The following is an interview with entrepreneur Charles Gaudet on his new book, The Predictable Profits Playbook. If you’d like to learn about a no-B.S. blueprint for growth, read on!
What inspired you to write The Predictable Profits Playbook?
Charles: As a young entrepreneur, I was told that the secret to success was to “work hard” – and that’s what I did. I’d set my alarm for 3:30am so I wouldn’t “oversleep,” and work every waking hour of every day… 7 days a week. I firmly believed no one could work harder than I was working, but regardless of the hours I put into my business, I wasn’t getting where I needed to go fast enough.
Eventually, the long days caught up with me when I was admitted to the emergency room for pain that was shooting up the base of my spine and into my head. The doctor looked at me and said, “Charlie, the cause of this pain is stress, and it’s literally starting to kill you.”
Upon getting home, I faced the realization that if I couldn’t work any harder, I needed to work smarter.
This led to a journey of discovery – studying billionaire and centi-millionaire entrepreneurs, seeking the subtle distinctions that separate the small business owner working 80 hours a week and struggling to make 6-figures a year, and the entrepreneur making 10 times more while working half as many hours.
In my studies, I began to see similarities among the entrepreneurs and companies that dominated their markets – and those who did not. These similarities repeated themselves over and over again, to the point where coincidence was no longer an option. I realized that the biggest difference in a company’s success had to do with the formula they were using to grow. That formula is detailed inside of the book.
Could you give us a quick, high-level summary of your background?
Charles: I’ve been an entrepreneur since the young age of 4, when I was selling artwork to my neighbors, and once bitten by the “entrepreneurial bug,” I’ve continued this journey ever since. I created a business that was nominated “One of the Nation’s Best Seed-Stage Companies” by Ernst & Young and founded my first multi-million dollar business at the age of 24.
Today, I’m considered the top authority in Predictable Profits Marketing. I take the knowledge I’ve discovered through research and experience to grow companies anywhere from 35% – 50% (often more) within a year, using many of the strategies revealed in the book. My company is called Predictable Profits.
Delving into your book now, who would benefit most from this information? [i.e. individuals in which industry, field, etc.]
Charles: B2B and B2C entrepreneurs who have been in business at least 3 years and want to become dominant players in their markets.
What makes your book different from others that cover the same topic?
There are many fantastic books on marketing and growing a business – but most people don’t realize that it’s not just one strategy or one tactic that’s going to make you a leader – it’s a formula. The Predictable Profits Playbook sifts through all those ideas – eliminates all the B.S. – and combines proven methods into a blueprint for growth, revealing actionable strategies, stories, and ideas that you can immediately apply to your business.
What are the most important elements, messages, or takeaways of your book that you’d like readers to know they will benefit from?
Charles: The competitive landscape has changed. It used to be that corporations had all the power. They could create marketing materials and sales messages, and prospects would have no choice but to believe them. The competition was limited to whoever advertised in the Yellow Pages and was within a 20-minute drive.
Then came the Internet, and your competition went from your neighborhood to a global landscape.
Consumers went from having limited options to a plethora of choices – competing on levels of quality, price, convenience, and a number of other factors. Any information they want to know about your company, product, or service is accessible in the palms of their hands thanks to smartphones.
For the first time in history, the balance of power has shifted from corporations to the consumer. Now the consumer knows more about you, their options, and your competition than ever before.
You only have one chance to get their attention and stand out as the obvious choice. This book will show you how.
What are the major sections of your book?
Charles: The book is broken down into the three core practices of the Predictable Profits methodology:
- Positioning
- Product
- Promotion
Positioning refers to the strategies required to distinguish yourself from your competitors while establishing yourself as a leading authority and provider of your products and services.
The Product section reveals insights for improving your value proposition, as well as strategies for NOT competing on price – so you can become a premium priced provider (like Apple, for example) and still have customers lined up to do business with you.
And finally, the Promotions section is geared toward creating multiple and predictable pillars of income, as encapsulated in the three phases of customer marketing: Dating, Engagement, and Marriage.
What is the best piece of advice from an entrepreneur you’ve ever received?
Charles: There are reasons and there are results, the only thing that matters are the results.
In other words, nevermind wracking your brain trying to figure out “why” certain things worked or didn’t work, let the facts speak for themselves – and if you don’t have the facts, go out and find them.
So many people run advertising or operate their marketing haphazardly, without systematizing or tracking every dollar invested or effort expelled – but if they took the time to build in tracking and compile detailed metrics, they could see, without a shadow of a doubt, what worked and what didn’t.
Once you know what works, you can optimize to make it more profitable, and develop systems around it to create greater leverage, and hence, more profits.
Give us an interesting, fun fact about your book or the research you conducted for your book.
Charles: My wife and I invested over $500,000 traveling the world to meet billionaire and centi-millionaire entrepreneurs – in addition to buying courses/materials and fiercely scouring under every rock for the answers. Some say that people make decisions out of inspiration, others out of desperation – when you’re told you can’t work any harder because it’s going to kill you, you could argue I made this decision out of both inspiration and desperation.
Where can people find out more about you and/or your book?
Charles: I can be found on my website at http://www.PredictableProfits.com or on twitter @CharlesGaudet. You can also learn more about my book at http://www.PredictableProfitsPlaybook.com.
Is there anything else you’d like to mention to our readers?
Charles: As Jay Abraham says, there are only three ways to grow a business. Your options are:
- Get more customers
- Get them to pay more money for your product
- Get them to buy from you more often
This book covers all three.
See more reviews of this book on Amazon.com by clicking here.
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