that are happening.

[00:18:11] It does seem like acquisitions are happening, but it's, it-it's happening with, uh, of course, omni-channel brands. It's- Yeah ... people aren't so leveraged into just the e-commerce world. The, the DNA of the business, the a- the acquisitions are happening with the, with the companies that have the DNA that make up the repeat purchase rate, uh, kind of like your traditional consumables.

[00:18:33] It seems as if that that's going to be something that people-- that for money to flow into, that there's gonna have to be some sort of consumable aspect. There's gonna have to be some sort of retail play as well. But yeah, I think, I think there is a possibility that money is gonna flow back into e-commerce.

[00:18:50] What, you know- Mm ... what comes up must go down, and that's exactly what happened from twenty-twenty through twenty-twenty-three, twenty-twenty-four, twenty-twenty-five. And it kinda seems like things have stabilized and the, the gangsters of the e-commerce world have, have figured it out. They have survived.

[00:19:06] Mm. And now that things are stabilized, I do think that there's gonna quite possibly be another rush that comes about with the change in behavior on how we're searching for things. People are moving from Google and going into ChatGPT or w-wherever else. And anytime that a new ad channel like that opens up, typically it's a lot less to go and acquire a customer.

[00:19:30] So that change in behavior might actually drive down the acquisition costs, which might actually make more money flow into, i-into e-commerce. Mm-hmm. But yeah. A-a-and so if all this is true, if there is truly m-money that is positioned and coming, coming into e-commerce, yeah, I think it's, I think it's just, it's just smart to identify what it is you want.

[00:19:52] Smart to get an opinion about the DNA of your business. You know, everybody thinks their kid is good-looking. And, and so I think it's good to get a second opinion of whether your kid is good-looking or not- Yeah ... metaphorically speaking. And, yeah, a-a-and then, and then just optimize towards what's actually within your goals and what, what's within your DNA.

[00:20:14] Mm. So if there's money coming into e-commerce- And you wanna sell your business and, uh, and it matches your DNA, then get hooked up with somebody that can give you a deeper understanding of how that's actually possible, and it's not just, "I'm gonna drive, I'm gonna drive a two-mer to, to, to the moon."

[00:20:35] Richard: Yeah.

[00:20:35] Yeah, no, that makes sense. It's the-- fundamentally what CTC's service can function as is a reality check, and that definitely can be something that's hard to hear, and, and I know that's been an experience of, of some clients across the years here. But the idea is that, yeah, there is sort of... there are fundamental, almost unchangeable elements of your business, which is not something any, especially any entrepreneurial-minded person wants to hear, is that, that there's something that they can't control.

[00:21:00] But- Yeah. That's right ... that does, that does happen a lot, right? And so there's certain-- Maybe we could speak to a little bit of like, again, what What, what's-- would be an example of, of brand DNA being sort of... Uh, you already kind of brought one up with your, your own brand, but an example of brand DNA being at odds with somebody's stated goal?

[00:21:20] Randall: Well, you know, I think one of the most underrated things on a brand DNA side of things is, is like fame or status.

[00:21:28] Richard: Yeah,

[00:21:28] Randall: totally. Uh, and because, because then the product release kind of becomes irrelevant. Mm-hmm. I mean, I, I live in a head space in which that I believe that product is mostly everything. If you have a gr- if you have a great product, you don't have to market it as hard, you don't have to sell it as hard, you just share, you just share it with people, and you do it at a profitable level.

[00:21:46] But when you have some sort of baked-in optics or some sort of baked-in fame and you just introduce a product to the, the people that just kind of put you on a pedestal or extol you in some, some sort of way, it's just very, very easy for somebody with that fame to share the, share the product and, and it creates...

[00:22:06] Especially if you've built your audience on, on an organic level, it just creates a really great scenario of, of profitability. So I think that, I think that in the DNA of, of what's gonna end up becoming a very valuable business is some sort of personal brand that's attached to it.

[00:22:23] Richard: Hmm. Yeah.

[00:22:24] Randall: So yeah, that consumables obviously, and distribution is always gonna be the bugaboo.

[00:22:30] Yeah. Ads are gonna get, they're gonna get more expensive and, uh- Mm ... I think having, having the omni-channel and having different, different modes of distribution is gonna be... Well, it, it just is. It's just critical to, uh, to, to a good DNA of a company.

[00:22:44] Richard: Yeah. Well, yeah, your first point there, the sort of the Alex Hormozi theory of how to grow your business in some ways, like if you can just become famous yourself, then the association of the product with you will be sort of enough.

[00:22:56] Right. I think there's still obviously an element of, like, if the product really sucks, like that could be a problem. But-

[00:23:00] Randall: Oh,

[00:23:01] Richard: yeah ... but it papers over the fact that there's a lot of, es- particularly in, in, uh, spaces that are really commoditized, is that there's a lot of brand par- or product parity where all the products are, like, actually pretty good, but there's nothing to distinguish them other than the personal brand of the person selling them.

[00:23:15] Mm-hmm. So in that case, like that, that may be a, a sort of a difference maker. But then- Yeah, it feels like the, the... Then the other factors would be like hard costs are called hard for a reason. Uh, there's- those are things that are, like, fundamentally really difficult to change, and you have to find a way to sort of break out of that.

[00:23:32] Yeah. But yeah. I think... So talk a little bit then about, and, and we've sort of been circling around this, but, like, CTC can function for you, particularly the profit engine and our profit system, as a reality check, as a way to maybe do sort of like a, the Human Genome Project or whatever, but about your brand, right?

[00:23:50] Get, get a sense of s- a DNA scan, let's say. Yeah. Uh, and then we can build out a plan to, like, unlike human DNA, let's say, like, we can build out a plan to build something for you in light or in spite of the DNA of your brand. Yeah. So talk to a, a little bit about how what we do can function as a form of due diligence, as second opinion, as a reality check, all that type of thing.

[00:24:15] Randall: Yeah. Fir- first off, r- r- you took me on a tangent. I'm gonna take you on a quick tangent.

[00:24:20] Richard: Please.

[00:24:22] Randall: Y- your ability to, your ability to take in, take in information and just keep it so compact and so, so precise, it, it's a... That's a talent. Thank you. Yeah. Thank you. You're, you're great at

[00:24:33] Richard: that. English major, you know?

[00:24:34] Randall: Oh, okay. Yeah, you're great with words. Yeah. Yeah, I, I mean, I, I can only speak from my experience, and my experience is, is that in my journey of growing my business, I came across a bunch of different things that I paid a bunch of stupid money for that did nothing.

[00:24:50] Richard: Yeah.

[00:24:52] Randall: You know? Yeah. And, like, you, you kind of look at it, and hindsight obviously is 2020.

[00:24:56] You look at it and you go Why, w-like, y-you know, for somebody to analyze some sort of something and, you know, it cost X amount of dollars and, and, and you just kind of look back on it now and you go, "W-what was I actually thinking?" And so the, the beauty, the beauty of stepping away for a while is you, you do get clarity.

[00:25:17] Richard: Mm-hmm.

[00:25:17] Randall: And then I, I've stepped into CTC and I've been here for a few months, and I think that the beauty here is, is that I, I understand there's a long list of things that CTC would do. You know, you hand over your data and they, they go through this long list of things that ultimately gets you information that I don't know if you're gonna get anywhere else.

[00:25:36] Like- Yeah ... if you go and work with another partner, the motions that CTC goes through to get you the data that you actually need in order to drive your business forward tow-towards either a sale or to maximize profits or to go raise money, whatever it is, they, they take that data in and they, they hand something off to you that is actually something that you are going to apply to make yourself more money or to go and sell your business or go, go raise money.

[00:26:04] And so, I guess my, my point to this is, is that- Yeah ... that there is, there is dumber money to go, go, go, go get spent. I don't, I don't know if that's like a, I don't know if that's a good- ... but yeah.

[00:26:17] Richard: A compelling thesis. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. I think it's, it is interesting... That's a good point. I mean, like, so I work with a lot of brands directly who are smaller, right?

[00:26:25] Brands that are six, early seven-figure, and that's, that is their, I would say, their number one problem is like they feel like they're constantly throwing bad, bad money after bad. You know what I mean? Yes. Yes. And hiring agencies that suck or, you know, you've hired- Yes ... a freelancer who just ran up your ROAS, but it was all remarketing or something, or you hired a consultant that didn't actually give you any information that was useful.

[00:26:49] There's this- Yeah ... I've said it on this podcast before, but this, marketing is a, like a very weird world because let's say if you go to like a, I think I was using this analogy with Luke. If you go to a car mechanic and the car p- mechanic fails to fix your car like 80% of the time, like that's a problem with this industry.

[00:27:06] You know what I mean? Yeah. And that, that often is the case with, with marketers. There's just... And in some sense, there's probably too many of them. I think one thing that's compelling about our offering is that what we're te- like this particular, uh, the profit system doing due diligence, getting like a second opinion, a second look at your business.

[00:27:25] So what we're offering you is like, what we'll give you is bad news The bad news being that your business is maybe not built for the goal that you want to get at. We can tell you how to get there, but as it stands right now, we can tell you exactly why things aren't going to work out the way that you think they are.

[00:27:42] And I think a lot of the time where bad marketers fall flat and bad agencies fall flat is what they say is like, "Hey, we're going to show you how-- we're basically gonna just demonstrate how everything's gonna be great all the time. Like we're gonna give you a fantastic ROAS. We're gonna get you this amazing result here and there."

[00:27:59] But those metrics are all inflated. They're all ultimately meaningless. What we're offering is a picture of what reality looks like, which maybe is not doubling your business this year. But maybe it's growing it by 15%, which is better than what was going to happen otherwise, which is that it was gonna shrink based on what we're looking at.

[00:28:17] You know what I mean? So, anyway, that, that was just, yeah, maybe a way to encapsulate kind of what we're offering here, is like we're gonna give you-- we're gonna shine a light on, on things, and whether there's gonna be good stuff and there's gonna be bad stuff, we'll, we'll tell you all of it and build a plan, to go from there.

[00:28:32] Randall: Yeah. And, and, and it's information that you're gonna not gonna really get anywhere else, you know? Yeah. So somebody's gonna say launch more campaigns and, and try to get more creative and drive, drive this to this number versus- Mm-hmm ... there's actually gonna be detailed data and information here that you, you otherwise aren't gonna get anywhere else.

[00:28:49] Richard: Yeah. Yeah, that's exactly right. So any- anything else that you wanna hit on this? Anything you wanna kinda draw out in terms of how, how our profit system can help with this specifically?

[00:28:59] Randall: Yeah. I think, I think that the single most important thing is, is that you, you gotta sliver off some time to really ask yourself what it is you want out of your business.

[00:29:08] And once you've slivered off that time to, to really understand what it is you want, I would say go hire somebody that really understands numbers and, and understands data, and have them model it for you. And, and I think that's like kind of like the distilled version of everything that we're talking about here.

[00:29:26] So understand what you want, and then go find somebody that really understands numbers well beyond anything that you'll ever be able to comprehend, and go pay them to go and model it for you. And to your point, it's gonna be, it's gonna be a, a dollar that goes a lot further than, than the next consultant.

[00:29:44] Richard: Mm-hmm. Yeah. And, and by the way, we know a guy who does data and he understands it at a level we never could. It's Steve, and he works here. So if you're interested in having this kind of like thought work done for you and shining this light on your business, you know where to find us as always, ctc, ctc.com.

[00:30:02] That is not our website. Commonthreadco.com. Hit the hire us button. Let us know. Go ahead. Just

[00:30:07] Randall: when I told you you're good with words.

[00:30:10] Richard: That's right. Yeah, I messed up there. Forget the name of our own company, our own website. Anyhow, folks, you can find us there. Randall, thank you for joining us. Well, obviously, we're gonna have you back on, so appreciate you joining us here.

[00:30:21] But until next time, folks, thank you for listening, and we'll see

[00:30:23] ya.