Lykken on Lending

The digital world has made business transactions a lot faster and more convenient. Almost everything became easily accessible in just a few clicks. This innovative landscape set brand new market rules that every business owner must know how to navigate well. Ira Rosen of Mojo Global joins David Lykken to explain how to adapt and perform better in an ever-evolving digital environment. Ira presents the right ways to start engaging LinkedIn conversations that translate to real-life connections. He also presents his million-dollar formula that can fill up your calendar and turn productivity into actual results.

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Adaptability For Today’s Entrepreneur Is The New Currency With Ira Rosen Of Mojo Global

I’m so excited to have Ira Rosen joining me. He’s a new friend. He’s a fellow gray hair for those of us who have got gray hair. Ira, it’s a delight to have you join me on the show. Thank you so much for taking time out of your very busy day to join me.

Thank you, David. I was looking forward to this. I know that the first time we met, we had this phenomenal conversation and a great exchange of ideas. I was looking forward to continuing that conversation today.

I’m looking forward to it, especially the topic we are going to be talking about today. You are known as a motivational sales growth and business coach. You do a great job. I want to share with our audience the principles by which you have found that are helping people be successful in this market. For those that do not know who you are, if you could give us a little bit of an overview of your background, that would be good.

I live in Scottsdale, Arizona. I have been an entrepreneur for over 50 years. During that time, I’ve had a number of very interesting companies. Many years ago, I was the youngest new car franchise dealer in the country. I had a lot of fun with that, and I sold that. After that, I had some medical weight loss centers in Minneapolis. We helped over 10,000 people get to normal body weight. In between, I did a lot of real estates, coaching, and sales training.

Now, I’ve got a company called Mojo Global. We have a LinkedIn platform helping entrepreneurs monetize LinkedIn. Everybody is on there, but nobody quite knows what to do with it. That’s where we come in and help people grow their revenue because it’s all about growing your revenue. You are either growing as a company or shrinking. I love the topics we’re going to talk about because it hits at the core of where all of us are at right now. To be an entrepreneur, you’ve got to be a fearless warrior. Wouldn’t you agree, David?

Absolutely. In fairness, you hit on a powerful word for me. Either you are in faith or fear. You are either believing in yourself, believing in something greater than yourself, hopefully, or you are living in fear, and the circumstances are ruling you. What I love about you, Ira, in our conversation, and that’s why we hit such a good groove right out of the gate, and it felt like I met my brother from another mother in our first conversation, is because you are an overcomer. You are one of these people that say, “I love tough markets because this is where I get to show that I’m tough.” That’s how I feel about it.

I have been almost 50 years in the mortgage industry, and we have been through numerous cycles before, but this one is particularly difficult. I’m passionate about LinkedIn because, over half of the business that I get, people connect with me. That’s how you and I met. It was LinkedIn. It’s a powerful tool. I saw what you do, and I wanted to share it with our audience. Let’s start with this. What is so different now for a business owner to not only survive but thrive in this new digital world? There are many out there that are dabbling or playing around in it, but they are not having the success that you are, nor are those that you are coaching. Talk about that, please.

Here’s the thing. LinkedIn is an amazing place. What you’ve got to look at is that there are almost a billion people on LinkedIn. Every second, two people sign up. It’s an incredible platform. It’s based on trust. It’s a business platform. Look at it this way, the wealth of the world is on LinkedIn. If you are B2B, you’ve got to be on there.

Here’s the challenge. Everyone is on there, but very few people know how to monetize it. They get a lot of connections. I talked to a guy, and he had 15,000 connections. Because he wasn’t quite sure what to say or how to do it, and nobody likes to make mistakes as an entrepreneur, he never messaged anybody. It’s like meeting a young lady and calling her two years later rather than sending her roses every couple of weeks. You’ve got to be top of mind.

The big thing is, and we are going to talk a little bit about this down the road here, it’s all about getting people off of LinkedIn onto a calendar. I’m passionate about the calendar because the calendar is a litmus test of how good your marketing is, how effective it is or not. Think about it. You could do ten different things on social media, but if you’ve got an empty calendar, the calendar doesn’t lie. It is what it is. It’s like you look at your bank account and go, “That’s impossible. That can’t be correct.” You call the bank and look through your statement and say, “I think that’s correct,” or you get on a scale after COVID and go, “That’s impossible.”

“I’ve never weighed that much before.”

Everyone has done that and said, “That can’t be,” but your calendar doesn’t lie.

Let’s get into that. I agree, it’s a direct reflection of your activity. In my calendar, and I shared it with you, it is jam-packed. You said, “Dave, you have all that?” I color code it. I color code who are clients and prospects. I look at the amount of time I’m spending prospecting in a market such as this because there is some reduction in the business, naturally speaking.

Fortunately, we are countercyclical. You said that you are the same way. We do better in these markets because everyone is searching for solutions. We do well in the good markets, but we even do better in these markets. It’s important that you use this tool, which gets to this new game that we find ourselves. New game and new rules, what are they?

By the way, I’ve got a comment on our last conversation. Very few people reference your calendar the way you did, the way you time block it, the way you color code it, and that puts you literally in that top 1%. That’s why you’ve had the success that you’ve had. I want to touch on one thing, 80% of our day is non-revenue producing. It comes right out of The 4-Hour Workweek, that book. The trick is how do you flip it around so 80% of your day becomes productive?

There’s a new rule and game out there. Social media is a big part of it. Thanks for commenting about my calendar. I’m very visual. I want to see it on my calendar. I want to see it color coded. I want to be able to scan my color and see how much time I am spending busy with work and administrative stuff. I have people that work with me. It’s a wonderful team out of the Philippines. I love these people. They are very good at what they do, but why am I spending time doing administrative stuff when I’ve hired them to be doing it? I see that. I have that purplish color on there. That leaps out at me. If I got too much of that, it means my balances are right.

When I look at all my client work, obviously, clients should be number one. Take care of what you have. There is an old saying that says, “Make new friends. Keep the old ones to silver. The other is gold.” Finding new clients, new friends, and new relationships, I’m so thrilled I found you. It helps us focus on what’s so important.

That calendar is something. I don’t want to move off of that too quickly because maybe that’s something we should focus on. What do you do in your coaching to help people get their calendars in a way that’s going to turn their productivity to 80% results? How do you do that? How do you get them to do that?

I want everybody to write it down. I’m going to give you three numbers. I’m going to give you a million-dollar formula. The numbers are 2, 10, and 40, and this applies to most businesses if you are a solo entrepreneur or a smaller company. It wouldn’t necessarily apply to Coca-Cola but maybe on a larger scale. What you want to have is you want to get in front of two people a day on a Zoom call or face-to-face. I like Zoom better because you can cover way more ground. Two people a day, 10 a week, 40 a month.

If you are talking to 40 qualified prospects, your people at least have intent and have the capacity to become a client. You are doing business because if you are closing at 20%, which is the average, you are picking up 8 clients. If you are closing at 10%, you are at least picking up 4 clients. If you talk to 40 people a month, that’s equivalent to 500 people in a year. That’s the metric that’s got to be. I’m highly disciplined when it comes to that one metric. It’s like non-negotiable, and I preach this like crazy.

When you start off, you might not evolve to that but you get there right away. It’s something you want to strive toward. What we do, our companies, we help people realize those metrics because if you are in front of 2 people a day, 10 a week, you are making money. Let’s say it’s Monday morning and you look at your calendar. All you see is white space for the whole week, except you’ve got one lonely appointment on Friday. You are thinking they might not even show up. Now you’ve got a blank calendar.

What happens is, as entrepreneurs, you go 2 or 3 days with nobody on your calendar. You’ve got this stress, this anxiety. You start second-guessing yourself, self-doubt. What happens is that anxiety takes over that negative self-talk, then all of a sudden, it’s the downward spiral. Rather than flipping it around where it’s Monday like yourself, David, and myself, I was booked out every hour except for a couple of hours through Friday at the end of the day.

I say to myself, “This is going to be an awesome week. I’m expecting success. I know it’s going to happen. I’m in abundance, not scarcity or fear.” I’ve set myself up for success because there are only three things you need to do well as an entrepreneur now. Only three. 1) Get your calendar full: 2, 10, 40. 2) Close the deal. If it’s a fit and you want to come from a place of service solving a problem, you want to be able to help them. If it’s not a fit, you are not for everybody. That’s okay. 3) Make sure that the client has a great experience and turn them into a referral partner. That’s it. There are many other things that fall under that, but those are the three things that are going to make you money and grow revenue. That’s at the core. We could talk about a hundred different things about business, but when you boil it all down, it is a calendar. Wouldn’t you agree, David?

Digital World: You must come from a place of service and desire to solve a problem when closing a business deal with another person.

I agree. Not only is it the calendar, but it’s also the quality of your calendar. First of all, start working on getting in there, talking to people, fill it up with calls. I’m thinking of several people. There’s a number of people unemployed now that are reading this. They are in fear, “What can I do to find a job?” We are having significant layoffs, and there’s going to be another round of layoffs coming up that’s going to start here in October 2022. We are going to see another round or two of layoffs. It’s only going to get worse when it comes to that, but yet there are jobs out there. I’m speaking to you that are unemployed now, and I’m saying to listen to this, then it’s who are you talking to? How do you coach?

I have different systems. We have Modex and as well as Mobility MMI for those loan originators or companies that are looking to find the most target-rich environment to be connecting with. What is your message when you connect with them? We had Jessica Peterson on. She’s a very successful realtor. She was saying, “David, the biggest problem that’s going on there is people are calling me and saying, ‘Give me business.’ They are not adding any value. Why do I want to spend time talking to someone who doesn’t have a message of helping me with my business?” Zig Ziglar once says, “How you get what you want is by helping someone else get what they want.” Those are the principles. Talk about how you coach people to start talking to the right people, not just a number but the right number.

First of all, you’ve got to get clear on who you are going after. The most powerful thing in the universe is a mind that’s focused and clear. You have got to have clarity.

I want to circle that. That is such a good point, and people miss that. Say that again and put a little coaching around that this time, Ira.

Clarity is everything because clarity is a cousin to focus. He who is the most focused will always win. When you get clear on what you want, and you’ve got to get still with yourself and spend some time on it. Don’t just look at it and spend two minutes, but lean into that and get clear on what that is and visualize it. Put together a game plan, “Who is that that I want to go after? What does that person look like? What’s that avatar? Where do I go? What are the obstacles to getting to that person or to that industry? What are the things I’ve got to battle and fight through?” List all those obstacles.

In the next column, “What are the solutions? What are the things that I need to do with discipline that’s going to get me there?” From there, you’ve got a game plan that you can trust. Once you have that game plan, then you’ve got to commit. When I mean to commit, I mean to commit. You make a contract with yourself. It’s non-negotiable. This is where discipline comes in. Gandhi once said, “An undisciplined mind is a mind that suffers.” Do the hard things. Life is easy. Do the easy things. Life is hard.

I’m going to get into something we haven’t talked about before. You’ve got the parent, the adult, and the child within all of us. The child is the one that has fun. Like you and I, our children are connected when we talk. You’ve got a parent, an adult. It’s adult to adult. When you are talking to two people, and you are talking about reality and everything, but the child is the one that likes to go to a concert, have fun. They love to spend money and get very emotional.

Here’s the thing. I tell people that when you got an empty calendar, your house is on fire. Rather than put the fire out, “I’m going to go get my car washed. I’m going to mow the lawn. I’m going to go on Facebook. I’m going to call my friends up. I’m going to take the day off.” The child is taken over, and it’s like you’ve got the inmates running the asylum.

What you want to do is you’ve got to parent yourself. This is where discipline comes in, and your discipline muscle is a muscle. The more you use it, the stronger it gets. You’ve got PDF: Persistence, Discipline and Focus. Harvard did a study on this. It’s the number one reason why 24% to 38% of businesses are gone within three years. That’s a crazy set. Only 4% make it to year ten. The underlining reason is that they give up too soon. They don’t have the passion. They are not relentless.

What happens is they get a couple of obstacles, and they go, “Oh well,” and they cave. Ask yourself, “What would Kobe Bryant do? What would LeBron James do if they get into a difficult situation?” These guys are beasts. They battle through it. That’s the mindset you’ve got to have as an entrepreneur. You’ve got to be a warrior and be tough. You’ve got to parent yourself.

Your self-talk has got to be, “I can do this and I’m going to do this. Here’s my game plan.” Come hell or high water from the time you get up in the morning to the time you go to sleep. Michael Phelps was in the pool for 5 years every day, up to 8 hours a day. He said, “If I took 1 day off, I knew it would take me 2 days to catch up.”

I love the PDF. That’s an acronym. You gave us a new reason for that. What’s that acronym again?

PDF: Persistence, Discipline and Focus.

I will give you credit for the first two times I’ll use it after that. Readers, you can get why Ira and I got along so well from our very first conversation. I love what is being talked to you here. There are times we, as our adult selves, have to take our inner child for a walk and put it in a timeout. That’s such a hard thing for people to do. We’ve come off such a good, fun season. We’ve had a daycare season, folks. A season where it’s low-interest rates. Anyone in this business could be successful if you answer your freaking phone.

We are in a new game, and it requires new rules. You talked about LinkedIn. There’s also another thing, which is your network. What I want to get into is talk about you making a statement, and I’m going to ask it as a question, so you can make the statement. Is it true that your network is your net worth? If so, why? What is it that is the most efficient way to go about that? I slotted the question. Readers, he provided me with that question. It’s a great statement though. Our network is our net worth. How do you coach around this?

Your network is your net worth because that’s your universe. The bigger your network becomes, and I’m talking about the right people. People that are in alignment with you, and people that need your services, and people that you can help and you can lift up. As this grows, every time you add someone to your network, and that’s why I love LinkedIn because you can add thousands of people to your network in a very brief amount of time, which would take you years.

Every time you add someone, there’s a dollar amount attached to that one person. I call it social capital. I will give you an example. One of the people on the planet has probably been Queen Elizabeth. You talk about massive social capital. The whole globe mourned for this amazing woman. Oprah Winfrey, the whole world know she has this amazing network of people around the world.

Digital World: You can add thousands of people on LinkedIn and build your network in a brief amount of time. There is a dollar amount attached to every person you connect with in this platform.

Ask yourself, “How big is my network?” You want to be able to get it up. More is more, 2,000, 3,000, 4,000, 5,000 or 10,000 people, but not just a bunch of names but people that know, like and trust you. How do you do that? You want to be in front of that network all the time. You talked about service. You want to give them information, things that are valuable and interesting that they are going to find intriguing. Something they get in their inbox and they go, “I like that a lot.” They are waiting for the next thing that comes from you.

We all have the capacity to do that. What happens is that over a period of time, you are building up this magical word called trust. Now, trust is the new currency. People have to trust you. They can like you but if they don’t trust you, they are not going to do business with you. You want to build this network up. An example is let’s say you throw a big party, David. You spent a lot of money on the facility, the food, great food catering, and this amazing band, and nobody shows up. It’s like, “How did that happen?” You realized, “I didn’t have a guest list.”

There’s a great story everyone has read on that. They forgot to send out the guest list, and they were so crushed that no one showed up for their party. Talk about a bit of a process. You are talking about a discipline, the PDF, but then that’s in the discipline and having processes that are built around the discipline to make sure you effectively accomplish what you are seeking to accomplish.

We could go on and on about the network. One of the powers of the LinkedIn network is your network. How are you speaking and communicating in that network? We offer a podcast. We are giving a lot of great information out. One of my favorite books is The Servant Leader published by Ken Blanchard and Hodges. These guys nailed it when it comes to this. How can people best connect? I know it’s adding value, but coach people how to do that now real quickly, Ira.

Dale Carnegie said it best many years ago. He said the sweetest sound to anyone’s ears is their own name. You could be in a crowded room that’s very noisy, and you could hardly hear anything, but you would hear two things. 1) If someone called your name out, you would hear that. 2) If you are in immediate danger, you would hear that as well. The name is very powerful.

Also, the power of the compliment. People are hungry for a compliment. Mark Twain said, “I could live two weeks on a good compliment.” I get excited about this stuff. Neuroscientists say that when you give someone a sincere compliment, the neurotransmitters and the dopamine, the brain reacts the same way if you are to give someone cash. Isn’t that amazing?

Every time you give someone a compliment, you go, “Thank you.” The brain triggers because every thought we have is followed by a brain chemical. When you give people a compliment, it’s a trigger that releases this amazing dopamine that makes people feel good, which brings us to the next thing which is about building. How do you connect with these people? How do you make people feel? That’s one of your superpowers. You make people feel awesome.

Ask yourself, “When I get done communicating with them, do I leave them in a better place? Do they feel better? Have I inspired them? Have I lifted them up? Have I given them something that is of value? Are they going to remember me?” Those kinds of things. It’s how you make people feel. Dale Carnegie said this years ago, and this stuck with me. I was a young guy, and I remember this. He said, “When you meet someone, picture the words across their forehead that read, ‘Please make me feel important.’”

There’s such a powerful message in there. It’s a powerful principle, and it will help anyone who will understand that. I want to add to that a little bit of what you’re saying, and they get a comment on this. I am a Vocal major, so I did not major in Business. I made it in Finance, which is a bit of a miracle in and of itself. What I’m finding is that I listen to voices. Everybody is saying that, but they are not hearing it from your voice. There’s something about the voice. Your vocal cord is like your fingerprint and your iris. There’s no one else that has your voiceprint. It’s like a frequency on a radio.

I’m going to make this statement. I want to get your thoughts in on this because we’re feeding each other on our passions. I love brain science. One of the brain sciences is frequencies. Your brain works in a frequency pattern. When you speak, there is an audience that will respond to your voice listener that no one else will. I don’t care if they are singing the same song or messaging out the same words. When it comes authentically from yourself with your voice, it’s going to have a frequency and a resonance that is going to connect with people and with your audience. Don’t fight. Don’t try to imitate. Let’s talk about authenticity because that’s one thing. Clarity is such an important point. How important is it when you are on LinkedIn to be authentic and have your voice heard that frequency? How important is that, Ira?

It’s everything because there are certain ground rules on LinkedIn. It’s like if you have ever been to a networking event and someone walks up to you, you don’t even know them and they give you a card and immediately start trying to pitch you and sell you. It’s a turn off. On LinkedIn, a great way to start is through question-based messaging. Get their perspective. People like to talk about what they think and what they feel, and get their advice. You want to get a conversation going. They say, “He who talks the least makes the most.” Get people talking about their favorite subject themselves.

You want to be truly interested. To be interesting, you’ve got to be interested in what that person is saying. You want to have the curiosity of a five-year-old. Tell me more about that. Why is that important? How long have you been doing that? All of a sudden, what happens is people are magnetically drawn to you. They don’t even know why, but they are drawn to you because you are making them feel good.

You are right about voice. Voice is everything because your tonality tells a story. Tony Robbins talks about 55% of our communication is non-verbal, the body language. Thirty-eight percent is the tonality of your voice. 7% or 8% are the actual words, then you get into energy. Energy is everything. When you are talking to somebody, a little tip for anybody that’s out there, if you are selling, selling somebody on yourself to hire you, your energy needs to be higher than the person you are communicating with. If it’s lower, it’s not going to work out in your favor. It’s always got to be higher because everything is about energy and vibration. That’s the secret of the universe.

Digital World: If you want somebody to hire you, your energy needs to be higher than the person you’re communicating with. Everything is about energy and vibration.

You’ve hit on so many interesting topics that we could make a whole episode series for a year on, Ira, and that’s important. What’s important is that you are speaking from many years of experience, and it’s us that have gray hairs that can help the younger generation. That’s what you and I are committed to is to help the next generation. How can people learn more about you? What is the best way for them to learn more about Ira? I know people are going to follow up on this one.

Our website is MojoGlobal.com.

That makes me smile.

You can go in there, and you can book an appointment. It shows all the different people that we’ve worked with. We won Market of the Year through the Phoenix Business Journal. We are working with Mark Cuban on a big Shark Tank Project. We’ve worked with Grant Cardone, a lot of speakers, and people all over the globe. We’ve got clients in 50 countries. My direct email is Ira@MojoGlobal.com. I would love to hear from you. If you’ve got a question or a comment, we get a conversation going.

What I love is working with people that are highly motivated because if I care more than they do, it’s not a fit. I want people that are in it to win it. I love working with and helping serious entrepreneurs that are on a mission and that are relentless for success. That’s the only option. Those are the people that we love working within my team.

I can see why people are attracted to you. I certainly am from the very first moment, and we connected on LinkedIn. Don’t underestimate the power of this. Ira Rosen, my new friend, I am honored and blessed to have you on this show. I can’t wait to spend more time with you. We will be having you back, and sharing your wisdom and knowledge. We will get on here and talk about what makes it work. There’s so much that comes out of both of us, and it fits so well. We are so complementary in what we do. I appreciate you, Ira Rosen. Thank you for being here.

David, it was a pleasure. Thank you. Keep up the awesome work and being a steward for today’s entrepreneurs and everyone else that’s out there to elevate what they are doing. Congratulations.

Thank you so much, Ira. It’s an honor to get to know you. It doesn’t matter how old you are. I’m consulting with a 98-year-old. That tells you. We don’t have to quit. We’ve got a lot of years and a lot of roads ahead of us. Let’s keep going and make a difference. Thank you so much for being here. I appreciate you.

Important Links

• Ira Rosen
• The 4-Hour Workweek
• Jessica Peterson – Past Episode
• The Servant Leader
• Ira@MojoGlobal.com
• https://www.LinkedIn.com/in/ira-rosen/

About Ira Rosen

As a Motivational Sales Growth & Business Coach, I worked with Sales Professionals & Companys that were motivated to reposition & reinvent their organizations to experience exponential sales growth. I consulted with various groups throughout the US. Projects included ‘Ira Rosen’s Reinvention Dimension Boot Camp…for Sales Professionals & Entrepreneurs’ with a goal for all attendees to achieve a 25% spike in revenue in 30 days. I’ve created & sold various companies over the last three decades with over $50,000.00 in closed transactions.