Scale Up Strategies: The Business Podcast for Coaches, Consultants, and Speakers
We're your hosts and Business Coaching experts Mary Fain Brandt and Laura Bashore
We’re sharing all our mistakes and insider tips from our 20+ years in business and
how we successfully scaled up our businesses without losing our minds or our husbands.
Sure you can piece it together and try to DIY your way to success
OR
you can listen to us every week and learn the shortcuts because we promise there
are some.
Scale Up Strategies: The Business Podcast for Coaches, Consultants, and Speakers
Thriving Online: Master Google My Business with Special Guest Jonathan Tran's Proven Strategies
How does a mobile notary scale business to nationwide and internation heights? Find out how our guest used Google My Business to do just that!
Understanding the essential role of Google My Business can be a game-changer for small business visibility and growth. In this enlightening episode, we discuss strategies for maximizing GMB’s potential, the importance of gathering authentic testimonials, and how to respond effectively to customer feedback.
Laura and Mary are joined by expert, Jonathan Tran, to share the tactics he uses to grow his business with Google My Business
• Importance of Google My Business for local visibility
• Strategies for completing a strong Google My Business profile
• The relationship between good reviews and client conversion
• Personalized techniques to gather customer testimonials
• The effect of review volume on online visibility
• Importance of replying to reviews promptly and effectively
• Handling changes in industry or business location within Google My Business
• Market trends concerning small businesses and AI integration
Don’t forget to follow, review, and rate our podcast if you find value in our content!
Connect with Jonathan:
https://www.instagram.com/jonathantranimal/
Notary Pin: https://notarypin.com/
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You're listening to Scale Up Strategies, the business growth podcast for coaches, consultants and speakers. We're your hosts and business coach experts Mary Fain Brandt and Laura Bas hore.
Laura Bashore:We're sharing all our insider tips from 20 plus years in business, including how we successfully scaled our businesses without losing our minds or our husbands.
Mary Fain Brandt:Sure, you can piece it together and try to DIY your way to success. Or you can listen to us every week and learn the shortcuts, because we promise they're really awesome.
Laura Bashore:So grab your favorite cup of coffee, tune in and let's start the show you guys.
Mary Fain Brandt:Did you know that 97% of people use Google to find local businesses? I mean, I do Raise your hand if you do, we all do and 86% of consumers rely on the internet to find a local business? Again, I do. So I finally got my new Google my Business page set up and I'm excited to hear what, jonathan, the tips that you're going to share with us. But, jonathan, I'm really excited to hear how Google my Business page helped you scale and grow your business. Notary Pin Incorporated. Can you share with our audience what that journey looked like?
Jonathan Tran:Yeah, hey, mary, thank you so much. Definitely it was Google. Business pages, such an integral part of my business, especially when you're a startup and you're starting your own business and you have no funds for investing in advertising and marketing. And so Google is my favorite channel when you're starting out, because it's something that you can start on right away. And so with Google, just as you'd mentioned, whenever we have a question, where's the first place we go? We go to Google. It's in our pockets, it's on our desktops, it's about to be inside of our brains. With Elon Musk, we could think a question and then Google is going to have an answer for us in our mind. So it's just such a powerful tool and that's how Google makes their money. The better the questions, the answers to the questions are, the more likely you're to show.
Jonathan Tran:And so for me, I started a notary business, and before having notary penned this huge national company, I was working solely in San Diego and I had no money. I just had my pen, a stamp, and I was like, let's go, let's rock and roll, I just need somebody who needs the paper signed. And so I started out in the real estate space. I started a business with my brother doing real estate investing first, and my primary role was digital marketing, trying to figure out how to generate leads online. And we were doing paid advertising and we were doing our website SEO, google business page. And I knew that I couldn't start with that paid advertising. So I started with the thing that was free, the low hanging fruit that didn't cost any money. And so the Google is awesome because they kind of lay out what you're supposed to do and you know, when you start a Google page, it kind of gives you instructions like hey, you've completed this much of your profile. You're at 80%, you know 90%, yes. And so it kind of they kind of gamify it for you and you want to fill out everything that's there. They're laying that for you because they want you to know like, hey, we need this information If you want people to find you, fill out these things here.
Jonathan Tran:And so the whole goal of Google is to serve the customer, serve the searcher. And so you know, I think we, as when we're getting into business and we're looking at like SEO and Google, we're thinking about what are the tips and tricks, how do we figure this out? What's that secret thing that's going to rank me number one. But the real secret is just to serve your customer. And if somebody is looking for a notary, you're not going to say, oh, I'm a notary and realtor, because now you're confusing Google, because Google is not looking for a realtor. Your customer's not looking for a realtor, they're looking for a notary, and so that's just really. You know, what is it that your customer is looking for? And that's all you're wanting to answer. Hey, this is me, I do this, this is what you need. I'm open from these times. Yeah, cause somebody is going to say, hey, who's a notary near me, open right now? And if your profile has those things, boom, you're going to show that simple and we kind of overcomplicate things, right? No?
Mary Fain Brandt:as business owners. In a society, we never overcomplicate things, never. You said to fill out everything, which I understand, and they do make it pretty simple once you get in there. But one of the things you know, my friend was telling me cause she's done the Google my business page and she was like make sure you do this. Make sure you do this is, besides filling it out, you need testimonials, right?
Laura Bashore:Yes and so when you're just starting out.
Mary Fain Brandt:so I want to know you know, selfishly, right, I want to know how to get more testimonials, because I sent an email to people, past clients, with a link saying hey, I just started my Google, my Business page, but you know people are so busy, right? So is there a way that we can streamline that? Is there a way that people what people you've done, what is the process that really makes it easier to get people to give you a testimonial without paying them? Like, okay, do I have to start sending out Starbucks cards? Like what do I have to do, jonathan?
Jonathan Tran:That is a strategy. You know money talks. You can always bribe people to do things for you. It just depends on is the juice worth the squeeze, right oh?
Mary Fain Brandt:my God yeah.
Jonathan Tran:So you know what's cool about the reviews and you know we always talk about this. Where we're, again, we're trying to find the most efficient way, but sometimes the most efficient way is the way that works the least Right. And so what I like to think about is what's the highest chance that I'm going to get this person to leave me a review, versus, like, how can I make this easier for myself, right, and so people like people and they want to help you, and so, sending a really informal email that's like clearly templated and that like through to 50 million people in your list, I'm going to see that I'm not even going to take a look at it, cause I already know what you're trying to do and it's so impersonal, right, and we sent it to 15 people.
Mary Fain Brandt:I didn't do a template, it was literally to the last 15 clients and colleagues. Literally that was all I didn't do like to my email list or anything it was. It was strategic and I, you know, I got like a half 50% response. It's just hard, People are busy and that's great.
Laura Bashore:Yes, 50% is a good response though. I want a hundred percent, laura.
Mary Fain Brandt:You know me, I want everybody on that list. You're a perfectionist. I don't know what you're talking about, so I'm just like that's a big thing, like having enough testimonials, because one of the where's our bell, laura? Ding, ding, ding, it's stats time, like one of the statistics. It says Jonathan, and please tell us if this is right businesses with 10 or more reviews and I'm sorry they're called reviews, not testimonials on their Google, my Business page receive three and a half times more views than those with fewer. So your goal is to get 10 reviews minimum.
Jonathan Tran:Yeah, and honestly, you know what?
Jonathan Tran:I have more numbers for you, so I actually have a list of like numbers and how they correlate to market size, um so like. Obviously 10 reviews is great, but if you're in a market like san diego where there's lots of people there's like over 1.4 million people in san diego county and so you think about, is 10 reviews going to really be enough if you've got 10 competitors in a five mile radius around you? And so the numbers that I have are if you're in a big city, kind of like San Diego, you want 150 to 300 reviews. That is your target number, medium size, and these are all rough numbers. Right, it always depends on what is your industry. Obviously, if you're in a low volume industry, having 150 300 reviews is going to be harder. But just for like rough numbers in terms of comparison a big city 150 to 300, a medium size city 50 to 100, and then a small city 15 to 30 a lot right and so I'm gonna have to start sending out starbucks cards.
Mary Fain Brandt:That's a lot like if you're starting from scratch, like I am yeah, and that's again it's.
Jonathan Tran:It's something. It's a game that comes over time and you have to build the habit of it, because think about, after a year you know you could probably get 10, 10 reviews in a month. I'm very confident that you can, just from your own personal network and you think about you, do that 10 reviews a month for a year. Now you're at 120, right, so it's, it's a game, that's.
Jonathan Tran:It's a continual game, that it's a habitual thing, it's like yeah lost in your teeth, something you don't really want to do, but you know you have to do um, but you know I have the to do, but I, you know I have the strategy and I have a way to make this really easy for you and part of your system, so that you don't have to think about it. Oh, you have a strategy like drop the goods, dude right now.
Jonathan Tran:So I guess, to tell you about ourself, like you know, when I was starting out my Google business page, I had kind of a developed system and process. Now that I have a team of people, I've also trained them in that process, and so our business has been in business for two years and we have over 400 Google reviews, and so the way it works is, you know customers, the best time to ask for a review is as soon as the job is done. Best time to ask for a review is as soon as the job is done, as soon as the customer feels a feeling of success or resolution, or that feeling of good feeling right Like oh, man this was great.
Jonathan Tran:This is as soon as they feel that ask for the review. And it doesn't come from an automated text message. It doesn't come from an automated email. It comes from a face-to-face, if you can, or on the phone. Hey, I just wanted to give you a call, let you know that this is all done. I just wanted to get your feedback. How was everything Like? Oh, this was amazing. I loved working with you. You were so personable, you were so responsive.
Jonathan Tran:And then now they're already raving. You already know that this is going to be a great review, right? They're telling you verbally the review that they're writing and they've thought out in their head. Now you simply ask them oh, my gosh, that is. Thank you so much for those kind words.
Jonathan Tran:You know what? If I make it really easy for you and I send you a link to my Google business page, do you think you could take a moment to just write a description about you? Know what you needed me for, how you found me and your experience working with me? And then you wait. They say, oh, yeah, I'd love to leave you a review. Fantastic. Well, let me send you a text. There's the review link. They click the link. It pulls it up right to the Google review and now you can even walk them through that. You can say hey, I just sent it to you. Do you see the link? Yeah, oh, I got it. Can you click that? Make sure that works for me? Boom, it's up. Now. All they have to do is just type We've talked them through the hardest part and it's already open. So it's like oh yeah, let me just do that real quick right now before I forget.
Laura Bashore:It's so smart.
Jonathan Tran:People are busy, right.
Laura Bashore:Well, yeah, and you're talking about bringing back personalization that maybe we were using, maybe like 15 years ago, that we've all shied away from, because we're all talking about like mass producing everything and hoping that that gets results this can yeah making everything faster and easier.
Jonathan Tran:But it's like I was saying efficiency doesn't mean like a higher rating of or conversion right. Sometimes efficiency gives you a worse performance. And so we can do the harder work. That's going to be slower, but you're going to have way better results, right?
Laura Bashore:That's true. That's true. I like that Good tip and I like that you also are giving them what you want them to put in there, cause, as we know, that's one of the things that stop people right, Cause they're like I don't know what you want and they don't want to mess up, and then it seems like work and then they don't want to do it and then they don't do it.
Jonathan Tran:Yeah, yeah, and sometimes it takes a little while, I mean even when people ask me, I'm like, oh, I want to do that, but not right now. Right, yeah, so you know, that's the thing. Like, how do you ask for the review? Like what do you say? Because you want to prompt them basically to leave your review, because you know reviews are great, but the quality review also matters. So someone puts five stars and they say highly recommend. That's a terrible review. It says nothing about you, right, and it just it's like one of those like, ah, they just did it because they got asked to do it. Those are the reviews you don't want. I mean, you still want it. Obviously, a number is a number, but what we want is we want a story. And so I always ask the three questions, and you might've heard me when I kind of went my spiel here, but I always ask can you write a description about what you needed us for, what you needed me for, how you found me and your description of your experience working with me?
Jonathan Tran:Three points Super simple Yep, and I'll send that in the text message too, like hey, mary, thank you so much for helping me with the review. Just a reminder, please write. And then you just list it out and you can auto-template this in your text messaging so that you just send it out with your Google review link. So you're giving them the instructions on what to do, what to say, to make it super easy for them, and they're going to just end up writing out the whole story, and sometimes what's coming out to one word turns into like a full paragraph, and so if you look at our reviews, we have tons of long story reviews and that is the quality and Google is looking at that. They're looking at not just your reviews, but what are people saying about you.
Laura Bashore:Yeah right.
Mary Fain Brandt:Okay, and you know we're on the thing of reviews. So one thing that I learned that I think is correct and you're the expert, so please let me know is that it is just as important to reply to those reviews in a timely manner. And then what I learned is to make sure that you're including the keywords.
Jonathan Tran:Yeah, you can definitely do that. So again, with SEO, it's all kind of theory. Everybody, everybody, everybody thinks that it's both strategies. They're all kind of like guesses, best guesses, and so it definitely does not hurt to reply with keywords in there. I don't, you know, it's not going to harm you at all. And if it does, if it's a real theory that's actually true, then great, that works right. But yeah, you know, the most important thing is I wouldn't get too caught up in all these little minor things. We want to do the things that are going to move the needle the most, because you're a busy entrepreneur, you're starting your business and you're wearing 10 different hats and it's too hard to think about all these little things. So if we can focus on what are the most important things on this Google business page, it's getting it set up for one, but then after that how do you maintain it? It's getting it set up for one, but then after that how do you maintain it?
Jonathan Tran:it's hitting those reviews right, and so getting good quality reviews will help you out the furthest after you've set everything up um, do you also need to continue posting to your google my business ideally, yeah, if you can, and that you you don't have to be so personable about right and you're the ai expert you can definitely leverage ai to and create your content and to schedule those posts. That's again one of those teeth flossing things where consistency and making it a habit is what's going to help you maintain relevancy in that. And it shows Google oh yeah, they're actively posting, this is an active profile. They're definitely still looking for business. Let's show them, because it seems like if my customer because Google wants to give good recommendations, so if they recommend your page, are you going to pick up the phone? And if you're actively making posts, then it's like, okay, this, this is active, they're going to likely pick up the phone, yeah.
Laura Bashore:So so for our listeners who maybe have not even started a Google page or a Google my business page, or they've done that thing where, like, they've claimed the page but haven't done anything with it, when you're talking about hosting, what is that Like, what is that about and what is the cadence where that should be happening? Because you know how. It is right. You just mentioned we're all busy, so now we need to do more work. How can we simplify this and make it so it doesn't seem overwhelming?
Jonathan Tran:Yeah. So you know the posting is actually not a huge factor, but it's it's again, more so consistency. So if you're, it's again, if I would just do what you can, as long as you're doing it. If you only have enough time to post once a month, do once a month. If you can do once a week, do once a week. If you want to be the overachiever and do every day, you can do every day, but most people aren't, but that's not really what matters so much. It's just the consistency that you're showing, that you're active, and the content. It doesn't have to be super specific because it's honestly, the posting on the Google business page Isn't the highest factor and I have a reference sheet I sent over to Mary that your listeners can check out on the show notes where it goes over.
Jonathan Tran:What are the? What are the highest things that have the biggest impact? Right, so that way you can start out with okay, let me focus on these things first. Anything else is just icing on the cake, but I know that these ones will have the biggest impact. Yeah, because I'm you know, I know what it's like. I want to save you guys time again.
Mary Fain Brandt:We, we, we want to be efficient, but we also want to do the things that are going to work the best so I'm using, I use a scheduling tool like most people do, or at least most smart people I'm going to say, because that's not where we need to spend our time. I'm sorry, but if you're not using a scheduling tool and you're posting things manually, that's just 2005 call. They'd like you back. So what I did is I added my Google, my Business page, to my scheduler and I'm like, oh, certain posts should go over to my Google page as well, alerting my network over there of like a special maybe, or a tip, so I can be seen as knowledgeable, relevant. Is that a good strategy?
Jonathan Tran:Absolutely, yeah, absolutely. Is that a good strategy? Absolutely, yeah, absolutely. That's great. And obviously you want to go based on the target of that audience. Right, like things you would put on Instagram is not going to be the same as you put on LinkedIn.
Mary Fain Brandt:And so it's shorter and you can't put video. I learned you can't do video.
Jonathan Tran:Right. So and you think about it with Google why are people on there? They're not there to look at, to see what their friends are doing. They're there to get a question answered, and so if you're putting content that's relevant to answering questions around your industry and things that will help your customer, that's the kind of content you want right, okay, got it got it. Yeah, so you know, and I wanted to go over like those lists of ranking factors, just real quick for your listeners.
Mary Fain Brandt:Let's do it.
Jonathan Tran:Like okay, what is you know what is this list and what do I work on first, yeah, and so you know they have that list of reference. So the first thing on that list is the primary Google my Business category. So when you create a profile, google asks you to put what is your business category? What industry are you in? And to go back to that example of I'm a notary but I'm also a realtor, but I want to get leads for both. Which one should I put? So if you're in that case, you want to pick one. So if I want to get a google business page that's generating the real estate leads, I only want to put realtor as my primary, and then the secondary could be notary stuff, but you can't get equal on the same page. My suggestion, then, would be to create two different google business pages for two different categories oh, oh wait, so so can you have that.
Jonathan Tran:You can do. Yeah, you can have two businesses along either two completely different businesses. You can do that.
Mary Fain Brandt:Got you Okay. So what if you have one business but you have very different services in that business? Is that two pages or one page?
Jonathan Tran:It depends right. So if they're so different and they're like definitely different industries, I would recommend doing two different pages.
Mary Fain Brandt:Okay, yeah.
Jonathan Tran:Cause, then your content's going to be different, right? Your content around the two. Someone who's looking for notary stuff is not looking for realtor stuff necessarily, so Google's going to get confused Like who, what do I show this? This?
Mary Fain Brandt:this page has like realtor stuff and notary stuff and like I don't know, I might need to redo mine then, because I do linkedin and ai and if they're both on there, people are confused.
Jonathan Tran:I feel like that you might want to pick one on that side. Yeah, yeah, okay, and I would pick the one that's going to generate you the most, you know leads, or that you want to focus on the most, basically ai yeah there you go, yeah, and then the other stuff can be secondary.
Laura Bashore:You know just like it is in whatever you're promoting okay, good tips yeah yeah so that's the number one
Jonathan Tran:right and it's the number one for a reason. That's why you know. That's the most important thing. How do I, how does google know what to show if, if your category doesn't match their search?
Laura Bashore:um, yeah, yeah I can see mary's just like oh my I have yeah, I'm like I'm doing this all wrong.
Jonathan Tran:I'm a service provider.
Mary Fain Brandt:I do linkedin and ai, why those two things can go together. My content will speak to what's working on LinkedIn versus AI in the news AI tools. So now I'm yes.
Laura Bashore:I'm stumped. I'm sitting here, two page for sure.
Mary Fain Brandt:Two pages Okay. One day it'll only be one. Well, that's not true.
Laura Bashore:You've got a scheduling tool, so it's all good. You just you know I know that's good.
Mary Fain Brandt:Um, I had another question for you, jonathan, selfishly again. Um, what if you have an old? So the whole reason I redid my google, my business page, is because the one I had said I was in san diego at harrah hub la from 2017, when I first set it up, yeah, and I just set up a new one because I couldn't figure out how to fix that one.
Mary Fain Brandt:Do you set up a new one? Are you supposed to edit the old one? Like, let's tell our listeners what's the real thing? Let's say someone was in San Diego and had to Google my business page and now they've moved right. And they let's say, they change industries what page? And now they've moved right and they let's say they change industries.
Jonathan Tran:what do you recommend that they do? I would I would keep that old one and move the address, if you can like, because then more so. If you've got like already reputation built, you've got reviews. If it's the same industry, yes, keep it. If you're completely changing businesses, I would recommend just starting a different one. Right, and it's like not relevant at all, cause then your reviews will be like oh Jonathan was a great realtor and then all of a sudden, oh Jonathan was an amazing LinkedIn coach. Like this doesn't make any sense and it's just.
Mary Fain Brandt:Okay, so my old one could be my LinkedIn one, cause that's what I was doing.
Laura Bashore:And.
Mary Fain Brandt:I could just change it, yeah.
Jonathan Tran:And then yeah, yeah, and then you could just get the address changed.
Laura Bashore:You just have to notify google of the address change and then they verify it.
Jonathan Tran:Yeah, you got to go through an address verification process and yeah, so it could take some time effort to get the change. But if you've got reviews and stuff on there and content and posts, I would keep it if you can.
Laura Bashore:So what happens for the people who have their business at home and don't have an address to put in there? What do they do?
Jonathan Tran:So you can put a service area and so your business serves an area, right, and that way it doesn't show an exact address that you know, cause you don't want people to come to your home, right, yeah, and so, like me, as a notary, I'm a mobile notary. I don't do notary stuff at my home, you know. I don't want you to come here. And so you can. You can set your business as a service business where you go to your clients.
Mary Fain Brandt:Okay, great, yeah, Okay, great yeah. That was something. I was like wait a minute, I don't want my address on here and I had to navigate how to do that. So thank you, Laura, for asking that question, Because I'm sure some of our listeners will also be stuck at that point Like what do I do? What do I do?
Jonathan Tran:Right.
Mary Fain Brandt:I had another question and it just lost my head. Darn it. It was a good one too. It'll come back. The train will come back around the station. That's what I like, okay.
Laura Bashore:Good.
Jonathan Tran:You know. So that's the first one. The second thing is you know we talk about keywords all the time, and you know you're. When you're creating your Google business profile, one of the first things you think about is oh, what am I going to title my Google business profile? And so that's the first thing people will see, right, the name of your business. So Google has a policy that your business name has to be your business name.
Jonathan Tran:It can't be your business name with a bunch of keywords. So like sometimes you'll see people who say you know Jonathan Tran, mobile notary public, but my business name is notary pin, and so that's a red flag for Google because it doesn't match. And what Google is looking at is your website. Does your branding on your website have the branding of the title of your Google business page? And so our Google business page is notary pin, mobile notary and apostille services, and so I got my keywords in the title, and so you might be asking how did you do that? You just said it has to be your business name. It can't have keywords. So our website has notary pin and then underneath it in the subheading, it says mobile notary and apostille services.
Mary Fain Brandt:So I can confirm. I'm bringing it up right now. I'm just validating or verifying what you're telling us is right. That was really smart on your part. Yes, that's great.
Jonathan Tran:That's how you get keywords into your title of your business because you know, obviously nobody thinks to create their business as notary pin, mobile notary, and it's just notary pin incorporated. But the branding is is what google is looking at, right great.
Laura Bashore:Okay, that's a really good tips, especially so like for my businesses. So started with a new resume and career services. But now is the llc muse business solutions change the website to muse business solutions subheader. A new resume and career services both things are done okay, there you go there, you go I like
Mary Fain Brandt:it, we've got some work to do that's all that there, yeah, okay, I remembered my question, okay, and yeah, and it has to do with google and ai, and you might not know the answer to this I really don't think any of us do as of today but Google is the biggest search engine. Okay, and I love Google and you know, in the news there's this thing from the government saying that Google has to sell off Google Chrome or something Right? Oh yeah, there's some really big news about what's going on with Google and what they might have to sell off Google Chrome or something right? Oh yeah, there's some really big news about what's going on with Google and what they might have to sell off. But my real question is because Google, in my honest opinion, is the best search engine out there, but with AI and Google and Gemini, they've integrated all this AI and personally, I'm not really loving the AI search that you get.
Mary Fain Brandt:Like, I want real search, right, I'm just I'll tell you what I like and don't like in AI. I don't like that. The AI stuff comes up above, right, when you do a search, it's AI search. Do you think that's going to affect the small businesses? With Google, my Business page and in the searches, how are they going to keep ranking high enough. I'm just curious has anyone in your industry you're the Google my Business page expert Is that something that you guys talk about?
Jonathan Tran:Yeah, definitely I'm not as filled in on that because obviously my primary business is the notary stuff, but I just like the Google stuff and I try to stay keyed into it. I honestly don't know for sure, but I don't think it's going to affect small businesses, and the reason is, as long as you are again creating content and you're filling out your profile, you're doing the things that Google wants you to do to serve your customer. That's what's going to matter Because, again, we're not trying to game the system. We're just trying to be the best fit for the searcher that is searching, and we're not trying to get every searcher. We're just trying to be the best fit for the one that's for us.
Mary Fain Brandt:Right, okay, I just wonder. Yeah, I love Google, it's my preferred search engine, laura, what about you? What's your preferred search engine?
Laura Bashore:Oh, yeah, no, it's Google. Whenever my laptop messes up and shifts me over to a different one, I get all angry and I have to get my husband in here to fix it. I you know, yeah, yeah.
Mary Fain Brandt:This has been really informative.
Jonathan Tran:Oh, do you guys remember? Ask Jeeves.
Laura Bashore:Yes, yes, yes, oh my God, there there's also what was?
Mary Fain Brandt:uh, well, I have mac, so I have safari, but I don't I don't use it I don't either. I'm a chrome user and I have yeah I'm an app like we're max in the house, everywhere um, but we're also Google Chrome users.
Laura Bashore:I just don't know so far it's the better search engine. I agree, definitely.
Mary Fain Brandt:I agree, I agree Well now I feel like we have homework, laura, and we're going to have to create a work session and work on our Google my Business page and set this up properly with multiple pages, rename our websites. But this is all good and it's all manageable. So I just want to encourage everyone out there to take the tidbits from this and set up your Google my Business page. If you don't have that, go back and review it. Is it named properly? Are you using it? Did you set it up so you're going to get the most out of it right? Because if you didn't set it up right, google's not going to reward you in the way that we want to be rewarded. You're not, and for me, I just realized like, oh my gosh, people are searching for LinkedIn. They might not find me, or vice versa. So I think that was a big point here that you brought home, because a lot of people have different services that they offer and what are people searching for?
Laura Bashore:Right and to make it so it's not confusing. If you're just listing a bunch of things, it's working against you. Yeah, really good. Yeah, I love that. And I want to thank you for also sharing with us some of those stats and we will share that in our show notes. Thank you for sending that over. That's going to be really helpful. And just thank you for coming on today. I just love to see what's going on with your business and how it's growing, and just continuing to watch you thrive. You know it's amazing. That's really cool.
Jonathan Tran:Thank you for asking me to be a good yeah.
Mary Fain Brandt:Yeah, and we didn't tell you, jonathan, but we always ask our guests four questions at the end of the episode. So are you ready to play our four question game? It's easy.
Jonathan Tran:I'm ready. I'm ready.
Mary Fain Brandt:Okay, here we go. I'm going to ask you the first two questions. Question number one is what was the last risk that you took as a business owner?
Jonathan Tran:I mean, I'm taking risks every day.
Mary Fain Brandt:I don't know, it could be something small something big, right, it could be like hey, I woke up today and said yes to being on this podcast. No, but what is? You know? What is the risk that you've taken as a business owner?
Jonathan Tran:For me.
Jonathan Tran:The biggest risk that I can think of that is most impactful for me and I think about the most, is moving to Mexico.
Jonathan Tran:And, like I don't know if we talked about that in the intro I can't remember when you talked a little before but I literally sold everything and moved to Mexico and that was at the beginning of this year. Because at the beginning of this year we were not cash flowing, we were breaking even and I was trying to figure out how do I reduce my expenses so that I could continue to keep growing and working on this business, and all I was doing is trying to extend the runway. I didn't know if I would have to move back to the United States in three months. I didn't know if I'd figure it out, but it ended up working out and we doubled our revenue by this. So at the end of this year we're about to do a hundred thousand 800,000 in gross, you know, and we were doing like, yeah, we were doing half of that in a month. So we were doing like six figures a month. Now, at the beginning of the year, I was doing 30 or 40,000 gross a month.
Mary Fain Brandt:Wow, that's great. That's a big risk moving to a foreign country. Yeah, let me tell my husband, Joe, we're moving to.
Laura Bashore:Mexico to double my business. I love Mexico.
Jonathan Tran:It's a lot easier when you're single and you don't have kids and thank you for being so authentic and vulnerable.
Mary Fain Brandt:I really appreciate that. I know our audience will. So question number two is a little easier. What's a quote or saying that you live by in your business like your mantra?
Jonathan Tran:Oh, that is good. Um, I love the quote. Um, I think it's. I love it and I can't remember it. Um, uh, what's it called? Oh go, if you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together.
Jonathan Tran:Um and I think that's what's really been propelled by business so quickly is because I have been so willing to bring people on to help me and and this is why I was not making money on cash flow because I was reinvesting in people and help and so obviously, if I wanted to make a hundred thousand dollars faster, I would have hired less people, but I would not be as far and as big as we are now.
Mary Fain Brandt:I like that. That's a great quote Okay, laura, your turn.
Laura Bashore:Okay, so we ask all of our guests who come on, what is the number one social platform you use for your business?
Jonathan Tran:Instagram is I just use personally, because my personal self is my business. We have a business profile, but then there's nothing on there. But yeah, instagram, I am looking to start a YouTube channel because this journey of our business has been wild and insane and moving to Mexico is interesting and we're about to move to Colombia, so that's also going to be interesting and I'm like man, I should be documenting this journey definitely yeah absolutely okay.
Laura Bashore:And then our final question is you'll know this one from your time with team, which is what is the key to your success.
Jonathan Tran:Yeah, the key to my success definitely focusing on growth in myself. I am a strong believer that my business can only grow as much as I've grown. So if I'm limited in my own beliefs, in my own thought processes and systems, my business is only going to be as good as that.
Laura Bashore:I like it. I like it. Good, all right. Well, we are going to wrap up with that. Thank you again, jonathan, and we will put your Instagram in our show notes, too, so people can follow and connect with you there. So, other than that, mary, let's wrap up for today and get back to it.
Mary Fain Brandt:Okay, so thank you so much, jonathan. I've got a list of things to do. I'm sure our listeners took away so many great insights. I want to see all your Google my Business page, so send those over to Laura and I. So, hey, we can follow you and, if we've done business with you, give your review. I want to encourage all of our listeners today to also follow, review and rate our podcast. If there's a topic you're interested about, drop us a line or a DM and we'll see if we can cover that for you very soon. And then, finally, don't forget you guys until next time. Here's to good coffee and great conversations. If you enjoyed the podcast, show us some love. Please rate, review and subscribe to our podcast, and if you have any feedback, go ahead and share that with us too, because we want to hear from you. Until then, stay focused, stay motivated and stay caffeinated.
