IronCode Podcast Delves into Creating Business Superfans with Author, Frederick Dudek

Rich Green: 00:00:01

Podcasting from Sacramento, California, the Big Tomato.

This is the Iron Mind Code Show, a weekly podcast about peak performers and the secrets they use to create success in business and their personal lives. Hear interviews with special guests, top performers from around the world.

And now, here's your host, coach, author, and Iron Mind performance expert, Rich Green.

Hey, it's Rich Green. Excited for another show. And today we've got an amazing guest.

Frederick Dudek is going to be joining us today and talking about, well, all kinds of things.

I'm not going to spill the beans right off the bat here, but I'm excited to speak with him because he's got just a wealth of information on business building. He has an interesting story which we're going to dig into as well. I'm super fascinated by the transitions that he's made in his life.

And as always, we're going to ask about his code. So, Frederick, welcome to the show.

Freddy D: 00:01:09

Hey, good morning, Rich. Excited to be here.

Rich Green: 00:01:12

We're happy to have you here as well. So we were talking earlier about your experience and so you have sort of a varied background, which is, I think is unusual.

Typically personality types take certain types of jobs, but you're, you started your life as an engineer. You have that in your DNA. But you do a lot in sales as well.

Freddy D: 00:01:37

Yep.

Rich Green: 00:01:38

Tell me a little bit something about, tell our audience a little something about that and sort of how you started out in the engineering space and then a moved your way into helping people to sell products and services. And what was that journey like? Okay.

Freddy D: 00:01:52

weld guns that Spot welded a: 1982

So you have these weld tips that are going in that weld the body panel and you had to do a lot of 3D geometry to make sure that it wasn't going to put any divots in. And I was doing on vertical drafting boards, full size the car.

Rich Green: 00:02:21

Wow.

Freddy D: 00:02:22

The company at the time got and spent about $500,000 to buy a computer aided design system. And I was intrigued by it. And they were asking who would be interested in training.

And we had to write up some big essay of why we thought we were the chosen one. And so I raised my hand, filled out that essay, and I was one of five.

Rich Green: 00:02:43

You're selling already, right?

Freddy D: 00:02:46

Indirectly. So I was picked.

I got trained and from there turned out that a high school friend was working for a software company, teaching people how to do engineering via computers. And they were looking for additional people that were actually from the field, knew what they were doing. But I needed to put together a resume.

And back then, I didn't know what a resume was. And so I got a buddy of mine from second grade that I had taken to Washington University to. To get his law degree.

And so for three hours on the phone, he helped write my resume. And I got an interview and got a second interview, and I got a job offer.

And it moved me from the Detroit area to the Chicago area, and I started learning Computer Aided Design. And then I was picked to teach Computer Aided Design. And I'll share a unique little quick story is that I was picked to go teach Eaton Corporation.

And I went there and I did the training, as I thought to do training was basically go through a manual and flip through the pages and read it first and then tell people what to do, because I was completely novice at this stuff. And the manager came in and said after the end of that day and says, that's the worst blank training I've ever seen in my entire life.

It goes, I'll give you between now and tomorrow to get yourself straightened out, or I'm calling your manager and having you fired.

Rich Green: 00:04:17

Oh, wow.

Freddy D: 00:04:19

So I slept real well that night.

Rich Green: 00:04:20

Yeah.

Freddy D: 00:04:22

And I invented a. I invented an engagement training where I started asking, like, hey, Rich, how would you handle this particular thing? And, Steve, do you think that this is the right way?

And it was like it was a transformation and started speaking in front of people, which I never was comfortable with. And. But I had to, because it's either that or the adios.

Rich Green: 00:04:46

And.

Freddy D: 00:04:49

That turned out to be where he actually wrote me up in the sense of how great my training was. And a few years later, the company that I was at was looking for salespeople.

And so I figured I can do what these guys do because more importantly, I know what the stuff does and how to talk.

And I got picked, and I got sent through six months of sales training through companies like Wilson Learning, Vanguard Street Vanguard, and Dale Carnegie classes and stuff like that.

Rich Green: 00:05:18

That hardly happens at all today with companies. That's amazing.

Freddy D: 00:05:22

Yeah. I mean, it was six months, and I got flown from Chicago to Boston for the training and back every month for a week.

We were in Boston through the whole training and videotaping us and all that stuff back then. And my first year, I won some sales awards, and I've never looked back since. That's.

Rich Green: 00:05:40

That is fantastic.

And I Tell you what, any managers out there that are listening to this, and I know I've got a lot of business executives that are listeners of the podcast. Training is everything. Invest in your people, because this is what you get when you do that.

And interesting thing, I, I, I took a note when you said something about how you change that presentation, you started asking questions, which is something that I started doing when I first became a college professor and I was teaching business classes. And I didn't necessarily have everything memorized in the book.

And I found that asking questions was an interesting way to get people engaged and also a way to me, to learn how other people were absorbing the information so that I could have a pause and think about it and also to maybe do a redirect for the training. So I think that asking questions was genius, but it was also, as you well know, one of the number one skills in sales.

Yeah, being able to ask questions without looking like you're interrogating people.

Freddy D: 00:06:44

Absolutely correct. It's important to ask the questions and then more importantly, to shut up and let people answer it.

And then the, the questions that you ask will direct where the conversation goes. And that's the fun part.

Rich Green: 00:07:00

Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. So for a lot of people that aren't in professional sales, it's not about convincing people.

It's not about cajoling them or twisting their arm or tricking them or any of those kinds of things. It's about drawing out information that either they know or maybe they don't, you don't know that they know.

And helping people to make a decision, presenting information in a certain way so that people can see if it fits within their lives or in their businesses. So asking questions and then listening to the most important sales skills. Thanks for pointing that out because really important.

So you've been in sales training, you kind of never look back.

Freddy D: 00:07:41

Yeah, no, I've worked myself up from sales. I mean, one of my stories that I share is, is really is paying attention to what's going on in a room.

And I was selling to a railroad car manufacturer in Chicago, and I've been working with the engineering department and the managers, and we had all this stuff put together, and now it was time to go see the CEO of the company for approval. And we walk in, huge office, and the guy's sitting behind his desk, intimidating. Doesn't even get up from the desk. We're standing.

I look, he's got a glass wall, and he's got a helo pad right outside of his glass wall. Wind wall there. And I'm going like, oh my gosh, this is this guy's big time. And he looks up and he goes, okay, you guys got five minutes.

And that was it. And so the engineering manager, remember, looked at me and I guess I'm up. So I just looked at my watch and I started doing the presentation.

It was concise, to the point. And I looked again and it was at the 5. And I says, my time is up. And I shut up. And the guy just looked at me, smiled, stood up and said, okay.

We start talking to the engineering manager, another five, seven minutes. And he goes, okay, you guys are all happy with the deal? He goes, if you guys are happy, I'm happy. And everybody said, yes. He goes, great.

Picks up his phone, says so and so. Please get a purchase order from Mr. Dudek. And thanks, guys. We shook hands and that was over. Meeting was done. 15 Minutes. Wow. $150,000 Sale.

Rich Green: 00:09:21

I tell you what. Yeah, that's. That is a great story.

And it's also, I know you're a speaker and you've just been on stage and you presented and trained, and the five minute ability to tell a story in five minutes, there's a lot of information that you can share in five minutes. It takes a lot of work to get good at it.

But if you do that and impress somebody like the CEO who is just didn't have a lot of time in his day, probably to hear a lot of blather, it's a great skill.

Freddy D: 00:09:50

And stopping at the five minute and telling your time is up, that was the key because that's what won the deal for me. And my 100% believe it is. I respected his time and I said, my time is up. At that moment that his whole demeanor changed.

Rich Green: 00:10:07

It's a great lesson about respecting somebody's. Giving respect, showing respect to somebody for their position in life, for just for the value of their time. So that's a good one.

I. I think the acknowledgment part at the end is that little extra there. So definitely cool.

Freddy D: 00:10:25

Yeah.

Rich Green: 00:10:25

You're. You grew up in another country, right?

Freddy D: 00:10:28

Well, I was born in France and I moved to this country in three months. My joke is I was screaming, I didn't want to leave. They stuck a pacifier in me and said, shut up, you're going to.

But I was fortunate that my parents would send me back. Once I was about five, six years old, we would go back to spend time with my grandfather in France. And that was the only grandfather I really knew.

And my dad was from Poland and his grandfather was involved in World War II. And we'll just leave it at that.

Rich Green: 00:10:57

Yeah.

Freddy D: 00:10:58

But I had some great memories of being out in the vineyards. My grandfather had a vineyard and spending the summers there was just. At the time I had a blast.

But now I look back and says those are some of my most cherished memories of just doing some fun stuff with family and everything else. And it was different culture and it was different and I got the travel bug from that.

And more importantly, I started to learn about different cultures and different people and that I've since traveled to about 30 countries and that has given me a different perspective on life and dealing with different individuals.

Rich Green: 00:11:38

Dirty countries. Wow. That's pretty cool. I. I have pretty extensive business travel, but I don't think 30 countries. We could do a whole.

We could actually do a whole podcast on or several on the differences between business and different cultures.

Freddy D: 00:11:52

Yes, that would be like. Got lots of stories on that stuff.

Rich Green: 00:11:55

Yes, I have. I. I learned sort of the hard way in many of the places that I went to, people don't do business necessarily like Americans do.

Freddy D: 00:12:04

Exactly. I. Yes, I have similar stories.

Rich Green: 00:12:06

Yes. So cool. Well, I'm pretty interested in the super fans. You're an author and I know you've done some sales training. And the thing about.

And I buy also there's also a lot of solopreneurs that are my listeners and people that are looking to create fans but that love what they have to offer, love their services, love their products. But it seems to be a huge struggle for a lot of people and very difficult thing to do. And I'm wondering if you've cracked that formula or not.

Freddy D: 00:12:38

I think I have. I'm not the world's greatest prospector, but I will say that I am probably one of the top attraction marketing guys. I get people to come to me.

So as an example, when I was selling engineering and manufacturing software years ago, we would conduct a lunch and learn event back then and that would be handled in a sense that I would send out letters back in the day to.

So it could be emails today inviting executives to this lunch and learn about how technology is transforming the manufacturing and engineering industry. Those sales pitch and then I got our shared executive offices.

So I got the girls to contact the guys in the manufacturing world just, you know, the way it was then. So these guys guys would come in and we would do a presentation. We would talk about how technology is affecting businesses and etc.

We would demonstrate our software to prove the point of what we were Making. So we were using the software as the, the demo vehicle without talking about selling.

It was just an ed, how this saves you time, this improves your profile, blah blah blah.

And what would be done is people would say, okay, can you come to our company and take a look at what we're doing and tell us how this technology might help impact our business?

So these guys were inviting me to their facilities and it was done deal because then we would go in there and they weren't looking at any competitors, we were in there and I'd say here's the strategy and etc.

So the reason I go to that aspect is because I'm leading up to there was a one company as a tool and die mold shop in, in Illinois and they became my biggest super fan because what happened is they were a 40 man company. And I went in there and we talked and I didn't talk about how my software would make their life better.

I really changed the conversation to the CEO of the company says, where do you see yourself in a few years from a business perspective? Yeah, now what's your plan to get there and how can I help you get there?

And that's how I handled the whole conversation and says, okay, well we can use this type of technology. Well, we don't do this, but here you should buy this from this guy because that'll help you in that area.

And I became more of an advisor with them and they started to grow their business and add people and get more work. And so I would always call them up and says, hey, I've got this company. Would you mind sharing what we've done with your company?

And they would be, they would absolutely say sure. And they would talk to my prospects. So I was no longer selling. My customer was selling on my behalf.

Rich Green: 00:15:29

Yeah.

Freddy D: 00:15:30

But the unique part was that when Bob was the who was the IT manager, I knew what his growth he wanted to control all of it was going through divorce. Who was sitting at the bar with him drinking a beer, listening to all the stuff that was going on to his life. This guy. Yeah.

And that's where I made him into my super fan. To the point where I was about to win a contest and I needed one more sale and I knew that they were going to buy something in the fourth quarter.

I says Bob, I got to get this thing done by end of June for me to win this contest and I need one more sale and I've got this. And I says can you help me out? And so the conversation, the short version of it was he goes, what can you do on the payment?

So I can delay the payment. I'm number one sales guy in the company. I can do whatever I want. Is true, isn't it?

Rich Green: 00:16:27

Yeah.

Freddy D: 00:16:28

So I got. So he gave me the deal, I delayed the payments to him, and I won the prize because we just had an early commitment, late delivery and late payment.

That was all we needed to do. So thinking out of the box on how to get that deal done. And so that's when I started to create super fans for my customers and everyone.

I also made sure that everybody was referenceable. I would hand out my daytimer and said, here's here. Grab my phone, call any one of these people at any time. They're all referenceable.

Rich Green: 00:17:01

That's good. I mean, there. You just listed so many things. There's a lot to unpack there.

But I got excited because a lot of the strategies that I've used as well taught as well. Starting off with the lunch and learns, which when I started coaching, I was trained by the John Maxwell Company. For me, it was all about leadership.

And I still believe leadership is key to success. And that was the way that. That I would get business.

Coaching business and working with executives and sales executives was to give value and do a lunch and learn.

Freddy D: 00:17:35

And.

Rich Green: 00:17:35

And then. So it's a. So folks, that's a great way to lunch and learn, is a great way to do it.

Webinars that people do today are a great way to give value without shamelessly pitching which. Frederick, I think that's what you did.

Freddy D: 00:17:49

Yeah, I got invited in, for example, I spoke at the United States Mold Builders association. And, you know, I flew out. They told me I could talk about technology, but I couldn't talk and promote my product. I said, okay.

So what I talked about was compute speed. And every owner was like, dumbfounded with what I was talking about, because I talked, okay, you're doing NC manufacturing programming.

You got mathematical stuff that got to get calculated to generate the toolpath to machine the metal out of the particular part. So this is. So what's your employee doing as the computer's calculating all this math for 15, 20 minutes? Nothing. And now you tweet and then it says.

And then you tweak it, and then you got to rerun the code again because, okay, it's not the way I want it. I gotta make a couple adjustments. So there's another 15, 20 minutes. Another 15, 20 minutes.

So those are loss of productivity and you're too cheap is how I worded it. To spend 5, 6 $7,000 to get a new latest and greatest computer to do the math calculations so that your guys more productive.

And they were like, I never even looked at it that way. And the next thing I know is I got people asking me to come to their companies to take a look at what they're doing and made sales without selling.

I didn't sell one thing.

Rich Green: 00:19:11

Nobody, you know what, nobody likes to be sold. The other things I wrote down that you do in that formula, which I think are great through your added value. Right. And you didn't sell. You got in.

As you said, you got invited in. You asked a question of the CEO about his life.

Freddy D: 00:19:28

Excuse me.

Rich Green: 00:19:28

And so you put him in the story, started having him imagine something different. You didn't know what it was, but he's creating the, the story.

And then the, the other thing that I think was great was recommending products that weren't your own but would help.

And I guess if you're in sales, you better know a lot about the industry that you're in and your competitors or other companies that have ancillary products that are important to your customers so that you can be a good cons, maybe a good consultant.

Freddy D: 00:20:01

It is because now you've shown integrity. It's not about the sale, it's about the benefit and the success. And again, that's part of building a super fan is making them successful.

Rich Green: 00:20:11

Yeah.

Freddy D: 00:20:12

And you're, whether you're selling software widgets or broomsticks or whatever, those are just tools. But the reality of it is where do they see themselves? And how can you help them achieve the growth that they're after?

And the rest of it takes care of itself. They're just mechanisms. I would tell people in manufacturing software, they all do the job okay. Yeah.

In some way, shape or form, otherwise they wouldn't exist. But where I would def. So I wouldn't get into the weeds of, well, we flip it this way and they flip it that way.

I was more, okay, how do we help your productivity? How do we help your profit line? How do we help you grow your business?

And that one company in Illinois, last time I was there as a joke, they held the door closed so I couldn't get in. I said, what's up guys? Tell me through door every time you walk in here, it cost us 100 grand. This is. Yeah, but you bought the building to the left.

You bought the building to the right. You're now 100 and some employees. You got a company in Carolinas. So it was a joke. But the point was I helped them.

I helped them grow and triple their business in a period of four years. Yeah.

Rich Green: 00:21:26

Yeah. That's amaz. That's amazing. You know, and. And that's the value of coaching or consulting or combination thereof.

I think the stats out there on that are your ROI seven times the investment. It's like, that's just. Those are industry standard stats, so could vary, but that's great. The other thing that, That I loved and a.

One of my favorite authors, many of the books that I read from him came into my mind. When you're talking about the guy that was going through the divorce, the personal situation.

Freddy D: 00:21:54

Right.

Rich Green: 00:21:55

And just listening and being there.

Freddy D: 00:21:57

Jim Rone, familiar with him. I've read all his stuff.

Rich Green: 00:22:00

People don't care about what you have to say until they know you care about them.

Freddy D: 00:22:04

Right.

Rich Green: 00:22:06

And. And so I, that, that's a great thing. I say do that. You employ that. Do that sincerely from your heart.

Freddy D: 00:22:13

Right.

Rich Green: 00:22:14

Not as a trick or anything, but very powerful. You. It's hard to. It's also hard to fire friends.

Freddy D: 00:22:21

Right, Right. It's all about relationships. That's super. That's super.

Rich Green: 00:22:25

And then you hold up your phone and this is. I think the Superfans piece is pretty cool. So you have some sort of process where you go through to make sure everybody's referenceable.

Freddy D: 00:22:37

Yeah, I basically, yeah. Well, one is taking care of your customers is number one. I mean, it's not to love them and leave them. It's the love them all the time.

And so I would always reach out to my customers. I would send out letters. I mean, when I, and I still do apply this today was the fact that, okay, I would hold the meeting into some company.

I make sure I got everybody's name and everybody gets either an email back or I actually mail something to them through postal service acknowledging their time, appreciating them and all that stuff.

And so going back to the manufacturing world, I would have the guys out from the shop floor that would be coming in to take a look at the technology and everything else because they're the guys going to be using. And I made sure I got their names because nobody ever acknowledges them. And. But they all got a letter. Thank you, Steve. Thank you, Mike.

Thank you, Jill. Thank you, Mary, for participating in our meeting and I appreciate all your valuable input and blah, blah, blah.

We look forward to developing a great partnership. And so I made them all feel important and they were contributors.

Rich Green: 00:23:47

Yeah.

Freddy D: 00:23:48

I found out afterwards is, okay, why did you pick us when you won the deal? And all of them said, we felt that you would provide the best post sales support.

But I positioned that, if you think about that, I positioned that from the get go. Yeah. And so one of the things I talk about in this is what the COVID looks like. Business superfans, okay.

Is to acknowledge and express appreciation and recognition to people. One of my quotes is people will crawl through broken glass for appreciation and recognition. Tell me I'm wrong.

Rich Green: 00:24:23

No, I. I can't tell. You're on.

I've seen people do crazy things for, in contests, for winning a T shirt, things like that, so that they could stand up on stage and be recognized as doing something or winning a contest or being part of something. It's. People are craving recognition and it really costs nothing.

Managers, again, you're listening to this and you've got people and your most valuable asset. Recognizing them as their value of the organization as people goes a long ways. It's more valuable, I'm going to say.

It's just you have to make a good salary. But recognition, in a lot of instances, once that done, it surpasses that.

Freddy D: 00:25:09

Absolutely correct. Because like I say, your team is going to know that you appreciate their extra efforts, so they're going to want to do more.

Other co workers are going to see that and they say, wow, he really or she really cares about what we're doing. And it changes the dynamics of the company. And so where the superfans comes in and where I got the idea from, it is if.

That's why if you look in the COVID our faces are painted.

Rich Green: 00:25:35

Okay.

Freddy D: 00:25:36

But if you think of a sports team, okay, you've got the super fans of, you know, their faces, painted jerseys, the banner hats, everything else cheering for this, for their team. Is a team paying them for that?

Rich Green: 00:25:48

Yeah.

Freddy D: 00:25:48

No, but they're spending their own money for it, but they're promoting the team. So my idea was why can't businesses. That's why I create business super fans. Why can't businesses create their own team of super fans?

And the first place to start with is with your own internal team, like you were just mentioning. Because now you get your employees, your team to start saying, man, what a great company. These guys really love us.

And they start telling their friends and it starts and it grows. And the same thing with customers and the same thing that nobody ever talks about is complementary businesses.

Rich Green: 00:26:22

Yeah, right, Absolutely. That's so important because you become valuable now. You're just your source of information and assistance.

We haven't talked about this, but, you know, I know that you're passionate about leadership as well. And you're also an athlete. I don't know if we'll get into that now, but I did eight Ironman in my 50s and. And learned a lot from it.

And actually a lot of the coaching that I do is around high performance and the things that I've learned. And one of the. The four leadership styles of the Ironman that I developed is the fan. The fan is so important.

It's so critical in an organization, and it's critical to somebody that's in competition. Because when things are tough and you've got up to 17 hours to finish your race, if it takes that long.

Freddy D: 00:27:05

Right.

Rich Green: 00:27:06

People that are on the sidelines that are keeping you going. Yeah. Creating. I want to dig into that. To the super fans. So I'm just. Again, I'm fascinated by this sort of the process that you've got.

And if you'd be willing to talk a little bit more about your book. Yeah. Which is Creating Business Super Fans. I think it's available on Amazon and a whole bunch of other places. Correct. Yes. We'll. We'll.

At the end, we'll make sure that we get information on that so that let's kind of get access to that book. But could you talk a little bit about.

Freddy D: 00:27:37

Yeah. Yeah.

So one of the things I looked at is when I did a research on this stuff, and the idea came to me was the fact that there's a lot of people that talk about customer engagement, customer retention, and all that stuff. But if you stop and think about it, they're talking about a silo. It's just one. One component of the equation.

There's other people that talk about employee motivation, employee engagement, employee retention, and all that kind of stuff. But that's another silo that they talk about. And nobody ever talks about your complementary business partners.

Like a flooring and a painting company that go together is a simple example. Okay. And what I realized was that they're really all intertwined if you stop to think about it. Because I'll give you an example. Okay.

You're the painting guy, and you've got an employee that's not too happy about his job thing. He's doing it because it's a job, because that's how he feels he's treated.

Rich Green: 00:28:38

Yeah.

Freddy D: 00:28:39

The flooring company gives you a referral that they just did the flooring, and these people need painting done because it doesn't match the flooring. So the employee that's not super motivated goes and does a mediocre job and a Painting.

And so now you've got a situation where the flooring guy that recommended you looks bad to his customer, the painting company looks bad to the customer. And more importantly now the flooring guy is not happy with the painting company because he just lost himself a customer that's unhappy.

And right there is a combination of all of those things all intertwined. If that employee was motivated, fired up and loved his company, they would walk in and turn around and say, hey, this is, I love this company.

And oh, these flooring guys, they're the best and all that stuff. So it really reinforces the fact that that customer, they picked an outstanding flooring company and that's why they got recommended.

And it all, it just all intertwines and unfortunately we don't think of it that way.

Rich Green: 00:29:50

It's like the ripple in the, it's like the pebble dropped in the palm pond and the ripple goes out and it affects so many parts of the shores and you don't even know, right? So or, or I guess the other one that people talk about is the butterfly wings causing a hurricane 7,000 miles away, right?

There really are very powerful effects from things that we do or say or just even think. And then it admits some sort of energy that people pick up, good or bad, right?

Freddy D: 00:30:21

And it's like one of the things I talk about in the, in the book is, you know, the importance of thank you and the follow up for the thank you. Because I don't think we, you look at, there's certain industries and I won't name them, but that are weak in that aspect.

So they'll do the job and that's the last time that customer hears back from that. I mean, and it's like, wait a minute, you just lost that customer.

Because they're not talking about you, they're not promoting you, they're not saying what a great job you are because they haven't heard from you ever again. And the mind says, well, it was a transaction, we got it done, we serviced them.

And all set versus a couple months later, hey, just checking in and making sure you know that everything is working and all is good and if you need anything, let us know. And if you know anybody that could benefit from us, let us know as well. We'd be grateful. It's the simple stuff that is the big stuff.

And it's like six months later or a year later, hey, just want to reach out rich and say hi, hope all is well, how's life treating you? And oh, by the way, here's A couple.

We've expanded because of your assistance, and we value you because our company's grown because of customers like you. People want to know that they dealt with a successful company.

So it's okay to go back to those past customers and says, hey, because of you guys, we've grown. And thank you.

Rich Green: 00:31:48

Yeah, right.

And if you're not going back, how do you going back to your formula for creating super fans if you're not going back and finding out about their business and their lives? This is a simple process of checking in and saying. And again saying thank you.

But it's all part of that building the super fan process from sort of that beginning that you were talking about.

Freddy D: 00:32:07

Yeah, yeah. It's recognizing. It's like I tell people, I talk about birthday marketing and people look at me as birthday marketing. What?

Why would you do that as well? Because it's an important thing.

It says if you send a birthday card to somebody through the mail, not an email or a text something, it could be the only card that person has received. Number one. Number two, it just shows the time that, wow, it took the time to send them card.

I mean, I can show you tons of text messages I get from people saying, oh my gosh, I can't believe you remembered my birthday. Thank you so much.

Rich Green: 00:32:42

That's.

Freddy D: 00:32:42

The little things.

Rich Green: 00:32:43

Did it take a lot of. Did it take a lot of effort to do that? No, not at all. I. I'm glad you brought you.

I'm so glad you brought up the U. S. Mail because I use the US Mail all the time and I still works. It works well because guess what? People don't get mail anymore. Yeah, I mean, they get. They don't.

Like, it's usually some sort of junk or maybe a bill or something like that, guys to get a card or even.

Freddy D: 00:33:07

I still. I send out letters. I still send out letters to people in the mail because it's. They're going to go. I mean, we all do this.

We look at a junk bill that goes in that pile. I ain't opening that because I know they want just money. That's our mindset these days. Oh, my God. What's this?

Oh, I'm Open this one up and it gets opened. I've gotten more opportunities from prospecting that way because it. What's this?

Rich Green: 00:33:35

I love your. By the way, I love your attraction marketing versus the prospecting because I think you're. Again, you're adding value. You're attracting people.

You're. I guess you could put that prospecting term on It. But in my head, and I think a lot of other people's heads, pro is a different sort of a process.

It's not too much fun for a salespeople, and I guarantee you, not too much fun for the prospects either.

Freddy D: 00:33:58

Right.

Rich Green: 00:33:59

The other thing that I'm thinking about, something that I've done frequently and for people, other authors who have books, which is fun to do, is to send a prospect a copy of your book from Amazon. And if you've got prime, the shipping is free, Right.

And then everybody, you get a package that's from Amazon versus something, you're gonna open it up, right? Yeah.

So the US Mail or things that come to your mailbox or your door or if people still have the inbox where stuff sits on top and, you know, it gets opened. So that's super.

Freddy D: 00:34:36

And personalizing gifts. If you're sending a gift to somebody, make sure you got their name on it.

Because if I sent somebody a coffee mug and it's got my logo on it, who's it about? Yeah, it's about me, the company. If I send that same coffee mug with my logo, but now it's got the name Rich on it, whose coffee cup is it?

Rich Green: 00:34:58

Yeah, it's.

Freddy D: 00:34:59

You're.

Rich Green: 00:35:00

You're a company. You are. This is. Salespeople have incredible power if they use it responsibly. And you are the company. You could have the. You.

The company could have the best product in the world. You know, they could have the most clever marketing.

But if they don't like the people that the prospect doesn't like, the people they're dealing with.

Freddy D: 00:35:22

Toast don't pass. Zero.

Rich Green: 00:35:25

So, yeah, very cool.

Freddy D: 00:35:27

But they say with the personalized gift, where I was going with that is okay. Now, if you got that, you know, I sent you a coffee cup with my logo but your name on it, you're drinking. It's your cup.

So don't touch my cup because it's got your name on it. But now you're walking around with your cup. Not my cup. It's your cup because it's got your name on it. But you're promoting my company.

Rich Green: 00:35:49

Yeah. Super. I hope people that are listening to this, writing these things down because we got so many. This talk, this dialogue that we're having.

There's so many gems in it. I mean, so many absolute gems in it. And I guess if you wanted to be able to.

To grab more of those gems and you have some gifts, I think some things that you give out actually give out for free. Something called the Scorecard. Could you tell me about that score? Superfan Scorecard.

Freddy D: 00:36:16

Yeah, the Superfan scorecard is a pretty cool thing that created. It's in conjunction with the book. So that's what it looks like. It's like a dart. It's like a dartboard. The top spot is in the center. But it's.

Each chapter is per. What I did with the book is each chapter is self contained. So it addresses customers, employees and business partners per each chapter.

And so for each chapter we start off with prospecting. At the end of the chapter is a question that asks you on a score of 0 to 10 how do you rate yourself in your prospecting skills.

And you would take your pen and put a dot there.

Rich Green: 00:36:53

Got it.

Freddy D: 00:36:53

And go on to follow up. Thank you. Birthdays, appreciation, recognition, retention, unexpected gifts, reviews and referrals. And gratitude is the last one.

And you then when you're all done, you connect the dots and you'll realize that your wheel isn't really smooth. It's a little bit got some flat spots in it.

Rich Green: 00:37:13

Yeah.

Freddy D: 00:37:13

And so then there is some telling us how it works. But then at the back here there's a whole action guide and being a coach you can appreciate this.

Rich Green: 00:37:25

Okay.

Freddy D: 00:37:28

Next action steps, responsible deadline, resources, barriers and results. And I can put dates on here. What do I need to do to make improve my score.

Rich Green: 00:37:38

That is very cool. And so the. On that front page after you get done scoring yourself, you've got a visual. I guess I'm visioning it right now.

You've got a visual and you can see where the. That wheel is like not going to turn. It's not going to feel good when it hits something. That's not. So you would focus.

I'm guessing you would that you would use that to focus on the areas that are.

Freddy D: 00:38:01

Yeah. But you find you realize that yourself you're short with. Yeah. And then I'm. I've got a community that people can join to.

It's called the Business Superfans Accelerator community that people can join for free. And it's strictly all business owners. I'm launching it. So there's. I'm looking to get people in there.

Rich Green: 00:38:19

Okay.

Freddy D: 00:38:20

Start doing some stuff with it. But the whole intent is they get access through me through that community to help coach them on. Okay, what are you doing? How are you doing it?

And all that aspect and the other thing that's available, it's a reduced rate is I did a lot of research and spent a few bucks and I downloaded everybody's customer avatar work sheet And I took all the best of everybody's stuff and then send all the other stuff. And we created a comprehensive customer avatar worksheet that you can go through.

It's got avatar deep dive, etc and then we get into talking about you and about your KPIs and what you need to be doing for, for that aspect.

And then what's your unique selling proposition, your elevator pitch, all that stuff so that you first define who you want to be pursuing and then what's going to be your messaging for that particular group?

Rich Green: 00:39:20

I'll tell you what, there's all sorts of stuff on creating avatars but all of the follow up, it's rare that you find something all put together like that. But now you just mentioned KPIs and things that you want to be able to measure. Being able to have all of that at your fingertips is, is.

Freddy D: 00:39:35

Yeah, that's what I spent months downloaded everybody's stuff as part of sales. You gotta know what your competition's got.

And then we, we reworked it and now it's got some really cool stuff that a great team helped me put this together. And again it's all about helping people.

Rich Green: 00:39:52

Yeah. Adding value. Adding value. And that's the way we grow our business. That's the way we grow our super fans.

Super Frederick, thank you so much for being a guest of the show. I've enjoyed our time together. I'd love to have you back and talk more about this and, and I hope you come back.

Freddy D: 00:40:11

Yeah, I would love to come back. I think we had a great conversation. Thank you for the invite.

This was very enjoyable and we could deep dive into like we talked about some international sales and.

Rich Green: 00:40:20

Yeah, yeah, great stories there.

Freddy D: 00:40:23

Yeah.

Rich Green: 00:40:23

So if, if we'd be willing to. I'd be willing to share my learning stories. If you'd be willing to share your learning stories. Oh yeah, yeah. The.

How could people get access to, to the book and to the other materials that you talked about? The scorecard.

Freddy D: 00:40:37

Okay. The book easiest place is go to Amazon search for creating business super fans.

Rich Green: 00:40:43

Okay.

Freddy D: 00:40:43

And this is what the, the COVID looks like of the book. And then they can also go to business superfans.com and that's where they can get a scorecard for free and they can buy the avatar.

And I'm actually slowly creating documents that people can purchase to help them with follow up verbiage. Thank you. Verbiage appreciation verbiage and stuff like that.

Because one of the things that you know and I think you would agree you give somebody a blank Sheet of paper and they go, I don't know what to write. I don't know what. Yes, right. You give somebody a document that's got verbiage on it, they're going to find everything that's wrong with it.

They're going to want to change everything else. And, and so what I'm doing is I'm creating templates that people can purchase for reasonable dollars.

And it gives them a starting point of here's some follow up strategy and verbology that they can utilize to thank you. How to ask for a referral. And those are add on products that I'm creating in conjunction with the book.

Rich Green: 00:41:48

That's great. I mean, if the statistics are this, in sales, if you follow a process that is equivalent to 52% of getting the sale.

Now we're not talking about any skills or your personality or anything else. We're just talking about filling, following a process. Which is better than flipping a coin.

Freddy D: 00:42:06

Yep.

Rich Green: 00:42:07

So it's great that you've got that available for people. Again, Frederick, thank you so much. Before we go, want to know what your code is? What's the code that you use? Your motto, your faith, your credo?

What is it you use to get through the tough times?

Freddy D: 00:42:21

Perseverance.

Rich Green: 00:42:23

Perseverance.

Freddy D: 00:42:24

Perseverance. Because we're all going to go to the. Life is like this.

Rich Green: 00:42:29

Yeah.

Freddy D: 00:42:29

If you stay on mission and you believe in yourself. And that's the other thing is belief in yourself is. Is everything. And I'll just share how to prove the point.

Our garage door broke and I had a meeting and I had to get the power out and I couldn't pull the handle stuff. I mean, all the cabling broke.

Rich Green: 00:42:51

Oh no.

Freddy D: 00:42:53

I got that garage door up by myself with my partner. She helped a bit, but I finished getting it up and she said we gotta call the neighbors and everything else is no. I says I can get this done.

We just gotta use our heads. And we got it done. And so it's perseverance and persistence.

Rich Green: 00:43:09

Perseverance and persistence.

Freddy D: 00:43:11

Beautiful.

Rich Green: 00:43:12

Again, Frederick, thank you so much. Until next time, folks. Know your code.

Freddy D: 00:43:18

All right, thank you, Rich.

Rich Green: 00:43:21

Thanks for listening to the Iron Mind Code show with Rich Green. Make sure to visit our website. Join us next time for another edition of the Iron Mind Code Show.