Originally aired Thursday, March 19, 2026. Businessing is now a weekly show with a new episode every Monday.
Short answer: Say the problem you solve and who you solve it for, in a sentence or two. Skip your credentials and features. Tie it to the fear or feeling behind the problem. A handyman might say he does 'everything on your home to-do list you hate to do.' A good pitch makes people ask questions and think of someone to refer.
Today Lisa Raebel of Rebel Girl Revenue joined me to fix the moment you stand up at a networking event and freeze. Her power pitch is the problem you solve and who you solve it for, built around the fear or feeling behind it. Ask your best clients how they felt before and after working with you. We also talked about finding the right networking groups, qualifying prospects, and what to do with a client you'd rather not take. In the news, the Iran war, the Fed holding rates, March Madness and a GLP-1 addiction study. The Idea Slam covered someone posting your prices to call you expensive, and whether to take sweat equity instead of pay.
Businessing is the weekly show where small business owners figure out what to do next, with a new episode every Monday. Hosted by Pat Miller, founder of the Small Business Owners Community: owners only, nobody pitching, $19 a month.
Key takeaways
- Write a one or two sentence pitch that names the problem you solve and the people you solve it for.
- Ask your two or three best clients how they felt before working with you and how they feel now, then use their words.
- Record yourself giving your pitch, watch it back, and rewrite anything that's about you instead of the people you help.
- At networking events, look for people who already sell to your ideal clients, since busy buyers often don't attend.
- Before you trade work for sweat equity, ask if you'd invest the same amount in cash, and check whether you have spare time.
Questions this episode answers
How do I introduce my business at a networking event?
Say what problem you solve and who you solve it for, in plain words. Lisa Raebel calls it a power pitch, not a sales pitch, because its only job is to start a conversation. Tie it to the fear or feeling behind the problem, and you'll know it worked when people ask questions or think of someone to refer.
How do I find networking groups with my ideal clients?
You may not find your ideal clients there, because busy owners often skip networking. Look instead for people who sell other services to the same clients. They can introduce you.
What should I do if someone publicly calls my prices too expensive?
Don't take the bait. Pat's view is that people who do this are usually behind you, not ahead of you. If you respond, keep it calm and factual, explain your pricing is based on the value you deliver, thank them, and move on.
Should I work for sweat equity instead of getting paid?
Ask whether you'd put the same amount of cash into that business today. If not, don't put in the labor. If yes, check whether you have unused time, since time you don't sell expires, and only take it on if it won't bump paying clients.
Worth quoting
I find qualification is the first thing that goes out the door when we really need the business.
Pat Miller on Businessing
The people in front of you, they don't have time for that. They're already past you.
Pat Miller on Businessing
What should you charge? As much as humanly possible. That keeps the business coming in. And if they say yes, too fast, you're not high enough.
Pat Miller on Businessing
Would I put the same amount of cash into the business as I would my labor? And if the answer is no, then I shouldn't do the labor.
Pat Miller on Businessing
On the show
- Lisa Raebel, Rebel Girl Revenue: Revenue and marketing strategist who shared how to build a power pitch around the problem you solve and who you solve it for.
- Idea Slam question: Someone screenshotted an owner's pricing and posted it in a Facebook group calling them expensive, and another owner asked whether to take sweat equity from a client instead of full pay.
In this episode
- Iran war, the Fed and March Madness
- Lisa Raebel on the networking power pitch
- Finding the fear or feeling behind your service
- Finding the right networking groups
- Qualifying prospects and difficult clients
- ChatGPT gets write actions, and Claude Code fixes my computer
- Idea Slam: someone called my prices expensive
- Idea Slam: should I take sweat equity?
Watch, listen and join
- Watch this episode on YouTube
- Apple Podcasts
- Listen anywhere
- Small Business Owners Community
- The Small Business Library (add it to your AI tool)
More on this topic: What you sell answers from the Small Business Owners Community
Full transcript
[Pre-show theme song removed]
And good morning. It is Thursday, March 19th, and we are Businessing. This is small business's daily live show. I'm Pat Miller, founder of the Small Business Owners Community, and the Fridays Off Guy, which means this is the last show of the week. I'm a little bit excited about that. Really looking forward to my three day weekend sponsored this morning by our friends at Gen Head on today's show.
We've got some great stuff. We're gonna go through the news. We're gonna get into our idea Slam questions. Of course, our AI story of the day is we're going to welcome chat GPT to the moment. Excited that chat GPT is with us. They're coming into the trends that exist now and the trends are like two weeks old, but they're finally here.
I'll explain in the AI story of the day. Also, we're going to talk about positioning yourself when you stand up at the networking meeting and you say, Hey, this is who I am and what I do, and this is who I do it for. Can you do that in like a sentence or two? Are you clear and are you able to let everybody know what you're doing with confidence so they get it the first time?
If you're not quite sure, we have a guest on today, Lisa Rebel, uh, from Rebel Girl. Marketing is gonna be on the show today, and Lisa's going to come in and help us understand how we can do a better job of it. Also this morning, make sure you say good morning in the chat. 'cause here's the deal. We found out two things about running the show.
First, it's better on YouTube. It's just better On YouTube, there's less lag. You can see everybody's chats back and forth. And it's the place that we need to grow. So if you're watching on LinkedIn, if you're watching on Facebook, on x, on, uh, Twitch, I appreciate you tuning in, but really want to focus everyone to YouTube.
So this is the QR code right here. If you're watching on one of the other platforms, switch over to YouTube. The experience is way, way better. The other thing is we're going to keep the chat up on the screen because here's what we know, we know that SBOC events are better with your questions, comments, and sarcastic remarks going on in the chat.
And with everyone watching in all these different places, until we get everybody on YouTube, it's not as much fun if you can't chat with one another while I'm talking. So see the chats on the screen, we're gonna keep the chat on the screen so that way we can all have fun with one another. And I don't need to call you out one by one to recognize that you're here.
'cause you can just say, Hey, I'm here. So Lacey and Doris and Nikki, and. Everybody else that's with us this morning, it's great to see you. Thanks for tuning in. I really appreciate it.
Let's get through the news. Lisa Rebel is standing by. I do not wanna waste any of her brilliance. The Iran War is getting interesting and we just got a text bulletin or a YouTube bullet, I'm sorry, a Twitter bulletin this morning, uh, came out, uh, 10 50, I think it just broke.
A USF 35 fighter was damaged by suspected Iranian fire, but it made an emergency landing at a US air base in the Middle East. So assuming, I mean, looking at this, the plane made it back. The pilot made it back, thank goodness. But an F 35 is pretty much the best of our best. Surprising that one of those got damaged.
So what else is going on in the war? Uh, in a Iranian drone strike, hit a Saudi refinery on the Red Sea. Thursday morning, Kuwait said an Iranian drone hit a refinery on the same day, European natural gas futures went bananas. After those two things happened, those prices are up 24%. Based on that news, the Iranian Supreme leader says that they're gonna keep on trying to block the straight of hor.
So this whole conflict is turned into managing the straight of hor and what's going to happen there and what's gonna happen with oil prices. The other thing that's developed is this is no longer just the US and Israel going after Iran. Iran's bombing everybody, which some people are thinking may unify and galvanize all of the Arab states, all of the Middle East against Iran, which would be.
That would be a big problem for Iran. So we'll keep an eye on that. And as you know, I'm keeping an eye on oil prices as my guidance of what's going on with this conflict. Oil prices are sitting at $96 a barrel as of this morning, so that's where we're sitting as we go into the show. Another piece of news that broke, I mean, it's so new.
I have to read it off my phone because it's so new. The Department of Homeland Security is going to have a new. Chief because President Trump fired or promoted Christi Nome to another role. Mark Wayne Mullen is the guy that he's tapped to lead Homeland Security and his nomination has advanced out of committee into a full Senate hearing.
So that's news there as well because if we can get a DHS head, that may lead us quicker to having an end to the DHS shutdown, which would then end all of the shenanigans that are happening at airports and would hopefully help the country stay on point against potential terrorist attacks. The Fed met yesterday and interest rates held steady.
They didn't move them at all. 3.5 to 3.75%. They're now projecting one rate cut for the rest of 2026. Uh, chairman Powell said inflation isn't coming down as much as they'd hoped. That's why they didn't mess with the rates. They're seeing inflation hitting 2.7% this year, which is above their target of 2%. So if you were sitting there thinking, oh, I'm gonna refi and gonna get a cheaper loan, you're gonna have to keep on waiting because the rates didn't go down.
And how did that affect the markets? They didn't like it. They didn't like it at all. The market tanked. Yesterday afternoon, the Dow dropped to 768 points on Wednesday, the worst day in months.
In Funner news, I'm just gonna use hashtag funner because it's just funner. It's funner. March Madness starts today.
Thank God I don't even care about basketball, but it's just something fun to focus on. 32 games over the next two days. Florida is trying to repeat as a champion, something they haven't done in 2007. So that's the last time that they were a repeat champion. So looking forward to all of the college basketball that's gonna be happening.
Oh, and there's one more thing, one more piece of news that I wanted to share. You know how so many people are on GLP one drugs because we're trying to get skinnier, me included? I mean, I'm not on the GLP ones, but I'm trying to get skinnier. We're all trying to get skinnier and GLP ones are helping. They did a big study.
600,000 patients took this GLP one drug study, and what they found is that these drugs may also help prevent addictions. People on the GLP ones are less likely to develop alcohol and drug problems, and for those that were already addicted, GLP ones lowered hospitalizations and overdose rates. How prevalent are these drugs now?
One in eight Americans are using GLP ones. Wow. So that could be a side benefit of taking GLP ones. That is something that we can look forward to. Speaking of looking forward to, let's welcome in our guest today, shall we?
And why are you so small? Lisa Raebel. That's not cool.
Oh, that's too big. Oh,
there we go.
Lisa Raebel joins us. She's the founder of Rebel Girl Revenue, a founding 50 member of the SBOC, and my marketing and revenue person that I go to when I have questions. Lisa, how are you this morning?
I am great. I'm all caffeinated. Ready to go?
Caffeinated. And you're swagged out. You got the SBOC sweatshirt on.
I was gonna change and I thought, fuck, forget it. I'm gonna, I'm gonna, I'm gonna tote some merch, man
gonna come on and represent, which we appreciate. Now you're the person we go to when it's time to tell people who we are and what we do. And how big of a problem is it for people if you can't describe what you do in a few sentences in a way that people understand the very first time that you share it?
So this is an interesting question 'cause it was pretty recently that I did a poll of like, what is, like, what's what the thing you dread about networking is? And a lot of it was, I don't know what to say.
Mm.
And so it's, it's a very common problem. And we also, I don't know, I, it's, I don't know where we learned this, but we need to unlearn the fact that we talk about like features and benefits and how we make ourselves great versus how we solve problems for our customers.
Because, you know, it's getting down to the point where nobody really cares. You know what certifications you have, if you have an MBA, all that other stuff, they just wanna know, are you gonna fix the problem and. Are you gonna do it in a, in a good timeframe? And are you gonna do it within the budget that I have?
So if you can answer those questions, then you're gonna start a better conversation.
And you mentioned that we learned this someplace, that we need to be descriptive of who we are and what we do. Yeah. How do we unlearn that? Where do we start? I want this conversation that we get to have today to be helpful to people so they can suck less when it's time to introduce what they do.
So, okay, we know we need to do a different,
more funner and suck less, more
funner.
Those are the two hashtags for today, right? Hashtag
funner, hashtag suck less. We get to stand up and tell people what we do, or at least what's in it for them. Where do we start? How can we start fixing this?
Well, the first question is, is.
Is what is the problem that you solve? And then like one B is who are you solving it for? Because everybody is not your client. I'm sorry, I hate to percept bubble if anybody thinks that, but like everybody is not your client. And so like once you know who you're, who you're solving this problem for, understanding what to say becomes a whole lot easier.
Are you targeting a specific women in business or men in business? Are you a specific industry, a specific, you know, age range or life stage? You know, are you targeting people who just had kids or people who just bought a house at a higher interest rate as we just talked about? Or so like if you, once you know who you're talking about, like it becomes a lot easier and then it's like if you just say, this is the problem that I solve for this audience.
Then that starts a conversation. Because if you've heard me once, you've heard me a thousand times say, it's not a sales pitch. You are not gonna sell something in the first 30 seconds. You meet somebody. So let's stop calling it that. Let's call it a power pitch. That starts a great conversation,
and that's the thing.
We just gotta get a great conversation started and then we have our entire arsenal of information and trust building tricks that we can use with people once we get their attention. Yeah. And we start the conversation. So we do this service for these people, let's break it into two parts,
right?
The service or the, the transformation that we provide is not bookkeeping solutions.
No.
How do we narrow down to the pain point of what our service and the transformation is that we do for people?
It's understanding either the fear or, or the emotion that's behind it. So let's, I'll give you like a, I'll give you some industries and some quick hits. Like I, I use this one in my talk all the time.
You know, there's a handyman and he doesn't say, these are the handyman things that I do. He says, I do everything on your home to-do list you hate to do. Mm. And it gives you a picture of your home to-do list going, yeah, I gotta call this guy. And it's not about, it's not about bookkeeping, it's about the fear of doing something wrong.
It's missing something. And then, you know, you have a tax account because taxes are so convoluted and hard. You don't want the government, you don't wanna get that letter right from the IRS saying, yeah, you screwed something up. I, you know, we gotta do an audit now. So it's either based on fear or emotion,
fear or emotion, and to dive into those fear and emotion pain points.
Would we go back through previous engagements we've had with clients? Would we do polling? Would we sit down our ideal client? All of those things. What works best? Do you think
you could do all of those? So take maybe your two or three best clients and just say, how did you feel before you worked with me?
And then how do you feel now? Because I, I, it's gonna be different for every, not every industry, but every person. And so we wanna be to say like, how did you feel about that? And then, then create something along, along those ways. So like, a lot of times the reason that the power of the pitch talk that I do is so popular is that people just, they want more confidence.
They wanna know what to say instead of like rambling on and on and on. And I'm telling you, once you have confidence in your pitch, you literally love networking again. And it's, and it's so much it, one, it's funner, hashtag funner. And it also is gonna start those greater, those better conversations. And then it goes into that whole part of like, who is your ideal customer?
And then where they hang out, which is a whole different talk, but the two are very much married together of what problems do you solve, what fears are you getting rid of? And then what, um, who you're talking to.
So today we had the chance to dive into what's the transformation and what's the emotion around the transformation.
You're right,
right.
Having a conversation about how do we dice up the audience and who we're going after is a separate conversation. When you go to networking and it feels right, you stand up, you give your power pitch. What happens? What's the feedback that you get? What? What's the transformation that you experience when you've nailed it?
What? What's the difference between not nailing it and nailing it? What happens?
The other person that you're talking to asks questions.
Ah,
that's interesting. Tell me more. Because what you're really trying to do is if you stop trying to think, you're selling to the person you're talking to, and you're selling to the Rolodex or CRM, depending upon your age in their head, right?
That's that's what you're trying to do in networking. You want referrals. You want to be so clear about, you want them to go, I know somebody who needs you. That is successful networking right then and there.
So how do we do homework? Like give us something we can practice today. What would you tell people to do after the show?
To help them get better at the transformation or build a new power pitch? So next time they go at networking, it starts to feel fun again.
Okay, so two things. First of all, record yourself. Get on your camera, on your, your laptop or on your phone, and record your pitch and then watch it. And then if you're, it's a little cringe-worthy, then you're like, okay, I need to, is this about me or is it about them?
Because one of the easiest ways to get over like your, like not being comfortable with your pitch, is to stop talking about yourself and start talking about the people that you help. Because then it takes it away from you. You don't feel like you're bragging and you're being personal and we're not being that Midwest nice.
Right? So it's better to talk about, it's easier to talk about other people than it is to talk about yourself. And so that's the first thing that I would do. The second thing I would do, and this is a minor seamless pug, but at the first Wednesday of every month, I am doing a free 10 people only a free pitch class.
So you can write your pitch and it's one on, you get that one-on-one coaching right then in there. So, and that's, you can find that on my LinkedIn or on my, on my Facebook page. But it's, it's, it's no cost to you. I, because my goal for 2026 is out 500 business owners have better pitches, and this is one way of me doing it.
So,
got a question from Nikki. I struggle to find networking groups in general, how would you guide someone to find the right networking group for them that is full of the people they're trying to reach?
So that's a, that's a good question because it's twofold. The first one is, you're not always gonna find your ideal customer at a networking group, but you can find people who sell to your ideal customers at networking groups.
So they're, they're not in, they're not competing with you. They're in parallel services or, or products or whatever it might be. And they, they might be able to introduce you to those people because what I have found is that the people who I want to sell to don't have time to go to networking because they're business owners and they're too busy running their business.
They don't have, have time to show up. So the second best thing is to find the people who are what I call influencers, you know, not social media influencers, but the people who, who can introduce you to those ideal customers. 'cause it's a great question because people are so busy right now. I mean, they're not, the people who need to be out there networking aren't because they're too busy making sure the business is still running.
One last question that I have. You're leaving a networking event. You've had a couple of interesting conversations. What do you do to keep that relationship going, to move that through from, I met you at a networking event to here's a proposal. How do you personally do it?
So what I do is I have what's called the discovery call.
It's, it's an hour call and it's, it's the, let's talk about what your pain points are. Because in what I do as revenue strategist, it's the symptoms are actually the problem. So if you're getting a lot of opt-outs in your email or you're not getting the click rates, or nobody's engaging in your social or you know, you can't turn leads into, into sales, there's usually a gap somewhere in your customer experience.
It's not about, it's not as much about you as it is about your process or your understanding of marketing and sales and so, and branding and all those things. So it's a matter of finding out what those gaps are. And then once we discover those gaps, they go, oh gosh, we really need to fix that. And so whatever it is that you're selling, it's about having that free consult conversation call to say, let's first find out if we, if it's something that we need to do to work together.
Because here's the thing, there's been conversations that I've had with people who wanna work with me that are not my ideal customer. Those people who say, I don't care what you do, just make me more money. Are not my customer. I want people who care about their customers. I want people who care about their employees.
That's when you see the real results happen. So during that call, it's not just about, you can, I'm not gonna say convincing, it's about you educating your prospect about what you do and how you can help, but it's also making sure that that's the kind of customer you really wanna work with.
And that is huge because I find qualification is the first thing that goes out the door when we really need the business.
When we need a client, no matter what, we may not qualify them and say, okay, you've got money, but boy, you're a creep. I don't wanna work with you.
You know when, you know, when you pick up your phone and you see the caller ID and you go like this, you go, that's, that's when you know that that's the client you wanna get rid of first.
For sure, for sure. So qualification is really important. Let's see, we got another question. Nikki's got all the questions this morning. I love it.
Nikki, what is it? What do you say when you have someone like that that wants to work with you? So you've got a creep and you've got someone that really wants you to work with them.
What do you say?
Uh, there's two ways of doing it. The first one could be along the lines of, I'm not sure I'm the, the right person for you. Um, and then give them a reason why or work with them for an extremely short period of time and pray that they see the error in their way, and then you can do a longer term engagement with them.
But I wouldn't do like a six month engagement with somebody that I think is gonna be a pain in the, you know what, right. I would do like a short, like three hour coaching session with them and see if I can turn them around. And if that doesn't happen, then I would then I would usually say like, I, I don't think I'm the right person for you.
I don't think my services are right for you. Um, but I can try to see somebody who might help and, and that has actually happened. Yeah. I turned a, a very much a curmudgeon, uh, prospect into like one of my biggest brand ambassadors. So it does work.
Alright. You're being very polite. 'cause you're not talking about the other thing you can do and the other thing you can do is you can dole out the a-hole rate to someone.
Oh God. Yeah.
So you've got a client that you really don't feel like working with, but they really wanna work with you. You can give them the a-hole rate that makes it worth working with them because you've charged them, you know, the
P attacks? Yeah.
Yeah. The p okay. The pet attacks, that's, yeah. So much more politically correct.
But come on the a-hole rate, we will remember the a-hole rate because I've actually given the a-hole rate and that's when they say yes. And it's like, uh oh, what's that meme? Where the, the woman's like, Hmm, ah hmm. That face, right. Remember that meme? She's like con It's that kind of thing. When the a-hole rate gets accepted,
then it's like that, it's like that drama thing's like, yeah, yeah,
yeah.
Totally. Alright, if people wanna learn more from you, we gotta have you back on the show. I love having you on the air. Uh, is it Rebel Girl Revenue? Where's the best place to connect?
So it's kind of funny right now as we speak, my Amy Perque is actually updating my, my website. So you can go to rebel girl marketing.com, but it's the old version and it'll be updated very soon.
Uh, otherwise find me on LinkedIn and find me on, uh, LinkedIn or the Rebel Girl Revenue Facebook page and send me a DM or it's best way to get ahold of me or just send me an email, lisa@rebelgirlmarketing.com. Say you saw me on Pat's show, and we can do that. And, um, I'm trying to fill up those of those free sessions because 500 people is a, is a big number for 2026.
And so there's, I'm looking forward to helping more people get their pitches down.
It's doable. I believe in you.
Absolutely.
You can get it done. Lisa, we're thanks for coming on. Really appreciate it. Alright. See you.
Good time, good times, good stuff. I love having her on the air. She knows exactly what she's talking about.
And when we talk about on the air all the time, know how to explain what you do so people hear it the very first time. Uh, she is, uh, she's a leader in that. So check her out on LinkedIn or her Facebook page as she shared. Quick public service announcement before we get to the AI story of the day. The 2026 conference wait list is out, so the sixth annual small business owners community conference will be in September, and we've got a giant keynote speaker coming in person, and then a two and a half day experience for entrepreneurs.
That just makes you feel like you are around your people. If it feels like you're going through your day, wondering why nobody else understands what you're doing, this particular. Conference is your place to be. This is where you find other owners that are willing to collaborate and support you. And frankly, if you enjoy this show, you're gonna love the conference because I put it on and it feels a lot like this show every single day.
So the way the tickets are gonna sell is kind of interesting because we are starting to get, um, a little pressure on the amount of tickets that are out there, the venue that we're at, the hotel that we do this at. And the big old ballroom will hold 200 people, but 75 of the tickets are already spoken for through pre-sales and clients and staff.
So that means we have 125 tickets remaining. But here's the problem. We have 162, I think is the number as of this morning, members of the small business owners community. So they're gonna get the first bite at the apple on the tickets. Then the next day, people on the wait list will get a chance to scoop up a ticket and then the next day it goes on sale to the public.
If you wanna get a ticket this year, I'm telling you, you gotta get on the wait list or become a community member that would solve it. But either way, these sixth annual conference is gonna be huge or going to sell this out. Get on the wait list, click the QR code, and we'd lo love to have you with us in September at the Small Business Owners Community Conference AI story of the day.
Let's get to it. We can say Welcome chat, GPT to the Do Stuff Army Chat. GPT was my very first ai Love You Never forget Your first. It introduced me to what can happen when you talk to a chat bot and it does research for you and it solves problems for you and it starts writing for you. It was truly magical when I started using it in the spring of 2023.
Last year, it seemed like chat. GPT kind of lost its way a little bit. They rolled out a browser called Atlas. They made a gigantic deal with Johnny. Ive the guy that designed the iPhone, they were like thinking about doing a wearable device and a whole bunch of other stuff. But last week, Sam Altman, the guy, came out and said, nah, enterprise and business is where we're headed.
Okay, now you have my attention again, chat, GPT. So after hearing that announcement, it doesn't surprise me. They've now finally given chat, GPT, the option to do writing actions. Chat GT can go in and read your email. It could go in and look at your calendar, but it can't actually write anything. It couldn't create any docs.
It couldn't schedule meetings inside Google in your Microsoft apps. Finally, chat. GPT has right actions. You can go to chat GPT and you can say, draft a follow-up email to my client, or go put a meeting on my Google calendar or populate this doc with all of this information. Instead of asking it for the information, it gives it to you.
Then you need to go cut and paste. Now it has writing actions. This is another step towards the AI future. We are promised, especially for solopreneurs and very small teams, you no longer have to copy and paste between chat GPT and all of your places. And if you're on the front edge of this, you are already playing with Claude's Cowork.
Or the cowork copilot inside Microsoft Perplexity Computer Chat. GPT can now do some of those things as well. This is a big deal. If you're on chat GPT and you're a chat GPT Truther, you haven't tried another AI tool. This is a big deal. Very, very exciting. One other thing to touch on this morning, I've been and have become completely obsessed with Claude, as you know, and Claude's cowork is the thing that turned me onto it because Claude will do some of this work for you.
It will populate things, it will research and go into your tools and connect to your drive and all of this. I had been driving Claude's cowork this whole time, but there's another section of Claude called code and I've looked at code thinking like, that's not for me. It's not for me. That's where code is written.
I'm not a coder, I'm not technical. I shouldn't, I, I shouldn't go there is the way I thought this whole time and the other day I thought, you know what, cowork isn't doing what I need it to do. I'll go into code and see if it works. So like in the cartoons when you see people like sneaking down the hall and then they stick their toe out and then they just kind of stick their toe out to the thing, kind of stuck my toe into Claude Code and it was the moment in Star Wars when they go into warped speed and the the lights go, you know that point of Star Wars when they go into light speed?
That's what happened. I go to Claude Code, I say, Hey, cowork is having a hard time with Blobbity Blue. And Code says, oh, well that's because of X, Y, z words. I didn't understand. Fixes I never would've figured out and Claude Code couldn't do. All we need to do is blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.
Would you like me to do that? Yes. Problem solved. I have no technical, zero technical skills, but you know what? I can do the hell out of boop.
I am the best boop on the history of the planet. Nobody can boop like me. Claude Code. It's not messing around. I'm sharing this this morning because if you are using chat GPT and you've never gone into Codex, or you're using Claude's desktop and you've never used Claude Code, you should this morning with Claude Code, it did.
Another thing for me, and this is another concept that I read on Twitter and I thought, yes. The concept is the five minute rule, and the concept is we deal with minor annoyances all day, every day. And when you're non-technical, they stack up because the computer will do things I can't fix and we deal with it.
Here's an example. Hey Pat, can you send me your headshot? Sure, no problem. Where's my headshot? It's someplace in my Google Docs.
It's somewhere in my download drive. It's, you know, all over the place as opposed to in a folder in my favorites. There it is. That's the example of a five minute fix because creating the folder, finding the file, putting it in the thing, I'll never have to look for it again.
But instead I just dealt with it and I thought this morning, you know what, I'm gonna go in in five minute fix as many things as possible. My iCloud was full on my Mac. Every once in a while, my internet has been getting interruptions, just blinking, just losing connection. I've been worried about my computer security.
My download folder was completely full in a hot mess. The headshot and the logos thing, all of these things. So this morning I turned into Claude Code and I just complained. I used the voice chat and I just complained. This sucks.
This sucks. I hate this. This sucks. How come this? Why not this blah, blah.
I just vented about all the reasons why my computer doesn't work the way that I want it to.
Claude, I believe in you. Fix it. Son of a bitch. It did. I just went, boop, boop, boop, boop.
I did this all morning. Boop, boop, boop, boop. I just boop to my heart. Content, heart's content. And you know what?
All of those problems went away. All of them. What? And it's saying things that I don't understand. It says, oh, well, what are the reasons why you're losing internet connection every once in a while?
Is that you're using the DNS from at and t when you like to change your DNS to CloudFlare. And what about this and what about this? And I'm like, ah, boop, do it. Do it. Oh, well, we need to run a port scan.
And what about this port? I don't know. Boop, go do it. And it did. And I'm in computer heaven.
Things are so much better.
My folders are empty and things are getting backed up, and my iCloud isn't full and cats and dogs that are living together, it's just. Ah,
I just want you to know it's okay to go into the code area of your AI tool because it's really awesome. When we look at our AI tools, we think about building new things or communicating with clients or creating our, um, social media posts or whatever it might be. But if you take this technology and unleash it on your actual machine, oh, it's awesome.
My machine is red freaking hot right now. Highly recommend Stephanie Kern. Good morning. Yes, yes, you're exactly right. I boop to my heart's content.
I need a sticker. By the way, Stephanie Kern, graphic designer, now you're gonna get it. I've been asking her for a small business sticker club for over a year.
She is a brilliant artist and we wanna create an ai a a small business sticker club, and I think we need to bully her into doing it. I think we need to tell her in the chat, we want the sticker club. I want little stickers that are mailed to me every month with fun little sayings about being an entrepreneur so I can trick out my water bottle.
Absolutely. Thank you Stephanie Kern. I appreciate it. Oh geez. Listen to you.
Thank you. I make you happy. I love that. And Nikki Lee wants a sticker. Okay, so we are going to bully you, bully Stephanie, because I absolutely want this.
And Barbara's with us. Good morning, Barbara. Great to see you. Idea Slam is coming up in the idea Slam.
Two questions to address. First question comes from Reddit, and this is fun 'cause sometimes I search Reddit in the entrepreneur forum and I see the questions they're asking. I'm like, bro, bro, I'm taking this question straight from Reddit and I'm gonna answer it on the show. So Redditer, I hope you hear me.
Someone screenshotted my pricing and posted it in a Facebook group calling me expensive. Do I respond? Second question. I have a client whose product I'm personally passionate about, a real estate tech tool that I think could change the industry. They want me to invest sweat equity instead of paying my full rate, but I'd get a little bit of the company, is this a golden opportunity or a trap?
Awesome question. Awesome question. So we will ask you to help me answer those questions here in a minute. Yes, we're bullying you Stephanie. See.
Sean, you've got a sticker problem. Yes. Wait till the AI or the small Business Sticker Club starts. Sean, great to see you this morning, my friend, and, uh, when Stephanie's art starts hitting your mailbox, you're gonna be really happy.
So we need to start bullying Stephanie, for sure. Let's talk about our sponsor. Gen Head is making it so great for us. Gen Head is the CRM and the technology that runs my business, and it should run yours. Why? It's the system designed for solopreneurs, founders, and lean teams who need real momentum, not complex tools that require a full-time operator.
It streamlines everything, makes it practical, easy to act on, brings your CRM and your automations and your website and your blogging and your social all into one screen. Everything's centralized and it helps you grow with just one system. What does that mean? That means less chaos, clearer data. Better execution.
I'm using Gen Head. You should too. Gen head.com. That's gen head.com. If you wanna make your life a little bit easier as we try and grow our business.
Okay. You're darn right. You gotta get going. I need bullying to get this going. Okay, Stephanie?
I think if it was 10 bucks a month, I'd pay 10 bucks a month for the Stickers Club for sure.
Get me a couple of stickers every month to have some fun on my water bottle. Get me a boop sticker. Now we're talking about it. I'll be client number one, Stephanie, for sure. The idea slam is something that we do every day on the air because it gives us a chance to talk about the problems and the opportunities that are inside our business.
It's really important because just like the five minute problem that I was talking a few moments ago about, we have major problems that we just try and come up with answers. We just think to ourselves, yeah, I'll just figure it out. We don't have to guess, we don't have to use our gut. We can actually turn to the wisdom of the crowd and have us share our experience with the challenge or the opportunity that you're facing.
And our new idea Slam signup page that Gen had has made for us is great because you can just submit your challenge or opportunity anonymously and I'll talk about it on the air. So use the tool and we'd love to feature you on an upcoming show. Alright, question number one comes directly from Reddit.
Someone screenshotted my pricing and posted it in a Facebook group calling me expensive. How do I respond? We'll start with talking about the person that did that, first of all, jerk move. Jerk move. But who would do something like that? I always wonder who has the free brain space to do that, to go to someone's page.
Get their pricing and then try and expose them. I'll tell you one thing, it's someone that's behind you, either a smaller business or not as talented or whatever. I guarantee you, it's someone that's behind you. Why is that? The people in front of you, they don't have time for that. They're already past you.
They're not punching down. They're not looking at who's down here that I need to make sure they don't got time for that. Only the people behind you will do something like that. I guarantee you the person that did it sells their product for less than what you charge. Or they're jealous that they can't make stickers like you can Stephanie, or they can't afford you and they'd like to.
So they're just complaining. Framing who would do this, I think helps sets up. How you would respond if you respond, someone that's behind you that's saying, Hey, that person over there in front of me, they're too expensive. First of all, it's none of your damn business. And secondly, your price must be set at the highest point that you can say with a straight face that your clients will still say yes to.
What should you charge? As much as humanly possible. That keeps the business coming in. And if they say yes, too fast, you're not high enough. Never apologize for charging a high rate provided you're still able to get clients if you're going to respond. I always go with factual, non-emotional, brush it off kind of mentality.
Hey, jerk Water 1000. I appreciate you talking about my business here in this forum. It's always nice to get the word out. Our pricing is set based on the value that we provide for our clients, and we've got a waiting list of people standing by that are ready to get more of it. I appreciate your concern and interest, and thanks for sharing the word about my business and no personal attacks.Kill 'em with kindness.
Oh, this is another thing. Boy, this is so great. When people say something negative about you, nothing gets them crazier than killing them with kindness. What do they want? Why are they posting that?
They're posting that because they're looking for a fight. They want you to come back at them.
They are looking for you to engage so they can continue ripping you down the, come on, bro. Come on. And if you just. Pat 'em on the head, kill 'em with kindness and move on with your life because you're in front of them. Oh, nothing makes them crazier. It's fantastic. And Steve has a great, or Sean rather, has a great example.
Here's an opportunity to showcase why you have premium pricing. Absolutely. That's the right methodol or mentality. Thank you, Sean, for doing that. I appreciate that.
Look at this. Steve's with us this morning. Good morning, bud. Great to see you. Thanks for tuning in.
So that's how I would go about it. If someone were to snapshot my pricing and say that I'm too expensive, I would do exactly what Steve is talking about.
Showcase why I'm awesome, kill 'em with kindness, and then move on. Next question. Today I have a client whose product I'm personally passionate about. It's a real estate tech tool that I think could change the industry. They've asked me to invest sweat equity. To help me earn a little bit of the company.
Is this a golden opportunity or is this a trap? Sweat equity comes up all the time. People, especially when starting up, if they're not funded, they don't have a lot of money. So they can give away equity in the company 'cause they don't have any cash to give people. That would usually require a ton of work right away or long-term work to end up getting value out of the work that you do.And when sweat equity comes up, boy that's polarizing.
There are truthers that say, never ever, ever, ever, ever work for free ever. And there's another half of the room that says, well I've had a few successes doing that. It's not never, maybe it's rarely, but it's not, never, my decision making would be built like this.
Sean, who's doing great, wants to start a new company. Hey, we're gonna start a new dog training business. 'cause I'm all about pets and pet food. I think I could spin up a dog training business, pat, I want you to host a podcast for my dog training business, but I can't pay you, but I'll give you equity in the company.
The way I would make the decision on whether or not to do that is pretty simple. Let's say he was asking me for $15,000 worth of labor. The decision I would make is, would I invest the same amount of cash into their business right now? Sean's business sounds great, and Sean's business sounds great and I think it's gonna be successful.
Would I put the same amount of cash into the business as I would my labor? And if the answer is no, then I shouldn't do the labor. If the answer is yes, then yeah, do the labor. This is one of those golden opportunities. You mean I can get equity in the company and I don't have to put in cash? Where do I sign up?
I'll host your podcast. It's a temperature check and how you feel about their business. One other variable is that the real expense, the $15,000 goes down in value for you if you have inventory, if you have available space. If I'm not running at capacity, I've got some unused inventory, meaning time that I could spend on his podcast, then that $15,000 becomes a lot more affordable for me.
When you have inventory, especially time-based inventory, it expires. If I have five extra hours a week and I don't use it. That five hours a week just evaporates it, it perishes. So maximizing your inventory time when you have it, it's a pretty good idea. Someone wants you to invest in their business through sweat equity.
The first thing to think about is, would I invest cash in it for the same amount? If the answer's maybe or yes, then evaluate your inventory. Do I have time to take this on or would I have to bump paying clients? If you've got the space and you believe in it, you know what? Why not? Definitely a way to go about it.
And Sean, I can't wait to see what your next company is because you are killing it. Maybe it's not a dog training business, but I'm ready to host your podcast 'cause uh, the next company's also going to be gigantic. Okay, we're gonna get outta here in just a moment, but I've got one more story to share. I got this incredible message this morning on LinkedIn from one of our viewers who's watching the show this morning.
She shared the way that she interprets what we do here on the show. This is just fan mail, but it framed it in such a unique way and it would make a really cool t-shirt or sticker. Stephanie just saying I'll share that with you in a minute. I do wanna give you an update on what's going on with the AI installation group.
Oh man. Is this getting good? There's a new study that came out, just got released. I talked about it on the show. The one thing that's holding people back from using AI is that they know they need to do it. We all know that we need to get AI installed in our business, but people don't know where to start.
That's what we're solving in the AI installation group. This AI revolution is gonna happen in real time and in the next six months, our businesses are going to completely change together. We're gonna figure out how to do it. My job as the host of the AI Installation Group Mastermind is to bring the right people together who are ready to roll up their sleeves and get after how we're going to make this technology work.
We will start with understanding the difference between a chat bot and how these AI agents are coming online. We'll talk about how to properly delegate, so we're giving AI the right stuff to do. Then we'll start building the scheduled tasks and get our agents online. And by the end of the six months, I'm pretty confident that we're gonna have AI agents running, running, running, running Gen A, running parts of your business so you can get even more of what you do.
Done. We are gonna start this thing soon. We were going to start it Wednesday the 25th, but the people that have signed up have said, yeah, the 25th isn't really working. So we're currently figuring out the date. It's the 25th to like April 6th is where this date is gonna fall. It's gonna be the first mastermind.
So if you know that you want AI in your business, but you're also struggling as everyone else, apparently is with where do I start? This group that is part education, part action, designed just for solopreneurs that wanna expand their capacity and make more money. The six month program is open now. Click the QR code, click the link that I've dropped into the chat, and become a member of the new AI installation group so you can get the most out of this technology and its promise in your business.
Alright, last thing we're gonna share today. I'm so excited by this. I got an inspired message from someone that watches the show all the time. I just wanna tell you personally, this is just me talking to you. These are the super early days of this show, if you can believe it. I've been hosting this show for exactly two months.
The first businessing with Pat Miller went on the air January 19th, and the first two weeks I only did two shows a week. We're not even two months in, like we are barely two months in. And it feels like, I mean, the chat is popping today. Look at you guys. We're starting to get a little traction. We're getting some replay views where our shorts are getting traction.
Uh, the, the podcast is doing great. The momentum is building, and I just wanna say before I share what this thing is. If you're with me now, I notice it and I appreciate you and your feedback on what we could do different and how you'd like it more and, and what we do like to see. Boy, that's really gonna go a long way, so if you're with me right now, I just wanna say thank you.
You are an OG to the show. I appreciate you and I got a message this morning that was very thoughtful, so thoughtful, and it gave me another bump of confidence that just made me think, you know, I think we're going in the right direction. If you've been watching the show recently, you've seen Doris Jones in the comments.
Maybe the nicest, nicest lady in America comes to the conference. Super supportive, so kind. She sent me a message this morning on LinkedIn and said, this show helps turn negatives into positives and it would look great on a t-shirt or a hat. And I'll add a sticker. Look at this. She designed it and maybe her AI designed it.
I don't know. But look at, those are all negatives. Those are all little minus signs. Turning negatives into positives first, cool design. You're awesome, Doris.
Secondly, I like the message turning negatives into positives. Isn't that cool? You with me, Stephanie Kern, sticker lady. Come on bro.
Thank you, Doris. I appreciate that. And as we sign off today's show, I just want you to know I value you and the risks that you're taking. 'cause all of us, if we're building our own business, we're taking giant risks. We're putting ourselves out there saying, Hey, I'm gonna start a show, or Hey, I'm gonna start a sticker club.
Or Hey, I'm gonna build a substack, or I'm gonna go do a dog food business. Whatever it is, we're taking a giant risk. What I do is designed for the person that's got the courage to take that risk. And I want you to know, and I want you to hear me clearly, look at tractor beam eyeballs. Do you see me? If you have the courage to take this risk, I'm here for you.
No matter what. No matter when, text, email, whatever, if you're up against the wall and you ever say, I don't have anyone to turn to, then I failed. I'm here. The community's here, we're all here. And when I say don't grow it alone, that's what we're trying to do here. To have someone for you to turn to. Don't ever think that you're building your business all by yourself because you're not.
You made my day. Doris. I appreciate you sharing. Thanks so much. Speaking of the community, last thing we'll share of the day today is if you're thinking about it, oh, that's the idea slam. If you're thinking about the community, we can quantify, we can quantify the cost of building your business all by yourself.
'cause every day we gotta make tough answers, tough questions, tough decisions. And if we're just using our gut and our instinct, we're increasing the error rate on these big decisions. I've built a calculator. Thank you, Claude. I built a calculator to show you how much money that's costing you every single month.
And the ROI of bringing just one decision a month to the community. This supportive group will end up being a huge ROI in your business and our nationwide online community is working together as we speak. To help you grow. In fact, we just got a new member during the show. How cool is that? Lacey joined the community during the show, which is awesome.
So Lacey, welcome to the group. It's great to see you in the community. Uh, I really appreciate you doing that. Thanks for tuning into Businessing with Pat Miller this week. 'cause guess what?
It's my Friday 'cause I'm the Friday's off guy baby. Got a big agenda this weekend. Big agenda. Uh, I've got some house cleaning to do, but also those golf clubs are starting to talk to me.
Gonna go to the golf simulator tomorrow, get some swings in, start getting ready for the golf season 'cause the tee times have been booked. Golf season will be here soon. I'll start getting my tan again. Ah. I cannot wait. Thanks to Gen Head for sponsoring the show and for producing the show today, and thank you for being a part of what we're doing and our migration over to YouTube because you can see in the chat now, we can all see one another and we can see that we're talking with each other, and this is gonna build some really fun collaborative momentum on the show.
So before we leave, if you've not subscribed to our YouTube channel, that's the preferred place to watch the show on YouTube. That way we all know we're together and we can continue to collaborate as we grow. It's the new daily habit for small business owners. It's Businessing with Pat Miller back on the year, Monday at 11:00 AM I'm Pat Miller, founder of the SBOC and the Fridays Off Guy.
Thanks so much for tuning in and being a part of what we're doing. Talk to you next week. Have a great weekend. Take care.